There are some literary characters you feel for. You ache for their struggles, root for their triumphs, and cry when things don’t go their way.
Tamerlane is not one of those characters.
Tamerlane is that guy. The one who throws away a perfectly good life for no reason, only to realize—too late!—that he has, in fact, made a terrible mistake. And then he dies. That’s it. That’s the poem.
Edgar Allan Poe wrote Tamerlane when he was just 18, which explains a lot. It has the exact energy of a teenager staring dramatically out a rain-streaked window, scribbling in a leather-bound notebook about how they alone have known true sorrow. But because it’s Poe, it’s still beautifully tragic, filled with the kind of grand, sweeping regret that only a young, overly ambitious poet could conjure.
Let’s dive in.
The Plot: A Series of Avoidable Mistakes
Here’s what happens, in plain English:
1. Tamerlane is in love with a girl. It’s real, it’s deep, it’s the kind of love that people write poems about (which he literally does).
2. But then he decides, Hey, what if I left her behind to pursue Power and Glory instead?
3. So he ditches the love of his life to go become a warlord.
4. He gets everything he wanted—power, success, a life of legend.
5. And yet, shockingly, none of it makes him happy.
6. He realizes way too late that he threw away the only thing that ever really mattered.
7. He dies sad and alone, whispering oops into the void.
If this were a rom-com, this would be the part where he runs through an airport to get her back. But this is an Edgar Allan Poe poem, which means no one gets a happy ending—just a slow, inevitable descent into sorrow and death.
Tamerlane: A Walking, Talking Red Flag
We need to have a serious conversation about men who make terrible decisions and then act shocked when those decisions ruin their lives.
Tamerlane is the kind of guy who dumps his amazing girlfriend to “focus on himself” and then spends the next twenty years scrolling through her Instagram, leaving cryptic “hope you’re doing well” comments on her wedding photos. He is the living embodiment of every sad, regret-filled text message ever sent at 2 AM.
It’s not just that he made a mistake—it’s that he did it to himself. He could have chosen love. He could have chosen happiness. But instead, he chose power because he thought that would make him feel whole. And when it didn’t, all he had left was regret.
Would we feel bad for him if someone had stolen his happiness? Maybe. But when you throw it away with both hands, that’s on you, my guy.
Is This Poe’s Best Work? No. Is It Still Worth Reading? Absolutely.
Look, Tamerlane is not peak Poe. It’s not as haunting as The Raven or as tightly crafted as The Tell-Tale Heart. It’s a little messy, a little over-the-top, and definitely too long.
But that’s also kind of the charm. It’s Poe in his early days, experimenting with themes of love, ambition, and regret—concepts he’d later nail in his more famous works. Reading Tamerlane is like looking at a sketch from a master artist. It’s not perfect, but you can see the genius starting to form.
And honestly? There’s something deeply satisfying about watching a man destroy his own life in slow motion.
Final Thoughts: A+ Melodrama, 10/10 Would Laugh at Tamerlane’s Life Choices Again
Read Tamerlane if you:
✔️ Enjoy watching people make terrible decisions and then suffer the consequences.
✔️ Love poetry filled with dramatic laments and should’ve known better energy.
✔️ Are curious about what teenage Poe thought was the pinnacle of literary genius.
Skip it if you:
❌ Prefer your Poe spooky and gothic, not just a man sitting alone, realizing he messed up.
Either way, let this be a lesson: if you abandon the good things in your life because you think something better is out there, you may end up alone, sad, and full of regret.
Or worse: you may end up as the subject of an Edgar Allan Poe poem. And nobody wants that.
