The Angel of the Odd — An Extravaganza
It was a chilly November afternoon. I had just consummated an unusually hearty dinner, of which the dyspeptic truffe formed not the least important item, and was sitting alone in the dining-room, with my feet upon the fender, and at my elbow a small table which I had rolled up to the fire, and upon which were some apologies for dessert, with some miscellaneous bottles of wine, spirit and liqueur. In the morning I had been reading Glover’s “Leonidas,” Wilkie’s “Epigoniad,” Lamartine’s “Pilgrimage,” Barlow’s “Columbiad,” Tuckermann’s “Sicily,” and ...
The Poe Museum Blog
The Murders In The Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
It is not improbable that a few farther steps in phrenological science will lead to a belief in the existence, if not to the actual discovery and location of an organ of analysis. If this power (which may be described, although not defined, as the capacity for resolving thought into its elements) be not, in fact, an essential portion of what late philosophers term ideality, then there are indeed many good reasons for supposing it a primitive faculty. That it may be a constituent of ideality is here suggested in opposition to the vulgar dictum (founded, however, ...
The Sleeper
The Sleeper
At midnight, in the month of June,I stand beneath the mystic moon.An opiate vapour, dewy, dim,Exhales from out her golden rim,And, softly dripping, drop by drop,Upon the quiet mountain-top,Steals drowsily and musicallyInto the universal valley.The rosemary nods upon the grave;The lily lolls upon the wave;Wrapping the mist about its breast,The ruin moulders into rest;Looking like Lethe, see, the lakeA conscious slumber seems to take,And would not for the world awake.All beauty sleeps! — and, lo! where liesWith casement open to the skies,Irene with her destinies! O, lady bright, ...
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Of course I shall not pretend to consider it any matter for wonder, that the extraordinary case of M. Valdemar has excited discussion. It would have been a miracle had it not — especially under the circumstances. Through the desire of all parties concerned to keep the affair from the public, at least for the present, or until we had farther opportunities for investigation — through our endeavors to effect this — a garbled or exaggerated account made its way into society, and became the source of many unpleasant misrepresentations, and, very naturally, of ...