Poe's "The Conqueror Worm": Deeper Meaning To The Poem

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four states "an angel
throng, bewinged, and bedight in veils, and drowned in tears." Poe is stating
that a group of angels is going to watch the spectacle put on for them, although
they are already drowning in the tears from plays before. The orchestra that
plays for them is another set of characters that have meaning. They represent
the background in everyone's life by "playing the music of the spheres." A
third set of characters that show hidden meaning is the "Mimes, in the form of
God on high." They denote the people that inhabit the earth. Poe describes
them as "Mere puppets they, who come and go at bidding of vast formless things."
The vast formless things are the ideas that we have. Ideas like the things that
we think we have to do for ourselves to survive and succeed. They also make up
drama of the play. A final, prominent figure in this dramatic performance is
the conqueror worm. Poe illustrates it as "a blood-red thing." He images the
end of mankind as this but ...

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