Ballad · Life
Eldorado
by Edgar Allan Poe · 1849
1 Gaily bedight,
2 A gallant knight,
3In sunshine and in shadow,
4 Had journeyed long,
5 Singing a song,
6In search of Eldorado.
7 But he grew old —
8 This knight so bold —
9And o'er his heart a shadow
10 Fell as he found
11 No spot of ground
12That looked like Eldorado.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Eldorado” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/eldorado
Quick facts
- Poem
- Eldorado
- Poet
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Published
- 1849
- Length
- 24 lines
- Form
- Ballad, Narrative Poem
- Themes
- Life, Inspirational
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 24 lines · 3 stanzas of 6–12 lines
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a ballad, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849
- Source record
- PoetryDBEldorado by edgar-allan-poe, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1849
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 c102442acae75bbc…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.