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The City in the Sea
The famous short poem The City in the Sea by Edgar Allan Poe.
3 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1831
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
10.1k books29k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
September 21, 2020
One of his more talented poems, vivid and full of life and meaning. I feel I could read this several times and gleam something different each time.
April 29, 2021
A poem to give you chills.
September 7, 2019
I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:
"Even grand stone spires
Built by men to outlast death
Will not survive time."
"Even grand stone spires
Built by men to outlast death
Will not survive time."
March 22, 2023
"Temp the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!"
didn't quite get this one. this poem is about a ruler named death (not surprising, since poe seems to be obsessed with it). it's suggested the city "death" rules over– is worse than hell; however, the meaning was lost to me. it bears similarities to three classical poems that i'm not the most knowledgeable of, so maybe that's why i got less out of it than other people.
For no ripples curl, alas!"
didn't quite get this one. this poem is about a ruler named death (not surprising, since poe seems to be obsessed with it). it's suggested the city "death" rules over– is worse than hell; however, the meaning was lost to me. it bears similarities to three classical poems that i'm not the most knowledgeable of, so maybe that's why i got less out of it than other people.
November 3, 2020
The City in the Sea is another poem from Poe that I adored, one that I’m happy to read again and again to experience. It’s one of those poems that you can look at differently each time you read it, with different elements hitting you with each reading – especially if you look at how other people have read it (such as with the Atlantis perspective).
April 18, 2013
The original title of this poem was "The Doomed City" and "The City of Sin" then was later revised to "The City in the Sea". Just like most of Poe's works, Death is the main topic.
December 27, 2019
After finishing the poem for the first time all I couldn't think of is Atlantis. But after reading it a few more times, I discovered that the story it tells is way darker.
August 30, 2021
Write drunk, edit drunker - Edgar Allan Poe, probably.
May 31, 2017
This is actually a really well done and enjoyable poem which will give you goose bumps if read well and correctly. It seems like it's a poem about Atlantis, but the jury is still out on that hypothesis.
August 6, 2024
“A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.”
The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.”
September 4, 2014
Read as part of the volume Edgar Allan Poe Complete Tales and Poems.
"Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best / Have gone to their eternal rest."
------------------
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
--------------------
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
"Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best / Have gone to their eternal rest."
------------------
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
--------------------
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
October 29, 2020
This is one of Poe's top notch dark and gloomy gothic poems. Poe paints an elaborately grim picture with his words depicting a sinister atmospheric setting of a town which is truly foreboding and which foreshadows an apocalyptic ending. I listened to a great audio rendition on YouTube Narrated by Wayne June which gave me the willies while listening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcQi_...
August 22, 2011
About Hell, but I like the rhymes in the first verse, especially, "Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best / Have gone to their eternal rest."
September 9, 2024
The City in the Sea
By: Edgar Allan Poe
Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers and tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No rays from the holy Heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently—
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free—
Up domes—up spires—up kingly halls—
Up fanes—up Babylon-like walls—
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers—
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol’s diamond eye—
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass—
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea—
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave—there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide—
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
By: Edgar Allan Poe
Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers and tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No rays from the holy Heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently—
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free—
Up domes—up spires—up kingly halls—
Up fanes—up Babylon-like walls—
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers—
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol’s diamond eye—
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass—
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea—
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave—there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide—
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
July 27, 2024
Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers and tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No rays from the holy Heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently—
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free—
Up domes—up spires—up kingly halls—
Up fanes—up Babylon-like walls—
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers—
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol’s diamond eye—
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass—
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea—
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave—there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide—
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers and tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No rays from the holy Heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently—
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free—
Up domes—up spires—up kingly halls—
Up fanes—up Babylon-like walls—
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers—
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol’s diamond eye—
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass—
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea—
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave—there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide—
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
November 6, 2025
***Actual Star Ratibg: 2.5 Stars***
The City in the Sea is a poem of a city led by Death in its most simple form. The environment, location mostly and some beautiful description makes it feel that the city is somewhere deep beneath the sea where sea features rise in more permanent memorial and the bioluminescent glow of the depths provides a watery type of St Elmo's fire that works backwards.
But as is typical with Poe's work and madness, the poem seems to shift directions in the latter half. No longer does the city seem to be below the sea for the fanes and gaping graves are now on a par with the waves while it is all sinking until it meets the same level as hell upon which it will eventually join. And it is for this very reason, most likely, that the poem has had so many titles.
I don't believe he is talking about Atlantis for it doesn’t breathe of that civilization but could it maybe, just maybe, be speaking of the reclaiming of a certain kingdom by the sea?
Like any other piece of work by Poe, it will drive you mad with possibilities or frustrate you with its vagueness.
The City in the Sea is a poem of a city led by Death in its most simple form. The environment, location mostly and some beautiful description makes it feel that the city is somewhere deep beneath the sea where sea features rise in more permanent memorial and the bioluminescent glow of the depths provides a watery type of St Elmo's fire that works backwards.
But as is typical with Poe's work and madness, the poem seems to shift directions in the latter half. No longer does the city seem to be below the sea for the fanes and gaping graves are now on a par with the waves while it is all sinking until it meets the same level as hell upon which it will eventually join. And it is for this very reason, most likely, that the poem has had so many titles.
I don't believe he is talking about Atlantis for it doesn’t breathe of that civilization but could it maybe, just maybe, be speaking of the reclaiming of a certain kingdom by the sea?
Like any other piece of work by Poe, it will drive you mad with possibilities or frustrate you with its vagueness.
January 19, 2024
A city of opulence encrusted with beauty, desire, and sin, sits and awaits its fate in The City in the Sea by Edgar Allan Poe. The ruler of Hell presides and takes us on a journey of vice as we look in horror upon the City as it sinks into the sea. Our look is of horror, but like a train wreck, we can't look away, as it begins to glow red and the water bubbles up as it's submerged. Eerie and fascinating, this poem transports us into another time and place. And for those with imperfect souls, we are consumed with something akin to dread. A beautiful and haunting poem by one of my favorite authors.
March 14, 2024
FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
The writing style is amazing as you can from Edgar Allan Poe.
In this poem Edgar Allan Poe gives an elaborately grim picture by only using his words and writing style which is depicting a sinister atmospheric.
This poem needs to get points for being vivid and full of life and meaning.
This poem is one of very few poems which you can re-read dozen times without being bored of it.
This poem isn’t scary but it sort of gives you a chill.
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
The writing style is amazing as you can from Edgar Allan Poe.
In this poem Edgar Allan Poe gives an elaborately grim picture by only using his words and writing style which is depicting a sinister atmospheric.
This poem needs to get points for being vivid and full of life and meaning.
This poem is one of very few poems which you can re-read dozen times without being bored of it.
This poem isn’t scary but it sort of gives you a chill.
May 31, 2022
This poem encapsulates all the elements I love - a creative, and powerfully descriptive and intelligent use of metaphors, originality, imagination and imagery, elegance and eloquence in storytelling and articulation, and the use of carefully selected words which paint a picture, add an aesthetic to the poem and a melody to its flow. These are the elements which I ensure are the backbone of my poems!
Here’s some examples which I feel reflect perfectly what I’m saying:
“Lo! Death has reared himself a throne in a strange city lying alone where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest”
“Time-eaten towers”
“Resignedly beneath the sky the melancholy waters lie”
“No rays from the holy heaven come down on the long night-time of that town; but light from out the lurid sea streams up the turrets silently—up shadowy long-forgotten bowers of sculptured ivy and stone flowers..”
“There open fanes and gaping graves yawn level with the luminous waves”
Here’s some examples which I feel reflect perfectly what I’m saying:
“Lo! Death has reared himself a throne in a strange city lying alone where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest”
“Time-eaten towers”
“Resignedly beneath the sky the melancholy waters lie”
“No rays from the holy heaven come down on the long night-time of that town; but light from out the lurid sea streams up the turrets silently—up shadowy long-forgotten bowers of sculptured ivy and stone flowers..”
“There open fanes and gaping graves yawn level with the luminous waves”
January 19, 2024
This story is about a city in the sea where everyone goes when they die, but its also a gateway to hell. This story was mid at the most. I don't really like Poe's poems, at least not as much as the full stories. But overall, this story would be good for 12+ readers, and maybe a Dictionary by their side.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 21, 2024
A city in the sea is overlooked by the devil. The city is beutiful and shiny. Then the sea begins to rise. The city sinks into the sea and everyone in it dies. Then the water turns red and everyone that died turns into a demon as the city rises as hell. This poem was pretty good. The mood of the poem was strangly calm.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2023
Read in 2023 as part of Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe.
March 24, 2018
I really enjoyed this and I am planning on continuing with Edgar’s work.
July 8, 2020
I just didn't like it as much as the others. Something seems off about it.
January 9, 2021
Another Poe poem the quest continues, this one was very good, it felt relatable and accessible, and was one you could ruminate over.
April 1, 2021
Grim and gothic and perfect. The poem is haunting throughout, but the last line gives me chills.
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April 19, 2022watch the livestream discussion
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August 1, 2022
Another good poem by Poe that explores the nature of death with beautiful imagery
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews