The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and tales. Eureka, an essay on the material and spiritual universeRedfield, 1857 |
Common terms and phrases
61 Cygni absolute accented Al Aaraaf altogether ANNABEL LEE appearance atoms beautiful bells Bon-Bon cæsura called cameleopard catalectic centre CHARMION cluster comprehend conceive course dactyl diffusion distance Divine door dream Earth effect epoch equality exist eyes fact fancy feel feet foot force gentleman Goodfellow hand hath head heart Heaven hexameter Hop-Frog iambus idea imagine irradiation king Lalage length less light look Madame Lalande Majesty matter means merely mind moon natural nebula never Nevermore night Nosology oblong box observed Old Charley once ourang-outangs Pennifeather perceive phænomena planets poem poetical Politian precisely principle Prosodies Quoth the Raven regard replied rhyme rhythm scansion seemed seen shadow short syllables smile soul speak spirit spondee stars suppose tendency thee thing thou thought thousand tion trochaic trochee truth Unity Universe verse voice word
Popular passages
Page xv - The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of Night, As a feather is wafted downward From an Eagle in his flight. I see the lights of the village Gleam through the rain and the mist, And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me, That my soul cannot resist ; A feeling of sadness and longing, That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain.
Page 10 - This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er She shall press, ah, nevermore ! Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. "Wretch...
Page xxi - Who was her father? Who was her mother? Had she a sister? Had she a brother? Or was there a dearer one Still, and a nearer one Yet, than all other?
Page 25 - All alone, And who, tolling, tolling, tolling, In that muffled monotone, Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone They are neither man nor woman They are neither brute nor human They are Ghouls...
Page 20 - The skies they were ashen and sober; The leaves they were crisped and sere The leaves they were withering and sere; It was night in the lonesome October Of my most immemorial year...
Page 41 - By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT, On a black throne reigns upright, I have reached these lands but newly From an ultimate dim Thule — From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime, Out of SPACE — out of TIME.
Page 7 - ONCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. " T is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door — Only this and nothing more.
Page xxi - One more unfortunate, Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death! 'Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care; Fashioned so slenderly, Young, and so fair! "Look at her garments Clinging like cerements; Whilst the wave constantly Drips from her clothing; Take her up instantly, Loving, not loathing. 'Touch her not scornfully; Think of her mournfully, Gently and humanly; Not of the stains of her,— All...
Page xxii - Through muddy impurity, As when with the daring Last look of despairing Fixed on futurity. Perishing gloomily. Spurred by contumely, Cold inhumanity, Burning insanity, Into her rest. — Cross her hands humbly. As if praying dumbly, Over her breast ! Owning her weakness, Her evil behavior, And leaving, with meekness, Her sins to her Saviour ! The vigor of this poem is no less remarkable than its pathos.
Page 46 - In Heaven a spirit doth dwell "Whose heart-strings are a lute"; None sing so wildly well As the angel Israfel, And the giddy stars (so legends tell), Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell Of his voice, all mute. Tottering above In her highest noon, The...