A Classic Crime Collection (41 page)

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.

P
OEMS

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.