This is a poem about romance and the many emotions felt interpreted through symbolism. This is one of the few poems by Edgar Allan Poe that truthfully wont drive you to drink and expresses the deep connections between the joy of a new romance and life as it progresses.
He interprets romance as a joy something that is young and naive. He expresses this in his first stanza by comparing his first romance to a painted paroquet who taught him the alphabet while he lies in wonder and amazement. This stanza is full of optimism and positive tones that showcase how a first romance is sometimes considered perfect and without flaws.
The second stanza becomes a bit darker and dwells on the idea that time becomes more valuable and romance becomes harder to find. As time becomes more valuable and life more chaotic as expressed through the many uses of imagery the author loses love for anything thats not true romance. Basically going from the innocence of a first romance to the chaotic emotions of having no time for the simple thing in life and developing romance through a rush as he states “My heart would feel to be a crime unless it trembled with the strings”.
I like how you imply a tone that you see across Poe’s body of work when you draw the distinction between this one and others that might, as you say, drive you to drink. Where specifically do you see the optimism and positive tones that you refer to? Can you point to particular words or images, to connect your impressions with observations of the make-up of Poe’s poem? It’s always good to try to find what specifically gives you an impression.
I agree with Dilo, but I think this poem still carries the dark signature of EAP. It is still filled with woeful regret. The first stanza has an optimistic and positive vibe but this shifts dramatically in the second stanza. The positive imagery I saw was in Poe’s description of romance as a “painted paroquet”; colorful, vibrant, exciting, and pleasing to the eyes. That feeling evaporates with the description in the second stanza; the paroquet changes into a condor (vulture, scavenger, associated with dead things and rotting corpses).
At first he was in a “wild wood”, which I understand as him being naive, ignorant of the reality of the world, only knowing what romance teaches him. After that, the condors cause tumult and thunder in the sky, which I understand as turbulence later on in life, hardships and insecurities. Now he yearns for that previous feeling and sense of romance.
I especially like this poem, and I am amazed that Dilo interprets it the same way I do. I agree in the fact that this poem is written in chronological order; from when the persona was young and lived his first love to when adulthood when love is not innocent anymore, but passionate and meaningless at times. I think that Dilo refers to the first stanza being ‘full of optimism and positive tone’ as shown in line 2:“…who loves to nod and sing with drowsy head and folded wings” because the drowsy head could mean an optimistic point of view towards this love, the person gives all his/her truth to that person without hesitation with “folded wings”. However I think the tone of this poem is more melancholic than positive and optimistic, an example of this is in the third stanza “That little time with lyre and rhyme to while away—forbidden things!” As you can see here the persona is yearning his first love.
I agree the the comments prior. The first stanza follows him in his early years when love was beautiful and pure “who loves to nod and sing”. Love raised him and taught him his earliest words. now he grows older and love doesn’t love him like it once did. Now the clouds form “with tumult as they thunder by” to depict the rotting of love. As we grow older love isn’t and easy as it once was, as simple to hold. We ruin it ourselves as did EAP. He lost time for love and it quickly abandoned him.