e after dream of the reveler upon apse into everyday life, the hideous veil. iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the ed dreariness of thought, which no gination could torture into aught of was it-I paused to think-what was ne in the contemplation of the house mystery all insoluble; nor could I vy fancies that crowded upon me as to fall back upon the unsatisfactory Ele, beyond doubt, there are combinanatural objects which have the power , still the analysis of this power lies as beyond our depth. It was possible, ere different arrangement of the parof the details of the picture, would ify, or perhaps to annihilate, its capacpression; and, acting upon this idea, the precipitous brink of a black and in unruffled luster by the dwelling, t with a shudder even more thrilling ne remodeled and inverted images of ghastly tree stems, and the vacant and in this mansion of gloom I now prosojourn of some weeks. Its proprie-, had been one of my boon companut many years had elapsed since our F in its wildly importun than a personal reply! 7. The manuscrip tion. The writer spo tal disorder which op sire to see me, as his friend, with a view of my society, some alle manner in which all was the apparent heart allowed me no room obeyed forthwith wha summons. 8. I shall ever bea solemn hours I thus s house of Usher. Yet convey an idea of the of the occupations in way. An excited and a sulphureous luster ove will ring forever in my 9. Among other thi certain singular perversi air of the "Last Waltz o ings over which his ela grew, touch by touch, in dered, the more thrilling not why; from these pai are before me) I would than a small portion whi of merely in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no other than a personal reply. 7. The manuscript gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness, of a mental disorder which oppressed him, and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was the manner in which all this, and much more, was said—it was the apparent heart that went with his request—which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still consider a very singular summons. 8. I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus spent alone with the master of the house of Usher. Yet I should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the studies or of the occupations in which he involved me or led the way. An excited and highly distempered ideality threw a sulphureous luster over all. His long improvised dirges will ring forever in my ears. 9. Among other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and amplification of the wild air of the "Last Waltz of Von Weber." From the paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew, touch by touch, into vaguenesses at which I shuddered, the more thrillingly because I shuddered knowing not why; from these paintings (vivid as their images now are before me) I would in vain endeavor to educe more than a small portion which should lie within the compass of merely written words. 10. By the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs, he arrested and overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal was Roderick Usher. For me, at least, in the circumstances then surrounding me, there arose, out of the pure abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too concrete reveries of Fuseli. 11. I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his performances. But the fervid facility of his impromptus could not be so accounted for. They must have been, and were, in the notes as well as in the words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental collectedness and concentration to which I have previously alluded as observable only in particular moments of the highest artificial excitement. 12. The words of one of these rhapsodies I have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly impressed with it as he gave it, because, in the under or mystic current of its meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses were entitled "The Haunted Palace." Edgar A. Poe. FOR PREPARATION.-I. From "The Fall of the House of Usher," in which Poe describes the death of Usher, and the mysterious sinking of his house into the waters of the tarn. This extract contains the passages from the opening of the story (1 to 7), and from the middle (8 to 12), introductory to the poem, "The Haunted Palace." The poem reflects the coloring and outline of the story, just as a placid lake reflects the tints and contour of the mountains that surround it. (See XLI., note.) It is perhaps a deep allegory, descriptive of the ruin of a gifted but intemperate man. Fuseli (fū'-ze-li) (10), the celebrated painter, lived and died in London, though Swiss by birth. II. Fea'-tures, sědġ'-eş, hĭd'-e-oŭs, veil, i'-çi-ness, reined (rānd), lus-ter, măn-sien, söl-emn (-em), sul-phu-re-oňs, vāgue-ness (väg-), awe, gui-tär' (gi-), im-promp'-tüş, im-prov-i-sa'-tion, rhǎp'-so-dies. III. Explain the s in features. What is the abbreviation for " manuscript" "? IV. Glimpse, vacant, depression, opium, goading, annihilate, lurid, tarn, inverted, sojourn, boon, improvised, perversion, amplification, educe, hypochondriac, morbid, fervid, fantasias, artificial. V. Note (3) the reference, by way of comparison, of his sensations to the collapse that follows opium intoxication. (The whole story is colored with a sort of delirium tremens.) Note the "eye-like" windows repeated (3 and 5), and remember it in reading "The Haunted Palace," whose windows are also eyes. The allusion to the waltz can be followed up to advantage as a hint for the rhythm of "The Haunted Palace." Note the hint at interpretation which Poe gives us-"mystic current of its meaning" (12). LXXXIV. THE HAUNTED PALACE. 1. In the greenest of our valleys, Never seraph spread a pinion Over fabric half so fair. 2. Banners yellow, glorious, golden, (This all this-was in the olden And every gentle air that dallied, Along the ramparts plumed and pallid, 3. Wanderers in that happy valley To a lute's well-tunéd law, In state his glory well befitting, The ruler of the realm was seen. 4. And all with pearl and ruby glowing Was the fair palace door, Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing. And sparkling evermore, A troop of echoes whose sweet duty Was but to sing, In voices of surpassing beauty, The wit and wisdom of their king. 5. But evil things, in robes of sorrow, 6. And travelers now within that valley, Through the red-litten windows, see |