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{{short description|Poem by Edgar Allan Poe}}
[[File:Ulalume-AmericanReview.gif|thumb|right|The first page of ''Ulalume'', as the poem first appeared in the [[The American Review: A Whig Journal|''American Review'']] in 1847]]
"'''Ulalume'''" ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|uː|l|ə|l|uː|m}}) is a [[poetry|poem]] written by [[Edgar Allan Poe]] in 1847. Much like a few of Poe's other poems (such as "[[The Raven]]", "[[Annabel Lee]]", and "[[Lenore (poem)|Lenore]]"), "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. Additionally, it makes many allusions, especially to mythology, and the identity of Ulalume herself, if a real person, has been a subject of debate.

==Overview==
[[File:Ulalume-Rosetti.jpg|thumb|left|"Ulalume" as illustrated by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]], circa 1847–1848.]]
The poem takes place on a night in the "lonesome October" with a gray sky as the leaves are withering for the autumn season. In the region of Weir, by the lake of Auber, the narrator roams with a "volcanic" heart. He has a "serious and sober" talk with his soul, though he does not realize it is October or where his roaming is leading him. He remarks on the [[star]]s as night fades away, remarking on the brightest one, and wonders if it knows that the tears on his cheeks have not yet dried. His soul, however, mistrusts the star and where it is leading them. Just as the narrator calms his soul, he realizes he has unconsciously walked to the [[burial vault (tomb)|vault]] of his "lost Ulalume" on the very night he had buried her a year before.

==Analysis==
Unlike Poe's poem "[[Annabel Lee]]", this poem presents a narrator who is not conscious of his return to the grave of his lost love.<ref name=Kennedy116/> This reveals the speaker's dependence on Ulalume and her love; his losing her leaves him not only sad but absolutely devastated and, by visiting her grave, he unconsciously subjects himself to further self-inflicted anguish.<ref name=Kennedy117>Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Poe, 'Ligeia,' and the Problem of Dying Women" collected in ''New Essays on Poe's Major Tales'', edited by Kenneth Silverman. Cambridge University Press, 1993: 117. {{ISBN|0-521-42243-4}}</ref> The poem has a heavy focus on decay and deterioration: the leaves are "withering" and the narrator's thoughts are "palsied".<ref name=Silverman336>Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992: 336. {{ISBN|0-06-092331-8}}</ref> Like many of Poe's later poems, "Ulalume" has a strong sense of rhythm and musicality.<ref name=Peeples168>Peeples, Scott. ''Edgar Allan Poe Revisited''. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998: 168. {{ISBN|0-8057-4572-6}}</ref> The verses are purposefully sonorous, built around sound to create feelings of sadness and anguish.<ref>Jannaccone, Pasquale (translated by Peter Mitilineos). "[http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1974101.htm The Aesthetics of Edgar Poe]", collected in ''Poe Studies'', vol. VII, no. 1, June 1974: 7.</ref> The poem employs Poe's typical theme of the "death of a beautiful woman", which he considered "the most poetical topic in the world".<ref>Poe, Edgar Allan. "[[The Philosophy of Composition]]" (1846).</ref> Biographers and critics have often suggested that Poe's obsession with this theme stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his mother [[Eliza Poe]], his wife, and his foster mother Frances Allan.<ref>Weekes, Karen. "Poe's feminine ideal", collected in ''The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe'', edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2002: 149. {{ISBN|0-521-79727-6}}</ref>

The identity of Ulalume in the poem is uncertain. Poe scholar and distant relative [[Harry Lee Poe]] says it is autobiographical and shows Poe's grief over the recent death of his wife [[Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe|Virginia]].<ref>Poe, Harry Lee. ''Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories''. New York: Metro Books, 2008: 126. {{ISBN|978-1-4351-0469-3}}</ref> Scholar Scott Peeples notes that "Ulalume" serves as a sequel to "The Raven".<ref>Peeples, Scott. ''Edgar Allan Poe Revisited''. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998: 169. {{ISBN|0-8057-4572-6}}</ref> Poetically, the name Ulalume emphasizes the letter ''[[L]]'', a frequent device in Poe's female characters such as "[[Annabel Lee]]", "[[Eulalie]]", and "[[Lenore (poem)|Lenore]]".<ref>Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'", as collected in ''The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe'', edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2002: 200. {{ISBN|0-521-79727-6}}</ref> If it really stands for a deceased love, Poe's choosing to refer to Ulalume as "the thing" and "the secret" do not seem endearing terms.<ref name=Kagle110>Kagle, Steven E. "The Corpse Within Us", as collected in ''Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu'', Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV, ed. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1990: 110. {{ISBN|0-9616449-2-3}}</ref> In one possible view, Ulalume may be representative of death itself.<ref name=Kagle110/>

===Allusions===
[[File:D-F-E Auber.jpg|thumb|right|The "dim lake of Auber" may be a reference to composer [[Daniel Auber|Daniel François Esprit Auber]].]]
Much work has been done by scholars to identify all of Poe's allusions, most notably by [[Thomas Ollive Mabbott]], though other scholars suggest that the names throughout the poem should be valued only because of their poetic sounds.<ref>Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'", collected in ''The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe'', edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 197–198. {{ISBN|0-521-79727-6}}</ref> The title itself suggests wailing (from the Latin ''ululare'').<ref name=Meyers211>Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992: 211. {{ISBN|0-8154-1038-7}}</ref> The name may also allude to the Latin ''lumen'', a light symbolizing sorrow.<ref>Peeples, Scott. ''Edgar Allan Poe Revisited''. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998: 170. {{ISBN|0-8057-4572-6}}</ref> The narrator personifies his soul as the [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[Psyche (psychology)|Psyche]], representing the irrational but careful part of his subconsciousness. It is Psyche who first feels concerned about where they are walking and makes the first recognition that they have reached Ulalume's vault.

The bright star they see is [[Astarte]], a goddess associated with [[Venus]]<ref name=Silverman336/> and connected with [[fertility]] and [[human sexuality|sexuality]]. The "sinfully scintillant planet" in the original final verse is another reference to Venus.<ref name=Kennedy116>Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Poe, 'Ligeia,' and the Problem of Dying Women" collected in ''New Essays on Poe's Major Tales'', edited by Kenneth Silverman. Cambridge University Press, 1993: 116. {{ISBN|0-521-42243-4}}</ref> Astarte may represent a sexual temptress or a vision of the ideal.<ref>Robinson, David. "[http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1975103.htm 'Ulalume' - The Ghouls and the Critics]", collected in  ''Poe Studies''. Volume VIII, Number 1 (June 1975): 9.</ref> Mount Yaanek, with its "sulphurous currents" in the "ultimate climes of the pole", has been associated with [[Mount Erebus]], a [[volcano]] in [[Antarctica]] first sighted in 1841,<ref name=Meyers211/> although Yaanek's location is specified as being in "the realms of the [[wikt:boreal|boreal]] pole", indicating an Arctic location rather than an Antarctic one for the fictional counterpart. The Auber and Weir references in the poem may be to two contemporaries of Poe: [[Daniel Auber|Daniel François Esprit Auber]], a composer of sad operatic tunes,<ref>Wolosky, Shira. ''Poetry and Public Discourse 1820 - 1910'' collected in ''The Cambridge History of American Literature Vol.4'', ed. Sacvan Bercovitch, p. 260, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QUyq3xYERgoC&dq=%22Daniel+Auber%22++Ulalume&pg=PA260 Online version of the book] (ret: 15 April 2008)</ref> and [[Robert Walter Weir]], a painter of the [[Hudson River School]] famous for his landscapes.<ref>Nelson, Randy F. ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 185. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}</ref>

==Publication history==
[[File:American rev Dec 1847 Poe Ula.jpg|thumb|The cover of ''The American Review'', December, 1847, No. 36, George H. Colton, New York.]]
Poe wrote the poem on the request of Reverend Cotesworth Bronson, who had asked Poe for a poem he could read at one of his lectures on [[public speaking]]. He asked Poe for something with "vocal variety and expression". Bronson decided not to use the poem Poe sent him, "Ulalume". Poe then submitted the poem to ''[[John Sartain|Sartain's]] Union Magazine'', which rejected it as too dense.<ref>Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991: 335. {{ISBN|0-06-092331-8}}</ref> Poe probably saw Bronson's request as a personal challenge as well as an opportunity to enhance his renown, especially after his previous poem "The Raven" had also been demonstrated for its elocution style.<ref>Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'", collected in ''The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe'', edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 198. {{ISBN|0-521-79727-6}}</ref>

"Ulalume - A Ballad" was finally published, albeit anonymously, in the ''[[American Review: A Whig Journal|American Whig Review]]'' in December, 1847. Originally, Poe had sold his essay "[[s:The Rationale of Verse|The Rationale of Verse]]", then unpublished, to the ''Review'''s editor George Hooker Colton. Colton did not immediately print the manuscript, so Poe exchanged it for "Ulalume".<ref>[http://www.eapoe.org/WorkS/essays/index.htm#rationaleofverse The Essays, Sketches & Lectures of Edgar Allan Poe], from the Poe Society online</ref>

It was reprinted by [[Nathaniel Parker Willis]], still anonymously, in the ''Home Journal'' with a note asking who the author was, on Poe's request, to stir up interest. Some, including [[Evert Augustus Duyckinck]], presumed that the poem's author was Willis.<ref>Thomas, Dwight & David K. Jackson. ''The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849.'' Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 792. {{ISBN|0-8161-8734-7}}.</ref> The initial publication had 10 [[stanza]]s. Poe's [[literary executor]] [[Rufus Wilmot Griswold]] was the first to print "Ulalume" without its final stanza, now the standard version.<ref>Robinson, David. "[http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1975103.htm 'Ulalume' - The Ghouls and the Critics]", collected in  ''Poe Studies''. Volume VIII, Number 1 (June 1975). p. 8.</ref> Poe himself once recited the poem with the final stanza, but admitted it was not intelligible and that it was scarcely clear to himself.<ref>Quinn, Arthur Hobson. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998: 630. {{ISBN|0-8018-5730-9}}</ref>

==Critical response==
[[Aldous Huxley]], in his essay "Vulgarity in Literature", calls "Ulalume" "a [[carapace]] of jewelled sound", implying it lacks substance.<ref>Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'", collected in ''The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe'', edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 197. {{ISBN|0-521-79727-6}}</ref> Huxley uses the poem as an example of Poe's poetry being "too poetical", equivalent to wearing a diamond ring on every finger.<ref>Huxley, Aldous. "Vulgarity in Literature", collected in ''Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays'', Robert Regan, editor. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1967: 32.</ref> Poet [[Daniel Hoffman]] says the reader must "surrender his own will" to the "hypnotic spell" of the poem and its "meter of mechanical precision". "Reading 'Ulalume' is like making a meal of [[marzipan]]", he says. "There may be nourishment in it but the senses are deadened by the taste, and the aftertaste gives one a pain in the stomach".<ref>Hoffman, Daniel. ''Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972: 69. {{ISBN|0-8071-2321-8}}</ref>

The poem did, however, receive some praise. An early 20th-century edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' noted how the sound in "Ulalume" was successful. It said the "monotonous reiterations [of] 'Ulalume' properly intoned would produce something like the same effect upon a listener knowing no word of English that it produces on us."<ref name=Peeples168/> [[George Gilfillan]] remarked in the ''London Critic'':
{{quote|These, to many, will appear only ''words''; but what wondrous words! What a spell they wield! What a weird unity is in them! The instant they are uttered, a misty picture, with a tarn, dark as a murderer's eye, below, and the thin yellow leaves of October fluttering above, exponents of a misery which scorns the name of sorrow, is hung up in the chambers of your soul forever.<ref>Phillips, Mary E. ''Edgar Allan Poe: The Man''. Volume II. Chicago: The John C. Winston Co., 1926: 1248.</ref>}}

After [[Death of Edgar Allan Poe|Poe's death]], [[Thomas Holley Chivers]] claimed "Ulalume" was [[plagiarism|plagiarized]] from one of his poems. Chivers made several similar unfounded accusations against Poe.<ref>Moss, Sidney P. ''Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Milieu''. Southern Illinois University Press, 1969: 101.</ref> Even so, he said the poem was "nector mixed with [[ambrosia]]".<ref>Chivers, Thomas Holley. ''Chivers' Life of Poe'', edited by Richard Beale Davis. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1952: 78.</ref> Another friend of Poe, Henry B. Hirst, suggested in  the January 22, 1848, issue of the ''Saturday Courier'' that Poe had found the "leading idea" of the poem in a work by [[Thomas Buchanan Read]].<ref>Campbell, Killis. "The Origins of Poe", ''The Mind of Poe and Other Studies''. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962: 147.</ref>

[[Bret Harte]] composed a parody of the poem entitled "The Willows" featuring the narrator, in the company of a woman called Mary, running out of credit at a bar:

:And I said 'What is written, sweet sister,
:At the opposite side of the room?'
:She sobbed, as she answered, 'All liquors
:Must be paid for ere leaving the room.'<ref>[[Walter Jerrold]] and R.M. Leonard (1913) ''A Century of Parody and Imitation''. Oxford University Press: 344-6</ref>

==In other media==
* In [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s debut novel ''[[This Side of Paradise]]'', the [[protagonist]] Amory Blaine recites "Ulalume" while wandering through the countryside. Another character, Eleanor Savage, calls Blaine "the auburn-haired boy who likes 'Ulalume.'" When the two are caught in a thunderstorm, Savage volunteers to play the role of Psyche while Blaine recites the poem.<ref>Fitzgerald, F. Scott. ''This Side of Paradise''. James L. W. West III, editor. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 206–209</ref> 
*  In [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s [[novella]] ''[[At the Mountains of Madness]]'', a character refers to the poem. While looking at [[Mount Erebus]], a character suggests "this mountain, discovered in 1840, had undoubtedly been the source of Poe's image when he wrote seven years later", followed by a few lines of "Ulalume". Lovecraft's famous early poem "Nemesis" (1917) was also influenced by a combination of "Ulalume" and [[Algernon Swinburne]]'s "Hertha".<ref>[[Leigh Blackmore|Blackmore, Leigh]]. "Driven to Madness by Fright: The Influence of Poe's 'Ulalume' on Lovecraft's 'Nemesis{{'-}}". ''Lovecraft Annual'' 7 (2013).</ref> 
*  [[Roger Zelazny]]'s 1993 novel, ''[[A Night in the Lonesome October]]'' and [[Richard Laymon]]'s 2001 novel ''[[Night in the Lonesome October]]'', each take their titles from this poem, though neither book seems to draw much else from Poe. 
*  In the [[Tennessee Williams]] play ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]]'' the character [[Blanche DuBois]] likens the residence of her sister [[Stella Kowalski|Stella]] to the "ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir", a reference to "Ulalume". 
*  In [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[Lolita (1962 film)|Lolita]]'' (1962), Humbert Humbert ([[James Mason]]) reads a fragment of the poem to Lolita ([[Sue Lyon]]). 
*  In his history of the Union Army, ''This Hallowed Ground'', Pulitzer Prize-winning author, [[Bruce Catton]] places the American Civil War [[Battle of Chickamauga]] as occurring in a dark and frightening place evocative of Poe's "ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir". 
*  The singer [[Jeff Buckley]] recorded a reading of this poem.
*  In Lynn Cullen's historical fiction novel ''Mrs. Poe'' (2014), the narrator and protagonist, [[Frances Sargent Osgood]], uses the false name of Mrs. "Ulalume" when she and Edgar Allan Poe sneak off together to Boston. Later in the book, Cullen suggests that the "Psyche" referred to in the poem is actually Osgood, Poe's lover in the book, and that "Ulalume" refers to a daughter born to them, who died in October 1847.
*[[Joseph Holbrooke]]'s Symphonic Poem [http://imslp.org/wiki/Ulalume,_Op.35_(Holbrooke,_Joseph) Ulalume, Op. 35] is based on the poem.
*All three titles of TJ Klune's [[post-apocalyptic]] duology ''Immemorial Year'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Immemorial Year Series by T.J. Klune |url=https://www.goodreads.com/series/173254-immemorial-year |website=Goodreads |access-date=28 September 2020}}</ref> consisting of the novels ''Withered + Sere'' and ''Crisped + Sere'', can be found in the first stanza of the poem. The main character, grieving his dead wife and son, is given a copy of the poem, and it is quoted from throughout the novels.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edgar-allan-poe/poetry|Display Name=An omnibus collection of Poe's poetry|noitalics=true}}
* {{librivox book | title=Edgar Allan Poe Poems | author=Edgar Allan POE}}
* [http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides4/Ulalume.html#top Ulalume: A Study Guide]
* [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44889 Full text of the poem] at The Poetry Foundation

{{Edgar Allan Poe}}
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[[Category:Poetry by Edgar Allan Poe]]
[[Category:1847 poems]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The American Review: A Whig Journal]]
[[Category:Works published anonymously]]
[[Category:Astarte]]