So Sweet the Hour Trivia Quiz

Answer: Angels in heaven above and demons down under the sea

In the first two stanzas of "Annabel Lee", the poet tells us about the strength of the love between Annabel Lee and himself, "But we loved with a love that was more than love - I and my Annabel Lee".

Tragedy arrives in the third stanza, and then the fourth,
"That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee".

We are told that their love was envied by people and by supernatural beings, such as angels and demons. These enviers could never "dissever" (meaning sever) the souls of Annabel Lee and the poet from one another, even after her death.

In the last stanza the poet expresses his broken heart more intensely, "And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee".

Answer: Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face

There are two Edgar Allan Poe poems that are called "To Helen". This 15-line poem was the first one, but with later revisions. According to some sources, the poet was inspired by his feelings for the mother of one of his friends. He calls her Helen, an allusion to Helen of Troy, a legendary figure who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world.

The first stanza of the poem is,
"Helen is to me like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer
Bore to his own native shore".

In the second and third stanzas, she is likened to a Naiad (they are mythological water nymphs), and Psyche (a beautiful girl loved by Eros/Cupid).

Answer: Having all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming

One of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous lines of poetry is the first line of "The Raven": "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary".

Later, we are told that the poet could hear rapping and tapping at his chamber door. The chamber is where he wished to escape from the outside world with its grief, suffering, and personal loss, such as the loss of his beloved Lenore. When he opened the door all he could see was darkness, and nothing more.

When he opened the window, a raven flew in and perched itself above the door. Every question he asked the raven was answered by the word, "Nevermore". He described the raven as "prophet" and "thing of evil". The poet's soul is sorrowful and asked if "it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore", but "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore'.

The poet's feelings of loss and loneliness will not go away. The raven is sitting above his chamber door. It will never go away, "And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming".

Answer: Lenore

The first line in "Lenore" introduces us to the theme of bereavement, "Ah! Broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever". Apart from the title name, we know that she is called Lenore because, "The sweet Lenore hath 'gone before', with Hope that flew beside, Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride". The words of regret, "she died so young" is repeated three times in the poem.

In the first stanza, we are introduced to someone called Guy de Vere who seems to be showing no emotion about the death of Lenore. The poet tries to show Guy de Vere, and those who hated her for her wealth, why they should be feeling sadness. "An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young" is one such line.

The last stanza shows us De Vere's point of view, why he isn't mourning like the poet, "No dirge will I upraise". He seems confident about meeting Lenore again in a better place, in the afterlife, "To friends above, from fiends below". He ends with words of hope, "From grief and groan to a golden throne beside the King of Heaven".

Answer: Ulalume

The first stanza of the poem "Ulalume" sets a scene of mystery and darkness with lines such as "The leaves they were withering and sere", and "It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, in the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir". In the second stanza, the poet reveals his presence there, "Of cypress, I roamed with my soul".

This lonely, gloomy location with mythological and symbolic references has contrasting moments of hope, such as "Its sybillic splendour is beaming With Hope and in Beauty tonight". Eventually, the poet is led to the door of a legended tomb. This is where the name Ulalume is revealed, "Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume". This is another bereavement for the poet to suffer. The last stanza repeats the melancholy images of the first, "And I cried - 'It was surely October on this very night of last year'".

"Ulalume" was written in 1847, the same year as the death of Edgar's wife, Virginia Clemm.

Answer: The fevered diadem

Tamerlane, also known as Timur, was a central Asian conqueror, military leader, and emperor who lived until 1405. The first two lines of the poem are "Kind solace in a dying hour!" and "Such, father, is not (now) my theme - ". They set the scene of Tamerlane being close to death, and maybe speaking to a priest. Tamerlane was a Muslim, so this would be poetic licence.

In the poem, Tamerlane looks back at his younger days and his enjoyment of power, "The heritage of a kingly mind, And a proud spirit which hath striven Triumphantly with human kind". Tamerlane later tells us about a maiden, "O, she was worthy of all love". There was a conflict between his ambition and love. This realisation takes up most of the poem.

At the end of the last stanza, Tamerlane sums up his regrets,
"How was it that Ambition crept,
Unseen amid the revels there,
Till growing bold, he laughed and leapt
In the tangles of Love's very hair!".

Answer: Eldorado

"Eldorado" was one of the last poems written by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells of a gallant knight who searched for Eldorado. El Dorado is a legendary city of gold supposedly somewhere in South America. The knight could be a metaphor for the poet himself in search of happiness. This knight grew old, "and o'er his heart a shadow fell". He had not found what he was looking for.

In the second stanza, the knight said that his strength failed him, but he met a pilgrim shadow. This shadow could be symbolising death. In the last stanza, the shadow tells the knight how to find Eldorado, "Over the mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride boldy ride". It seems as though the shadow is saying that the happiness that the poet always wanted is out of reach in this life.

Answer: To mar the silence e'vn with lute

In "Serenade", there are references to mythological figures intertwined with images of nature and beauty, "At rest on ocean's brilliant dyes An image of Elysium lies". Elysium was also known as the Elysian Fields in ancient Greece. It was seen as either an afterlife of paradise, or a place of perfect happiness.

"Endymion nodding from above Sees in the sea a second love". In Greek mythology, Endymion was a mortal who was loved by Selene, the goddess of the moon. In this poem there is love in nature before we are introduced to Adeline, "And earth, and stars, and sea, and sky Are redolent of sleep, as I Am redolent of thee and thine Enthralling love, my Adeline". Edgar Allan Poe had many women in his life, but not one called Adeline. Could she represent the ideal?

"Serenade" ends with thoughts of paradise, "Our thoughts, our souls - O God above! In every deed shall mingle, love".

Answer: The stars of the night

At the beginning of "Eulalie", the poet tells us about his feelings of loneliness before he was married, "I dwelt alone In a world of moan, And my soul was a stagnant tide". Immediately, after that, he tells us about how "the fair and gentle Eulalie" became his "blushing bride". Her eyes are brighter to him than the stars of the night.

His love with Eulalie completely transformed his life, "Now Doubt - now Pain Come never again, For her soul gives me sigh for sigh". Edgar Allan Poe married his younger cousin Virginia Clemm in 1836. She died in 1847, two years before Edgar himself.

Answer: The Conqueror Worm

In "The Conqueror Worm", the angels are watching a tragic play about human life and its unalterable destiny, always ending in death. We see this unalterable destiny in lines such as "Mere puppets they, who come and go At bidding of vast formless things That shift the scenery to and fro".

The angels are watching this groteque scenario "In veils and drowned in tears". The imagery is like that of a horror story, "A blood-red thing that writhes from out The scenic solitude!" and "... the angels sob at vermin fangs In human gore imbued".

The last two lines sum up what the play was about, "That the play is the tragedy 'Man", And its hero the Conqueror Worm".