{
 "id": "edgar-allan-poe/the-conqueror-worm",
 "title": "The Conqueror Worm",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Allan Poe",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-allan-poe",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Raven and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-raven-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 6,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1845,
  "venue": "The Raven and Other Poems (1845)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/poeraven/menu.html"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-allan-poe_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2151",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Acrostic",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Elizabeth_(Poe)",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Serenade_(Poe)",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksedgarallan00unkngoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924019520810",
   "https://archive.org/details/jstor-2915307"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Lo! ’tis a gala night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within the lonesome latter years!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "An angel throng, bewinged, bedight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In veils, and drowned in tears,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sit in a theatre, to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A play of hopes and fears,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the orchestra breathes fitfully",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The music of the spheres.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mimes, in the form of God on high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mutter and mumble low,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And hither and thither fly⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mere puppets they, who come and go",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At bidding of vast formless things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That shift the scenery to and fro,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Flapping from out their Condor wings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invisible Woe!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That motley drama⁠—oh, be sure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It shall not be forgot!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With its Phantom chased forevermore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By a crowd that seize it not,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through a circle that ever returneth in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the self-same spot,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And much of Madness, and more of Sin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Horror the soul of the plot.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But see, amid the mimic rout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A crawling shape intrude!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A blood-red thing that writhes from out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The scenic solitude!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It writhes!⁠—it writhes!⁠—with mortal pangs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mimes become its food,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the angels sob at vermin fangs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In human gore imbued.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Out⁠—out are the lights⁠—out all!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, over each quivering form,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The curtain, a funeral pall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes down with the rush of a storm",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the angels, all pallid and wan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uprising, unveiling, affirm",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That the play is the tragedy, “Man,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And its Hero the Conqueror Worm.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}