Edgar Allan Poe's works were respected during his own time, but now they are even more prestigious than they were before. Some of his more famous works are "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", "Eldorado", "Sonnet-To My Mother", and "The Conqueror Worm." These four poems are some of the most read and most criticized poems of today. They represent all of the different forms Poe's poetry took. Poe's poetry took many different forms, but most of his works were gothic or horror. They were like that because of events that transpired during his lifetime. Poe's poems were often filled with scenes of misery and sorrow. Poe was one of the most magnificent writers of his time and even to this day many poets cannot match him.
"The Conqueror Worm", written in 1843 was one of Poe's gothic poems. It is about the eventual downfall of man which is represented by the Conqueror Worm killing all the mimes at the play. The angels crying represents that God does love the human race and is sad that it is going to become extinct. In this way, the Conqueror Worm could represent the Devil as the ultimate downfall of man because man is able to be seduced easily. Man's conviction isn't as strong as he believes it is and the Devil takes advantage of this. This can be shown in this passage of the poem, "The Conqueror Worm.".
"But see, amid the mimic rout .
A crawling shape intrude! .
A blood-red thing that writhes from out .
The scenic solitude! .
It writhes!--it writhes!--with mortal pangs .
The mimes become its food, .
And the angels sob at vermin fangs .
In human gore imbued. .
Out--out are the lights--out all! .
And, over each quivering form, .
The curtain, a funeral pall, .
Comes down with the rush of a storm, .
And the angels, all pallid and wan, .
Uprising, unveiling, affirm .
That the play is the tragedy "Man," .
And its hero the Conqueror Worm."(The Poe Page).
The rhyme scheme of this passage is A,B. The first paragraph of the passage is iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter which goes in the pattern of unstressed, stressed.