City in the Sea

History of Publication

• 1831- "The Doomed City" published in Poems
• 1836- "The City of Sin" published in The Southern Literary Messenger
• August 30, 1845- "The City in the Sea,"published in an issue of the Broadway Journal

RHYMING PATTERN + Meter

• A-A-B-B-B-C-D-C-D-E-E
• Iambic & Anapestic Tetrameter

Literary devices used

• Alliteration
• Anaphora
• Metaphor
• Metonymy
• Paradox
• Personification

Meaning of poem

• Death rules a lonely city in the West, where the buildings are unfamiliar and everything has come to rest beside calm waters. It's always night, but light from the sea shines onto the towers in the city, and Death looks down from his tower. The graves are open, but the riches inside don't tempt the waters. Then, suddenly, theres a movement in the sea, which gains a red glow as if to tell that Hell is coming, as the city begins to sink.

Connection to Poe

• Everybody dies eventually
• Deaths of all the people he loves.

The End