By Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) A Study Guide | ||||||||||||||||||
.
Notes and Annotation by Michael J. Cummings..© 2006 Type of Work and Date of Publication ......."The Haunted Palace" is a poem, a ballad. It was published in American Museum in April 1839. In September of the same year, it was published in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine as part of "The Fall of the House of Usher," one of Poe's most famous short stories. In the story, mentally unstable Roderick Usher sings the ballad while playing a guitar. .......Once, there was a majestic palace from which a great king ruled his dominion with reason and common sense. So good and beautiful was this place that angels abided there. On occasion, the palace halls resounded with wondrous voices singing the praises of the monarch. "But evil things, in robes of sorrow, / Assailed the monarch's high estate." These evil things may have been in the form of immorality, disease, or any other destructive force that corrupts, subverts, or sickens a human being." Now the palace is haunted with Vast forms, that move fantasticallyThe Palace: Metaphor for an Ill-Fated Man .......The palace and the king represent a man who falls to mental and physical ruin after an unspecified evil possesses him. The lines that metaphorically present the palace as a human are as follows:
.......The ill-fated king, identified in Line 22 as Porphyrogene, could refer to any or all of the following:
![]()
Theme .......How evil (whether in the form of immorality, disease, or any other destructive force) can corrupt, subvert, or sicken a human being. .......Following are examples of figures of speech in "The Haunted Palace":
Personification: A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty / Was but to sing Simile: While, like a ghastly rapid river, / Through the pale door / A hideous throng rush out forever Metaphor: And all with pearl and ruby glowing / Was the fair palace door (pearl: teeth, ruby: lips, door: mouth) .......The atmosphere of "The Haunted Palace" is at first idyllic, dreamlike, angelic. Then it becomes nightmarish. To create the idyllic atmosphere, Poe uses uses words and phrases such as greenest of our valleys, fair and stately, seraph, glorious, golden, gentle, sweet, and luminous. To create the nightmarish atmosphere, he uses words and phrases such as evil, robes of sorrow, mourn, desolate, dim-remembered, entombed, discordant, ghastly, and hideous. .......Edgar
Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston. After being orphaned
at age two, he was taken into the home of a childless couple–John Allan,
a successful businessman in Richmond, Va., and his wife. Allan was believed
to be Poe’s godfather. At age six, Poe went to England with the Allans
and was enrolled in schools there. After he returned with the Allans to
the U.S. in 1820, he studied at private schools, then attended the University
of Virginia and the U.S. Military Academy, but did not complete studies
at either school. After beginning his literary career as a poet and prose
writer, he married his young cousin, Virginia Clemm. He worked for several
magazines and joined the staff of the New York Mirror newspaper
in 1844. All the while, he was battling a drinking problem.
.
![]()
|
. . .