Ligeia

We live, love and lament.

Through our lives we meet people and become affectionate to them. Inevitably, things fall apart, affection wanes and the fire of passion grows cold. Somehow, regardless of the outcome of such relationships, these people will always be with us. They linger in our minds, filling the confident with fear and the proud with regret.

Poe's Ligeia exemplifies this. Our narrator truly loved Ligeia but her brilliance, beauty and their passion, was transient. She dies, crushing the protagonist. Yet he learns to love again and even claims to be content. But we cannot believe this assertion. The lingering remorse and regret concerning his lost love physically materialise and haunt him.

Ligeia will never die. Her piercing black eyes refuse to close. The one that we cherished, idolised, even loved and what we did to lose them, will not be forgotten in this life...

"nor unto death utterly..."

-The English Student