El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe

El Dorado Analyses

Speaker: In this poem the speaker is a third person narrator outside of the story of the poem.

Diction: The first stanza shows happiness and hopefulness with words like gaily, gallant, sunshine, and singing. The second and third stanzas show the enthusiasm of the knight fading with words and phrases like old, shadow, no spot, and failing at length. Finally the fourth stanza seems to show a new hope with words like boldly and seek.

Imagery: The images shown in this poem include: "In sunshine and in shadow," "he grew old," "'Over the mountains of the moon down, the valley of the shadow,'."

Figurative Language: There is one example of anthropomorphism in this poem and that is when the shadow is given the human quality of being able to speak to the knight. This is the only figurative language I could find in this poem.

Meaning: This poem shows a gallant knight who is eager to find the land of El Dorado. It starts off with optimism and the hope that with determination it will be found. The reader soon sees the knight grow old and weary, and starting to lose hope. The knight's strength fails him, and he realizes he must ask for help to find El Dorado. In the final stanza, the knight is told where to go, but it is unknown whether or not he reaches his final destination because he has grown old and weary and his strength has failed him.