The Oxen relates to a West Country legend: that, on the anniversary of Christ’s Nativity, each Christmas Day, farm animals kneel in their stalls in homage.
The Emperor of France is about to fall asleep when he hears a rustling sound near his bed. Soon he hears a “deep groan” coming from the closet in his apartment…
“Ulalume” focuses on the narrator’s loss of his beloved due to her death. Poe originally wrote the poem as an elocution piece and, as such, the poem is known for its focus on sound.
Poe praised “The Sleeper” as a “superior” poem. He wrote to an admirer: “In the higher qualities of poetry, it is better than ‘The Raven’—but there is not one man in a million who could be brought to agree with me in this opinion.
