Ulalume

What it is

This is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1847, about a narrator who wanders with his soul through an autumn landscape and discovers he has returned, without realizing it, to the grave of a woman named Ulalume exactly a year after burying her. Poe wrote it after being asked for a poem to be read aloud, and it is known for its heavy use of sound and rhythm.

Why it matters

The poem continues Poe's recurring theme of the death of a beautiful woman, which he called the most poetic subject possible. Scholars connect its grief to the losses in Poe's own life, including his wife Virginia, who died the same year it was written. It shows how Poe turned personal sorrow into carefully crafted, musical verse full of mythological allusion.

Look closer

• Why might Poe have made the narrator unaware of where his walk was leading him?
• What effect does the repetition of certain lines create when read aloud?
• Why do you think scholars disagree about who or what "Ulalume" represents?