And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted -- Nevermore!
Interpretation
This quote expresses a profound sense of despair and the longing for liberation from a pervasive sadness.
In this quote, Edgar Allan Poe captures the essence of a struggle with internal darkness and hopelessness. The imagery of a soul being burdened by a shadow suggests that one's deepest fears or sorrows can weigh heavily on their existence. The use of 'Nevermore' emphasizes the finality of this state, indicating a longing for an escape that may never come.
In practice
During a discussion on mental health, one could use this quote to illustrate the struggle against internal demons.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
God promised to make you free. He never promised to make you independent.
Very well then; emancipation from usury and money, that is, from practical, real Judaism, would constitute the emancipation of our time.
The citizens of a city are not guilty of the crimes committed in their city; but they are guilty as participants in the destiny of [humanity] as a whole and in the destiny of their city in particular; for their acts in which freedom was united with destiny have contributed to the destiny in which they participate. They are guilty, not of committing the crimes of which their group is accused, but of contributing to the destiny in which these crimes happened.
We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher answer’– but none exists
We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
All animals communicate. What's special about gossip is that it's not about the here and now. You don't gossip about lions. You don't gossip about clouds. You only gossip about other people. And once you do, you can keep track of many more people - this is the basis for forming larger communities.
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