22. sibyls: Female prophets of Greek and Roman legend.
23. Balbec, and Tadmor, and Persepolis: Balbec: also known as Baalbek, a city in current-day Lebanon; Tadmor: city in Syria, legendarily founded by King Solomon; Persepolis: capital of Persian kings, later looted by Alexander the Great.
24. poop: Enclosed superstructure of the stern of a ship.
A Descent into the Maelström
1. A Descent into the Maelström: Originally published in Graham’s Magazine, May 1841.
2. The ways of God . . . —Joseph Glanvill: Poe is paraphrasing slightly a passage from Glanvill’s Essays on Several Important Subjects in Philosophy and Religion (1676). The “well of Democritus” refers to the Greek philosopher’s well-known claim that “truth lies at the bottom of a well.”
3. Lofoden: Or Lofoten, a Norwegian island group.
4. Mare Tenebrarum: Latin: “sea of darkness,” refers to the Atlantic Ocean, so called by al Idrisi, the “Nubian geographer” to whom the narrator refers.
5. Jonas Ramus: Jonas Danilssønn Ramus (1649–1718) was a Norwegian priest and historian. Ramus identified Scylla and Charybdis, the whirlpool and clashing rocks of the Odyssey, as the Maelström and its surrounding region.
6. Norway mile: Approximately 4.5 English miles.
7. Sexagesima Sunday: The second Sunday before the Christian season of Lent.
8. Phlegethon: A river of fire, and one of five rivers in the underworld of Greek myth.
9. Ferroe Islands: Faroe Islands located between Iceland and northern Scotland.
10. Kircher: Athanasius Kircher (1601–1680), a German Jesuit scientist and mathematician, claimed that the Maelström drew water in and expelled it into the Gulf of Bothnia through a network of tunnels.
11. smack: A small sailing ship for coastal fishing.
12. Mussulmen: Muslims.
13. See Archimedes . . . lib. 2: The storyteller is here referring to the observations of the Greek mathematician and scientist Archimedes. Poe used his exclamation “Eureka!” (I have found it!) as the title of his 1848 work of cosmological theory/prose poetry.
The Pit and the Pendulum
1. The Pit and the Pendulum: Originally published in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year’s Present (1843).
2. Impia tortorum longas . . . vita salusque patent: Latin, translated roughly: “Here the furious mob, unsatisfied, / Long harbored hatred of innocent blood. / Now that the fatherland is saved, and the cave of death destroyed, / Wholesome life appears where grim death has been.” The Jacobins were the radical group responsible for the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
3. inquisitorial: Reference to the Spanish Inquisition, a Catholic institution that for more than three centuries punished heretics and attempted to force the conversions of Jews and Muslims.
4. galvanic battery: A chemical generator of electricity.
5. auto-da-fés: French, literally “acts of faith”; refers to the ceremonies accompanying the public burning of heretics by the Inquisition.
6. Toledo: Spanish city that was headquarters of the Inquisition.
7. most hideous of fates: The narrator is referring to being buried alive.
8. moral horrors: Spiritual or mental, as opposed to physical, ordeals.
9. surcingle: A leather strap around a horse’s midsection to hold a pack or saddle on its back.
10. Ultima Thule: The end of the world, or of all that’s known.
11. moiety: A portion of something, usually approximately half.
12. ague: A fever marked by chills and sweating at regular intervals.
13. General Lasalle: Antoine, comte de Lasalle, a general in Napoleon’s army who captured Toledo in 1808 and brought a temporary end to the Inquisition.
William Wilson
1. William Wilson: Originally published in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year’s Present for 1840.
2. What say of it? . . . —Chamberlain’s Pharronida: Despite Poe’s attribution, these lines do not appear in William Chamberlayne’s 1659 verse romance.
3. Elagabalus: Also Heliogabalus; a Roman emperor (218–222) known for his blasphemous religious rituals and disregard for the proper management of the Roman government, who was murdered in an uprising by the Praetorian Guard.
4. peine forte et dure: French, literally: “strong and lasting pain”; a form of capital punishment in which the condemned is crushed under heavy weights.
5. lustrum: Five years.
6. outré: Unusual or strange.
7. exergues of the Cartaginian medals: Inscriptions on coins minted by the Carthaginian empire of North Africa.
8. connings: Learning by memorization.
9. Oh, le bon temps, que ce siècle de fer: “Oh, the good old days, that Iron Age!” The narrator is quoting the French satirist Voltaire.
10. kerseymere: Wool fabric with a twill weave.
11. out-Heroded Herod: Herod, ruler of Palestine, was known for his extravagance as well as his cruelty. This line alludes to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where Hamlet utters the same words referring to bad actors.
12. parvenu: Suddenly wealthy.
13. Herodes Atticus: Wealthy Greek rhetorician (c. 101–177) who patronized learning and the arts in Athens.
14. écarté: A card game for two players.
15. arrondis: French: “rounded”; the narrator is acknowledging that he has shaved his cards in order to cheat.
POEMS
The Raven
1. The Raven: Originally published in January 1845 in several different periodicals, including the New York Evening Mirror and the American Review.
2. surcease: A cessation of or release from.
3. Pallas: Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and scholarship.
4. shorn . . . craven: Coward; the speaker is making reference to the medieval practice of shaving the heads of cowardly knights.
5. Plutonian: Referring to Pluto, god of the underworld, and his realm.
6. gloated: Here meaning glanced off of or reflected light onto.
7. censer: A vessel for burning incense.
8. nepenthe: In Greek mythology, a drug that causes forgetfulness.
9. balm in Gilead: A soothing ointment; refers to Jeremiah 8:22 in the Bible: “Is there no balm in Gilead?; is there no physician there?”
10. Aidenn: Poe’s spelling of Eden, after the biblical paradise.
Lenore
1. Lenore: Originally published in The Pioneer, February 1843.
2. Stygian: Extremely dark or gloomy; the river Styx was the mythic border of the Greek underworld.
3. Guy De Vere: A conventional name, perhaps, for a chivalric lover. De Vere was the family name of the seventeenth Earl of Oxford, whom some speculate was the actual author of William Shakespeare’s plays.
4. Peccavimus: Latin: “We have sinned.”
5. debonnaire: Of a good family or nature; from the French “de bon aire.”
To Helen
1. To Helen: Originally published in Union Magazine, November 1848. Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman was a widow whose poem dedicated to Poe appeared in the March 18, 1848, edition of the Home Journal.
2. I saw thee once: Poe had seen Mrs. Whitman in Providence, Rhode Island, on one occasion in July 1845 as she stood in front of her house while he walked past.
3. parterre: The lowest level of a garden, usually terraced and landscaped.
4. Dian: The moon; a reference to Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon.
5. Elysian fire: An allusion to the Elysian Fields, a final resting place for the souls of the heroic and virtuous in Greek mythology.
Ulalume
1. Ulalume: Originally published in the American Review, December 1847. Poe coined the name, from the Latin ulalare (to wail) and lumen (light), to mean something like “sorrow’s light.”
2. sere: Dried and withered.
3. Auber: Likely a reference to Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782-1871), a French composer of operas, whose works include 1839’
s Le lac des fées (The Lake of the Fairies), based on a German legend.
4. Weir: Likely a reference to Robert Walter Weir, a nineteenth-century landscape painter of the Hudson River School known for his misty, somewhat dark landscapes.
5. Psyche: Princess in Greek mythology whose marriage to Cupid results in her becoming immortal; more generally, she embodies the soul.
6. scoriac: Consisting of rough, cindery lava.
7. Yaanek: Perhaps a reference to Mount Erebus, the only active polar volcano, located in Antarctica.
8. boreal: Usually refers to the North Pole.
9. star-dials: Poe’s imagined nighttime equivalent of sundials.
10. Astarte’s: The Phoenician goddess of love and fertility.
11. the stars of the Lion: The constellation Leo.
12. Lethean: A reference to Lethe, the legendary river of forgetfulness in Hades.
13. Sibylic: Prophetic, after the female prophets of Greek and Roman legend.
The Bells
1. The Bells: First published in Sartain’s Union Magazine, December 1849.
2. sledges: Heavy sleds, or sleighs.
3. Runic rhyme: Magic spell.
4. tintinnabulation: Onomatopoeic word for the sound of ringing bells.
5. gloats: Reflects light (an older meaning of the word, now obsolete).
6. Brazen: Made of brass; harsh-sounding.
7. pæan: A song or hymn of praise or tribute.
8. knells: Rings a bell for a death, funeral, or disaster.
Annabel Lee
1. Annabel Lee: Originally published in the Richmond Examiner in August 1849 and, after Poe’s death in October of that year, in the New York Daily Tribune (October 9, 1849) and the Southern Literary Messenger (November 1849).
2. seraphs: The highest order of angels, with two or three pairs of wings.
3. sepulchre: A tomb or burial place.
To ————
1. To ————: Variant of “To M———,” published in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems, 1829.
The Valley of Unrest
1. The Valley of Unrest: Originally published as “The Valley Nis” in Poems, by Edgar A. Poe. Second Edition (1831). Poe published a revised version under the present title in the Southern Literary Messenger, February 1836.
2. Hebrides: Islands off the western coast of Scotland.
The City in the Sea
1. The City in the Sea: Originally published as “The Doomed City” in Poems, by Edgar A. Poe. Second Edition (1831), then as “The City of Sin” in the Southern Literary Messenger in August 1836, and “The City in the Sea” in American Review in April 1845.
2. fanes . . . Babylon-like: Fanes: temples; Babylon-like: refers to a city noted in the Bible for its immorality.
3. wreathéd friezes: A frieze is a sculpted ornamental band around walls or furniture; wreathéd suggests the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Sleeper
1. The Sleeper: Originally published under the title “Irene” in Poems, by Edgar A. Poe. Second Edition (1831). The first version published under the present title appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Chronicle, May 22, 1841.
2. Lethe: River of forgetfulness in the underworld of Greek mythology.
3. soul lies hid: A reference to the eye, with its “fringéd lid,” being a window to the soul—the window in this case closed in death.
4. length of tress: A reference to the idea that the hair continues to grow after death.
A Dream Within a Dream
1. A Dream Within a Dream: A version of this poem originally appeared in Tamerlane and Other Poems and was published in its present form in the Boston newspaper Flag of Our Union on March 31, 1849.
Dream-Land
1. Dream-Land: This poem was originally published in Graham’s Magazine, June 1844.
2. ill: In the sense of ill-willed or malicious.
3. Eidolon: A ghost or phantom.
4. Thule: Greek word for the farthest known point of land.
5. Eldorado: Mythical city of gold sought by the Spanish conquistadores in the New World.
6. darkened glasses: Partly closed eyes; suggests 1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly.”
Dreams
1. Dreams: Originally published in Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827).
Silence
1. Silence: First published in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, January 4, 1840. Originally titled “Sonnet—Silence,” despite the fact that it has fifteen lines rather than the fourteen sonnets usually have.
2. corporate: Or corporeal, meaning “of the body.”
Eldorado
1. Eldorado: Originally published in the Boston Flag of Our Union, April 21, 1849. El Dorado was a city of gold the Spanish conquerors of the New World believed lay in the western part of the continent. In Poe’s time it connoted the gold rush underway in California.
2. Mountains of the Moon: Mountains in Africa, once thought to be the source of the Nile River; possibly the Ruwenzori Range that separates Uganda and the Congo. In literary terms they represent a place a fantastic distance away.
3. Valley of the Shadow: Possibly a reference to Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. . . .”
Israfel
1. Israfel: Originally published in Poems, by Edgar A. Poe. Second Edition (1831).
2. levin: Lightning.
3. Pleiads: Or the Pleiades, a cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus who were sisters, according to Greek mythology.
4. grown-up God: As opposed to the cherubic Cupid of Roman mythology.
5. Houri: In Muslim mythology, one of the virgins who await men in heaven; “houri” literally refers to their dark eyes.
For Annie
1. For Annie: Originally published in the Boston Flag of Our Union, April 28, 1849. Poe apparently wrote it thinking of Annie Richmond, an acquaintance with whom he carried on a literary flirtation.
2. naphthaline: A flammable oil; “napthaline river” suggests one of the fiery rivers of Hades.
3. tantalized: Tortured with desire and left unsatisfied, a reference to the fate of Tantalus in Greek mythology, a king who was punished by the gods by spending all eternity just out of reach of a supply of fruit and water.
4. rue: An herb with bitter leaves, symbolic of regret.
5. queen of the angels: The Virgin Mary.
Sonnet—To Science
1. Sonnet—To Science: Originally published as the introductory poem to Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829).
2. Diana from her car: Diana is the Roman goddess of the moon; her “car” is the chariot she rode across the sky.
3. Hamadryad: Wood nymph in Greek mythology.
4. Naiad: Water nymph in Greek mythology.
A Dream
1. A Dream: Originally published in Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827).
2. day-star: The sun. The poet is comparing the trembling light of a faraway star with the brighter light of the sun.
To ————
1. To ————: Originally published in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829).
Romance
1. Romance: Originally published in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829).
2. paroquet: Parakeet.
Spirits of the Dead
1. Spirits of the Dead: Originally published in Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827).
To Helen
1. To Helen: Originally published in Poems, by Edgar A. Poe. Second Edition (1831). The Helen in question is Mrs. Helen Stannard, actually Jane Stith Stanard, the mother of a schoolmate of Poe’s, whose death when Poe was a boy affected him greatly.
2. Nicean: A reference to Nicea, a city now known as Iznik in modern-day Turkey.
3. Naiad: Water nymph in Greek mythology.
4. agate: A semitranslucent chalcedony, usually with multicolored bands.
5. Psyche: Princess in Gre
ek mythology whose marriage to Cupid results in her becoming immortal; more generally, she embodies the soul.
Evening Star
1. Evening Star: Originally published in Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827). The evening star is actually Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love.
Alone
1. Alone: Unpublished and untitled in Poe’s lifetime, it was written around 1829, and first published in Scribner’s Monthly Magazine, September 1875.
ENDNOTES
* Watson, Dr. Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Llandaff.—See “Chemical Essays,” vol v.11
* Rousseau—Nouvelle Héloise.
* See Archimedes, “De Incidentibus in Fluido.”—lib. 2.13
* And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures.—KORAN.
INTERPRETIVE NOTES
Poe’s Stories
Poe published nearly eighty short stories in magazines and newspapers in the 1830s and 1840s. He was one of the earliest, and one of the most prolific, American practitioners of the form. Many of his stories are satires on other writers or intellectual fads of his day and are largely unread by modern readers. The tales that have ensured his continued fame are those of horror, death and life after death, and madness. Such themes came naturally to Poe, who was prone to periods of deep melancholy and who had lost virtually everyone he loved in his life by the time of his own death at age forty. How much his unhappy life affected the content of his stories is a subject critics continue to debate.
Poe saw himself as an outsider throughout his life: in the family of a foster father who disinherited him; in the army, where he was never happy following orders; and in society, where he had flashes of literary success but usually was penniless. His stories are mostly about outsiders, too, people who are isolated by a terrible fate or by their own peculiar psychology. Almost always, the tales recognizably take place in the minds of their narrators, and so they really only seem to have one character. We know almost nothing about the old man in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” for example, except that even his catatonic presence in the world drives the narrator to murderous madness. In “William Wilson,” the narrator is shadowed throughout his life by his exact double in appearance, manner, and even name, so that William Wilson is both the protagonist and antagonist of the story.
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