Edgar Allan Poe Israfel Summary

Israfel by Edgar Allan Poe

ABOUT THE POET
The acclaimed American writer Edgar Allan Poe made a remarkable impact in the Victorian era of English history. His immense contributions to the genres of science fiction, supernatural and psychological horror has been considered phenomenal and illustrious. His works best belong to the category of the gothic, a category it is said, that he followed to gratify the public taste. He was in born in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. on the 19th of January, in the year 1809. He came from a family of travelling actors and very soon after his birth, at the infantile age of two, he was left orphaned when his father disappeared and his mother died. Poe derives his

A. Poe. However, it was altered and amended to be published again in the August 1836 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger. The poem was originally written in eight stanzas of varied lengths and in an introduction to the poem, Poe explicates that he derives the legend of Israfel from the Koran of an angel who is blessed with a lute for a heart and who possesses “the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures”. In reality, although the name ‘Israfel’ is not principally mentioned in the Islamic holy texts, there is a constant reference to an unnamed trumpet-angel and it is probable that this figure is what inspired Poe to create the poem Israfel. SETTING
The poem Israfel has the air of majestic musical beauty and the various ancient references to Islamic scriptures lends to it an exotic charm. The poem resembles in setting to the highly acclaimed poem by Coleridge titled Kubla Khan. But the historical treatment of the poem and the imitation of eastern lore also reminds us of the poem Tamerlane, another poem by Poe. The chief setting lies in the conflict between the heavenly and the earthly, the mystical power and the struggling reality of difficult mortal life.