The Tell-Tale Heart Read online

  You will not read the riddle, though you do the best

  you can do.

  Ulalume—A Ballad

  The skies they were ashen and sober;

  The leaves they were crispéd and sere—

  The leaves they were withering and sere;

  It was night, in the lonesome October

  Of my most immemorial year:

  It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,

  In the misty mid region of Weir:—

  It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,

  In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

  Here once, through an alley Titanic,

  Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul—

  Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.

  These were days when my heart was volcanic

  As the scoriac rivers that roll—

  As the lavas that restlessly roll

  Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek,

  In the ultimate climes of the Pole—

  That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek,

  In the realms of the Boreal Pole.

  Our talk had been serious and sober,

  But our thoughts they were palsied and sere—

  Our memories were treacherous and sere;

  For we knew not the month was October

  And we marked not the night of the year—

  (Ah, night of all nights in the year!)

  We noted not the dim lake of Auber,

  (Though once we had journeyed down here)

  We remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,

  Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

  And now, as the night was senescent,

  And star-dials pointed to morn—

  As the star-dials hinted of morn—

  At the end of our path a liquescent

  And neubulous lustre was born

  Out of which a miraculous crescent

  Arose with a duplicate horn—

  Astarte’s bediamonded crescent,

  Distinct with its duplicate horn.

  And I said—“She is warmer than Dian;

  She rolls through an ether of sighs—

  She revels in a region of sighs.

  She has seen that the tears are not dry on

  These cheeks where the worm never dies,

  And has come past the stars of the Lion,

  To point us the path to the skies—

  To the Lethean peace of the skies—

  Come up, in despite of the Lion,

  To shine on us with her bright eyes—

  Come up, through the lair of the Lion,

  With Love in her luminous eyes.”

  But Psyche, uplifting her finger,

  Said—“Sadly this star I mistrust—

  Her pallor I strangely mistrust—

  Ah, hasten!—ah, let us not linger!

  Ah, fly!—let us fly!—for we must.”

  In terror she spoke; letting sink her

  Wings till they trailed in the dust—

  In agony sobbed; letting sink her

  Plumes till they trailed in the dust—

  Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

  I replied—“This is nothing but dreaming.

  Let us on, by this tremulous light!

  Let us bathe in this crystalline light!

  Its Sybillic splendor is beaming

  With Hope and in Beauty to-night—

  See!—it flickers up the sky through the night!

  Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming

  And be sure it will lead us aright—

  We surely may trust to a gleaming

  That cannot but guide us aright

  Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night.”

  Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,

  And tempted her out of her gloom—

  And conquered her scruples and gloom;

  And we passed to the end of the vista—

  But were stopped by the door of a tomb—

  By the door of a legended tomb:—

  And I said—“What is written, sweet sister,

  On the door of this legended tomb?”

  She replied—“Ulalume—Ulalume!—

  ’Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”

  Then my heart it grew ashen and sober

  As the leaves that were crispéd and sere—

  As the leaves that were withering and sere—

  And I cried—“It was surely October,

  On this very night of last year,

  That I journeyed—I journeyed down here!

  That I brought a dread burden down here—

  On this night, of all nights in the year,

  Ah, what demon hath tempted me here?

  Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber—

  This misty mid region of Weir:—

  Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber—

  This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”

  Said we, then—the two, then—“Ah, can it

  Have been that the woodlandish ghouls—

  The pitiful, the merciful ghouls,

  To bar up our way and to ban it

  From the secret that lies in these wolds—

  From the thing that lies hidden in these wolds—

  Have drawn up the spectre of a planet

  From the limbo of lunary souls—

  This sinfully scintillant planet

  From the Hell of the planetary souls?”

  For Annie

  Thank Heaven! the crisis—

  The danger is past,

  And the lingering illness

  Is over at last—

  And the fever called “Living”

  Is conquered at last.

  Sadly, I know

  I am shorn of my strength,

  And no muscle I move

  As I lie at full length—

  But no matter!—I feel

  I am better at length.

  And I rest so composedly,

  Now, in my bed,

  That any beholder

  Might fancy me dead—

  Might start at beholding me,

  Thinking me dead.

  The moaning and groaning,

  The sighing and sobbing,

  Are quieted now,

  With that horrible throbbing

  At heart:—ah, that horrible,

  Horrible throbbing!

  The sickness—the nausea—

  The pitiless pain—

  Have ceased with the fever

  That maddened my brain—

  With the fever called “Living”

  That burned in my brain.

  And oh! of all tortures

  That torture the worst

  Has abated—the terrible

  Torture of thirst

  For the naphthaline river

  Of Passion accurst:—

  I have drank of a water

  That quenches all thirst:—

  Of a water that flows,

  With a lullaby sound,

  From a spring but a very few

  Feet under ground—

  From a cavern not very far

  Down under ground.

  And ah! let it never

  Be foolishly said

  That my room it is gloomy

  And narrow my bed;

  For man never slept

  In a different bed—

  And, to sleep, you must slumber

  In just such a bed.

  My tantalized spirit

  Here blandly reposes,

  Forgetting, or never

  Regretting, its roses—

  Its old agitations

  Of myrtles and roses:

  For now, while so quietly

  Lying, it fancies

  A holier odor

  About it, of pansies—

  A rosemary odor,

  Commingled with pansies—

  With rue and the beautiful

  Puritan pansies.

  And so it lies happily,
>
  Bathing in many

  A dream of the truth

  And the beauty of Annie—

  Drowned in a bath

  Of the tresses of Annie.

  She tenderly kissed me,

  She fondly caressed,

  And then I fell gently

  To sleep on her breast—

  Deeply to sleep

  From the heaven of her breast.

  When the light was extinguished,

  She covered me warm,

  And she prayed to the angels

  To keep me from harm—

  To the queen of the angels

  To shield me from harm.

  And I lie so composedly,

  Now, in my bed,

  (Knowing her love)

  That you fancy me dead—

  And I rest so contentedly,

  Now, in my bed,

  (With her love at my breast)

  That you fancy me dead—

  That you shudder to look at me,

  Thinking me dead:—

  But my heart it is brighter

  Than all of the many

  Stars in the sky,

  For it sparkles with Annie—

  It glows with the light

  Of the love of my Annie—

  With the thought of the light

  Of the eyes of my Annie.

  Annabel Lee

  It was many and many a year ago,

  In a kingdom by the sea,

  That a maiden there lived whom you may know

  By the name of Annabel Lee;—

  And this maiden she lived with no other thought

  Than to love and be loved by me.

  She was a child and I was a child,

  In this kingdom by the sea,

  But we loved with a love that was more than love—

  I and my Annabel Lee—

  With a love that the wingéd seraphs of Heaven

  Coveted her and me.

  And this was the reason that, long ago,

  In this kingdom by the sea,

  A wind blew out of a cloud by night

  Chilling my Annabel Lee;

  So that her highborn kinsmen came

  And bore her away from me,

  To shut her up in a sepulchre

  In this kingdom by the sea.

  The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

  Went envying her and me;—

  Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,

  In this kingdom by the sea)

  That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling

  And killing my Annabel Lee.

  But our love it was stronger by far than the love

  Of those who were older than we—

  Of many far wiser than we—

  And neither the angels in Heaven above

  Nor the demons down under the sea,

  Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

  Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:—

  For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

  Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

  And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes

  Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

  And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

  Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,

  In her sepulchre there by the sea—

  In her tomb by the side of the sea.

  The Bells

  I

  Hear the sledges with the bells—

  Silver bells!

  What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

  How they tinkle, thinkle, tinkle,

  In the icy air of night!

  While the stars that oversprinkle

  All the heavens, seem to twinkle

  With a crystalline delight;

  Keeping time, time, time,

  In a sort of Runic rhyme,

  To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

  From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

  Bells, bells, bells—

  From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

  II

  Hear the mellow wedding-bells—

  Golden bells!

  What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

  Through the balmy air of night

  How they ring out their delight!—

  From the molten-golden notes,

  And all in tune,

  What a liquid ditty floats

  To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats

  On the moon!

  Oh, from out the sounding cells,

  What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!

  How it swells!

  How it dwells

  On the Future!—how it tells

  Of the rapture that impels

  To the swinging and the ringing

  Of the bells, bells, bells—

  Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

  Bells, bells, bells—

  To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

  III

  Hear the loud alarum bells—

  Brazen bells!

  What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

  In the startled ear of night

  How they scream out their affright!

  Too much horrified to speak,

  They can only shriek, shriek,

  Out of tune,

  In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,

  In a mad expostulation which the deaf and frantic fire,

  Leaping higher, higher, higher,

  With a desperate desire,

  And a resolute endeavor

  Now—now to sit, or never,

  By the side of the pale-faced moon.

  Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

  What a tale their terror tells

  Of Despair!

  How they clang, and clash, and roar!

  What a horror they outpour

  On the bosom of the palpitating air!

  Yet the ear, it fully knows,

  By the twanging

  And the clanging,

  How the danger ebbs and flows;

  Yet the ear distinctly tells,

  In the jangling

  And the wrangling,

  How the danger sinks and swells,

  By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells—

  Of the bells—

  Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

  Bells, bells, bells—

  In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

  IV

  Hear the tolling of the bells—

  Iron bells!

  What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!

  In the silence of the night,

  How we shiver with affright

  At the melancholy menace of their tone!

  For every sound that floats

  From the rust within their throats

  Is a groan.

  And the people—ah, the people—

  They that dwell up in the steeple,

  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:

  And their king it is who tolls:—

  And he rolls, rolls, rolls,

  Rolls

  A pæan from the bells!

  And his merry bosom swells

  With the pæan of the bells!

  And he dances, and he yells;

  Keeping time, time, time,

  In a sort of Runic rhyme,

  To the pæan of the bells—

  Of the bells:—

  Keeping time, time, time,

  In a sort of Runic rhyme,

  To the throbbing of the bells—

  Of the bells, bells, bells—

  To the sobbing of the bells:—

&n
bsp; Keeping time, time, time, time,

  As he knells, knells, knells,

  In a happy Runic rhyme,

  To the rolling of the bells—

  Of the bells, bells, bells:—

  To the tolling of the bells—

  Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

  Bells, bells, bells—

  To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

  Alone

  From childhood’s hour I have not been

  As others were—I have not seen

  As others saw—I could not bring

  My passions from a common spring—

  From the same source I have not taken

  My sorrow—I could not awaken

  My heart to joy at the same tone—

  And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—

  Then—in my childhood—in the dawn

  Of a most stormy life—was drawn

  From ev’ry depth of good and ill

  The mystery which binds me still—

  From the torrent, or the fountain—

  From the red cliff of the mountain—

  From the sun that round me roll’d

  In its autumn tint of gold—

  From the lightning in the sky

  As it pass’d me flying by—

  From the thunder, and the storm—

  And the cloud that took the form

  (When the rest of Heaven was blue)

  Of a demon in my view—

  Bibliography

  EDGAR ALLAN POE

  The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, 17 vols., ed. James A. Harrison (New York: Crowell, 1902) is still the standard edition although it is gradually being superseded by Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott and others (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969– ). Also valuable are The Complete Poems and Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, 2 vols., ed. Arthur Hobson Quinn and Edward H. O’Neill (New York: Knopf, 1946) and The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1965). The best biography is Arthur Hobson Quinn’s Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1941), while Building Poe Biography by John Carl Miller (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977) and Poe’s Helen Remembers, ed. John Carl Miller (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979) contain important biographical material. Poe’s correspondence has appeared as The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, 2 vols., ed. John Ward Ostrom (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948). Also useful are Edgar Allan Poe: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles in English, 1827–1973 (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1974) and Poe Studies (supersedes Poe Newsletter, 1968–71) issued 2–3 times per year by Washington State University Press.