The Haunted Palace by Edgar Allan Poe | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The very first published work of Edgar Allan Poe was Tamerlane and Other Poems which was first published in 1827. In 1839, Edgar Allan Poe published The Haunted Palace, a poem in the April 1839 issue of Nathan Brooks' American Museum magazine. In September 1839, Poe added the poem in his short story The Fall of the House of Usher in which Roderick Usher sings the poem as a song for the narrator. The story of The Fall of the House of Usher is about madness, illness, and the collapse of buildings and people and so is the central idea of The Haunted Palace in which the poet compares a human head with a glorious palace that withstands hard times but gradually dilapidated and suffer depression and eventually deteriorates.

Structure of The Haunted Palace:

The poem consists of 48 lines designed in six stanzas of 8 lines each. Though the rhyming scheme is not persistent, the poem loosely follows the rhyme scheme of ababcdcd. The poem is an allegory about a king "in the olden time long ago" who is afraid of evil forces that threaten him and his palace, foreshadowing impending doom. Poe used enjambment, hyperbole, personification, caesura, and alliteration in the poem. In the opening part, Poe describes the palace as a beautiful, glorious building and uses assonance to beautify it (: ”Yellow”, “glorious”, “golden”, “float”, and “flow”; repetition of vowel sound ‘O’). The poem is an early example of imagery and the title itself lets the reader know what the central focus of the poem is, the main image it deals with. The later part of the poem appears to be a contrasting image of the upper part. Poe uses allegory to describe a person's psychology, their inner mental state suffering depression.

Themes of The Haunted House:

The poem begins with the theme of Happiness and the poet uses words and imagery to offer a sense of immense happiness and prosperity. In the first four stanzas, the poet describes a palace situated in a “green” valley where “sweet” and “gentle” air continues to flow. The different parts of the Palace are described by positive adjectives like “radiant”, “glorious”, and “sparkling.” In the first four stanzas, the narrator is describing his bittersweet memories, of the Palace it used to be. The narrator suggests that the past was a golden age, much better than the darkness and grim misery that followed. The Palace was full of good vibes and positive spirits. The theme of supernatural forces is continuous throughout the poem.

Poe raises the theme of Sadness in the fifth stanza and describes the Palace turning “desolate”, “ghastly”, and “hideous.” One can easily imagine the state of Roderick Usher’s house while reading the fifth stanza. Now the palace is haunted by evil spirits. However, the poet isn’t actually talking about a palace, rather he is offering an allegory for a man's descent into depression and madness. The ‘palace-head’ goes from being cheerful, orderly, and in-tune to being grim, disordered, and pretty much just totally out-of-whack. That’s what Roderick Usher went through.

Summary of The Haunted Palace:

Stanza 1

In the greenest of our valleys | By good angels tenanted,

Once a fair and stately palace— | Radiant palace—reared its head.

In the monarch Thought’s dominion, | It stood there!

Never seraph spread a pinion | Over fabric half so fair!

The poet begins while describing a beautiful, grand palace that is governed by ‘Thought.’ The palace is situated in a beautiful green valley. The poet suggests that it is the greenest valley accommodating the good angels. Poe uses enjambment to describe how beautiful and radiant the palace was that stood in the past. Poe then uses Personification and says that the Palace reared (raised) its head up. Poe then personifies ‘Thought’as a monarch. The palace is in Thought’s dominion. The poet then describes the majesty of the Palace. Serap is an angel of Christian mythology, belonging to the highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy, associated with light, ardor, and purity. The poet uses exaggeration and hyperbole and says that this angel of the highest order never spread its wing (Pinion) on a fabric (an old-fashioned word for a building), so fair.

Stanza 2

Banners yellow, glorious, golden, |On its 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 pallid, | A wingèd odor went away.

The poet continues to describe the majestic palace that it used to be in the past and mentions that a long time ago, there were always beautiful bright banners in glorious yellow-golden colors that used to float and flow in the serene air. Poe uses Assonance here with the repeating sound of the vowel ‘O’. The poet then reminds the reader that all this beauty was a long time ago. Poe used caesura (using ‘dashes’ within a line to break it and offer stress).

The poet describes a beautiful day a long time ago when the air was sweet and gentle that flew along the ramparts (surrounding walls) of the Palace. These ramparts of the palace were pale and decorated in a way as if they had (plumed) feathers. Poe indicates the yellow, golden banners he mentioned earlier.

Stanza 3

Wanderers in that happy valley, | Through two luminous windows, saw

Spirits moving musically | To a lute’s well-tunèd law,

Round about a throne where, sitting, | Porphyrogene!

In state, his glory well befitting, | The ruler of the realm was seen.

The poet continues to describe the beauty and majestic aura of the palace and says that wanderers would often visit the valley to witness the magic of its beauty. They would see through the two glittering windows from outside and observe the dancing spirits that follow the well-tuned law of the lute, or the music of that guitar-like musical instrument. There are only two windows into the palace through which one can see inside.

The poet then mentions the throne on which the monarch is sitting. He mentions the monarch as ‘Porphyrogene.’ It is a word that was made by Edgar Allan Poe and it means ‘born in purple.’ In the past, during the Roman era, purple was a color associated with royalty in ancient Constantinople. Thus, being born in purple means belonging to the aristocracy. The wanderers could see through those two windows, the monarch of the realm in all his glory and befitting opulent and magnificent surroundings. We already learned that the monarch is Thought.

Stanza 4

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.

The poet then describes the entry door of the palace which is decorated with bright pearls and rubies.

The pearl and rubies signify red lips and white teeth. Yellow, golden banners of the palace are the orangish hair of a man. The only two glittering luminous windows are his eyes. The realm is the whole head of a happy, healthy man whose ruler is Thought. Poe offers the metaphorical image of a happy, healthy, thoughtful, and sane human being in these four stanzas.

Through the door of pearl and ruby of that palace, a troop of Echoes comes out and sings in the chorus. In Greek mythology, Echo is a nymph who could only repeat the words of others. The poet says that whatever that human head said, or whatever words came out of the mouth of that human head were harmonious, sweet, and nice to listen to, like a song. The words coming out of the door of that palace praised the wit and wisdom of the ruler, Thought.

Stanza 5

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 round about his home the glory | That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story | Of the old time entombed.

Time changes in the fifth stanza and so does the mood and theme of the poem. The palace, the human head is no more a happy jolly place. It has been attacked and defeated by evil things, evil spirits. The monarch was defeated and his majestic high estate was attacked by evil spirits that wore robes of sorrow. The poet then mentions the present. All happiness is gone now and what remains is agony and sorrow. The poet then calls out the reader to mourn for the defeated abandoned (desolate) monarch who will never see another happy day again. The poet mentions that all opulence, wit, and beauty of the Palace or human head is a thing of the past now.

Stanza 6

And travellers, now, within that valley, | Through the red-litten windows see

Vast forms that move fantastically | To a discordant melody;

While, like a ghastly rapid river, | Through the pale door

A hideous throng rush out forever, | And laugh—but smile no more

The travelers still continue to visit the valley but unlike the old times, when the wanderers enjoyed the sight of glittering luminous eyes, the travelers now see dimly red litten eyes. Red eyes symbolize sickness, mental distress, madness, lack of sleep, and evil. Now the travelers cannot see the beautiful spirits dancing on the law of a lute. Rather, they see vast forms that move like fanatics, following a discordant, incoherent, inharmonious (or lacking any harmony) tune. It all seems unreal, or out of fantasy. The head is sane no more. The door of the palace is not glittering with ruby and pearl now. It is rather a pale door through which a ghastly rapid river of words often flows out that offers nothing but disaster. The head now laughs like a mad person but smiles no more. It is an image of insanity, endless laughter with no joy in it. The head palace is not able to understand joy or happiness anymore.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!