:The City in the Sea ''is also the title of a science fiction novel by Wilson Tucker'' The City in the City The Poets 1850

"The City in the Sea" is a poem by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

. The final version was published in 1845, but an earlier version was published as "The Doomed City" in 1831 and, later, as "The City of Sin". The poem tells the story of a city ruled by a personification of Death using common elements from

Gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of e ...

. The poem appeared in the ''

Southern Literary Messenger The ''Southern Literary Messenger'' was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some var ...

'', '' The American Review'', the ''

Broadway Journal The ''Broadway Journal'' was a short-lived New York City-based newspaper founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844 and was published from January 1845 to January 1846. In its first year, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan P ...

'', as well as in the 1850 collection '' The Poets and Poetry of America''. Poe drew his inspiration from several works, including ''

Kubla Khan ''Kubla Khan'' () is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. It is sometimes given the subtitles "A Vision in a Dream" and "A Fragment." According to Coleridge's preface to ''Kubla Khan'', the poem ...

'' by

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

Analysis

The city is one in the west ruled by Death who is revered above all: "While from a proud tower in the town, Death looks gigantically down." This is another classic Poe poem in that it deals with death and presents it in a non-conventional way. It is seen as a god that rules over a glorious, peaceful city in the west. There are "Domes and spires and kingly halls, and fanes and Babylon like walls" That the city is in the west is appropriate, because the west, in which the sun sets, has traditionally been associated with death. At the end of the poem a "stir in the air" or a wave moves the towers so that they create "A void within the filmy heaven." Poe speaks in the last part of the poem of the end of days when "the waves now have a redder glow, the hours are breathing faint and low." The waves turning red is a sign of hell's coming, because red is the color of fire and hence the color of hell and the devil. "And when, amid no earthly moans, Down, down the town shall settle hence, Hell rising from a thousand thrones, shall do it reverence." The last lines of the poem speak of the devil's gratitude to death in allowing him to come forth and rule over Earth. In addition, the end suggests that this city is more evil than Hell for it will hold the city of Death in reverence. It is suggested that Death may be worse than the Devil. The weird setting and its foreboding remoteness in "The City in the Sea" is a common device of

. This combines with the poem's theme of a self-conscious dramatization of doom, similar to Poe's " The Sleeper" and " The Valley of Unrest."

Inspiration

Poe was inspired at least in part by

Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

's '' History of the Jewish Wars'', a first-century account of the Biblical city of Gomorrah.Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992. p. 51. The poem also bears a resemblance to

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...

's classical poem "De Rerum Natura" and, specifically, an English translation by

John Mason Good John Mason Good (25 May 1764 – 2 January 1827), English writer on medical, religious and classical subjects, was born at Epping, Essex. John Good's parents were the Nonconformist minister Revd Peter Good and Sarah Good, the daughter of anothe ...

. Thirty-five of eighty-five consecutive lines parallel the work. Poe's last version of the poem may also reference Edmund Spenser's ''

The Faerie Queene ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...

'' with the term "proud tower". The mood and style of the poem also seem to echo "

", a poem by

, known to be a heavy influence on Poe's poetry.

Publication history

An early version of the poem, titled "The Doomed City", appeared in Poe's 1831 collection simply called ''Poems''. It was reworked, as many of Poe's works, and published in the ''

'' in August 1836 as "The City of Sin". It was first printed under the title "The City in the Sea" in the April 1845 issue of the ''American Review''. The poem also appeared in the ''Broadway Journal'', in the August 30, 1845 issue. It was included by

Rufus Wilmot Griswold Rufus Wilmot Griswold (February 13, 1815 – August 27, 1857) was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New Y ...

in the tenth edition of '' The Poets and Poetry of America'' in 1850, the year after Poe's death, as an example of Poe's best poetry.

Critical reception

Poe was accused of plagiarizing part of the poem from a poem called "Musing Thoughts", first published in 1829 in ''The Token.'' Both poems include a line about a "thousand thrones". Even so, it is considered one of his best poems from his early years.

Adaptations and influence

The Proud Tower ''The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914'' is a 1966 book by Barbara Tuchman, consisting of a collection of essays she had published in various periodicals during the mid-1960s. It followed the publication of the hi ...

'' by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, subtitled "A portrait of the world before the War: 1890-1914", New York: Macmillan, 1966, derives its title and contains an epigraph from Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 version of the poem "The City in the Sea". A performed version of the poem was included on the 1997 album '' Closed on Account of Rabies'', though the name of the poem was given as "The City and the Sea".Neimeyer, Mark. "Poe and popular culture," collected in ''The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe'', Kevin J. Hayes, editor. Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 79. Basil Rathbone narrated the story in the Caedmon audio collection ''Edgar Allan Poe: The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection'', Caedmon Records – CD 4148(5), released on CD in 2000. The German metal band The Ocean used "The City in the Sea" as lyrics, only swapping a few lines to fit rhythmical patterns of the song. It was used both due to the band's love of Poe, and the themes common to both poem and band. The song appeared on their 2006 album ''Aeolian''. The 1965 film '' War-Gods of the Deep'' — alternately titled ''City in the Sea'' and ''The City Under the Sea'' — is credited as being loosely based on Poe's poem, which is recited at the end of the production. In 1989 Danish composer Poul Ruders wrote a piece "The City in the Sea" (subsequently released on a CD by Bridge Records, New York) for Symphony Orchestra and Contralto, making full use of Poe's text. The composition is also available in a version for 11 instruments (2013).

References

External links

The City in the Sea at Google Books
at th
Edgar Allan Poe SocietyPublication in the August 1836 ''Southern Literary Messenger'' as "The City of Sin", p. 552."The City in the Sea. A Prophecy" by Edgar A. Poe in ''The American Review'', April 1845, Vol. I, No. IV, p. 393.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:City in the Sea, The Poetry by Edgar Allan Poe 1831 poems 1845 poems Works originally published in the Southern Literary Messenger Poems about cities