Tynan Portillo presents, featuring the works of Edgar Allan Poe and the best horror stories from the 19th century. Welcome to The Poe Show podcast. Music and narration by Tynan Portillo. Please see trigger warnings in this episode description.
Today’s episode, Eldorado, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old—
This knight so bold—
And o’er his heart a shadow—
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
‘Shadow,’ said he,
‘Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?’
‘Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,’
The shade replied,—
‘If you seek for Eldorado!’
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Eldorado was published in April of 1849, 6 months before Edgar Allan Poe died. Some scholars argue that this is a way for Poe to relate his searching for happiness in his life - happiness which only comes down the valley of the shadow. Such is the perspective of a man who, through all of his life, lost so much and saw so little gained. He never witnessed how important he would become to the world, although I hope he knows it now.
The poem takes a figure that is usually invincible, a gallant and bold knight very gaily bedight, and subverts audience expectations for the character. Instead of slaying a dragon and rescuing a princess, the knight keeps searching, grows old and faces death. Well, look at that, Edgar Allan Poe was tearing down the stereotypical “Disney archetypes” before Dreamworks was even a glint in Jeffrey Katzenberg’s eye.
This knight has journeyed in sunshine and shadow, meaning he’s had both good and bad fortune. But he’s been singing a song, he’s been hopeful this whole journey that he would eventually find his Eldorado. And the shadow falls first over his heart as he realizes he has found no spot of Eldorado’s land. THEN he meets the pilgrim shadow - a pilgrim being someone who seeks out a sacred place. It seems that the pilgrim shadow once also sought Eldorado, for the shadow knows where the knight has to ride to reach it.
The Mountains of the Moon reference an ancient mountain range found in Africa (although for the longest time their actual location was largely mismapped). Greeks and Romans believed the Mountains of the Moon to be the source of the Nile, the gateway to the source of life. Down the valley of the shadow means the valley of the shadow of Death. The pilgrim shadow is telling the knight he has to die in order to reach his paradise.
I think it can be left up to you, the readers and listeners, as to whether or not that makes this poem uplifting or discouraging. Is it: the knight will find his paradise after death! Or is it: the knight will only find his paradise after death.
The poem is open-ended as well. The knight does not answer. He does not move forward. He does not go back. Who knows what he’ll do after learning this uncomfortable truth?
What would you do?
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That’s all for now, but you’ll hear from me again on the next episode of The Poe Show.
