Tamerlane

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1827

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Love Versus Ambition

The central theme of “Tamerlane” is the unbalanced dynamic between pure love and ruthless ambition. In his monologue to the priest, the title character presents these as two irreconcilable goals; he could not have both values in his life at the same time.

Initially, the speaker believed his lover shared his hunger for power:

The moment's converse; in her eyes

I read, perhaps too carelessly—

A mingled feeling with my own—

The flush on her bright cheek, to me

Seem’d to become a queenly throne (Lines 148-52).

In retrospect, however, the speaker recognizes his own projection onto the lover—in other words, he saw his ambition reflected back at him. In reality, the lover represented a more pure and innocent source of fulfilment than the emptiness of endless war. Once the speaker understood the divide between them, he turned away toward new endeavors: “Why did I leave it, and, adrift, / Trust to the fire within, for light?” (Lines 94-95). The idea of both love and power as sources of light is prevalent throughout the poem; they are two sides of the same dynamic, which has led the speaker to ultimately see them as inversions of each other.

The poem is clear in its thematic intent; Tamerlane looks back on the choice he made as the wrong one. About his childhood love, he recounts, “I have no words—alas!—to tell / The loveliness of loving well!” (Lines 75-76). The juxtaposition is also present in the language used to describe the two contrasting experiences. When speaking of the woman, the poem uses soft, lyrical sounds (such as the assonance and consonance in “loveliness of loving well”). When speaking of Tamerlane’s rise to power, the poem favors harsher consonants and choppier syllables; for example, “Whom the astonished people saw / Striding o’er empires haughtily / A diadem’d outlaw” (Lines 174-76).

As the speaker comes to the end of his life, he’s able to see the spectrum of the love he felt from a clearer perspective. What seemed fleeting is suddenly all-encompassing, and what seemed essential now seems meaningless. The irony, however, is that the speaker only could have learned this by living through it. This creates a tragic effect and suggests that despite his moment of clarity, the story could not have ended any other way.

Pride and Regret

“Tamerlane” is told in retrospect as the speaker looks back on the choices that have shaped his life. He shares his biggest regret with the priest and comes to understand what he has lost as a result of his pride. In this way, the poem serves as a call to action to others, urging them not to make the same mistake.

The speaker’s toxic pride is apparent from early on in the poem as he recounts his upbringing; it is clear that the foundation for his choices later in life were laid from a very young age. He compares himself to Caesar and to a legacy of proud rulers: “The heritage of a kingly mind, / And a proud spirit which hath striven / Triumphantly with human kind” (Lines 32-34). Even as the speaker acknowledges the shame and weaknesses of this vice, he still exhibits it in his actions toward the priest. He says, “[H]ave you known / The passion, father? You have not: / A cottager” (Lines 128-30), immediately putting himself above the priest—despite their shared humble origins. He also shows off his empire and seeks validation: “Is not she queen of Earth? her pride / Above all cities?” (Lines 166-67). This shows that pride is still his weakness right until the end, even as he’s able to see it clearly.

Despite all he has accomplished, however, the speaker conveys his choices with the perspective of having taken the wrong path. Each victory is tinted with the regret of what it ultimately cost him. To the speaker, this becomes inescapably clear when he returns home and learns of his loved one’s death: “O, I defy thee, Hell, to show / On beds of fire that burn below, / An humbler heart—a deeper wo” (Lines 219-21). In the final stanza, he tells the priest that his impending death has given him more clarity and perspective than any healthy living person can understand. Now, he see his own ambition as a devil’s trap that waylaid him from what was truly worthy of pursuit. In the end, the speaker’s regret at giving up a chance at love outweighs the pride of fulfilling his dreams.

Exploring Personal Identity

The speaker’s journey throughout the poem can be seen as an exploration of personal identity as he comes of age, comes to know himself and his needs, and ultimately reaches full self-knowledge at the end of his life. Initially, the speaker seeks to share his own ambition with the woman he loves, even seeing it reflected in her; however, he comes to understand that in order to fulfill this need for power, he has to reach for it alone. While this becomes a conscious choice in retrospect, in the moment it would feel less like a cognitive decision than a natural progression of the self.

As the speaker grows in his military career and leadership, his personal values erode beneath the actions he takes to achieve his goals. Even though the speaker feels a sense of loss by the end of his life, he has effectively created a legacy that sprawls beyond his empire—he has become a figurehead and a legend to be feared.

Notably, the speaker doesn’t exhibit any grief for the steps he has taken to achieve these things or the person he has become:

My passions, from that hapless hour,

Usurp’d a tyranny which men

Have deem’d, since I have reach’d to power;

My innate nature—be it so (Lines 65-68).

Instead, he only expresses regret at what he had to give up in order to obtain that power. His life and career represent not a tragic series of passive experiences but a series of actions taken. In this way, the speaker was not thrown into an identity but created it for himself. He expresses to the priest how he was not born into power and leadership; he earned his place in the world through ambition and determination. This can be seen as a reflection of the poet’s own ambition and coming-of-age journey; Edgar Allan Poe used the name Tamerlane as an occasional pseudonym. The speaker’s humble origins, uncertain parentage, and aspirations for greatness against the constraints of his birth mirror Poe’s departure from the path set by his foster family and his decision to pursue life as a writer. While the poem’s title character comes to the end of his life believing he took the wrong path, he could only have reached this level of self-knowledge by first exploring himself completely and making a choice based on fulfilling the personal identity he felt he needed to be whole.

Related Titles

By Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

A Dream Within a Dream

Tamerlane

Themes

Love Versus Ambition

Pride and Regret

Exploring Personal Identity

Related Titles

Featured Collections