In 1846, American author and poet Edgar A. Poe wrote in "The Philosophy of Composition" that the most melancholy of all topics, "according to the universal understanding of mankind" which serves as the foundation for poetry is death. Poe then asks himself, "And when is this most melancholy of topics the most poetical?" The obvious answer for Poe is "When it most closely allies itself to Beauty," i.e., "the death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world," especially when the narrator of the poem is that of a bereaved lover" (Mabbott, 679). Thus, in Poe's "The Sleeper," originally entitled as "Irene" in 1831 and then changed several times over the years up until 1845, the main subject matter is the death of a beautiful woman, an unknown (or perhaps imaginary) fair lady who will never awake from her death-sleep. In order to extrapolate on the topic of the death of a beautiful woman, Poe utilizes various symbols and metaphors which informs the reader on just how melancholy death truly is, particularly when it is that of a loved one who sleeps in eternity beyond the veil of life.
             As is typical of many of his poems written throughout his short life, Poe begins "The Sleeper" by describing the physical realms in which his deceased loved one dwells-"At midnight, in the month of June/I stand beneath the mystic moon" (lines 1-2) which indicates that Poe the narrator is speaking in real time terms. His use of the moon is also somewhat conventional, for at the time of the writing of this poem, many of Poe's contemporaries often utilized the moon as a symbol of death and melancholy, due to its ominous nature and the grayness of its light which shines down upon the earth in a pall of mystery. Poe also notes that
             the moon exudes "An opiate vapour, dewy, dim" which "Exhales from out her golden...