Poetry at the Post: La Conquista, Evangelization & “The Conqueror Worm”

The Conqueror Worm
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
…The curtain, a funeral pall,
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, “Man,”
And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.

I’ve been thinking about the Spanish Conquest, the “christianizing” of the New World and Edgar Allen Poe—a poet held dear by many writers in Mexico. A curious thing—but perhaps because of his Gothic and macabre style.