Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Haunted Palace” (Comparative Text - BGM and TGA)


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Texts Represented:

  • 1839-01 - Burton's Gentleman's Magazine (September 1839)
  • 1840-02 - Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (imprint date 1840, but available by November 1839)

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Stanza: I.

Line-01-001 In the greenest of our valleys,

Line-01-002 [[indent]] By good angels tenanted,

Line-01-003 Once a fair and stately palace —

Line-01-004 [[indent]] Snow-white palace — reared its head.

Line-01-005 In the monarch Thought's dominion —

Line-01-006 [[indent]] It stood there!

Line-01-007 Never seraph spread a pinion

Line-01-008 [[indent]] Over fabric half so fair.

Stanza: II.

Line-01-009 Banners yellow, glorious, golden,

Line-01-010 [[indent]] On its roof did float and flow;

Line-01-011 (This — all this — was in the olden

Line-01-012 [[indent]] Time long ago)

Line-01-013 And every gentle air that dallied,

Line-01-014 [[indent]] In that sweet day,

Line-01-015 Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,

Line-01-016 [[indent]] A winged odor went away.

Stanza: III.

Line-01-017 Wanderers in that happy valley

Line-01-018 [[indent]] Through two luminous windows saw

Line-01-019 Spirits moving musically

Line-01-020 [[indent]] To a lute's well-tunéd law,

Line-01-021 Round about a throne, where sitting

Line-01-022 [[indent]] (Porphyrogene!)

Line-01-023 In state his glory well befitting,

Line-01-024 [[indent]] The sovereign of the realm was seen.

Stanza: IV.

Line-01-025 And all with pearl and ruby glowing

Line-01-026 [[indent]] Was the fair palace door,

Line-01-027 Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,

Line-01-028 [[indent]] And sparkling evermore,

Line-01-029 A troop of Echoes whose {{1839-01: sole //1840-02: sweet }} duty

Line-01-030 [[indent]] Was but to sing,

Line-01-031 In voices of surpassing beauty,

Line-01-032 [[indent]] The wit and wisdom of their king.

Stanza: V.

Line-01-033 But evil things, in robes of sorrow,

Line-01-034 [[indent]] Assailed the monarch's high estate;

Line-01-035 (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow

Line-01-036 [[indent]] Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)

Line-01-037 And, round about his home, the glory

Line-01-038 [[indent]] That blushed and bloomed

Line-01-039 Is but a dim-remembered story

Line-01-040 [[indent]] Of the old time entombed.

Stanza: VI.

Line-01-041 And travellers now within that valley,

Line-01-042 [[indent]] Through the red-litten windows, see

Line-01-043 Vast forms that move fantastically

Line-01-044 [[indent]] To a discordant melody;

Line-01-045 While, like a rapid ghastly river,

Line-01-046 [[indent]] Through the pale door,

Line-01-047 A hideous throng rush out forever,

Line-01-048 [[indent]] And laugh — but smile no more.

 


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Notes:

For an explanation of the formatting used in this Comparative Text, see editorial policies and methods. This format is very much an experiment, particularly for poetry.

Because this presentation represents multiple texts, with differing pagination, page numbers have been omitted.

The text from both versions of the poem are as they appeared within the tale “The Fall of the House of Usher,” where it bore no title or independent byline.

 

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[S:0 - comparative] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - The Haunted Palace (Comparative Text - AM and BGM)