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 XL., 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'-tureş, sědg'-eş, hîd'-e-oŭs, veil, î'-çi-ness, reined (raud), lus-ter, măn-sion, söl-emn (-em), sul-phū-re-oňs, vāgue-ness (vāg), awe, gui-tär' (ğï-), im-prŏmp'-tüş, im-pròv-i-sā'-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). II. 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, 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, Round about a throne where, sitting (Porphyrogene) 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 While, like a rapid, ghastly river, A hideous throng rush out forever, And laugh-but smile no more. Edgar A. Poe. FOR PREPARATION.-I. "The House of Usher" reappears here under the name of "The Haunted Palace," which fantastically reflects its lurid atmosphere, but with a clearer portraiture of the lineaments of a genius going to wreck through dissipation. "Porphyrogene "-" born in purple," or "of royal birth" (rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire). It must be remembered that the nature of poetry, music, and all art admits of much variety in interpreting it into definite thoughts. II. Vǎl'-leyş, mŏn'-areh (-ark), sèr'-aph, ĕeh'-õeş (ēk ́ōz), en-tombed' (-toomd'), hid'-e-ous. III. Copy the 1st stanza, and mark the feet and accented syllables. Note the sixth line: "It - stood - there "-three feet, with one syllable each, which should be pronounced long. Note the lines which have alliteration : radiant, reared; seraph, spread; fabric, fair; glorious, golden; float, flow; etc. IV. Tenanted, radiant, reared, dominion, pinion, fabric, dallied, ramparts, "plumed and pallid," luminous, lute. V. "Stately palace reared its head." Note the intrusion of the image of man into the description of a house. "Through two luminous windows saw spirits moving musically" (looking into the eyes, saw poetic thoughts). "Pearl and ruby" (teeth and lips) of the "palace door" (mouth, which sang in rhymes, "echoes" of the "wit and wisdom" of the soul within). "Evil things" (misfortune, opium, and strong drink) "assailed." "Redlitten windows" (eyes bleared with dissipation); "discordant melody" (of the specters of delirium tremens). III. INTELLIGENT READING. Good elocution is founded on good thinking. This leads to appreciation-that is, to right feeling; and right thinking and feeling lead to the best vocal expression. Now, we begin to observe and to think definitely only when we begin to distinguish one thing from another; and our thinking improves in the same ratio as this power |