Poetry Critique

Spirits Of The Dead
By: Edgar A. Poe

Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne'er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.
The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!

(http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/poe/spirits.html)

I chose this poem because I really like the way Poe writes. Not because he writes about death and sarrow and whatnot, but because of the mood that his writing is able to set. He creates a vivid image and makes the reader share the feeling he is writing about. The title definitely fits with the idea of the poem and sets the mood for the work.
A personification he uses is,"The night, though clear, shall frown." The phrase describes the scene and conveys an underlying emotion to the reader. An example of a metaphor would be, "From thy spirit shall they pass No more, like dew-drop from the grass." He uses this to compare the presents of spirits to an everyday occurance such as dew drops on grass. It helps the reader better understand and connect with the feeling he is writing about.
The tone of this, like many of Poe's poems, is eerie, dark and mistifying. He succeedes in doing this by using rather dark metaphors and the idea of being among the dead.