"The City in the Sea" by Edgar Allan Poe -- Read by Basil Rathbone

The poem "The City in the Sea"
written by Edgar Allan Poe
and read by Basil Rathbone

This poem always makes me think of the television show "Stargate Atlantis," specifically the city of Atlantis itself, which is why I decided to add a picture of the city of Atlantis as the background for the poem.
For all of those who love this poem, Edgar Allan Poe &/or "Stargate Atlantis".... Enjoy!


Track number 14 from 'The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection' read by Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price

"The City in the Sea" by Edgar Allan Poe

Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters he.

No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently-
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free-
Up domes- up spires- up kingly halls-
Up fanes- up Babylon-like walls-
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers-
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye-
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass-
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea-
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.

But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave- there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide-
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow-
The hours are breathing faint and low-
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.



No copyright infringement intended. I do not own or claim to own any of this material. All rights belong to author/poet Edgar Allan Poe and any third parties, Basil Rothbone and any third parties, all those involved with the making of the television show "Stargate Altlantis, and any third parties, and to the artist(s) who created the picture featured in this video, along with any other third parties. My sole involvement with these pieces of work was compiling them into this video.

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• basil rathbone
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• edgar allen poe
• lost city of atlantis
• vincent price
• stargate
• poem
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[holicat098]

no one knows read Poe's poems as Vincent Price!

[82lyricalfairygrl]

@holicat098 This one is actually read by basil Rothbone, but I TOTALLY agree. EAP and Vincent Price go PERFECTLY together.

[holicat098]

@82lyricalfairygrl why can't i see your channel?

[82lyricalfairygrl]

@holicat098 I have it set so that only friends can see it. Either that, or I have it set as private. I can't remember which.

[zameera21]

I love Edgar Allan Poe poems

[82lyricalfairygrl]

@zameera21 Yeah, so do I.

[DCakaElfboy]

@samana1fromsomalia Me too I love Poe

[samana1fromsomalia]

simply amazing. I can listen to this poem all day

[sociallogie]

Perfect for Rapture ( Bioshock)