Eldorado

Eldorado
by
Edgar Allan Poe


Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old--
This knight so bold--
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow--
``Shadow,'' said he,
``Where can it be--
This land of Eldorado?''

``Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,''
The shade replied,--
``If you seek for Eldorado!''

This poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe about Sir Walter Raleigh's 1616 venture to South America. Upon his return in 1618, James I excecuted him for his failure to find it (which he called "treason".)
Sir Walter Raleigh was a favourite of Elizabeth I, for his Spanish Armada battles with the French Hugenots, but when she died in 1606, James I imprisoned him and his family in the Tower of London until 1616 when he went on the failed venture to find El Dorado.