Blog 6: Rough Draft

"The Haunted Palace"
By: Edgar Allen Poe

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-tunëd law,
Bound 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.

Edgar Allen Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston and died October 7, 1849. Poe was a reveled poet since his days at Virginia University where he began publishing poetry to when he was promoted to Sargent in the army. Poe is highly regarded for his poetry and a short stories that usually revel around the scary themes of ghosts and hautings. His fascination of writing horrific tales led him to write the poem "The Haunted Palace" in 1839.

The poem is composed of six stanzas of eight lines each, to give a total of 48 lines and is. Because there seems to be no specific speaker in the poem, it is a narrative poem. The poem is long and situated to the left of the page. The Rhyme scheme is a ABAB for every stanza.

"The Haunted Palace" describes the scene of a palace that has been taken from a king and is now being overrun by phantoms. The main image that this poem paints is that of a head that is devilishly sticking its tongue out. "Through two luminous windows" (line 20) represents the eyes, "Was the fair palace door" (line 26) representing the mouth and

"While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever" (lines 45-47)

paints a picture of a tongue flying out of the mouth.

Symbols that can be found in this poem are (1) yellow, ruby (2) head (3) robes of sorrow. First, the colors yellow and ruby are indicators of what is going on in the poem. Yellow (line 9) has been known throughout history to be known as a symbol of alarm. The fact that the color yellow is placed at the beginning of the story does much to suggest that there is impending doom. Later on it can be concluded that the phantoms do, indeed, take over the palace. also, the Aurthur describes the boarder of the door to be ruby (line 17). The mentioning of the color ruby signifies the turmoil and rage that is going on inside the head because of all of the action going on. Another symbol is the head (line 4), the palace being described as a head can also be be a reference to the way the king is thinking, if all this stuff is going on inside the palace I would assume that the king would be furious and even be glowing red. The third symbol is the robes of sorrow (line 33). these robes represent death as robes and sorrow are usually connected with death. This can also represent the death of the palace itself.

The tone of this poem was very spooky and haunting. To begin with, the title of this poem is what initially sets the tone with the mentioning of the word "haunting". also, throughout the poem, ghosts and phantoms are mentioned (lines 19 and 43).

The poem "The Haunted Castle" by Edgar Allen Poe is about a castle in a beautiful valley that is being overrun by spirits. this poem is very scary and this can be concluded through the authur's choice of spooky words and scary themes like ghosts and haunting. Edgar Allen Poe lives up to his name with this poem being certainly scary.

Works Cited:

[IMAGE]"Haunted Palace." Gothic Dark Glamour. Web. 19 Apr 2010. .

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Haunted Palace." BlackCat Poems. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr 2010. .

"Edgar Allen Poe." Bio. True storie. Bio.com, n.d. Web. 19 Apr 2010. .