Reading the Classics discussion

 The Haunted Palace

 In the greenest of our valleys
 By good angels tenanted,
 Once a fair and stately palace -
 Radiant palace - reared its head.
 In the monarch Thought's dominion -
 It stood there!
 Never seraph spread a pinion
 Over fabric half so fair!

 Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
 On its roof did float and flow,
 (This - all this - was in the olden
 Time long ago),
 And every gentle air that dallied,
 In that sweet day,
 Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
 A winged odor went away.

 Wanderers in that happy valley,
 Through two luminous windows, saw
 Spirits moving musically,
 To a lute's well-tuned law,
 Round about a throne where, sitting,
 Porphyrogene,
 In state his glory well-befitting,
 The ruler of the realm was seen.

 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.

 But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
 Assailed the monarch's high estate.
 (Ah, let us mourn! - for never morrow
 Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
 And round about his home the glory
 That blushed and bloomed,
 Is but a dim-remembered story
 Of the old time entombed.

 And travellers, now, within that valley,
 Through the red-litten windows see
 Vast forms, that move fantastically
 To a discordant melody,
 While, like a ghastly rapid river,
 Through the pale door
 A hideous throng rush out forever
 And laugh - but smile no more.

by Edgar Allan Poe

When the majority think of Edgar Allan Poe, they think of him as a writer of the macabre, but he was also a brilliant poet. The most well known of his poems is, of course, "The Raven".

"The Haunted Palace" is a good sample of his poetic cadence and allegory.

Is this a particular palace he's describing, or more a conglomeration of monarchy and the past in general? I didn't have any notes on this one in my small poetry anthologies. :)

Alana,

Neither. :) It's an allegory of man. Picture the eyes as the windows and the mouth as the door, with hair for banners. For reference, the poem is from "The Fall of the House of Usher".

Ah, I was wondering that. Kind of made me think of that, although I didn't remember it from that story in particular. That is one of the strangest things I've ever read, for sure, although A Rose for Emily was right up there.