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The Hardships Of Adulthood In Edgar Allen Poe's Romance

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In the poem Romance by Edgar Allen Poe, the speaker navigates through the hardships of adulthood. The meaning of romance changes as life runs its course. Much like Poe's other poems, Romance elicits a tone of nostalgic thinking. The speaker in the poem describes romance in the context of aging and the tribulations that occur as a result of reaching adulthood and life experience. At the start of the poem, romance is personified as something that "loves to nod and sing" (299). I understood that the speaker was referring to a carefree bird in its youth. The bird metaphor reoccurs throughout the poem and is utilized to describe the transition from youth to adulthood. In the first stanza, there are several references to innocence and childhood. "With drowsy head and …show more content…

Instead of focusing on love, the reader is excited about life and taking in every moment. Additionally, the speaker is innocent and naïve to the hardships of life. "While in the wild wood I did lie, A child-with a most knowing eye". These lines suggest that the speaker is witnessing love for the first time. Moreover, he was not yet aware of the "wild wood" that is life. The speaker's perception was limited even at its "most knowing eye". Conversely, the second stanza emits a different tone as a new stage of life is introduced. The bird metaphor reappears in the image of a condor. Condors are drastically different a "painted paroquet". Condors are often black and white, balding, and large. In this stanza, the condor signifies adulthood and life experience. The speaker describes how his "eternal Condor years, so shake the very air on high, with tumult as they thunder by". I found these lines interesting because they describe how adulthood can shake an individual into reality. The words eternal, shake, tumult, and thunder create a tone of everlasting turmoil. As the speaker reaches adulthood he does not have the same time he had in his childhood to entertain

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