"The Haunted Palace" is a

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

. The 48-line poem was first released in the April 1839 issue of Nathan Brooks' '' American Museum'' magazine. It was eventually incorporated into "

The Fall of the House of Usher "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839 in ''Burton's Gentleman's Magazine'', then included in the collection ''Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque'' in 1840. The short story ...

" as a song written by Roderick Usher.

Analysis

The poem serves as an

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

about a king "in the olden time long ago" who is afraid of evil forces that threaten him and his palace, foreshadowing impending doom. As part of "The Fall of the House of Usher", Poe said, "I mean to imply a mind haunted by phantoms — a disordered brain" referring to Roderick Usher. The poem takes a marked change in tone towards the second to last stanza. After discussing the wit and wisdom of the king, and song and beauty in the kingdom: :''But evil things, in robes of sorrow,'' :''Assailed the monarch's high estate.'' The house and family are destroyed and, apparently, become phantoms. The beginning of the poem compares the structure with a human head. For example, the windows are eyes, its door representing a mouth. The exterior represents physical features while the interior represents the mind engaged in imaginative thought.

Publication history

In 1845,

Thomas Dunn English Thomas Dunn English (June 29, 1819 – April 1, 1902) was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who represented the state's 6th congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895. He was also a published ...

claimed Poe had tried to sell "The Haunted Palace" to John L. O'Sullivan of the ''

Democratic Review ''The United States Magazine and Democratic Review'' was a periodical published from 1837 to 1859 by John L. O'Sullivan. Its motto, "The best government is that which governs least", was famously paraphrased by Henry David Thoreau in "Resistance t ...

'' but was rejected because he "found it impossible to comprehend it". It is unclear if this is true. The poem was published in the April 1839 issue of the ''Baltimore Museum''.Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z''. Checkmark Books, 2001: 104.

Critical reception

Rufus Wilmot Griswold Rufus Wilmot Griswold (February 13, 1815 – August 27, 1857) was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New Y ...

, a known rival of Poe's, claimed that Poe had plagiarized the poem from

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely trans ...

's "Beleaguered City". Poe denied that charge and suggested that Longfellow had, in fact, plagiarized from him. Nevertheless, "The Haunted Palace" was one of the poems highlighted in Griswold's ''

The Poets and Poetry of America ''The Poets and Poetry of America'' was a popular anthology of American poetry collected by American literary critic and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold. It was first published in 1842 and went into several editions throughout the 19th century. Back ...

'', one of the first

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

of American poetry in 1842. When the poem was reprinted by the ''New World'' in 1845, Charles Eames introduced it as exquisite. "We can hardly call to mind in the whole compass of American Poetry, a picture of more intense and glowing Ideality."

Adaptations

In 1904, French composer

Florent Schmitt Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' (Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of th ...

wrote an etude, ''Le palais hanté'', derived from "The Haunted Palace". In 1963, the poem provided the title for a

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

film of the same name. The actual plot of Corman's film ''The Haunted Palace'' comes almost entirely from '' The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'', a novel by H. P. Lovecraft. By 1963, Corman had produced several highly lucrative films based on Poe's work, but Lovecraft was not at that time a well-known author; according to Corman on the DVD making-of featurette, the studio forced him to name this movie after one of Poe's poems (and included a Poe epigraph in the credits) so that audiences would believe it to be another film based on Poe's writings. In 1987, Bulgarian rock band

Shturcite Shturcite ( bg, Щурците ; English "The Crickets"), sometimes romanized as Shturtsite, was a Bulgarian rock group. They were one of the most successful bands in Bulgaria during the 1970s and 1980s and still have many fans. The band broke ...

released a song, "Omagiosaniyat zamuk". The song's lyrics are a translation of ''The Haunted Palace'' into Bulgarian but, in 1990, when the track was released on the compilation ''The Crickets'', the track title was back-translated into English as "The Haunted Castle". The British musician Peter Hammill incorporated a musical setting of the poem into his opera based on the Poe short story, ''

''. In 2009, Lithuanian contemporary classical music composer Giedrius Alkauskas wrote an

Art song An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such son ...

for a bass singer and a piano, based on the translation of "The Haunted Palace" into Lithuanian made by Aleksys Churginas.

References

External links

*
The Haunted Palace text from the Poetry Foundation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haunted Palace, The Poetry by Edgar Allan Poe 1839 poems Works originally published in American magazines Works originally published in literary magazines Works involved in plagiarism controversies