I Would Call Aloud (1923) – Harry Clarke | Poe's Ligeia

In Poe's Ligeia, a man's wife dies and he refuses to accept it. An opium addict, half-mad with grief, he calls aloud upon her name in the silence of the night — as if the force of his longing alone could pull her back from wherever the dead go. Then one night, watching over the body of his second wife, he sees the colour return to her cheeks. The bandages begin to move. The eyes slowly open. And they are not Rowena's eyes.

Clarke drew the moment the narrator calls out — the tall spectral figure of Ligeia rising in the darkness, surrounded by ornate patterning that seems to dissolve the boundary between the living and the dead. The halo-like disc behind the figure, the elongated silhouette, the absolute control of black and white — Clarke at the height of his power, illustrating a story about love that refuses to end.

About Harry Clarke (1889–1931)

Dublin-born and trained in the Arts and Crafts tradition, Clarke brought the intensity of stained-glass design into illustration — intricate patterning, dramatic chiaroscuro, and a darkness drawn from medieval craft and Symbolist literature. The 1923 Poe commission made his international reputation. He died of tuberculosis at 41.

He called his dead wife's name in the silence of the night until she came back. Clarke drew the moment before you find out if she did.

I Would Call Aloud

From Poe's Ligeia — the story of a man who refused to let his wife stay dead. Clarke's illustration captures the tall spectral figure rising from darkness, surrounded by an ornate halo of linework, the boundary between living and dead already dissolving. One of the most formally beautiful images in the entire 1923 Poe commission.

About Harry Clarke (1889–1931)

Dublin-born, trained in the Arts and Crafts tradition, dead at 41. Ireland's finest stained-glass artist and one of its most original illustrators. The 1923 Poe commission made his name.

• Size: 40 × 50 cm / 16 × 20″
• Archival Print — Unframed: 250 gsm archival stock, matte, off-white, uncoated. Archival giclée, fade-resistant.
• Archival Print — Framed: Responsibly sourced oak, ash, or black hardwood frame. Shatterproof plexiglass glazing. Ready to hang.

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