Eldorado Analysis

   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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I agree that this poem means that the knight will never reach his life long goal. The 2009-07-17 post talks about religous pursuit so you can see how this poem can be converted into an atheist analogy. Poe really did a good job of exposing that what you are told can turn out to be just a myth. The knight symbolises one that has been brianwashed their entire life

| Posted on 2009-11-10 | by a guest

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My 9th and 10th graders and I want to know when the poem was written by Poe and does it reflect something in his own life such as his inability to find true success in his lifetime. It is so unlike his general style that a few suspect someone else used his name.

| Posted on 2009-10-23 | by a guest

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This poem symbolizes the futile path of a religious journey. A galiant night confident and strong goes on a quest to find el dorado, paradise, God. He grows old and weary and his journey proves fruitless. Doubt then presents itself as a shadow. Doubt makes him realize that there is no God and his years have been wasted. Over the mountains of the moon, down the valley of a shadow...you will never find what does not exist!

| Posted on 2009-07-17 | by a guest

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i dont understand this part
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
help me!!!

| Posted on 2009-07-16 | by a guest

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Upon first reading Eldorado, I believed it to be extremely cynical. In the poem, the knight seemed to be portrayed as foolish and naive. I pictured him ridiculously skipping along through the Amazon in a suit of armor looking for the golden city of Eldorado, which clearly does not exist. The last stanza is full of references to death and the "pilgrim shadow" blatantly mocks him, telling him to ride boldly towards it. The message that I got from all of this was that happiness can only be attained in death. It took me some time to see it differently. I realized that the poem is all about the readers own outlook on life. This "pilgrim shadow" is daring the knight to chase his dreams. In essence, the reader becomes the knight. They must make the decision to either be inspired by the shadow's challenge, to persevere in the face of death, or to be discouraged, and succumb to it. That is where the poem's power lies.

| Posted on 2009-06-28 | by a guest

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I think there's no question that the pilgrim shade is telling the knight that he's going to die before ever reaching Eldorado, the knight's life-long goal.
(The fact that the knight starts out singing and has a shadow fall over him makes me think that, perhaps, the knight initially thought the goal would be an easy one and it turned out to be long and hard, thus, he fell into despair.)
But the interesting thing about the poem is that the pilgrim shade CHALLENGES the knight to ride boldly into death to find what he seeks, he doesn't just say that the knight must die, as we all must die, the shade kind of taunts the knight with the knight's own despair - despair shrivels up courage.
You're going to die before you ever reach your goal, can you face that with the same courage you started out with when you thought things were easy?

| Posted on 2009-06-16 | by a guest

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I had to do a reading project on this so this is what i wrote
El Dorado is believed to be a mysterious city of gold. But, in this poem, it is heaven. When the dying knight comes across a wandering spirit, he is told that "Over the Mountains of the Moon," and "Down the Valley of the Shadow" is where the El Dorado is, which sounds a lot to me like dying and going to heaven. And, the shadow, I believe is asking him to ride into death, for there is where Poe thinks the real adventure lies.

| Posted on 2009-05-14 | by a guest

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I think the poem is amazing. i love edgar allan poe. i don't know what his poem means, but it is sort of a mysterious vibe to every single poem he comes to writing. ! :D

| Posted on 2009-04-28 | by a guest

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Edgar Allan Poe's interpretation of Eldorado, the magical, mythical city of gold, is only really heaven. When the dying knight comes across a wandering spirit, he is told that "Over the Mountains of the Moon," and "Down the Valley of the Shadow" is where the Eldorado is, which sounds a lot to me like dying and going to heaven. This doesn't have such a dark ending as most of Poe's poems and stories, but it still is sort of sad to see the knight who dies before seeing his dream.

| Posted on 2009-04-20 | by a guest

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This poem isn't about any of the stuff you guys said. Edgar allen poe just wrote a simple poem about a knight looking for a city, and you guys are just making it more complicated than it really is.

| Posted on 2009-04-09 | by a guest

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Yeah it's great that everyone knows what it's about but does anyone know what kind of poem it is? I mean... Epic, Ballad, Ode, Sonnet....Anyone?

| Posted on 2009-03-08 | by a guest

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Poe is trying to speak out against American exceptionalism. At the time, America saw itself as God's chosen nation and people. This is what they used to expand west..."Manifest Destiny." Poe is trying to tell that Americans are indeed not the chosen people, this is why the "knight" never found what he was looking for.

| Posted on 2009-03-02 | by a guest

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This poem is not about searching for inner happiness, or a the pilgrim discouraging the search for Eldorado. The Pilgrim is the grim reaper, a "pilgrim shadow". The pilgrim shadow has a disturbing grin, beckoning him to ride boldly into death, for there is the real adventure.
Edgar's a pretty dark guy.

| Posted on 2008-08-26 | by a guest

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i THINK THAT THE MEANING OF THIS POEM IS SEARCHING FOR DIFF. THINGS IN UNLIKELY PLACES

| Posted on 2008-08-04 | by a guest

.: Meaning :.

In this poem his deep hidden meaning is do not spend your time chasing after that you will most likely not find, don’t be overconfident because when this happens you underestimate whatever it is your trying to accomplish and you end wasting your life looking for something that doesn’t exist

| Posted on 2008-05-26 | by a guest

.: rsponse :.

i believe this poem is aboout finding youre real devotion. should it be sex, football, tv, beer. When poe says how the gallant knight starts of straight and seeks for eldorado that is the devotion of the gods nor chibolin nor hector acuña realize the imporance of the wild ride life is tto cross the mountains of the shadow or the moon in the valley whetther fonchis says or doesnt never go wrong. this is what i think the poem is about

| Posted on 2008-05-12 | by a guest

.: eldorado :.

i believe that eldorado is about searching for your inner happiness, and beleiving that you can reach that beautiful place og gold and riches, by bot spending your whole life on something not real. But finding your one true peaceful, and happy place.

| Posted on 2008-05-06 | by a guest

.: eldorado :.

in this poem, the "gallant knight" searches for eldorado, the mythical city of gold. he starts off young and searches "singing a song...but he grew old, this knight so bold and ore his heart a shadow fell as he found no spot of ground that looked like eldorado." to avoid searching in vain any longer he askes the pilgram - another traveler who searches for somethign - and the pilgram tells him to perform the impossable: "ore the mountains of the moon and down the vally of shadow, ride boldly ride...if you search for eldorado". the vally of shadow refers to the biblical vally of the shadow of death - in other words one must kill onesself to find what you are truly looking for.

| Posted on 2008-05-05 | by a guest

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I think this poem is about life and that we're all on our journey to find our "Eldorado." Sometimes we may get tired but we can't give up. We should ride, boldly ride if we want to find our Eldorado.

| Posted on 2008-03-05 | by a guest

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i think this poem is all about humans vanity that they nedd to search for more and more and they never get satisfy .. i just think all this is human nature !.

| Posted on 2008-02-25 | by a guest

.: Eldorado :.

I think that the meaning of this writing is supposed to send out the message that you need to be grateful of what you have, and if you spend your life searching for something more, it'll be a wasted life.

| Posted on 2008-02-20 | by a guest

.: Eldorado :.

As a poet of the Romantic period, Poe took the common romantic theme of never finding what one seeks--whether it be happiness, love, or, in this case, a legendary place where riches are supposedly very abundant. Either what one seeks does not exist (like Eldorado), or the irony of life keeps one away from it, or the person's destiny is simply to never obtain what he or she wants(an example is "Don Alvaro o la fuerza del Sino" by Angel de Saavedra Rivas).

| Posted on 2007-11-16 | by a guest

.: poe :.

i think that this a about a persons life and they search for one thing there entire life and they never find it bu then there is one thing that a person finds that gives them more strength tto keep on trying to find that thing that they want most in there life.


| Posted on 2007-05-19 | by a guest