Edgar Allan Poe: The Haunted Palace (Das Spukschloß)

01 06 2006

Edgar Allan Poe
                I

  By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace—
  Radiant palace—reared it's head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion—
In the greenest of our valleys,
  It stood there ;
Never seraph spread a pinion
  Over fabric half so fair.

                II

Banners, yellow, glorious, golden,
  On it's roof did float and flow ;
(This—all this—was in the olden
  Time long ago).
And every gentle air that dallied
  In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallied
  A winged odour went away.

                III

Wanderers in that happy valley
  Through two luminous windows saw
Spirits moving musically
  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.

                IV

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.

                V

But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
  Assailed the monarch's high estate ;
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
  Shall dawn upon him desolate !)
And around about his home, the glory
  That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
  Of the old time entombed.

                VI

And travellers now within that valley,
  Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms that move fantastically
  To a discordant melody ;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
  Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
  And laugh—but smile no more.


[Edgar Allan Poe (from the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher")]

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