El Dorado by E.A. 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!"
My first reaction to this poem was how it got progressively sadder as it went on and the symbolism used. I also noticed the rhyme and how at first I didn't really notice that the poem rhymed because the words just worked together in such a way that I knew subconsciously that the words rhymed, but not in a Dr. Seuss type way. My interpretation of the meaning of this poem is that El Dorado is just life itself, and how we are all just searching for our own city of gold. The speaker is telling a story of a man that, when he was young, had his heart set on finding El Dorado. He was happy and was singing because he knew he had much time to find it. But, as he got older, he grew more tired and desperate to find his city of gold. When the Shadow told him El Dorado was "over the mountains of the moon" I think he meant that the only true happiness, the only "city of gold" we will ever find is in heaven. There was rhyme in this poem, and repetition of words like "shadow" and "Eldorado." There is also a kind of meter to the poem that makes it sound almost musical as well.