The Conqueror Worm Stanza Four!

 The action happens!

But see, amid the mimic rout,

A crawling shape intrude!

A blood-red thing that writhes from out

The scenic solitude!

It writhes! — it writhes! — with mortal pangs

The mimes become its food,

And the angels sob at vermin fangs

In human gore imbued!

First phrase we encounter that's kind of strange is mimic rout. Mimic, in this case, refers to the Mimes from the second stanza. And rout, according to a search, can mean several things but in this case most likely refers to a disorderly and chaotic fleeing by a group. So it's just referencing what the mimes were doing in the second stanza. 

I don't have to tell you this but a horrible creature emerges and starts devouring the mimes. 

One phrase that I think is somewhat interesting is "the scenic solitude!"

At the start we are told that the crawling shape intrudes from amid the mimic rout. Which, as we already established, is a chaotic group. But then we're told this blood-red thing writhes from out the scenic solitude. Scenic solitude is, by definition, the opposite of a mimic rout. A peaceful empty place? Is the writhing thing coming out of chaos or coming out of peace? I don't know. I don't know that there's even a point being made by this discrepancy. Or if it's even a discrepancy at all and I'm not applying definitions correctly.

Anyway I like the double 'It writhes!-- it writhes!" 

Kind of a crazy move by Poe, right? Maybe I'm wrong and Crab can correct me but I don't feel like there was anything in the previous stanzas, other than perhaps the title, that would lead us to believe that a horrible monster was going to show up and eat everyone. 

And, perhaps this is another discrepancy to go along with the rout/solitude thing, we're told very clearly in the start of the second stanza that the Mimes are "in the form of God on high" and maybe that's referring to the idea that like Man is made in God's image or something but the Mimes definitely get eaten and 

the angels sob at vermin fangs

In human gore imbued.

So are the Mimes human or gods? Also why does the monster come and eat everyone? I still don't get it.

But that's also another reason I love Poe. He will just have a monster come and eat everyone. Is there symbolism to it? Seems like we get some commentary on it in the last stanza but I think part of the reason this section is so abrupt is that we just got done talking about the cycle of humanity just goes round and round and nothing ever changes. UNTIL A BIG WORM COMES AND EATS EVERYONE.

I'm rambling. Stay tuned for the finale where the big twist is revealed! 

felt like I looked good today

 

you know what I Iike

 underrated quality!

UNDERRATED QUALITY!

I like when people speak their words with care. I like when people form their words with care. I like when people hand you their words like they're handing you a delicate flaky airy buttery biscuit over a gravel parking lot on a hot summer day. 

Hand your words to me nicely!

I'd get a T-shirt with that on it. Not really though. Because that would be obnoxious. But if you could somehow get a notification that says "HAND YOUR WORDS TO HIM NICELY", I'd appreciate that.

Heck dang shoot I'll even just take a kind of affectation. Put some spin on em. Put some english on your sentences. You know when people talk and the words come out with a little bit of topspin or they have a little bit of two-seam run? I love that.

Don't. 

Don't you ever. 

Don't ever just hurl your words at me formless and expletive. 

I'm not saying to have proper diction. But I'm saying take some time to consider the manner in which you deliver your words. 

Someone tell me how I deliver words! Am I doing a good job? Am I serving em up nice?

I think it's a nice thing you can do for people and for the people who like it it will be like a pleasant breeze and then ones who can't be bothered are already too far gone.

look at the numbers

Listen!

Lo!

As of my checking, there are 81 days left in the year. 82 if you count today.

I have made 219 posts for the year.

Ergo,

I have to post every day OR average a post a day until the end of the year to get to 300 posts.

Which would mean back to back 300 post years. We've never seen that. 

What was going on in 2021? Only 183 posts. 

Here's a post of note from a somewhat historic time. On the leap year, Feb 29, 2020 I made a post that said I was missing home. Little did I know that a virus was going to shut down the world and I would move back home for about 2 months. Funny.

Conqueror Worm Stanza The Third

 It gets so much crazier

That motley drama — oh, be sure

It shall not be forgot!

With its Phantom chased forevermore,

By a crowd that seize it not

Through a circle that ever returneth in

To the self-same spot,

And much of Madness and more of Sin,

And Horror the soul of the plot.

A lot happening here. The motley drama? Must be all the commotion from the second stanza, right? The invisible wo! 

I had this thought later too, what makes wo invisible? Isn't it always invisible? I guess you could see it in someone's expression. I don't know. Also very eldritch. Like you're just afflicted by pure maddening horror or something.

Anyway, I love how Poe gets really dramatic in these first two lines. He goes into this aside to the reader/audience, "oh, be sure!" And then I italicize all these lines but in the text only the word shall is italicized. So he's really selling it. I'll be honest though I don't really know what he's talking about. What was I going to forget again? The wo? It seems like an inside joke that I don't get.

And then he gets real abstract

With its Phantom chased forevermore,

by a crowd that seize it not

So like, the crowd is chasing the Phantom of this motley drama/wo? I think what he's saying is that mankind is stuck in this loop of like agitation and misery and it's almost like this trauma cycle that keeps repeating but no one really understands what's happening (?) That's how I interpret chasing the Phantom but not seizing it. This unending cycle of conflict and drama that doesn't resolve to anything. It just goes around and around. Which is reflected in the next lines

Through a circle that ever returneth in

To the self-same spot,

It's rotten to the core, essentially. This cycle doesn't go anywhere or lead to anything but back to itself.  

And much of Madness and more of Sin,

and Horror the soul of the plot.

Again, like before, Poe can't stress enough how this stuff like madness and sin and horror are at the very basic level of existence. I love it. He's just doing so much. Did he really think this? The fun thing about Poe though is that he kind of makes it sexy. He's a showman about it. 

Like he's not saying all this stuff in sort of a gritty realistic way that would actually make you reflect on the capacity for cruelty in the average human heart. Or how society makes us uncaring and blind to actual tragedy and horror. I think that kind of mundane horror and wretchedness underpins this poem but that's not what Poe is talking about here. He's talking about a kind of grand cosmic horror and misery and it's kind of like he's dishing gossip

--oh! be sure-- it SHALL not be forgot.

With the veils drowned in tears. And the bewings and the bedights. I mean tis an absolute gala night!

RIP Edgar Allan Poe. You would've loved My Chemical Romance.

But I really do think Poe is a compelling writer. He's got this haunting relentless energy that's undeniable and the man just knows how to turn a phrase.

The Conqueror Worm part 3, Stanza Two

 Now that we're a bit more acquainted with the language and the goings-ons of the poem, we'll try to absorb larger chunks. Here's the full 8 lines of the second stanza:

Mimes, in the form of God on high,

Mutter and mumble low,

And hither and thither fly —

Mere puppets they, who come and go

At bidding of vast shadowy things

That shift the scenery to and fro,

Flapping from out their Condor wings

Invisible Wo!

A lot going on here. Maybe we bit off more than we can chew. But let's try! So first up we got MIMES.

And we learn that the mimes are in the form of God on high. So that's quite the contrast, right? The Almighty is represented by these kind of lowly non-speaking characters. And, on top of that, they mutter and mumble low (note the contrast with God on high). So it's just some guys standing around and mumbling. But we also learn they hither and thither fly. They're running around making noises.

The next line tells us that these characters, again--the form of God on high-- are mere puppets who come and go at bidding of vast shadowy things.

So I'm getting some major Eldritch horror vibes. Like the earthly God/Gods that humans know are several tiers below these kinds of cosmic gods that live beyond the Universe. Like Azathoth and the Great Old Ones. Poe predated all that by a fair amount so maybe I'm in the wrong ballpark but what are these vast shadowy things?

They shift the scenery to and fro and flapping from out their Condor wings-- the California Condor has the largest wingspan of any bird in North America (nearly 10 feet!). So these massive dark wings which are kind of hard to imagine in the scene. Like--are they on the edge of the stage? Do they encompass the stage? I can't really see it but maybe that's on purpose because the flapping of the wings spreads

INVISIBLE WO!

And invisible wo seems important here because it's the first time Poe breaks the rhythm of the lines. This feels very punctuated. If I had to guess I'd say that the poem is saying that this shadowy controlling force produces misery. Like that's the purpose and function of this animating force that commands the Gods like puppets. 

He's a sad guy, this Poe. I mean he's really not a happy fella. If you thought the band was sad, just what til you see what they've got God doing! He's had to invent a tier beyond the unknowable and beyond the beyond to fully articulate how much pain and suffering is at the center of existence. Maybe. This is the play of hopes and fears. Anyway we'll leave it there for now. Things are going to get crazier.

The Conqueror Worm part 2

 To review, sad celebration occurring. Vaguely mystical and apocalyptic.

Lo! ’tis a gala night

Within the lonesome latter years —

A mystic throng, bewinged, bedight

In veils and drowned in tears,

Then we get, completing the thought, 

Sit in a theatre to see

A play of hopes and fears,

The most straightforward line we've read so far. Now we know where we are and what's about to happen. Then we get the last two lines of the stanza,

While the orchestra breathes fitfully

The music of the spheres.

There's music playing in a kind of stuttering, halting, unsteady way. The last line, "the music of the spheres" is a line I first heard said by Patton Oswalt when he was talking about this class he had to take at William and Mary called "Physics for Poets". 

"Put on some pantaloons and a scarf and take a bracing shot of absinthe and skip on down through a field of gilly-flowers to the Physics department, where we'll teach you about the music of the spheres!"

Music of the spheres refers to this idea found in Pythagoreanism that in the same way that different strings produce different notes based on their length and gauge or whatever, the planets also produce different hums or frequencies based on their orbits. 

All that to say, things are cosmically bad and unstable at the present moment in the Conqueror Worm. 

I just love how over the top ol' Eddie Poe is. 'Drowned in tears'. You think he really liked the macabre or was that just the water he was swimming in? 

'Hey guys, here's another regular poem. 'Even the band is about to die.'

It's like that song, Ballroom Blitz.