Eldorado

        To follow up my post on the mythical golden city of El Dorado, here is the 1849 poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

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!’ 

        Poe wrote this poem during the California Gold Rush, so the search for actual physical gold was very much on people’s minds.  He keeps it ambiguous enough, however, that it can equally apply to any much-desired treasure, physical or intangible.  Most people seem to interpret it as a pessimistic reminder that we spend our lives chasing impossible dreams, but I think it can be read a little more optimistically.  A human may not be able to get over the Mountains of the Moon or through the Valley of Shadow, but perhaps the pilgrim spirit can.  After all, the spirit doesn’t say, “Give it up; it’s hopeless.”  He says, “Ride, boldly ride!”

[Picture: In search of Eldorado, illustration by William Heath Robinson, early 20th c (Image from Wikimedia Commons).]