Poem: Romance

There's nothing like a little romance to make Edgar Allan Poe take pen to paper. Today we examine a poem from 1829, which Poe wrote as a young man. It explores not only the quiet joy of having found romance, but just as well the potential of romance to have devastating effects on oneself. A torrential thing indeed.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:34 Poem
• 1:53 Aftertalk
• 7:25 Farewell

Transcript

Tynan Portillo presents, featuring the works of Edgar Allan Poe and the best horror stories from the 19th century. Welcome to The Poe Show podcast. Music and narration by Tynan Portillo.

Today’s episode, Romance, by Edgar Allan Poe.

Romance, who loves to nod and sing,

With drowsy head and folded wing,

Among the green leaves as they shake

Far down within some shadowy lake,

To me a painted paroquet

Hath been—a most familiar bird—

Taught me my alphabet to say—

To lisp my very earliest word

While in the wild wood I did lie,

A child—with a most knowing eye.

Of late, eternal Condor years

So shake the very Heaven on high

With tumult as they thunder by,

I have no time for idle cares

Through gazing on the unquiet sky.

And when an hour with calmer wings

Its down upon my spirit flings—

That little time with lyre and rhyme

To while away—forbidden things!

My heart would feel to be a crime

Unless it trembled with the strings.

Hello and welcome back to The Poe Show. If you love the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe like I do, then like this episode, share it, and follow and subscribe to this podcast for more. Leave a comment on Spotify and YouTube or send in fan mail using the link below to send an anonymous text message that I will answer on the podcast. If you’d like to support this show, use the Support the Show link in the description! And if you’d like me to work with you in a voiceover project, email poeshowpod@gmail.com with details. I am also listed as a narrator on ACX for Audible.

Who doesn’t love a little poetry about romance during February? Of course, this poem isn’t about finding the perfect love and sharing a box of chocolates. This poem explores more of the maturity that comes with the age of love, treating it as a fine wine that changes as time goes on.

Romance, published in 1829 when Edgar Allan Poe was 20 years old, is a lyric poem, which is a poem that expresses a writer’s thoughts or feelings, often taking the form and rhythm of a song. In the first stanza, Poe compares love to a paroquet, or a parakeet, a very common bird, surrounded by beautiful nature. He sees this bird in the shadowy lake, so it’s a reflection in the lake. And love taught him his alphabet - here he most likely means that it was romance that first inspired him to write.

But the second stanza compares romance to a Condor, a type of vulture, by saying “of late, eternal condor years so shake the very Heaven on high with tumult as they thunder by.” Love is now powerful and active, it doesn’t leave time for idle cares; now that he is older, he has no time to contemplate the still nature of love. And when an hour with calmer wings falls upon his spirit, the little time that quiet hour gives him to play with music and rhyme, actually feels wrong. He feels that celebrating love in that simple early form is actually a forbidden thing. Have you ever felt that way? That sometimes you’re forbidden from embracing your inner child or things you loved as a kid? And it makes his heart “feel a crime,” not just that it’s wrong, but that his heart itself is a crime to be feeling love of that nature…unless it trembled with the strings. The strings meaning the strings of the lyre that plays music during the love of youth.

This poem is very much a lament from Poe, one which I’m sure many of us can agree with. Love is simpler when we’re younger, it’s more relaxed and beautiful because of the innocence that comes with youth. But as we get older, love becomes more powerful, more terrifying. It blossoms into romance, and suddenly, we get nervous and our palms get sweaty when thinking about someone we’re infatuated with; we fumble our words and lose our train of thought; and it gets especially terrifying when you risk rejection from someone you’re attracted to.

I can only speak to the experience of men, as I’m a man, but perhaps you’ve noticed that men hold the opinion that women have of them very highly. Now, I do think you need to base your self worth on personal values and not outside ones, but the reason that happens with men is because…hearing from someone that carries a possibility of attraction for you, that you look good or you’re funny, is a huge confidence booster. It means a lot because it could potentially mean more, in a romantic sense. Of course, that’s what makes it difficult. And scary. Sometimes a girl is just being nice and the guy takes her compliment to mean more than it does; other times men are taken advantage of by manipulative women who prey upon their insecurities. This is what makes romance more like a condor, a vulture picking at the carcass of something dead.

Now my hope is that this February we can all connect with this poem and its themes; either that the love we celebrate this month is powerful and passionate, or getting some much needed empathy and a connection to others who have also been wronged by romance. Romance is not an easy thing to maintain as adults. It’s not an easy thing to come by either. And no matter how romance has treated you, remember that here you can always find that earlier form of love - a simple appreciation of life and the fact that we’re living it. We can love that together, can’t we?

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Poe Show. Be sure to like, subscribe, share and suggest other poems or stories you’d like to hear on the podcast. You can follow this podcast on Bluesky, just got on there and my profile is thepoeshow.bsky.social, feel free to follow on there. It’s a lot like Twitter. Also Instagram @thepoeshowpodcast and on YouTube. All links are in the description. Remember you can find me listed as a narrator on ACX for Audible and you can email poeshowpod@gmail.com with details about your voiceover project.

That’s all for now, but you’ll hear from me again on the next episode on The Poe Show.