Tag Archives: Edgar Allan Poe

“Poetry” tattoo: Edgar Allan Poe

There is the big one: The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. The last strophe, the most painful and darkened, has been written in my skin as here reads:

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

And reads in my skin:

tattooPoe

The splits are:

  1. And the Raven, ne
    On the pallid bus
    And his eyes have
    And the lamp-light
    And my soul from o
    Shall be lifted —

  2. ver flitting, still
    t of Pallas just
    all the seeming
    o’er him streaming
    ut that shadow
    nevermore!

  3. is sitting, st
    above my chamber do
    of a demon’s that is
    throws his shadow
    that lies floating on th

  4. ill is sitting
    or;
    dreaming,
    on the floor;
    e floor

This strophe concludes the poem with the final and eternal surrender of the subject to its shadows. The iconography is extremely clear: the Raven is sitting over Pallas -representation of knowledge- above the chamber door -representation of the will of to escape- and in front of lamp-light -representation of light-. The Raven is over all three elements. Also The Raven is not just an “evil bird” is more than that as the third verse tells: “his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming”. The dreams -a recurrent element of Poe’s poetry-, as the icon of unfulfilled subject’s desires, of a demon where demon is none but the subject itself, its darkest side. Then we have that the Raven is the effigy of the darkest unsatisfied desires. Finally reads that the soul nevermore shall be lifted from out of raven’s shadow. The subject shall stay forever under the shadow of its darkest dreams. Ieus est the surrender of oneself to its shadows.


As extra related content Vincent an animated short by Tim Burton that plays with the interpretation of that poem.

“Poetry” tattoo intro

Recently I’ve been marked with poetry literally by the hand of Tayri in Siha Tattoo BCN.

The background is composed by fragments of poems written by William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, J. R. R. Tolkien and Rudyard Kipling. On foreground you can read “Poetry” written as Tayri’s dirty freehand style full of expressiveness. There is the list of the posts about each written poem: