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The poem "The Sleeper" by Edgar Allen Poe is about a fair lady who will never awaken but who he loves deeply and worries about her after life. The theme is "transcendental love–that is, love for a woman so powerful that it extends into the afterlife in its concern for the well-being of the deceased woman's soul" (cummingstudyguides.net). An example of this is when he says "Oh, may her sleep,/ Which is enduring, so be deep!/ Heaven have her in its scared keep!" ( Poe, lines 37-39) making it clear that he cares for her even though she's dead and cares for her after life.The poem is made of couplets and triplets, the first six lines contianing three couplets. The poem is mostly written in iambic tetrameter and an example of this is in the first two lines of the poem " At idnight, in the month of June,/ I stand beneath the mystic moon." (Poe, lines 1-2). Most poems by Poe are about Death so it is no surpise that "The Sleeper" is about a beautiful lady who is dead. The poem was first named "Irene" and after being revised the name was changed to "The Sleeper".

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Alliteration: the repetition of initial consonant sounds of several words in a group. It is often used in poetry to emphasize and to link words as well as to create pleasing, musical sounds. "And softly dripping, drop by drop..."( Poe, line 5). This sentence is an example of alliteration because the letter "d" is repeated three times in the same sentence.

Imagery: is the descriptive language used in literature to recreate sensory experiences relating to sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell. Imagery enriches writing by making it more vivid, setting a tone, suggesting emotions and guiding the reader's reaction. " I stand beneath the mystic moon./An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,/ Exhales from out her golden rim." (Poe, lines 2-4). These lines are an example of imagery because it draws a picture with the words allowing the reader to picture the scene being described.

Connotation: An association that a words calls to mind in addition to its dictionary meaning. Some of examples of connotations are "mystic moon" (Poe, line 2) and "universal valley"(Poe, line 8). These are connotations because they create a mysterious, curious tone.

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By Edgar Allan Poe

At midnight, in the month of June,

I stand beneath the mystic moon.

An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,

Exhales from out her golden rim,

And softly dripping, drop by drop,

Upon the quiet mountain top,

Steals drowsily and musically

Into the universal valley.

The rosemary nods upon the grave;

The lily lolls upon the wave;

Wrapping the fog about its breast,

The ruin moulders into rest;

Looking like Lethe, see! the lake

A conscious slumber seems to take,

And would not, for the world, awake.

All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies

Irene, with her Destinies!

Oh, lady bright! can it be right—

This window open to the night?

The wanton airs, from the tree-top,

Laughingly through the lattice drop—

The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,

Flit through thy chamber in and out,

And wave the curtain canopy

So fitfully—so fearfully—

Above the closed and fringéd lid

’Neath which thy slumb’ring soul lies hid,

That, o’er the floor and down the wall,

Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!

Oh, lady dear, hast thou no fear?

Why and what art thou dreaming here?

Sure thou art come o’er far-off seas,

A wonder to these garden trees!

Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress!

Strange, above all, thy length of tress,

And this all solemn silentness!

The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,

Which is enduring, so be deep!

Heaven have her in its sacred keep!

This chamber changed for one more holy,

This bed for one more melancholy,

I pray to God that she may lie

Forever with unopened eye,

While the pale sheeted ghosts go by!

My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,

As it is lasting, so be deep!

Soft may the worms about her creep!

Far in the forest, dim and old,

For her may some tall vault unfold—

Some vault that oft hath flung its black

And wingéd pannels fluttering back,

Triumphant, o’er the crested palls

Of her grand family funerals—

Some sepulchre, remote, alone,

Against whose portals she hath thrown,

In childhood, many an idle stone—

Some tomb from out whose sounding door

She ne’er shall force an echo more,

Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!

It was the dead who groaned within.

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Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, to two actors. His father abandoned him and his mother died when he was two, so he was sent to be raised as a foster child by tobacco merchant, John Allan, in London and then, Richmond. Allan sent Poe to great boarding schools and to the University of Virginia, but later withdrew him because Poe was using his money for gambling. Then, he enlisted in the United States Army and enrolled at West Point in 1830, but was later expelled. Poe published three volumes of poetry during this time: Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827); Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829); and Poems (1831). In 1835, Poe was an assistant editor at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, for whom he wrote the stories "Berenice" and "Morella" and began its serial as The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838). In September 1835, he married his 13 year old cousin, Virginia Clemm, and they lived with her mother. In 1838, his third story, "Ligeia" was published in American Museum. In 1839, "The Fall of the House of Usher' was published in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. By 1840, Poe published 25 stories in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841); "The Mystery of Marie Roget" (1842); "The Gold Bug" (1843); and "The Purloined Letter" (1844) were exemplified as the forms of the modern detective story. As of January of 1842, Virginia Poe was having tuberculosis problems and Poe suffered a lot because of them. His encounters with the possibility of Virginia's death led him to compose "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842), followed by "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" published in 1843. In 1844, Poe and his wife moved to New York City where over the next five years, he published verses like "The Raven,"  "Ulalume," "For Annie," and "Annabel Lee." In 1845, Poe published The Raven and Other Poems. Poet Charles Baudelaire took an interest in Poe's poetry and through Baudelaire, Poe influenced the poetic movement known as Symbolism. Virginia died on January 30, 1947 and over the next two years, Poe began many brief love affairs. In Poe's late years, he drank a lot, argued a lot and was very moody. He went on drinking and partying sprees at least four times while traveling during the summer of 1849. He disappeared for six days in Baltimore and was found semiconscious and wretched and was taken to the Washington College hospital. He died there on October 7, 1849.

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For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,
Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies
Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines! -- they hold a treasure
Divine -- a talisman -- an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure --
The words -- the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor!
And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
Of poets, by poets -- as the name is a poet's, too.
Its letters, although naturally lying
Like the knight Pinto -- Mendez Ferdinando --
Still form a synonym for Truth. -- Cease trying!
You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.

Published in 1850, the poem, "A Valentine", was written by Edgar Allan Poe about a very special person as a confession of love, in the form of a riddle; Poe purposely hid the woman's name in the poem, challenging his readers to figure out who she was, while confident the reader would not. "You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do." (Poe, line 20) In the end, the woman's name was discovered- Frances Sargent Oswood, another poetess, who was married, which made their love affair a secret. The theme of this poem is the love between a man and a woman, even though the love shared is a secret love. It demonstrates how intrigued the man is with this woman and describes how he views her as the greatest creation ever. Throughout the poem, the narrator speaks of this woman, describes her passionately, but focuses much on intriguing the reader into wondering who this woman is, due to the many clues given. Poe gives many hints of her name and occupation, making the reader realize this woman is well-known, yet, unknown.  "Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing / Of poets, by poets -- as the name is a poet's, too." (Poe, lines 15-16) Poe structured this poem as a lyrical poem, not divided into stanzas or meters. Rather, Poe, focused on his purpose to reveal his lover through acrostic structure. "If you take the first letter from the first line, the second letter from the second line, the third letter from the third line, and so on until the end, the riddle of this poem will be revealed." (Louie's Blog) Also, Poe had a rhyme scheme, but at times, it would change because of an odd line. "The regular rhyme scheme of this poem is abab cdcd, but sometimes the pattern change unexpectedly due to the appearance of an odd line with no rhyme." (Louie's Blog)

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Allusion: a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work or work of art.

"Like the knight Pinto -- Mendez Ferdinando --" (Poe, line 18) The knight Pinto was a popular Portuguese explorer and writer, thus, making his mark in historical events. Clearly, due to the lack of more information on Pinto, Poe expected his readers to already know who this man was and what he did.

Metaphor: is a comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as".
"Search narrowly the lines! -- they hold a treasure" (Poe, line 5) This reveals that the name of Poe's lover is in the poem and compares her name to treasure. Her name is precious and valuable to him, thus, he considers it to be treasure.

Simile: a figure of speech that compares two things that are basically unlike yet have something in common with the use of "like" or "as".
"For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes, / Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda," (Poe, lines 1-2) First of all, the "twins of Leda" are the twins birthed from a beautiful woman named Leda and fathered by Zeus. They are also the two brightest stars of the Gemini constellation. In these lines, Poe describes his lover's eyes to be so bright and twinkling they resemble two very bright stars.

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Harmon, Justin. "Edgar Allan Poe." American History, ABC-CLIO, 2017, americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/247664. Accessed 3 Apr. 2017.

Poe, Edgar Allan. A Valentine. New York: Evening's Mirror, 1846. Print.

"“A Valentine” of Edgar Allen Poe – Analysis." Louie's Blog. WordPress.org, 05 Dec. 2009. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

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