Poe's "The Conqueror Worm": Deeper Meaning To the Poem We often call Edgar Allen Poe one of the fathers of terror and mystery. His twisted, Macabre tales and poems are filled with great detail and often end with a dismal twist. "The Conqueror Worm" is one example of his masterful rhymes and tells how a play on life turns into reality for mankind. The setting is a theater but it is not just a site for plays. Poe describes it to be that way to trick the reader, but the theater is actually the setting for mankind. We play our lives in this stage for everyone else to see. Lines three through six describe the crowd and how they are there to see "a p