very earliest word—While in the wild wood I did lie, a child—with a most knowing eye” (Poe 385). The narrator only sees the reflection of this radiant bird in waters of “some shadowy lake” (Poe 385). Since the bird can only be seen in the reflection, “Poe may be saying that poetry cannot communicate truth directly, but only as it is comprehended…” (Magill 2243). In the second stanza, which contrasts directly to the first, Poe alludes to the Andean vulture, noted for courage and ruthlessness (Bradley 741). The narrator has no time—he must watch for the returning Condor. “Romance” becomes unmatched for the way subtle changes in rhyme and iambic pentameter reinforce its emotional impact.“Poe may be better known for his poems of longing for a lost love than for those on any other subject” (Magill 2244). In “Ulalume” Poe most fully reveals this theme. In the poem, it is autumn of an important year. The speaker “wanders with his soul through a semireal, semi-imaginary landscape…” (Magill 2244). Poe, throughout the poem becomes increasingly interested in emotional effect. When night advances on the land, two bright figures appear in the sky, the moon and Venus. Venus rises to “lead the mourner to a ‘Lethean peace of the skies’ ” (Magill 2245). The speaker does not trust this goddess, however, she coaxes him to “the end of a vista” (Poe 404). There the speaker stops at a tomb. He finds Ulalume, the name of his love, chiseled into the door of the tomb. Then, the speaker cries out, “…It was surely October, On this very night of last year, That I journeyed down here…That I brought a dread burden down here—” (Poe 404). Through the speaker, Poe asks just one thing: “Ah, can it have been that the woodlandish ghouls…to bar up our way and to ban it…...
