Eldorado

[Rick]

 Eldorado

 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!"

by Edgar Allan Poe

[Rick]

Another one by Poe that I like - the insanity of chasing phantom treasures.

[Sydney]

I love this one, too. I find it interesting that Poe wrote on this subject. Even though it is clearly his voice, it is vastly different from his other writings because of the Eldorado imagery it evokes.

[Elsa]

I was really surprised to discover this poem here, to tell the truth I didn't even know that these lines were an actual poem.

My father is a big fan of westerns, especially the ones with John Wayne, and in the film “El dorado” a very young James Caan recited this poem. I saw the film with my father and I remember a few verses of the poem, but only now I was able to read it all.

I’m not very familiar with Poe’s writing, I only read some of his tales and “The Raven”, but I like this poem, It’s a interesting representation of the waste of life that is to chase chimeras, and rainbows, and El dorados.

Of course, the real challenge in life is to know where to draw the line between fight for our dreams, and waste our lives chasing El dorados.

Just as a curiosity: a few years ago I read a story that the idea of “El Dorado” was invented by the Central American Indians in order to encourage the Spanish to go deep in to the jungle, were they would eventually die.

[Charlotte]

Elsa wrote: "Just as a curiosity: a few years ago I read a story that the idea of “El Dorado” was invented by the Central American Indians in order to encourage the Spanish to go deep in to the jungle, were they would eventually die."

That's really interesting. I heard something like that before as well. It makes a lot of sense too. Turn the greedy people away to the "land of riches."