Inciting Incident: The knight sets off on a journey to find the mystical city of Eldorado.
Conflict: The knight can’t find Eldorado
Rising Action: The knight journeys for many years, searching for Eldorado while singing a song. However, he searches for many, many years without any luck and begins to doubt his strengthClimax: The knight comes upon a pilgrim shadow and asks if he knows how to get to Eldorado.
Falling Action: The pilgrim shadow enthusiastically tells the knight how the find Eldorado in the Valley of the Shadow.
Resolution: The knight spends the entire poem searching for something that cannot be found. He gets in over his head and believe he will find it. The pilgrim shadow lets him know that he must travel to areas that cannot be traveled to find Eldorado.
Mountains of the Moon: By telling the knight he must travel the mountains of the moon to reach Eldorado, the pilgrim shadow is telling the knight that what he is doing is an impossible task. He will never get to the moon and he will never get to Eldorado.
Valley of the Shadow: The Valley of the Shadow is an allusion to hell. The pilgrim shadow is basically saying that the knight will die before he finds Eldorado.
The Shadow: The shadow is an allusion to the devil. He tells the knight that what he is trying to accomplish is impossible.
Eldorado: Eldorado symbolizes the unattainable goals that many people chase but never achive.
Diction: At the beginning of the poem, Poe uses positive words such as "gaily" and "gallant." This suggests that the knight begins his journey with high hopes and confidence that he will find Eldorado.
Near the middle of the poem, the word "shadow" is used to suggest that the knight has lost confidence in his abilities. He is becoming old and tired after trying to find Eldorado for many years without any luck.
The word "boldly," said by the shadow at the end of the poem, is said in a sarcastic fashion. Poe is using the shadow to mock the knight who has wasted many years of his life searching for something that could not be found. If the knight rides "boldly" where the shadow tells him to go, he will ride boldly to his death.
Connotation: The connotation is consistent throughout the poem. Each stanza contains two rhyming lines followed by a third line that doesn't rhyme.
After the third line comes two more lines that rhyme with each other. Lastly, there's a line that rhymes with the third line.