Poe's The Conqueror Worm?

The poem uses theater metaphors throughout to deal with human life on a universal level. An audience of weeping angels watches a seemingly mad play performed by "mimes, in the form of God on high," and controlled by vast formless shapes looming behind the scenes. Finally, a monstrous "crawling shape" emerges, and eats the mimes. The final curtain comes down, "a funeral pall," signaling an end to the "tragedy, 'Man'" whose only hero is "The Conqueror Worm." The poem seems to imply that human life is mad folly ending in hideous death, the universe is controlled by dark forces man cannot understand, and the only supernatural forces that might help are powerless spectators who can only affirm the tragedy of the scene. ♥