Hallows Eve

Spirits of the Dead

Edgar Allen Poe

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

 

II

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee—and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

 

III

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever.

 

IV

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions ne’er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew-drop from the grass.

V

The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

And the mist upon the hill,

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token—

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

Halloween is nearing. It's the time for costumes and candy and pumpkin themed bake sales. But not only that- it's the time for the spooky, the creepy, and every imaginable crawly. This time of the year can be anticipated or dreaded- especially for those who are allergic to all things frightful. Thankfully for us AP Lit students, we are immersed in Grendel, a book seeping with dreadful ideas. It really is perfect timing for such a literary work; however, I was left craving something scarier to read- something that would make the hair on my arms stand on edge and make me wish I was seated with my back to the wall. So I searched in the romantic works of the classic Poe. And I can’t say I was disappointed.

Edgar Allen Poe’s Poem “Spirits of the Dead” explores the connection between life and death, describing the afterworld in a scene that chills our bones. He depicts a lone living soul amidst a crowd of spirits of the dead, and in the first stanza he describes the dark state the soul is in.

 

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

                Poe uses words such as “dark” and “grey” to demonstrate the sad and gloomy thoughts that the person has as they think about death. By depicting the person alone at a tombstone he begins his poem in a morbid place, setting us up for the rest of the poem.

Poe then writes about the how the spirits are in an elevated state and are among the presence of the living.

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee—and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

 

In the second stanza, the person is surrounded by the “spirits of the dead” whose will “shall overshadow” his. The fact that the will of the spirits will overcome his demonstrates the power they hold. This informs us of their superiority.

Towards the end of the poem Poe personifies nature to create a sense of intensity that displays the discomfort that the living must face in life. The frowning light and the stars that “shall seem as a burning and a fever” seem very hostile. This demonstrates the hostility of everyday life and how it can weigh down on an individual. The fever which would “cling to thee forever” and the thoughts that will “not banish” are everlasting pains. Since human life is so ephemeral, every discomfort can seem like an eternity.

 

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever.

 

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions ne’er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew-drop from the grass.

 

In the last stanza Poe uses mist to show the veil between this world and the next and how as long as the veil exists, the next world will be a mystery to the living.

 

The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

And the mist upon the hill,

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token—

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

 The troubles of this life can not compare with the stillness present in the next. As the soul sits next to that tombstone, surrounded by the crowd of spirits and tortured by the discomfort of life, it sees the most as a promise of the clarity and peace that must surely exist in the afterlife. 

 

Although this poem was deep and thoughtful rather than chilling, it still had that edge of gloom and darkness that Poe never seems to fail to bring.