The Conqueror Worm

Edgar Allan Poe: The Conqueror Worm - illustration by Noel (around 1900)

The Conqueror Worm (dt. The Conqueror Worm ) is a ballad - poem by Edgar Allan Poe . It was first published in Graham's Magazine in 1843 , but was added to the short story Ligeia shortly afterwards by Poe in a revised 1845 version . In this story, the title character wrote the poem down a few days before her death and asks the narrator in her agony to repeat a few verses.

Form and summary

The poem makes use of the popular allegory , which outlines life as a stage play and was largely shaped by William Shakespeare . It is also important to Poe because his parents were both actors:

Based on the classical drama , it consists of five stanzas representing three acts, an interlude and an epilogue . The stanzas in Poe's poem accordingly fulfill the functions of the various acts of drama theory.

In the first stanza the framework conditions are given and the actors are presented: These are a group of angels, a group of people and the conqueror worm as the personified death. The angels are aware of the disastrous outcome of the piece and appear in mourning clothes. An orchestra plays jerky and inconsistent music.

In the second stanza the people are introduced. They feel blessed by God, but they are more like soulless dolls that persistently chase after a formless ideal (or a hope or a dream). The angels comment on this behavior as invisible woe : invisible suffering.

The third stanza stands outside the plot: a third warns that the "colorful drama" will certainly not be forgotten. The ideal will always be pursued, and the essence of the play is madness and the sin of men.

The fourth stanza drives the plot further: a figure emerges from the recurring rush of people. She begins to devour the actors in a brutal way. The angels weep people.

The last stanza constitutes an epilogue and makes this clearer with the first words: "The light is off!". The angels are pale and pale and, rising up , proclaim the insight that the previous game was the tragedy "Man", the hero of which is death.

Rhyme and metric

The fact that the metric structure of the first 4 verses of the first stanza is exactly the opposite of that of the first 4 verses of the second stanza allows the interpretation of an analogy of meaning between angels and people, which are presented in the respective sections of the poem. The identical metric structure of verses 3 and 4 is explained by the fact that the action of the 4th stanza only constitutes the arrival of the predictions from the 3rd stanza.

rhyme

With the exception of the last stanza, each consists of 8 verses in 4 pure rhymes of the form ab ab cb cb . The last stanza has 2 cross rhymes and an intersecting half rhyme and an eye rhyme . This gives the form: from from (c) d (c) d .

Metric

In general, the poem is based on an iambic meter with either 3 or 4 verse feet per line. (Exception 2:16: 2 feet ). The foot structure is only identical here in verses 3 and 4. The last stanza is purely anapaestic with 3 verse feet throughout (exception 5:33: trochaic ).

The Nereis worm was discovered by Carl von Linné in 1758

The worm in the worm

The origin of the connection between worms and death dates back a long time before Poes' lifetime, but a large number of pieces are used as inspiration for the worm motif . The gigantic blood-red worm with deadly claws is certainly a product of Poe's imagination. In spite of this, it has its real image in the form of the Nereis worm.

The Conqueror Worm

Illustration by Hugh Noel . Published in 1900 .

row	text	Verse feet	meter	rhyme	figure	translation
1: 1	Lo! 'tis a gala night	3	J	A.		Look! What a unique night
1: 2	Within the lonesome latter years!	4th	J	B.		among the lonely youngest years!
1: 3	An angel throng, bewinged, bedight	4th	J	A.		A bunch of angels, winged and adorned,
1: 4	In veils, and drowned in tears,	3	J	B.	hyperbole	veiled and soaked in tears
1: 5	Sit in a theater, to see	4th	J	C.		sits in a theater and looks at
1: 6	A play of hopes and fears,	3	J	B.		a game of hopes and fears,
1: 7	While the orchestra breathes fitfully	4th	J	C.	metaphor	While the orchestra is bumpy
1: 8	The music of the spheres.	3	J	B.		The music of the spheres breathes.
.
2: 9	Mimes, in the form of God on high,	4th	J	A.		Actors, high in the face of God,
2:10	Mother and mumble low	3	J	B.	Alliance	Murmurs and whispers softly,
2:11	And hither and thither fly-	3	J	A.		And here and there they hurry-
2:12	Mere puppets they, who come and go	4th	J	B.		they are more dolls, they come and go
2:13	At bidding of vast formless things	4th	J	C.		descending huge formless things,
2:14	That shift the scenery to and fro,	4th	J	B.		who raise and lower the curtain,
2:15	Flapping from out their Condor wings	4th	J	C.	metaphor	Beat from their condor wings
2:16	Invisible Woe!	2	J	B.		invisible suffering
.
3:17	That motley drama- oh, be sure	4th	J	A.		The colorful drama - oh, sure! -
3:18	It shall not be forgot!	3	J	B.		shouldn't be forgotten!
3:19	With its Phantom chased for evermore,	4th	J	A.		With its mind that is always trying to catch
3:20	By a crowd that seize it not,	3	J	B.		of a crowd that doesn't make it
3:21	Through a circle that ever returneth in	4th	J	C.	symbol	going through a circle that keeps coming back
3:22	To the self-same spot,	3	J	B.		leads to the same point
3:23	And much of Madness, and more of Sin,	4th	J	C.		add to madness even more to sin
3:24	And horror the soul of the plot.	3	J	B.		and horrors is the essence of the piece.
.
4:25	But see, amid the mimic rout	4th	J	A.	Alliance	But look, in the middle of the band of actors
4:26	A crawling shape intrude!	3	J	B.		an apparition creeps in!
4:27	A blood-red thing that writhes from out	4th	J	A.		A blood-red thing that looks sad
4:28	The scenic solitude!	3	J	B.	Alliance	in the midst of scenic solitude.
4:29	It writhes! - it writhes! - with mortal pangs	4th	J	C.		It tortures itself - it tortures itself - with death convulsions
4:30	The mimes become its food,	3	J	B.		and the actors feed him
4:31	And seraphs sob at vermin fangs	4th	J	C.		and the angels sob its fangs
4:32	In human gore imbued.	3	J	B.		soaked in human blood.
.
5:33	Out-out are the lights-out all!	4th	T	A.	Anaphor	Off-Off is the light-all off!
5:34	And, over each quivering form,	3	A.	B.		and about that trembling figure
5:35	The curtain, a funeral pall,	3	A.	A.	metaphor	a curtain, a shroud,
5:36	Comes down with the rush of a storm,	3	A.	B.		descends at the speed of a storm
5:37	While the angels, all pallid and wan,	3	A.	(C)		And the angels all pale and pale
5:38	Uprising, unveiling, affirm	3	A.	D.		affirm, standing up, revealing
5:39	That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"	3	A.	(C)		That the game is about the tragedy "Human"
5:40	And its hero the Conqueror Worm.	3	A.	D.		and about his hero: the conqueror worm.

German translations (selection)

• 1891: Hedwig Lachmann : The Conqueror Wurm. Publishing house of the Bibliographisches Bureau, Berlin.
• 1922: Theodor Etzel : Conqueror Wurm. Propylaea, Munich.
• 1922: K. Merling : Overcomer Wurm. Rösl & Cie., Munich.
• 1966: Arno Schmidt : Wurm the winner. Walter Verlag, Freiburg i. Br.
• 1989: Barbara Cramer-Nauhaus : The Conqueror Wurm. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig.

bibliography

• Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
• Lubbers, Klaus, "Poe's 'The Conqueror Worm'," American Literature, 1967, 39: 375-379
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, * Mass .: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.
• Routh, James, "Notes on the Sources of Poe's Poetry: Coleridge, Keats, Shelley," Modern Language Notes, March 1914, 29: 72-75
• Tritt, Michael, "'Ligeia' and 'The Conqueror Worm'," Poe Studies, 1976, 9: 21-22
• Whitty, James Howard, ed., The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1911

Web links

Wikisource: The Conqueror Worm  - Sources and full texts

Wikisource: Original text from The Conqueror Worm at the English Wikisource  - sources and full texts

• Poem read at Classic Poetry Aloud ( MP3 ; 375 kB)
• Project Gutenberg E-text including The Conqueror Worm (in English)
• Farrah Senn: Monster Quest: Background Myth and Contemporary Context of Edgar Allan Poe's The Conqueror Worm . On: Georgia Southern University . English language analysis ( thesis ) as PDF file. Retrieved January 30, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Ligea. In: Edgar Allan Poe: Master narratives , ed. by Günter Blöcker, German Book Association, Berlin a. a. 1960, pp. 201-221, here pp. 20-210.
2. ↑
   

   Scene from As you like it , Francis Hayman , around 1750.
   Compare in As you like it : Act II, Scene V, verse 139:

   All the world's a stage,
   And all the men and women merely players:
   They have their exits and entrances;
   And one man in his time plays many parts.

   Translation :

   The whole world is a stage
   Man and woman are nothing but actors:
   with appearances and exits
   A person plays many roles during his lifetime

3. ↑ Notable among them:

   1. Shakespeare from Romeo and Juliet Act III, Scene I, verse 112 :

   A plague o 'both your houses!
   They have made worms' meat of me.
   Translation:

   The curse of both of your houses!
   He made the worms meal out of me

   2. Spencer Wallis Cone in the poem The Proud Ladye ( 1840 ):

   Let him meet the conqueror worm
   With his good sword by his side

   Translation:

   Let him hit the conqueror worm
   with his good sword in its scabbard.

4. ↑ Study Guide by Michael J. Cummings.
5. ↑ Entry in American Libraries