COLLECTED WORKS OF

POE, VOLUME IV

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,

GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Edgar Allan Poe

PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and
Advanced Placement are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this
product. All rights reserved.
 Collected Works of Poe,
Volume IV
Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Edgar Allan Poe

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.
 ICON CLASSICS

Published by ICON Group International, Inc.

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www.icongrouponline.com

Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005

Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.

Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved.

All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a
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PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the
National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book;
SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses
this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the
Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither
affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law
School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights
reserved.

ISBN 0-497-01035-6
 iii

Contents
PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR .......................................................................................... 1
THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY.............................................................................................. 3
LIONIZING ...................................................................................................................... 13
X-ING A PARAGRAB........................................................................................................ 21
METZENGERSTEIN......................................................................................................... 29
THE SYSTEM OF DOCTOR TARR AND PROFESSOR FETHER ......................................... 39
HOW TO WRITE A BLACKWOOD ARTICLE...................................................................... 59
A PREDICAMENT ............................................................................................................ 71
MYSTIFICATION ............................................................................................................. 81
DIDDLING ...................................................................................................................... 91
THE ANGEL OF THE ODD ............................................................................................ 103
MELLONTA TAUTA ....................................................................................................... 113
THE DUC DE L’OMELETTE........................................................................................... 129
THE OBLONG BOX ....................................................................................................... 133
LOSS OF BREATH ........................................................................................................ 145
THE MAN THAT WAS USED UP..................................................................................... 159
THE BUSINESS MAN .................................................................................................... 171
THE LANDSCAPE GARDEN........................................................................................... 181
MAELZEL’S CHESS-PLAYER ......................................................................................... 191
THE POWER OF WORDS .............................................................................................. 217
THE COLLOQUY OF MONOS AND UNA......................................................................... 223
THE CONVERSATION OF EIROS AND CHARMION ........................................................ 233
SHADOW—A PARABLE ................................................................................................. 239
GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................... 243
 Edgar Allan Poe 1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV was edited for students who are actively building
their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced Placement®), GRE®,
1
LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations.

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-

dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org

1 PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.
 Edgar Allan Poe 3

THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY

What o’clock is it?

--Old Saying

Everybody knows, in a general way, that the finest place in the world is--or,
alas, was--the Dutch borough of Vondervotteimittiss. Yet as it lies some distance
from any of the main roads, being in a somewhat out-of-the-way situation, there
are perhaps very few of my readers who have ever paid it a visit. For the benefit
of those who have not, therefore, it will be only proper that I should enter into
some account of it. And this is indeed the more necessary, as with the hope of
enlisting public sympathy in behalf of the inhabitants, I design here to give a
history of the calamitous events which have so lately occurred within its limits.
No one who knows me will doubt that the duty thus self-imposed will be
executed to the best of my ability, with all that rigid impartiality, all that cautious
examination into facts, and diligent collation of authorities, which should ever
distinguish him who aspires to the title of historian.%
By the united aid of medals, manuscripts, and inscriptions, I am enabled to
say, positively, that the borough of Vondervotteimittiss has existed, from its
origin, in precisely the same condition which it at present preserves. Of the date
of this origin, however, I grieve that I can only speak with that species of

Thesaurus
calamitous: (adj) fatal, evil, wretched, studious, attentive, laborious, ANTONYMS: (v) rejoice, celebrate,
fateful, deplorable, unfortunate, sad, industrious, zealous. ANTONYMS: encourage.
black, dreadful, cataclysmic; (adj, v) (adj) careless, negligent, dilatory, idle, out-of-the-way: (adj) strange, singular,
ruinous. ANTONYMS: (adj) inactive, languid, slack, sluggish, remote, devious, secluded, outlying,
wonderful, beneficial, blessed, lethargic, weary, indolent. distant, obscure, unusual, peculiar,
comforting, favorable. enlisting: (n) accomplishment, far.
collation: (n) snack, nosh, refreshment, achievement, recruitment. preserves: (n) conserve, jam,
checking, bite, meal, banquet, executed: (adj) finished, fulfilled, chowchow, conserves, jelly,
verification; (v) refection, junket, complete. marmalade, canned food, confiture,
picnic. grieve: (n, v) distress, aggrieve, afflict, European federation of importers of
diligent: (adj) busy, active, assiduous, sorrow, annoy; (v) trouble, lament, dried fruit, preserved food, apple
painstaking, careful, earnest, deplore, bemoan, fret, bewail. butter.
4 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

indefinite definiteness which mathematicians are, at times, forced to put up with

in certain algebraic formulae. The date, I may thus say, in regard to the
remoteness of its antiquity, cannot be less than any assignable quantity
whatsoever.%
Touching the derivation of the name Vondervotteimittiss, I confess myself,
with sorrow, equally at fault. Among a multitude of opinions upon this delicate
point- some acute, some learned, some sufficiently the reverse--I am able to select
nothing which ought to be considered satisfactory. Perhaps the idea of
Grogswigg- nearly coincident with that of Kroutaplenttey--is to be cautiously
preferred.--It runs:--Vondervotteimittis--Vonder, lege Donder--Votteimittis,
quasi und Bleitziz- Bleitziz obsol:--pro Blitzen.” This derivative, to say the truth,
is still countenanced by some traces of the electric fluid evident on the summit of
the steeple of the House of the Town-Council. I do not choose, however, to
commit myself on a theme of such importance, and must refer the reader
desirous of information to the “Oratiunculae de Rebus Praeter-Veteris,” of
Dundergutz. See, also, Blunderbuzzard “De Derivationibus,” pp. 27 to 5010,
Folio, Gothic edit., Red and Black character, Catch-word and No Cypher;
wherein consult, also, marginal notes in the autograph of Stuffundpuff, with the
Sub-Commentaries of Gruntundguzzell.
Notwithstanding the obscurity which thus envelops the date of the
foundation of Vondervotteimittis, and the derivation of its name, there can be no
doubt, as I said before, that it has always existed as we find it at this epoch. The
oldest man in the borough can remember not the slightest difference in the
appearance of any portion of it; and, indeed, the very suggestion of such a
possibility is considered an insult. The site of the village is in a perfectly circular
valley, about a quarter of a mile in circumference, and entirely surrounded by
gentle hills, over whose summit the people have never yet ventured to pass. For
this they assign the very good reason that they do not believe there is anything at
all on the other side.
Round the skirts of the valley (which is quite level, and paved throughout
with flat tiles), extends a continuous row of sixty little houses. These, having

Thesaurus
algebraic: (adj) statistical, accordant, concomitant, coexisting, at hungry, covetous, envious, agog; (adj,
mathematical, arithmetical, the same time, corresponding. v) willing. ANTONYMS: (adj)
numerable, computable, calculable, ANTONYM: (adj) inconsistent. undesirous, reluctant, undesiring,
analytic, geometric, numerical, countenanced: (adj) aided. unconcerned.
arithmetic. definiteness: (n) certainty, paved: (adj) cobbled.
assignable: (adj) negotiable, alienable, conclusiveness, accuracy, exactness, quasi: (adv) nearly, almost, partly,
conveyable, allocatable, movable, finality, decisiveness, definition, practically, just as; (adj) mock,
referable, exchangeable, predictability, intelligibility, ostensible, similar, pseudo; (n) semi.
transferrable, ascribable, convertible. resolution, expressness. ANTONYM: steeple: (adj, n) spire, tower; (n)
coincident: (adj) concurrent, (n) uncertainty. campanile, minaret, turret, dome;
simultaneous, consistent, desirous: (adj) wistful, avid, (adj) pyramid, column, obelisk,
coincidental, identical, congruent, ambitious, greedy, longing, eager, monument, pillar.
 Edgar Allan Poe 5

their backs on the hills, must look, of course, to the centre of the plain, which is
just sixty yards from the front door of each dwelling. Every house has a small
garden before it, with a circular path, a sun-dial, and twenty-four cabbages. The
buildings themselves are so precisely alike, that one can in no manner be
distinguished from the other. Owing to the vast antiquity, the style of
architecture is somewhat odd, but it is not for that reason the less strikingly
picturesque. They are fashioned of hard-burned little bricks, red, with black
ends, so that the walls look like a chess-board upon a great scale. The gables are
turned to the front, and there are cornices, as big as all the rest of the house, over
the eaves and over the main doors. The windows are narrow and deep, with very
tiny panes and a great deal of sash. On the roof is a vast quantity of tiles with
long curly ears. The woodwork, throughout, is of a dark hue and there is much
carving about it, with but a trifling variety of pattern for, time out of mind, the
carvers of Vondervotteimittiss have never been able to carve more than two
objects--a time-piece and a cabbage. But these they do exceedingly well, and
intersperse them, with singular ingenuity, wherever they find room for the
chisel.%
The dwellings are as much alike inside as out, and the furniture is all upon
one plan. The floors are of square tiles, the chairs and tables of black-looking
wood with thin crooked legs and puppy feet. The mantelpieces are wide and
high, and have not only time-pieces and cabbages sculptured over the front, but
a real time-piece, which makes a prodigious ticking, on the top in the middle,
with a flower-pot containing a cabbage standing on each extremity by way of
outrider. Between each cabbage and the time-piece, again, is a little China man
having a large stomach with a great round hole in it, through which is seen the
dial-plate of a watch.
The fireplaces are large and deep, with fierce crooked-looking fire-dogs.
There is constantly a rousing fire, and a huge pot over it, full of sauer-kraut and
pork, to which the good woman of the house is always busy in attending. She is a
little fat old lady, with blue eyes and a red face, and wears a huge cap like a
sugar-loaf, ornamented with purple and yellow ribbons. Her dress is of orange-

Thesaurus
extremity: (n) end, member, festooned, feathered, florid. modeled, engraved, carved, incised,
boundary, bound, close, appendage, outrider: (n) herald, precursor, in refief, etched, anaglyptic, shapely,
limit, limb, ending, fringe, prodrome, prodromus, vancourier, carven.
conclusion. ANTONYMS: (n) trunk, pioneer, guard, escort, attendant, trifling: (adj) paltry, slight, petty,
average, minimum, head, leniency. scout. negligible, immaterial, worthless,
intersperse: (v) interject, interleave, rousing: (adj) stirring, provocative, trivial, minor, small; (adj, v)
diffuse, scatter, alternate, interlard, bracing, thrilling, inspiring, inconsequential; (adj, n) frivolity.
interline, interpolate, interpose, exhilarating, moving; (n) awakening, ANTONYMS: (adj) significant,
intercalate, diversify. wakening, stimulation; (v) rouse. worthwhile, major, considerable,
ornamented: (adj) embellished, ANTONYMS: (adj) conciliatory, dull, crucial, enormous, great, mature,
beautified, fancy, flowery, ornate, relaxing. profound, substantial; (n)
adorned, bedecked, decked, sculptured: (adj) sculpted, graven, importance.
6 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

colored linsey-woolsey, made very full behind and very short in the waist--and
indeed very short in other respects, not reaching below the middle of her leg.
This is somewhat thick, and so are her ankles, but she has a fine pair of green
stockings to cover them. Her shoes--of pink leather--are fastened each with a
bunch of yellow ribbons puckered up in the shape of a cabbage. In her left hand
she has a little heavy Dutch watch; in her right she wields a ladle for the
sauerkraut and pork. By her side there stands a fat tabby cat, with a gilt toy-
repeater tied to its tail, which “the boys” have there fastened by way of a quiz.%
The boys themselves are, all three of them, in the garden attending the pig.
They are each two feet in height. They have three-cornered cocked hats, purple
waistcoats reaching down to their thighs, buckskin knee-breeches, red stockings,
heavy shoes with big silver buckles, long surtout coats with large buttons of
mother-of-pearl. Each, too, has a pipe in his mouth, and a little dumpy watch in
his right hand. He takes a puff and a look, and then a look and a puff. The pig-
which is corpulent and lazy--is occupied now in picking up the stray leaves that
fall from the cabbages, and now in giving a kick behind at the gilt repeater,
which the urchins have also tied to his tail in order to make him look as
handsome as the cat.
Right at the front door, in a high-backed leather-bottomed armed chair, with
crooked legs and puppy feet like the tables, is seated the old man of the house
himself. He is an exceedingly puffy little old gentleman, with big circular eyes
and a huge double chin. His dress resembles that of the boys--and I need say
nothing farther about it. All the difference is, that his pipe is somewhat bigger
than theirs and he can make a greater smoke. Like them, he has a watch, but he
carries his watch in his pocket. To say the truth, he has something of more
importance than a watch to attend to--and what that is, I shall presently explain.
He sits with his right leg upon his left knee, wears a grave countenance, and
always keeps one of his eyes, at least, resolutely bent upon a certain remarkable
object in the centre of the plain.
This object is situated in the steeple of the House of the Town Council. The
Town Council are all very little, round, oily, intelligent men, with big saucer eyes

Thesaurus
buckskin: (n) mount, doeskin, fleece, transfuse; (n, v) shovel; (n) spoon, ermine, pall.
buffalo hide, rawhide, elephant hide, trowel, watch glass, vessel, thimble. sauerkraut: (v) damper, salmis,
skin, pelt, fur. puckered: (adj) corrugated, wrinkly, porterhouse steak, porridge,
buttons: (n) bellboy, peyote. unsmooth, rough, inflated, furrowed, pineapple, oyster, oatmeal,
cocked: (adj) erect, upright, vertical. cockled, bullate, creased. mangosteen, mango, fish; (n)
corpulent: (adj, adv) portly; (adj) stout, puffy: (adj) pompous, swollen, sourcrout.
obese, overweight, fleshy, plump, bloated, inflated, bombastic, tumid, seated: (adj) sat, sedentary.
lusty, tubby, chubby, beefy, bulky. puffed, distended, orotund, puff; (v) surtout: (n) spencer.
ANTONYMS: (adj) slight, bony, obese. tabby: (adj) brinded, brindle, brindled;
underweight, slender, anorexic, thin, purple: (adj) violet, lilac, imperial, (n) cat, fairy, tabby cat, faggot,
slim. regal, royal; (adj, n) empurpled; (v) tattletale, domestic cat, queer, queen
ladle: (v) lade, scoop, dip, laden, empurple; (n) magenta, purpleness, regnant.
 Edgar Allan Poe 7

and fat double chins, and have their coats much longer and their shoe-buckles
much bigger than the ordinary inhabitants of Vondervotteimittiss. Since my
sojourn in the borough, they have had several special meetings, and have
adopted these three important resolutions:
“That it is wrong to alter the good old course of things:”
“That there is nothing tolerable out of Vondervotteimittiss:” and-
“That we will stick by our clocks and our cabbages.”
Above the session-room of the Council is the steeple, and in the steeple is the
belfry, where exists, and has existed time out of mind, the pride and wonder of
the village--the great clock of the borough of Vondervotteimittiss. And this is the
object to which the eyes of the old gentlemen are turned who sit in the leather-
bottomed arm-chairs.%
The great clock has seven faces--one in each of the seven sides of the steeple--
so that it can be readily seen from all quarters. Its faces are large and white, and
its hands heavy and black. There is a belfry-man whose sole duty is to attend to
it; but this duty is the most perfect of sinecures--for the clock of
Vondervotteimittis was never yet known to have anything the matter with it.
Until lately, the bare supposition of such a thing was considered heretical. From
the remotest period of antiquity to which the archives have reference, the hours
have been regularly struck by the big bell. And, indeed the case was just the
same with all the other clocks and watches in the borough. Never was such a
place for keeping the true time. When the large clapper thought proper to say
“Twelve o’clock!” all its obedient followers opened their throats simultaneously,
and responded like a very echo. In short, the good burghers were fond of their
sauer-kraut, but then they were proud of their clocks.
All people who hold sinecure offices are held in more or less respect, and as
the belfry--man of Vondervotteimittiss has the most perfect of sinecures, he is the
most perfectly respected of any man in the world. He is the chief dignitary of the
borough, and the very pigs look up to him with a sentiment of reverence. His
coat-tail is very far longer--his pipe, his shoe--buckles, his eyes, and his stomach,

Thesaurus
belfry: (n) apse, room, bell tower, personage, person, panjandrum. ecclesiastical benefice, cinch,
head, pinnacle, belltower. gentlemen: (n) sirs, messieurs. benefice.
clapper: (n) tongue, organ, striker, heretical: (adj) heterodox, gnostic, sojourn: (adj, v) reside, inhabit; (n)
spit, clack valve, bell, applauder, nonconformist, Sabian, residence, abode; (adj, n, v) stay; (v)
clapper type tool box, claw, gymnosophist, fire worshiper, remain, lodge, abide, live; (n, v)
footboards, footboard. dissident, magi, dissenting, impious, delay, domicile.
clocks: (n) alfilaria, alfileria, storksbill, sacrilegious. ANTONYMS: (adj) supposition: (n, v) conjecture; (n)
pin clover, redstem storksbill, pin orthodox, reverent. assumption, hypothesis,
grass, filaria, filaree. remotest: (adj) furthest, uttermost, presumption, premise, speculation,
dignitary: (n) notable, celebrity, big endmost, extreme, last, utmost. surmise, guess, supposal, thought,
shot, dignity, officer, grandee, very sinecure: (n) berth, plum, sitting duck, imagination. ANTONYMS: (n) fact,
important person, public figure, post, position, plum job, place, office, knowledge, proof, reality, practice.
8 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

very far bigger--than those of any other old gentleman in the village; and as to
his chin, it is not only double, but triple.%
I have thus painted the happy estate of Vondervotteimittiss: alas, that so fair
a picture should ever experience a reverse!
There has been long a saying among the wisest inhabitants, that “no good can
come from over the hills”; and it really seemed that the words had in them
something of the spirit of prophecy. It wanted five minutes of noon, on the day
before yesterday, when there appeared a very odd-looking object on the summit
of the ridge of the eastward. Such an occurrence, of course, attracted universal
attention, and every little old gentleman who sat in a leather-bottomed arm-chair
turned one of his eyes with a stare of dismay upon the phenomenon, still
keeping the other upon the clock in the steeple.
By the time that it wanted only three minutes to noon, the droll object in
question was perceived to be a very diminutive foreign-looking young man. He
descended the hills at a great rate, so that every body had soon a good look at
him. He was really the most finicky little personage that had ever been seen in
Vondervotteimittiss. His countenance was of a dark snuff-color, and he had a
long hooked nose, pea eyes, a wide mouth, and an excellent set of teeth, which
latter he seemed anxious of displaying, as he was grinning from ear to ear. What
with mustachios and whiskers, there was none of the rest of his face to be seen.
His head was uncovered, and his hair neatly done up in papillotes. His dress was
a tight-fitting swallow-tailed black coat (from one of whose pockets dangled a
vast length of white handkerchief), black kerseymere knee-breeches, black
stockings, and stumpy-looking pumps, with huge bunches of black satin ribbon
for bows. Under one arm he carried a huge chapeau-de-bras, and under the other
a fiddle nearly five times as big as himself. In his left hand was a gold snuff-box,
from which, as he capered down the hill, cutting all manner of fantastic steps, he
took snuff incessantly with an air of the greatest possible self-satisfaction. God
bless me!--here was a sight for the honest burghers of Vondervotteimittiss!
To speak plainly, the fellow had, in spite of his grinning, an audacious and
sinister kind of face; and as he curvetted right into the village, the old stumpy

Thesaurus
audacious: (adj) brash, arrogant, eastward: (adj) eastbound, eastern; unendingly, steadily. ANTONYMS:
barefaced, bold, daring, impudent, (adv) eastwards. (adv) sporadically, briefly.
intrepid, brave, shameless, finicky: (adj) fussy, finical, picky, kerseymere: (n) cassimere.
enterprising, insolent. ANTONYMS: choosy, squeamish, exacting, personage: (n) person, notable,
(adj) modest, timid, cautious, polite, particular, dainty, nice, hard to celebrity, personality, individual,
reserved, meek, humble, fearful, please, selective. ANTONYMS: (adj) bigwig, figure, somebody, human,
discreet, respectful. accepting, dilettante, relaxed, character, being.
droll: (adj) comical, humorous, funny, easygoing. self-satisfaction: (n) boast, pride.
laughable, burlesque, ludicrous, incessantly: (adv) constantly, stumpy: (adj) squat, stocky, podgy,
ridiculous; (adj, n) comic, witty; (n) endlessly, continually, perpetually, short, chunky, stubby, squatty,
buffoon, clown. ANTONYMS: (adj) continuously, unceasingly, eternally, dumpy, thick, squab, thickset.
dramatic, dull, grave, tragic, solemn. persistently, unremittingly, ANTONYM: (adj) slender.
 Edgar Allan Poe 9

appearance of his pumps excited no little suspicion; and many a burgher who
beheld him that day would have given a trifle for a peep beneath the white
cambric handkerchief which hung so obtrusively from the pocket of his
swallow-tailed coat. But what mainly occasioned a righteous indignation was,
that the scoundrelly popinjay, while he cut a fandango here, and a whirligig
there, did not seem to have the remotest idea in the world of such a thing as
keeping time in his steps.%
The good people of the borough had scarcely a chance, however, to get their
eyes thoroughly open, when, just as it wanted half a minute of noon, the rascal
bounced, as I say, right into the midst of them; gave a chassez here, and a
balancez there; and then, after a pirouette and a pas-de-zephyr, pigeon-winged
himself right up into the belfry of the House of the Town Council, where the
wonder-stricken belfry-man sat smoking in a state of dignity and dismay. But the
little chap seized him at once by the nose; gave it a swing and a pull; clapped the
big chapeau de-bras upon his head; knocked it down over his eyes and mouth;
and then, lifting up the big fiddle, beat him with it so long and so soundly, that
what with the belfry-man being so fat, and the fiddle being so hollow, you would
have sworn that there was a regiment of double-bass drummers all beating the
devil’s tattoo up in the belfry of the steeple of Vondervotteimittiss.
There is no knowing to what desperate act of vengeance this unprincipled
attack might have aroused the inhabitants, but for the important fact that it now
wanted only half a second of noon. The bell was about to strike, and it was a
matter of absolute and pre-eminent necessity that every body should look well at
his watch. It was evident, however, that just at this moment the fellow in the
steeple was doing something that he had no business to do with the clock. But as
it now began to strike, nobody had any time to attend to his manoeuvres, for
they had all to count the strokes of the bell as it sounded.
“One!” said the clock.
“Von!” echoed every little old gentleman in every leather-bottomed arm-
chair in Vondervotteimittiss. “Von!” said his watch also; “von!” said the watch of

Thesaurus
beheld: (adj) visual. saucily, prominently, impudently, swellhead, dude, egoist, egotist, Beau
burgher: (n) burgess, citizen, cockney, meddlesomely, blatantly, pertly, Brummel.
oppidan, townsman, commoner, cit, conspicuously. rascal: (n) villain, rapscallion, monkey,
Anthony burgess. peep: (n, v) glance, peek, look, gaze, miscreant, knave, scoundrel, scamp,
cambric: (n) calico, cambric-muslin, glint, squeal; (n) glimpse, cheep; (v) rogue, varlet, vagabond, brat.
cashmere, fabric, textile, material, chirp, peer, pry. ANTONYMS: (v) scoundrelly: (adj) roguish, rascally,
cloth, linen. stare, gaze; (n) examination. blackguardly, false, dishonorable,
chapeau: (n) hat, lid, bonnet, bowler, pirouette: (n, v) spin, whirl; (v) gyrate, dishonest, devilish.
busby, bearskin, chapewe, opera hat, wheel, rotate, turn round, roll; (n) whirligig: (n) roundabout, carousel,
headdress, headgear, deerstalker. circination, revolution, volutation, carrousel, teetotum, screw, spinning
obtrusively: (adv) forwardly, turbination. top, circle, windmill, top side,
officiously, pushily, protrudingly, popinjay: (n) parrot, fop, coxcomb, elevation; (adj, n) rotary.
10 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

his vrow; and “von!” said the watches of the boys, and the little gilt repeaters on
the tails of the cat and pig.%
“Two!” continued the big bell; and
“Doo!” repeated all the repeaters.
“Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!” said the bell.
“Dree! Vour! Fibe! Sax! Seben! Aight! Noin! Den!” answered the others.
“Eleven!” said the big one.
“Eleben!” assented the little ones.
“Twelve!” said the bell.
“Dvelf!” they replied perfectly satisfied, and dropping their voices.
“Und dvelf it is!” said all the little old gentlemen, putting up their watches.
But the big bell had not done with them yet.
“Thirteen!” said he.
“Der Teufel!” gasped the little old gentlemen, turning pale, dropping their
pipes, and putting down all their right legs from over their left knees.
“Der Teufel!” groaned they, “Dirteen! Dirteen!!--Mein Gott, it is Dirteen
o’clock!!”
Why attempt to describe the terrible scene which ensued? All
Vondervotteimittiss flew at once into a lamentable state of uproar.
“Vot is cum’d to mein pelly?” roared all the boys--”I’ve been ongry for dis
hour!”
“Vot is com’d to mein kraut?” screamed all the vrows, “It has been done to
rags for this hour!”
“Vot is cum’d to mein pipe?” swore all the little old gentlemen, “Donder and
Blitzen; it has been smoked out for dis hour!”--and they filled them up again in a
great rage, and sinking back in their arm-chairs, puffed away so fast and so
fiercely that the whole valley was immediately filled with impenetrable smoke.

Thesaurus
gilt: (n) gilding, plating, money, lamentable: (adj) grievous, pitiful, sweepings, trash, waste; (n) clothing,
decoration; (adj) aureate, golden, distressing, sad, dismal, sorrowful, tatter, orts, odds and ends, dress.
gold, florid; (v) tesselated, ornate, piteous, unfortunate, lugubrious; (adj, tails: (n) dress suit, tail coat, full dress,
rich. v) pitiable, mournful. ANTONYMS: tail, waste, evening dress, dress coat,
impenetrable: (adj) impassable, thick, (adj) laudable, fortunate. coat, morning coat, cutaway,
incomprehensible, hard, mysterious, pipes: (n) musette, tubing, tubes, pipe, formalwear.
unfathomable, unintelligible, tube. uproar: (adj, n, v) hubbub, disturbance,
impervious, opaque, heavy, obscure. puffed: (adj) puff, bloated, distended, tumult; (n) din, noise, turmoil,
ANTONYMS: (adj) penetrable, puffy, tumid, turgid, swell, commotion, disorder, confusion; (adj,
readable, straightforward, apparent, breathless, bepuffed, overflowing, n) row; (n, v) brawl. ANTONYMS: (n)
simple, sparse, vulnerable, accessible, out of breath. calm, peace, serenity, order.
transparent, understandable, open. rags: (adj) refuse, rubble, scourings, voices: (n) chorus.
 Edgar Allan Poe 11

Meantime the cabbages all turned very red in the face, and it seemed as if old
Nick himself had taken possession of every thing in the shape of a timepiece.
The clocks carved upon the furniture took to dancing as if bewitched, while
those upon the mantel-pieces could scarcely contain themselves for fury, and
kept such a continual striking of thirteen, and such a frisking and wriggling of
their pendulums as was really horrible to see. But, worse than all, neither the cats
nor the pigs could put up any longer with the behavior of the little repeaters tied
to their tails, and resented it by scampering all over the place, scratching and
poking, and squeaking and screeching, and caterwauling and squalling, and
flying into the faces, and running under the petticoats of the people, and creating
altogether the most abominable din and confusion which it is possible for a
reasonable person to conceive. And to make matters still more distressing, the
rascally little scape-grace in the steeple was evidently exerting himself to the
utmost. Every now and then one might catch a glimpse of the scoundrel through
the smoke. There he sat in the belfry upon the belfry-man, who was lying flat
upon his back. In his teeth the villain held the bell-rope, which he kept jerking
about with his head, raising such a clatter that my ears ring again even to think
of it. On his lap lay the big fiddle, at which he was scraping, out of all time and
tune, with both hands, making a great show, the nincompoop! of playing “Judy
O’Flannagan and Paddy O’Rafferty.”
Affairs being thus miserably situated, I left the place in disgust, and now
appeal for aid to all lovers of correct time and fine kraut. Let us proceed in a
body to the borough, and restore the ancient order of things in
Vondervotteimittiss by ejecting that little fellow from the steeple.%

Thesaurus
bewitched: (adj) enchanted, fascinated, nincompoop: (n) idiot, fool, jerk, screeching: (n) screaming, screech,
infatuated, magical, ensorcelled, blockhead, dunce, sap, Gaby, dimwit, shrieking, belly laugh, howler, shriek,
doomed, captive, rapt, enamored, dope, fathead, ass. riot; (adj) shrill, harsh, strident.
obsessed. ANTONYM: (adj) rascally: (adj) dirty, contemptible, squalling: (adj) unquiet.
disgusted. abject, mean, mischievous, squeaking: (adj) creaking, screaky,
caterwauling: (n) caterwaul, noise, scoundrelly, roguish, scabby, scurvy, screechy, squeaky, squealing, creaky;
want of harmony, dissonance; (adj) shabby, paltry. (n) squeak.
harsh. scampering: (n) running. timepiece: (n) clock, watch, ticker,
frisking: (n) search, hunt, hunting, scoundrel: (n, v) rascal; (n) knave, timer, sundial, sandglass,
searching. blackguard, cad, villain, ruffian, chronometer, measuring system,
kraut: (n) Jerry, Krauthead, Hun, miscreant, crook, rapscallion, varlet, measuring instrument, watches,
Boche. scalawag. clocks.
 Edgar Allan Poe 13

LIONIZING

---- all people went

Upon their ten toes in wild wonderment.%
--Bishop Hall’s Satires

I am--that is to say I was--a great man; but I am neither the author of Junius
nor the man in the mask; for my name, I believe, is Robert Jones, and I was born
somewhere in the city of Fum-Fudge.
The first action of my life was the taking hold of my nose with both hands.
My mother saw this and called me a genius: my father wept for joy and
presented me with a treatise on Nosology. This I mastered before I was
breeched.
I now began to feel my way in the science, and soon came to understand that,
provided a man had a nose sufficiently conspicuous he might, by merely
following it, arrive at a Lionship. But my attention was not confined to theories
alone. Every morning I gave my proboscis a couple of pulls and swallowed a
half dozen of drams.
When I came of age my father asked me, one day, If I would step with him
into his study.

Thesaurus
began: (v) Gan. genius: (adj, n) capacity, ability, down in the mouth, cut down,
breeched: (adj) clad, clothed, endowment, faculty, gift, cleverness; beaten.
pantalooned. (n) flair, brain, prodigy, bent, proboscis: (n) beak, nozzle, neb, trunk,
conspicuous: (adj) apparent, blatant, aptitude. ANTONYM: (n) amateur. muzzle, snout, bole, boot, olfactory
visible, manifest, obvious, marked, mask: (n, v) cover, veil, hide, conceal, organ, automobile trunk, luggage
glaring, blazing, flagrant, famous; disguise, screen, camouflage; (v) compartment.
(adj, v) salient. ANTONYMS: (adj) dissemble; (n) guise, blind, curtain. swallowed: (adj) engulfed, gulped,
unobtrusive, unremarkable, ANTONYMS: (v) unmask, enhance, inundated, overcome, overwhelmed,
unnoticeable, concealed, hidden, reinforce, reveal, expose, amplify. flooded, overpowered, enclosed.
indistinct, invisible, secret, mastered: (adj) down pat, low, treatise: (n) tract, thesis, essay,
unimportant, unseen, doubtful. downhearted, perfecter, dispirited, discourse, paper, article, monograph,
dozen: (adj, n) XII; (n) dozens, boxcars. depressed, declining, downcast, piece, pamphlet, review, book.
14 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“My son,” said he, when we were seated, “what is the chief end of your
existence?”
“My father,” I answered, “it is the study of Nosology.”
“And what, Robert,” he inquired, “is Nosology?”
“Sir,” I said, “it is the Science of Noses.”
“And can you tell me,” he demanded, “what is the meaning of a nose?”
“A nose, my father;” I replied, greatly softened, “has been variously defined
by about a thousand different authors.” [Here I pulled out my watch.] “It is now
noon or thereabouts--we shall have time enough to get through with them all
before midnight. To commence then:--The nose, according to Bartholinus, is that
protuberance--that bump--that excrescence--that--“
“Will do, Robert,” interrupted the good old gentleman. “I am thunderstruck
at the extent of your information--I am positively--upon my soul.” [Here he
closed his eyes and placed his hand upon his heart.] “Come here!” [Here he took
me by the arm.] “Your education may now be considered as finished--it is high
time you should scuffle for yourself--and you cannot do a better thing than
merely follow your nose--so--so--so--“ [Here he kicked me down stairs and out of
the door]--“so get out of my house, and God bless you!”
As I felt within me the divine afflatus, I considered this accident rather
fortunate than otherwise. I resolved to be guided by the paternal advice. I
determined to follow my nose. I gave it a pull or two upon the spot, and wrote a
pamphlet on Nosology forthwith.%
All Fum-Fudge was in an uproar.
“Wonderful genius!” said the Quarterly.
“Superb physiologist!” said the Westminster.
“Clever fellow!” said the Foreign.
“Fine writer!” said the Edinburgh.
“Profound thinker!” said the Dublin.
“Great man!” said Bentley.
Thesaurus
according: (adj) pursuant, consonant, paternal: (adj) parental, agnate, subdued, low-key.
equal, agreeable, harmonious, maternal, agnatic, concerned, thunderstruck: (adj) astonished,
conformable, consistent, solicitous, patrimonial, ancestral, flabbergasted, dumbfounded,
corresponding, respondent; (adv) fatherlike, racial, fraternal. amazed, stupefied, stunned,
correspondingly, accordingly. ANTONYMS: (adj) filial, motherly. speechless, dumfounded, aghast,
afflatus: (n) revelation, eluvium, scuffle: (n, v) tussle, fight, scrap, dazed; (v) awestruck.
efflation, flatus, draught, wind. struggle, disturbance, encounter; (v) took: (adj) taken; (v) receive.
guided: (adj) conducted, directed, led. grapple, shuffle; (n) melee, scramble, variously: (adv) differently,
midnight: (n) dark, noon, hour. fighting. multifariously, sundrily, variedly,
pamphlet: (n) book, leaflet, booklet, softened: (adj) diffused, muffled, severally, assortedly, dissimilarly,
flyer, magazine, treatise, tract, muted, quiet, slow, touched, numerously, versatilely, diversly,
writing, literature, folder, lampoon. sluggish, soften, pultaceous, variegatedly.
 Edgar Allan Poe 15

“Divine soul!” said Fraser.

“One of us!” said Blackwood.%
“Who can he be?” said Mrs. Bas-Bleu.
“What can he be?” said big Miss Bas-Bleu.
“Where can he be?” said little Miss Bas-Bleu.--But I paid these people no
attention whatever--I just stepped into the shop of an artist.
The Duchess of Bless-my-Soul was sitting for her portrait; the Marquis of So-
and-So was holding the Duchess’ poodle; the Earl of This-and-That was flirting
with her salts; and his Royal Highness of Touch-me-Not was leaning upon the
back of her chair.
I approached the artist and turned up my nose.
“Oh, beautiful!” sighed her Grace.
“Oh my!” lisped the Marquis.
“Oh, shocking!” groaned the Earl.
“Oh, abominable!” growled his Royal Highness.
“What will you take for it?” asked the artist.
“For his nose!” shouted her Grace.
“A thousand pounds,” said I, sitting down.
“A thousand pounds?” inquired the artist, musingly.
“A thousand pounds,” said I.
“Beautiful!” said he, entranced.
“A thousand pounds,” said I.
“Do you warrant it?” he asked, turning the nose to the light.
“I do,” said I, blowing it well.
“Is it quite original?” he inquired; touching it with reverence.
“Humph!” said I, twisting it to one side.
“Has no copy been taken?” he demanded, surveying it through a microscope.
Thesaurus
blowing: (n) processing, insufflation, contemplatively, reflectively, dishonor.
bravado; (v) fanning, blow out; (adj) ruminatively, broodingly, deep in shouted: (adj) screamed, loud.
windy, breezy. thought. ANTONYM: (adv) stepped: (v) advanced, gone, stopen.
entranced: (adj) delighted, captivated, unthinkingly. surveying: (n) mensuration,
fascinated, enthralled, enchanted, poodle: (n) domestic dog, dog, poodle measurement, investigation,
ecstatic, beguiled, enslaved, gripped; dog, miniature poodle, large poodle. triangulation; (v) inspect, examine;
(adv) on cloud nine; (v) overjoyed. reverence: (n, v) respect, regard, fear, (adj) observant.
flirting: (n) flirtation, dalliance, flirt, worship, honor, esteem, adore; (n) twisting: (adj) tortuous, winding,
coquetry, flirtingly, dawdling, deference, adoration, admiration, sinuous, crooked, zigzag,
coquette, toying, caper, frivolity. awe. ANTONYMS: (n) despise, meandering; (n) distortion, turn, spin,
musingly: (adv) thoughtfully, disrespect, irreverence, disdain, torsion, overrefinement.
ponderingly, meditatively, disparagement, contempt; (v)
16 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“None,” said I, turning it up.

“Admirable!” he ejaculated, thrown quite off his guard by the beauty of the
manoeuvre.%
“A thousand pounds,” said I.
“A thousand pounds?” said he.
“Precisely,” said I.
“A thousand pounds?” said he.
“Just so,” said I.
“You shall have them,” said he. “What a piece of virtu!” So he drew me a
check upon the spot, and took a sketch of my nose. I engaged rooms in Jermyn
street, and sent her Majesty the ninety-ninth edition of the “Nosology,” with a
portrait of the proboscis.--That sad little rake, the Prince of Wales, invited me to
dinner.
We were all lions and recherchés.
There was a modern Platonist. He quoted Porphyry, Iamblicus, Plotinus,
Proclus, Hierocles, Maximus Tyrius, and Syrianus.
There was a human-perfectibility man. He quoted Turgot, Price, Priestly,
Condorcet, De Stael, and the “Ambitious Student in Ill Health.”
There was Sir Positive Paradox. He observed that all fools were philosophers,
and that all philosophers were fools.
There was Æstheticus Ethix. He spoke of fire, unity, and atoms; bi-part and
pre-existent soul; affinity and discord; primitive intelligence and homöomeria.
There was Theologos Theology. He talked of Eusebius and Arianus; heresy
and the Council of Nice; Puseyism and consubstantialism; Homousios and
Homouioisios.
There was Fricassée from the Rocher de Cancale. He mentioned Muriton of
red tongue; cauliflowers with velouté sauce; veal à la St. Menehoult; marinade à
la St. Florentin; and orange jellies en mosäiques.

Thesaurus
affinity: (n) analogy, alliance, strife, split, contention. ANTONYMS: immerse, infuse, saturate, soak,
propinquity, rapport, bond, relation, (n) agreement, harmony, unity, submerge.
relationship, kindred, semblance, accord, concordance, consent, silence, rake: (n, v) tilt; (adj, v) comb; (v) hoe,
penchant, similarity. ANTONYMS: concord; (v) match. harrow, graze, draw, plow; (n)
(n) repulsion, dissimilarity, heresy: (n) paganism, heathenism, debauchee, roue, slant, blood.
difference, consanguinity, aversion, false doctrine, nonconformity, ANTONYM: (v) glance.
hatred, horror. revisionism, unbelief, orientation, sketch: (n, v) plan, outline, draft,
atoms: (n) smithereens, Smither. apostasy, fallacy, schism, dissent. scheme, picture, project; (n) drawing,
cauliflowers: (n) genus brassica. invited: (adj) welcomer, wanted, cartoon, plot; (v) paint, draw.
discord: (n, v) conflict, clash; (n) cherished. veal: (n) calf, venison, veau, animal
disagreement, variance, division, marinade: (n) cold marinade, protein, beef, calves' feet, chicken,
difference, dissension, dissonance, condiment, brine; (v) drench, ham, lamb, meat, mutton.
 Edgar Allan Poe 17

There was Bibulus O’Bumper. He touched upon Latour and Markbrünnen;

upon Mousseux and Chambertin; upon Richbourg and St. George; upon
Haubrion, Leonville, and Medoc; upon Barac and Preignac; upon Grâve, upon
Sauterne, upon Lafitte, and upon St. Peray. He shook his head at Clos de
Vougeot, and told, with his eyes shut, the difference between Sherry and
Amontillado.%
There was Signor Tintontintino from Florence. He discoursed of Cimabué,
Arpino, Carpaccio, and Argostino--of the gloom of Caravaggio, of the amenity of
Albano, of the colors of Titian, of the frows of Rubens, and of the waggeries of
Jan Steen.
There was the President of the Fum-Fudge University. He was of opinion that
the moon was called Bendis in Thrace, Bubastis in Egypt, Dian in Rome, and
Artemis in Greece. There was a Grand Turk from Stamboul. He could not help
thinking that the angels were horses, cocks, and bulls; that somebody in the sixth
heaven had seventy thousand heads; and that the earth was supported by a sky-
blue cow with an incalculable number of green horns.
There was Delphinus Polyglott. He told us what had become of the eighty-
three lost tragedies of Æschylus; of the fifty-four orations of Isæus; of the three
hundred and ninety-one speeches of Lysias; of the hundred and eighty treatises
of Theophrastus; of the eighth book of the conic sections of Apollonius; of
Pindar’s hymns and dithyrambics; and of the five and forty tragedies of Homer
Junior.
There was Ferdinand Fitz-Fossillus Feltspar. He informed us all about
internal fires and tertiary formations; about äeriforms, fluidiforms, and
solidiforms; about quartz and marl; about schist and schorl; about gypsum and
trap; about talc and calc; about blende and horn-blende; about mica-slate and
pudding-stone; about cyanite and lepidolite; about hematite and tremolite;
about antimony and calcedony; about manganese and whatever you please.
There was myself. I spoke of myself;--of myself, of myself, of myself;--of
Nosology, of my pamphlet, and of myself. I turned up my nose, and I spoke of
myself.

Thesaurus
antimony: (n) metal, tartar emetic, hyperbolic; (n) ellipse, hyperbola, marl: (n) loam, soil, clod, dirt, marvel,
stibium. parabola. glebe, subsoil, mold, earth, gravel,
blende: (n) sphalerite, false galena, cyanite: (n) kyanite, disthene. cledge.
blind, blend, mineral. gypsum: (n) alabaster, plaster, quartz: (adj) flint, fossil, crag, marble,
calcedony: (n) chalcedony, bloodstone, mineral, plaster cast, plaster stone, pebble; (n) quartz glass, citrine,
agate, sard, sardine, sardius, alabastrine. chalcedony, lechatelierite,
cornelian, heliotrope, onyx, carnelian, hematite: (n) alexandrite, bloodstone, aventurine, cairngorm.
chrysoprase. jasper, moonstone, sunstone. schist: (n) metamorphic rock.
colors: (n) flag, colours, paints, banner, lepidolite: (n) lithia mica, mica, schorl: (n) black tourmaline, Shirl.
color, colour, ensign, pigment, tint, isinglass. seventy: (n) large integer.
dye, paint. manganese: (n) metal, Gopher State, talc: (n) steatite, rensselaerite,
conic: (adj) conical, conelike, tapered, manganium, atomic number. soapstone, soaprock.
18 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Marvellous clever man!” said the Prince.

“Superb!” said his guests:--and next morning her Grace of Bless-my-Soul
paid me a visit.%
“Will you go to Almack’s, pretty creature?” she said, tapping me under the
chin.
“Upon honor,” said I.
“Nose and all?” she asked.
“As I live,” I replied.
“Here then is a card, my life. Shall I say you will be there?”
“Dear Duchess, with all my heart.”
“Pshaw, no!--but with all your nose?”
“Every bit of it, my love,” said I: so I gave it a twist or two, and found myself
at Almack’s. The rooms were crowded to suffocation.
“He is coming!” said somebody on the staircase.
“He is coming!” said somebody farther up.
“He is coming!” said somebody farther still.
“He is come!” exclaimed the Duchess. “He is come, the little love!”--and,
seizing me firmly by both hands, she kissed me thrice upon the nose. A marked
sensation immediately ensued.
“Diavolo!” cried Count Capricornutti.
“Dios guarda!” muttered Don Stiletto.
“Mille tonnerres!” ejaculated the Prince de Grenouille.
“Tousand teufel!” growled the Elector of Bluddennuff.
It was not to be borne. I grew angry. I turned short upon Bluddennuff.
“Sir!” said I to him, “you are a baboon.”
“Sir,” he replied, after a pause, “Donner und Blitzen!”

Thesaurus
borne: (adj) weak, wanting, spoony, within; (adv) nearer, closer. kill.
soft, sappy, shallow, little, limited. seizing: (v) seize; (n) seizure, clutches, tapping: (n) draining of the furnace,
crowded: (adj) compact, congested, prehension, taking, apprehension, paracentesis, to tap, tick, tapotement,
full, packed, busy, dense, populous, capture, infection; (adj) catching, sound, patter, drainage, clapping,
jammed, cramped, tight; (adj, n) galling, controlling. casting, restriking.
thronged. ANTONYMS: (adj) sparse, staircase: (n) stair, ladder, flight, steps, thrice: (adv) three times, thirdly.
deserted, uncrowded, loose. flight of steps, stairs, backstairs, twist: (n, v) turn, bend, curl, coil,
farther: (adj, adv, prep) beyond; (adj) escalator, companionway, way, wind, pervert, spin, wrench; (adj, v)
additional, more, distant; (adv) entrance. distort; (v) contort, deform.
furthermore, besides, abroad, in suffocation: (n) asphyxiation, ANTONYMS: (v) untwist, undo,
addition, too; (adj, prep) outside; asphyxia, choking, killing, garrote, uncurl, explain, explicate, unbend,
(pron) another. ANTONYMS: (prep) strangling, putting to death, apnoea, smooth, clarify, smile.
 Edgar Allan Poe 19

This was all that could be desired. We exchanged cards. At Chalk-Farm, the
next morning, I shot off his nose--and then called upon my friends.
“Bête!” said the first.%
“Fool!” said the second.
“Dolt!” said the third.
“Ass!” said the fourth.
“Ninny!” said the fifth.
“Noodle!” said the sixth.
“Be off!” said the seventh.
At all this I felt mortified, and so called upon my father.
“Father,” I asked, “what is the chief end of my existence?”
“My son,” he replied, “it is still the study of Nosology; but in hitting the
Elector upon the nose you have overshot your mark. You have a fine nose, it is
true; but then Bluddennuff has none. You are damned, and he has become the
hero of the day. I grant you that in Fum-Fudge the greatness of a lion is in
proportion to the size of his proboscis--but, good heavens! there is no competing
with a lion who has no proboscis at all.”

Thesaurus
competing: (v) compete; (adj) greatness: (n) excellence, dimension, contact, contusion, drumming; (adj)
competitive, contending, contra, dignity, bulk, size, enormousness, convincing. ANTONYM: (n) victory.
opposite, opposing, hostile, bigness, enormity, grandness, lion: (adj, n) celebrity, hero; (adj)
competitory, challenging; (n) magnitude, fame. ANTONYMS: (n) worthy, great card, tiger; (n) Leo, cat,
competition. obscurity, austerity, commonness, king of beasts, curiosity, luminary,
damned: (adj) accursed, doomed, mildness, moderation, simplicity. spectacle.
blasted, condemned, damn, cussed, heavens: (n) firmament, heaven, sky, mortified: (adj) humiliated,
wretched, infernal, hateful, welkin, sphere, atmosphere, celestial embarrassed, abashed, gangrenous,
goddamned; (adv) damnably. sphere, space, skies, area, vault of sheepish, chagrined, feeling shame,
ANTONYM: (adj) saved. heaven. feeling guilty, guilty, hangdog,
exchanged: (adj) counterchanged, hitting: (n) striking, collision, header, humbled. ANTONYM: (adj)
bartered, substituted. grounder, smash, beating, thrashing, unabashed.
 Edgar Allan Poe 21

X-ING A PARAGRAB

As it is well known that the ‘wise men’ came ‘from the East,’ and as Mr.
Touch-and-go Bullet-head came from the East, it follows that Mr. Bullet-head
was a wise man; and if collateral proof of the matter be needed, here we have it--
Mr. B. was an editor. Irascibility was his sole foible, for in fact the obstinacy of
which men accused him was anything but his foible, since he justly considered it
his forte. It was his strong point--his virtue; and it would have required all the
logic of a Brownson to convince him that it was ‘anything else.’
I have shown that Touch-and-go Bullet-head was a wise man; and the only
occasion on which he did not prove infallible, was when, abandoning that
legitimate home for all wise men, the East, he migrated to the city of Alexander-
the-Great-o-nopolis, or some place of a similar title, out West.%
I must do him the justice to say, however, that when he made up his mind
finally to settle in that town, it was under the impression that no newspaper, and
consequently no editor, existed in that particular section of the country. In
establishing ‘The Tea-Pot’ he expected to have the field all to himself. I feel
confident he never would have dreamed of taking up his residence in Alexander-
the-Great-o-nopolis had he been aware that, in Alexander-the-Great-o-nopolis,
there lived a gentleman named John Smith (if I rightly remember), who for many
years had there quietly grown fat in editing and publishing the ‘Alexander-the-

Thesaurus
collateral: (n) warranty, guarantee, absolute, confident, definite, ANTONYMS: (adv) wrongly,
mortgage, guaranty, security, pledge, dependable; (adj, v) unerring; (n) unfairly, unjustifiably, unjustly,
bond; (adj) secondary, indirect, sterling. ANTONYMS: (adj) fallible, unlawfully, sinfully, falsely,
oblique, subsidiary. ANTONYMS: faulty. immorally.
(adj) primary, chief, fundamental, irascibility: (n) irascibleness, obstinacy: (n) stubbornness, firmness,
principal, lineal. touchiness, temper, acrimony, bullheadedness, determination,
foible: (adj, n) failing, fault, frailty, testiness, irritability, asperity, spleen, contumacy, mulishness, impenitence,
defect, imperfection, eccentricity; (n) edginess, quick temper, bad temper. resolve, resoluteness, impenitency,
oddity, vice, weakness; (adj) feeble, justly: (adv) accurately, fairly, pertinacity. ANTONYMS: (n)
infirmity. correctly, honestly, lawfully, cooperation, compliance.
infallible: (adj) sure, inevitable, properly, exactly, uprightly, touch-and-go: (adj) dangerous,
positive, inerrable, unfailing, legitimately, impartially, purely. doubtful, tricky, intermittent.
22 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Great-o-nopolis Gazette.’ It was solely, therefore, on account of having been

misinformed, that Mr. Bullet-head found himself in Alex-suppose we call it
Nopolis, ‘for short’--but, as he did find himself there, he determined to keep up
his character for obst--for firmness, and remain. So remain he did; and he did
more; he unpacked his press, type, etc., etc., rented an office exactly opposite to
that of the ‘Gazette,’ and, on the third morning after his arrival, issued the first
number of ‘The Alexan’--that is to say, of ‘The Nopolis Tea-Pot’--as nearly as I
can recollect, this was the name of the new paper.%
The leading article, I must admit, was brilliant--not to say severe. It was
especially bitter about things in general--and as for the editor of ‘The Gazette,’ he
was torn all to pieces in particular. Some of Bullethead’s remarks were really so
fiery that I have always, since that time, been forced to look upon John Smith,
who is still alive, in the light of a salamander. I cannot pretend to give all the
‘Tea-Pot’s’ paragraphs verbatim, but one of them runs thus:
‘Oh, yes!--Oh, we perceive! Oh, no doubt! The editor over the way is a
genius--O, my! Oh, goodness, gracious!--what is this world coming to? Oh,
tempora! Oh, Moses!’
A philippic at once so caustic and so classical, alighted like a bombshell
among the hitherto peaceful citizens of Nopolis. Groups of excited individuals
gathered at the corners of the streets. Every one awaited, with heartfelt anxiety,
the reply of the dignified Smith. Next morning it appeared as follows:
‘We quote from “The Tea-Pot” of yesterday the subjoined paragraph: “Oh,
yes! Oh, we perceive! Oh, no doubt! Oh, my! Oh, goodness! Oh, tempora! Oh,
Moses!” Why, the fellow is all O! That accounts for his reasoning in a circle, and
explains why there is neither beginning nor end to him, nor to anything he says.
We really do not believe the vagabond can write a word that hasn’t an O in it.
Wonder if this O-ing is a habit of his? By-the-by, he came away from Down-East
in a great hurry. Wonder if he O’s as much there as he does here? “O! it is
pitiful.”‘
The indignation of Mr. Bullet-head at these scandalous insinuations, I shall
not attempt to describe. On the eel-skinning principle, however, he did not seem

Thesaurus
bombshell: (n) shock, surprise, denouncement, denunciation, flier, subjoined: (v) enclitical.
entertainer, shell, disclosure, flyer, fulmination, handbill. vagabond: (n, v) tramp; (adj, n)
thunderclap, win, bolt, bolt from the recollect: (v) recall, remember, vagrant; (v) roam, stray, wander,
blue, blow, bolt of lightning. recognize, call to mind, remind, range, ramble; (n) outcast, bum,
heartfelt: (adj) cordial, sincere, devout, mind, think, call up, reminisce, wanderer, nomad. ANTONYMS: (n)
dear, genuine, wholehearted, frank, refresh, retrieve. ANTONYM: (v) inhabitant, resident; (adj) settled.
deep, honest, fervent, real. forget. verbatim: (adv) literally, word for
ANTONYMS: (adj) dishonest, salamander: (n) bear, poker, olm, word, literatim, verbally, to the letter;
unenthusiastic, impassive. hellbender, fire hook, amphiuma, (adj) exact, direct, verbal, verbatim et
misinformed: (adj) ignorant. brasier, warming pan, literatim, not alternating; (adj, adv)
philippic: (n) diatribe, broadside, dicamptodontid, sow, alpine directly. ANTONYMS: (adj)
harangue, bill, broadsheet, salamander. imprecise, broad.
 Edgar Allan Poe 23

to be so much incensed at the attack upon his integrity as one might have
imagined. It was the sneer at his style that drove him to desperation. What!--he
Touch-and-go Bullet-head!--not able to write a word without an O in it! He
would soon let the jackanapes see that he was mistaken. Yes! he would let him
see how much he was mistaken, the puppy! He, Touch-and-go Bullet-head, of
Frogpondium, would let Mr. John Smith perceive that he, Bullet-head, could
indite, if it so pleased him, a whole paragraph--aye! a whole article--in which
that contemptible vowel should not once--not even once--make its appearance.
But no;--that would be yielding a point to the said John Smith. He, Bullet-head,
would make no alteration in his style, to suit the caprices of any Mr. Smith in
Christendom. Perish so vile a thought! The O forever; He would persist in the O.
He would be as O-wy as O-wy could be.%
Burning with the chivalry of this determination, the great Touch-and-go, in
the next ‘Tea-Pot,’ came out merely with this simple but resolute paragraph, in
reference to this unhappy affair:
‘The editor of the “Tea-Pot” has the honor of advising the editor of the
“Gazette” that he (the “Tea-Pot”) will take an opportunity in tomorrow
morning’s paper, of convincing him (the “Gazette”) that he (the “Tea-Pot”) both
can and will be his own master, as regards style; he (the “Tea-Pot”) intending to
show him (the “Gazette”) the supreme, and indeed the withering contempt with
which the criticism of him (the “Gazette”) inspires the independent bosom of
him (the “TeaPot”) by composing for the especial gratification (?) of him (the
“Gazette”) a leading article, of some extent, in which the beautiful vowel--the
emblem of Eternity--yet so offensive to the hyper-exquisite delicacy of him (the
“Gazette”) shall most certainly not be avoided by his (the “Gazette’s”) most
obedient, humble servant, the “Tea-Pot.” “So much for Buckingham!”‘
In fulfilment of the awful threat thus darkly intimated rather than decidedly
enunciated, the great Bullet-head, turning a deaf ear to all entreaties for ‘copy,’
and simply requesting his foreman to ‘go to the d-l,’ when he (the foreman)
assured him (the ‘Tea-Pot’!) that it was high time to ‘go to press’: turning a deaf
ear to everything, I say, the great Bullet-head sat up until day-break, consuming

Thesaurus
avoided: (adj) unpopular. distinctive, characteristic, indite: (v) pen, draft, draw up, frame,
came: (v) arrive, come. appropriate, peculiar, express. dictate, write, annotate, footnote,
contemptible: (adj) abject, mean, base, ANTONYMS: (adj) general, normal, formulate, adopt, dramatize.
pitiful, little, worthless, unworthy, common, unexceptional, usual. intimated: (adj) tacit, furtive, dejected.
miserable, ignoble, abominable, honor: (n, v) respect, reputation, glory, jackanapes: (n) saucebox, brat, minx,
shameful. ANTONYMS: (adj) fame, reward; (n) award, accolade, nobody, nonentity, coxcomb, ape,
estimable, admired, deserving, reverence; (v) celebrate; (adj, n, v) monkey, cypher, lightweight, cipher.
worthy, honorable, respectable, worship, grace. ANTONYMS: (n, v) withering: (adj) devastating,
respectful, noble, generous, dishonor, disgrace; (n) shame, extortionate, grinding; (v) dry,
commendable, good. humiliation, wickedness, contempt, sarcastic, sharp, severe, satirical,
especial: (adj) extraordinary, special, insult; (v) break, ignore, disrespect, sardonic, cutting; (n) shrinkage.
specific, chief, individual, distinct, discredit. ANTONYM: (adj) hopeful.
24 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

the midnight oil, and absorbed in the composition of the really unparalleled
paragraph, which follows:-
‘So ho, John! how now? Told you so, you know. Don’t crow, another time,
before you’re out of the woods! Does your mother know you’re out? Oh, no, no!-
-so go home at once, now, John, to your odious old woods of Concord! Go home
to your woods, old owl--go! You won’t! Oh, poh, poh, don’t do so! You’ve got to
go, you know! So go at once, and don’t go slow, for nobody owns you here, you
know! Oh! John, John, if you don’t go you’re no homo--no! You’re only a fowl, an
owl, a cow, a sow,--a doll, a poll; a poor, old, good-for-nothing-to-nobody, log,
dog, hog, or frog, come out of a Concord bog. Cool, now--cool! Do be cool, you
fool! None of your crowing, old cock! Don’t frown so--don’t! Don’t hollo, nor
howl nor growl, nor bow-wow-wow! Good Lord, John, how you do look! Told
you so, you know--but stop rolling your goose of an old poll about so, and go
and drown your sorrows in a bowl!’
Exhausted, very naturally, by so stupendous an effort, the great Touch-and-
go could attend to nothing farther that night. Firmly, composedly, yet with an air
of conscious power, he handed his MS. to the devil in waiting, and then, walking
leisurely home, retired, with ineffable dignity to bed.%
Meantime the devil, to whom the copy was entrusted, ran up stairs to his
‘case,’ in an unutterable hurry, and forthwith made a commencement at ‘setting’
the MS. ‘up.’
In the first place, of course,--as the opening word was ‘So,’--he made a plunge
into the capital S hole and came out in triumph with a capital S. Elated by this
success, he immediately threw himself upon the little-o box with a blindfold
impetuosity--but who shall describe his horror when his fingers came up without
the anticipated letter in their clutch? who shall paint his astonishment and rage
at perceiving, as he rubbed his knuckles, that he had been only thumping them
to no purpose, against the bottom of an empty box. Not a single little-o was in
the little-o hole; and, glancing fearfully at the capital-O partition, he found that
to his extreme terror, in a precisely similar predicament. Awe--stricken, his first
impulse was to rush to the foreman.

Thesaurus
blindfold: (adv) blindly; (v) mystify, Corvus, bravado. ineffable: (adj) indescribable,
hoodwink, muffle; (adj) reckless, elated: (adj) joyful, delighted, jubilant, unspeakable, unutterable,
blindfolded, blinded, unsighted; (n) exultant, gleeful, happy, triumphant, indefinable, inexpressible, beyond
blinder. overjoyed, proud, ecstatic; (n) expression, unimaginable, beyond
composedly: (adv) serenely, calmly, buoyant. ANTONYMS: (adj) dejected, words, unpronounceable, dreadful,
quietly, placidly, coolly, sedately, disappointed, sad, unhappy, untellable.
steadily, soberly, unperturbedly, miserable, down, depressed, unutterable: (adj) indescribable,
staidly, relaxedly. ANTONYM: (adv) despairing, blue, sorrowful, desolate. unspeakable, inexpressible,
nervously. glancing: (adj) passing. unpronounceable, indefinable,
crowing: (adj, n) bragging; (adj) hollo: (n, v) holler; (v) cry, scream, untellable, unnameable,
boastful, braggart, big, braggy; (n) shout, yell, call; (n) roar, holloa, unapproachable, beyond description,
brag, jactitation, gasconade, crows, bellowing, roaring; (int, n) holla. incommunicable, terrible.
 Edgar Allan Poe 25

‘Sir!’ said he, gasping for breath, ‘I can’t never set up nothing without no o’s.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ growled the foreman, who was in a very ill
humor at being kept so late.%
‘Why, sir, there beant an o in the office, neither a big un nor a little un!’
‘What--what the d-l has become of all that were in the case?’
‘I don’t know, sir,’ said the boy, ‘but one of them ere “G’zette” devils is bin
prowling ‘bout here all night, and I spect he’s gone and cabbaged ‘em every one.’
‘Dod rot him! I haven’t a doubt of it,’ replied the foreman, getting purple
with rage ‘but I tell you what you do, Bob, that’s a good boy--you go over the
first chance you get and hook every one of their i’s and (d-n them!) their izzards.’
‘Jist so,’ replied Bob, with a wink and a frown--’I’ll be into ‘em, I’ll let ‘em
know a thing or two; but in de meantime, that ere paragrab? Mus go in to-night,
you know--else there’ll be the d-l to pay, and-’
‘And not a bit of pitch hot,’ interrupted the foreman, with a deep sigh, and an
emphasis on the ‘bit.’ ‘Is it a long paragraph, Bob?’
‘Shouldn’t call it a wery long paragrab,’ said Bob.
‘Ah, well, then! do the best you can with it! We must get to press,” said the
foreman, who was over head and ears in work; ‘just stick in some other letter for
o; nobody’s going to read the fellow’s trash anyhow.’
‘Wery well,’ replied Bob, ‘here goes it!’ and off he hurried to his case,
muttering as he went: ‘Considdeble vell, them ere expressions, perticcler for a
man as doesn’t swar. So I’s to gouge out all their eyes, eh? and d-n all their
gizzards! Vell! this here’s the chap as is just able for to do it.’ The fact is that
although Bob was but twelve years old and four feet high, he was equal to any
amount of fight, in a small way.
The exigency here described is by no means of rare occurrence in printing-
offices; and I cannot tell how to account for it, but the fact is indisputable, that
when the exigency does occur, it almost always happens that x is adopted as a
substitute for the letter deficient. The true reason, perhaps, is that x is rather the

Thesaurus
devils: (n) unclean spirits. (v) indulge, gratify; (adj, n) spirit, sigh: (n, v) groan, suspire, murmur; (v)
exigency: (n) need, distress, exigence, frame of mind. ANTONYMS: (n) breathe, languish, pine; (n) breath,
want, lack, requirement, pressure, seriousness, gravity, solemnity; (v) wail, whimper, whine, suspiration.
necessity, crisis, juncture, pinch. displease. trash: (n) rubbish, litter, scum,
gasping: (adj) panting, winded, blown, indisputable: (adj) incontestable, garbage, refuse, rubble, debris; (n, v)
out of breath, thirsty, pursy; (v) incontrovertible, sure, irrefutable, scrap, junk; (v) destroy; (adj, n)
spavined, touched in the wind. undeniable, firm, absolute, positive, trumpery. ANTONYMS: (n)
gouge: (v) swindle, deceive, beguile, decided, obvious, unmistakable. valuables, sense, possessions, assets,
fleece, dig, scoop, extort, defraud, ANTONYMS: (adj) dubious, fact; (v) renovate, conserve.
cut; (n, v) groove, dent. doubtful, questionable, disputable, wink: (n, v) twinkle, blink, flash; (n)
humor: (n, v) caprice, freak, humour; equivocal, debatable, imitation, instant, twinkling, trice; (v) sparkle,
(n) temper, mood, disposition, wit; tenuous, weak. nictitate, flicker, nictate, leer.
26 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

most superabundant letter in the cases, or at least was so in the old times--long
enough to render the substitution in question an habitual thing with printers. As
for Bob, he would have considered it heretical to employ any other character, in a
case of this kind, than the x to which he had been accustomed.%
‘I shell have to x this ere paragrab,’ said he to himself, as he read it over in
astonishment, ‘but it’s jest about the awfulest o-wy paragrab I ever did see’: so x
it he did, unflinchingly, and to press it went x-ed.
Next morning the population of Nopolis were taken all aback by reading in
‘The Tea-Pot,’ the following extraordinary leader:
‘Sx hx, Jxhn! hxw nxw? Txld yxu sx, yxu knxw. Dxn’t crxw, anxther time,
befxre yxu’re xut xf the wxxds! Dxes yxur mxther knxw yxu’re xut? Xh, nx, nx!--
sx gx hxme at xnce, nxw, Jxhn, tx yxur xdixus xld wxxds xf Cxncxrd! Gx hxme tx
yxur wxxds, xld xwl,--gx! Yxu wxn’t? Xh, pxh, pxh, Jxhn, dxn’t dx sx! Yxu’ve gxt
tx gx, yxu knxw, sx gx at xnce, and dxn’t gx slxw; fxr nxbxdy xwns yxu here, yxu
knxw. Xh, Jxhn, Jxhn, Jxhn, if yxu dxn’t gx yxu’re nx hxmx--nx! Yxu’re xnly a
fxwl, an xwl; a cxw, a sxw; a dxll, a pxll; a pxxr xld gxxd-fxr-nxthing-tx-nxbxdy,
lxg, dxg, hxg, xr frxg, cxme xut xf a Cxncxrd bxg. Cxxl, nxw--cxxl! Dx be cxxl,
yxu fxxl! Nxne xf yxur crxwing, xld cxck! Dxn’t frxwn sx--dxn’t! Dxn’t hxllx, nxr
hxwl, nxr grxwl, nxr bxw-wxw-wxw! Gxxd Lxrd, Jxhn, hxw yxu dx lxxk! Txld
yxu sx, yxu knxw,--but stxp rxlling yxur gxxse xf an xld pxll abxut sx, and gx and
drxwn yxur sxrrxws in a bxwl!’
The uproar occasioned by this mystical and cabalistical article, is not to be
conceived. The first definite idea entertained by the populace was, that some
diabolical treason lay concealed in the hieroglyphics; and there was a general
rush to Bullet-head’s residence, for the purpose of riding him on a rail; but that
gentleman was nowhere to be found. He had vanished, no one could tell how;
and not even the ghost of him has ever been seen since.
Unable to discover its legitimate object, the popular fury at length subsided;
leaving behind it, by way of sediment, quite a medley of opinion about this
unhappy affair.
One gentleman thought the whole an X-ellent joke.
Thesaurus
cabalistical: (adj) cab-alistic, cabalistic. infrequent, mild, irregular, mob, crowd, population, nation,
conceived: (adj) formed. exceptional, erratic, abnormal, man, country.
diabolical: (adj) diabolic, demoniac, innovative. superabundant: (adj) excessive,
demonic, infernal, hellish, unholy, jest: (n) gag, gibe, quip, game; (n, v) profuse, plentiful, copious,
fiendish, wicked, satanic, atrocious, jape; (v) banter, jeer, deride, gird, superfluous, overmuch, redundant,
evil. sneer, clown. inordinate, prodigal, lavish,
entertained: (adj) diverted, pleased. medley: (n) mixture, miscellany, abundant.
habitual: (adj, n) common, frequent, jumble, melange, potpourri, unflinchingly: (adv) intrepidly, firmly,
usual; (adj) chronic, conventional, hotchpotch, concoction, admixture, resolutely, undauntedly,
confirmed, accustomed, natural, hash; (adj) imbroglio, chaos. determinedly, dauntlessly,
commonplace, everyday, ordinary. populace: (n) multitude, masses, unshrinkingly, bravely, daringly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) occasional, inhabitants, public, commonalty, audaciously, steadfastly.
 Edgar Allan Poe 27

Another said that, indeed, Bullet-head had shown much X-uberance of

fancy.%
A third admitted him X-entric, but no more.
A fourth could only suppose it the Yankee’s design to X-press, in a general
way, his X-asperation.
‘Say, rather, to set an X-ample to posterity,’ suggested a fifth.
That Bullet-head had been driven to an extremity, was clear to all; and in fact,
since that editor could not be found, there was some talk about lynching the
other one.
The more common conclusion, however, was that the affair was, simply, X-
traordinary and in-X-plicable. Even the town mathematician confessed that he
could make nothing of so dark a problem. X, everybody knew, was an unknown
quantity; but in this case (as he properly observed), there was an unknown
quantity of X.
The opinion of Bob, the devil (who kept dark about his having ‘X-ed the
paragrab’), did not meet with so much attention as I think it deserved, although
it was very openly and very fearlessly expressed. He said that, for his part, he
had no doubt about the matter at all, that it was a clear case, that Mr. Bullet-head
‘never could be persuaded fur to drink like other folks, but vas continually a-
svigging o’ that ere blessed XXX ale, and as a naiteral consekvence, it just puffed
him up savage, and made him X (cross) in the X-treme.’

Thesaurus
blessed: (adj) happy, holy, cursed, monster, Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, knew: (adj) known; (v) recognize, wist.
sacred, damned, hallowed, blasted, deuce, daemon; (v) torment, rag. lynching: (n) kill, killing, murder.
fortunate, saintly, lucky, divine. ANTONYM: (n) angel. mathematician: (v) arithmetician,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unlucky, fearlessly: (adj, adv) daringly, boldly, algebraist, calculator, abacist; (n)
condemned, damned, disapproved, heroically, courageously, valiantly; geometrician, gauss, scientist, man of
unhappy, unholy, secular. (adv) dauntlessly, bravely, gallantly, science, Archimedes, whitehead; (adj)
confessed: (adj) known. undauntedly, audaciously, Cartesian.
deserved: (v) merited, richly deserved; unflinchingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) savage: (adj, v) fierce, wild, furious;
(adj) appropriate, due, fitting, just, nervously, cautiously, timidly. (adj) ferocious, brutal, cruel,
earned, suitable, rightful, adequate, folks: (n) people, folk, tribe, relations, bloodthirsty, rough, pitiless; (adj, n)
required. household, house, relatives, relative, brute; (n) vandal. ANTONYMS: (adj)
devil: (n) fiend, demon, ghost, kindred, lineage, kin. civilized, gentle, nice.
 Edgar Allan Poe 29

METZENGERSTEIN

Pestis eram vivus--moriens tua mors ero.%

--Martin Luther

Horror and fatality have been stalking abroad in all ages. Why then give a
date to this story I have to tell? Let it suffice to say, that at the period of which I
speak, there existed, in the interior of Hungary, a settled although hidden belief
in the doctrines of the Metempsychosis. Of the doctrines themselves--that is, of
their falsity, or of their probability--I say nothing. I assert, however, that much of
our incredulity--as La Bruyere says of all our unhappiness --“vient de ne pouvoir
être seuls.”
But there are some points in the Hungarian superstition which were fast
verging to absurdity. They--the Hungarians--differed very essentially from their
Eastern authorities. For example, “The soul,” said the former--I give the words of
an acute and intelligent Parisian--“ne demeure qu’un seul fois dans un corps sensible:
au reste--un cheval, un chien, un homme meme, n’est que la ressemblance peu tangible
de ces animaux.”
The families of Berlifitzing and Metzengerstein had been at variance for
centuries. Never before were two houses so illustrious, mutually embittered by
hostility so deadly. The origin of this enmity seems to be found in the words of

Thesaurus
centuries: (n) century. love, kindness, affection, adoration, illustrious: (adj, n) glorious,
cheval: (n) chevaux. amity, cooperation, goodwill. celebrated, excellent, grand; (adj)
embittered: (adj) bitter, disillusioned, falsity: (n) deceit, fabrication, lie, famous, bright, eminent, famed,
sour, indignant, disappointed, falsification, falseness, deception, distinguished, brilliant, well-known.
crestfallen, dissatisfied, frustrated, fable, disloyalty, dishonesty, ANTONYMS: (adj) unknown,
disenchanted; (v) resent. ANTONYM: unreality, fiction. ANTONYMS: (n) obscure, ordinary, undistinguished,
(adj) idealistic. validity, verity. lowly.
enmity: (n, v) animosity; (n) families: (n) family. stalking: (n) deerstalking, hunting,
antagonism, animus, hostility, fatality: (n) disaster, calamity, death, chaff, harassment, still hunt, shuck,
aggression, rancor, ill will, antipathy, mishap, demise, misadventure, pestering, pursuit, husk, nuisance,
hatred, war, dislike. ANTONYMS: lethality, adversity, loss, decease, angry walk.
(n) friendship, friendliness, affinity, dead. verging: (adj) marginal, adjoining.
30 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

an ancient prophecy--“A lofty name shall have a fearful fall when, as the rider
over his horse, the mortality of Metzengerstein shall triumph over the
immortality of Berlifitzing.”
To be sure the words themselves had little or no meaning. But more trivial
causes have given rise--and that no long while ago--to consequences equally
eventful. Besides, the estates, which were contiguous, had long exercised a rival
influence in the affairs of a busy government. Moreover, near neighbors are
seldom friends; and the inhabitants of the Castle Berlifitzing might look, from
their lofty buttresses, into the very windows of the palace Metzengerstein. Least
of all had the more than feudal magnificence, thus discovered, a tendency to
allay the irritable feelings of the less ancient and less wealthy Berlifitzings. What
wonder then, that the words, however silly, of that prediction, should have
succeeded in setting and keeping at variance two families already predisposed
to quarrel by every instigation of hereditary jealousy? The prophecy seemed to
imply--if it implied anything--a final triumph on the part of the already more
powerful house; and was of course remembered with the more bitter animosity
by the weaker and less influential.%
Wilhelm, Count Berlifitzing, although loftily descended, was, at the epoch of
this narrative, an infirm and doting old man, remarkable for nothing but an
inordinate and inveterate personal antipathy to the family of his rival, and so
passionate a love of horses, and of hunting, that neither bodily infirmity, great
age, nor mental incapacity, prevented his daily participation in the dangers of the
chase.
Frederick, Baron Metzengerstein, was, on the other hand, not yet Mary,
followed him quickly after. Frederick was, at that time, in his fifteenth year. In a
city, fifteen years are no long period--a child may be still a child in his third
lustrum: but in a wilderness--in so magnificent a wilderness as that old
principality, fifteen years have a far deeper meaning.
From some peculiar circumstances attending the administration of his father,
the young Baron, at the decease of the former, entered immediately upon his
vast possessions. Such estates were seldom held before by a nobleman of

Thesaurus
buttresses: (n) ramparts, defenses. disapproving, cold. loftily: (adv) majestically,
decease: (v) go, die, perish, pass, pass infirmity: (adj, n) frailty, foible, superciliously, proudly, haughtily,
away, exit, expire; (n) demise, imbecility; (n) feebleness, impotence, sublimely, stately, exaltedly, tally,
passing, departure, expiration. disability, decrepitude, illness, toweringly, soaringly, lordly.
ANTONYMS: (n) nascency; (v) sickness, disease, weakness. lustrum: (n) luster lustre, ceremony,
survive. ANTONYMS: (n) health, wellness, amount of time.
descended: (v) extraught. strength. neighbors: (n) neighbourhood.
doting: (adj) fond, loving, affectionate, inveterate: (adj) incorrigible, predisposed: (adj) inclined,
devoted, delirious, caring, amorous, confirmed, chronic, ingrained, old, susceptible, partial, disposed, willing,
wandering, silly, lovesome; (v) dote. irredeemable; (adj, v) fixed; (v) likely, propense, vulnerable, biased,
ANTONYMS: (adj) inattentive, rooted, ingrafted, hackneyed; (n) of a mind, interested. ANTONYMS:
indifferent, neglectful, uncaring, ineffaceable. (adj) unbiased, impervious.
 Edgar Allan Poe 31

Hungary. His castles were without number. The chief in point of splendor and
extent was the “Chateau Metzengerstein.” The boundary line of his dominions
was never clearly defined; but his principal park embraced a circuit of fifty
miles.%
Upon the succession of a proprietor so young, with a character so well
known, to a fortune so unparalleled, little speculation was afloat in regard to his
probable course of conduct. And, indeed, for the space of three days, the
behavior of the heir out-heroded Herod, and fairly surpassed the expectations of
his most enthusiastic admirers. Shameful debaucheries--flagrant treacheries--
unheard-of atrocities--gave his trembling vassals quickly to understand that no
servile submission on their part--no punctilios of conscience on his own--were
thenceforward to prove any security against the remorseless fangs of a petty
Caligula. On the night of the fourth day, the stables of the castle Berlifitzing were
discovered to be on fire; and the unanimous opinion of the neighborhood added
the crime of the incendiary to the already hideous list of the Baron’s
misdemeanors and enormities.
But during the tumult occasioned by this occurrence, the young nobleman
himself sat apparently buried in meditation, in a vast and desolate upper
apartment of the family palace of Metzengerstein. The rich although faded
tapestry hangings which swung gloomily upon the walls, represented the
shadowy and majestic forms of a thousand illustrious ancestors. Here, rich-
ermined priests, and pontifical dignitaries, familiarly seated with the autocrat
and the sovereign, put a veto on the wishes of a temporal king, or restrained with
the fiat of papal supremacy the rebellious sceptre of the Arch-enemy. There, the
dark, tall statures of the Princes Metzengerstein--their muscular war-coursers
plunging over the carcasses of fallen foes--startled the steadiest nerves with their
vigorous expression; and here, again, the voluptuous and swan-like figures of the
dames of days gone by, floated away in the mazes of an unreal dance to the
strains of imaginary melody.
But as the Baron listened, or affected to listen, to the gradually increasing
uproar in the stables of Berlifitzing--or perhaps pondered upon some more

Thesaurus
autocrat: (n) monarch, dictator, tyrant, inflammable; (n) firebrand, agitator, overblown, grandiloquent,
czar, oppressor, authoritarian, arsonist, firebug, firebomb, pretentious, Episcopalian, popish,
sovereign, totalitarian, oligarch, incendiary bomb. ANTONYM: (adj) clerical.
bully, Caesar. conciliatory. splendor: (adj, n, v) brilliancy; (n)
familiarly: (adv) intimately, usually, misdemeanors: (n) misbehavior, bad magnificence, pomp, sheen, lustre,
ordinarily, nearly, frequently, behavior. luster, glory, ostentation, glitter; (n, v)
commonly, regularly, informally, neighborhood: (n) vicinity, district, brightness; (adj, n) radiance.
closely, acquaintedly, conventionally. area, community, locality, place, ANTONYMS: (n) dullness,
ANTONYM: (adv) distantly. quarter, environs, section; (adj) ordinariness, paucity, austerity,
hangings: (n) long curtains. neighboring, local. understatement, shabbiness,
incendiary: (adj) inflammatory, pontifical: (adj) papal, apostolic, simplicity, unattractiveness.
seditious, provocative, flammable, Episcopal, portentous, apostolical, thenceforward: (adv) thereafter.
32 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

novel, some more decided act of audacity--his eyes became unwittingly rivetted
to the figure of an enormous, and unnaturally colored horse, represented in the
tapestry as belonging to a Saracen ancestor of the family of his rival. The horse
itself, in the foreground of the design, stood motionless and statue-like--while
farther back, its discomfited rider perished by the dagger of a Metzengerstein.%
On Frederick’s lip arose a fiendish expression, as he became aware of the
direction which his glance had, without his consciousness, assumed. Yet he did
not remove it. On the contrary, he could by no means account for the
overwhelming anxiety which appeared falling like a pall upon his senses. It was
with difficulty that he reconciled his dreamy and incoherent feelings with the
certainty of being awake. The longer he gazed the more absorbing became the
spell--the more impossible did it appear that he could ever withdraw his glance
from the fascination of that tapestry. But the tumult without becoming suddenly
more violent, with a compulsory exertion he diverted his attention to the glare of
ruddy light thrown full by the flaming stables upon the windows of the
apartment.
The action, however, was but momentary, his gaze returned mechanically to
the wall. To his extreme horror and astonishment, the head of the gigantic steed
had, in the meantime, altered its position. The neck of the animal, before arched,
as if in compassion, over the prostrate body of its lord, was now extended, at full
length, in the direction of the Baron. The eyes, before invisible, now wore an
energetic and human expression, while they gleamed with a fiery and unusual
red; and the distended lips of the apparently enraged horse left in full view his
gigantic and disgusting teeth.
Stupified with terror, the young nobleman tottered to the door. As he threw
it open, a flash of red light, streaming far into the chamber, flung his shadow
with a clear outline against the quivering tapestry, and he shuddered to perceive
that shadow--as he staggered awhile upon the threshold--assuming the exact
position, and precisely filling up the contour, of the relentless and triumphant
murderer of the Saracen Berlifitzing.

Thesaurus
arose: (v) happen, occur. mortified, humiliated, unsuccessful; grandee, baron, duke, armiger,
awhile: (adj) in transitu, en passant; (adj, n) defeated. burgrave.
(adv) briefly. distended: (adj) inflated, bloated, prostrate: (adj, v) prone, exhaust, level,
colored: (adj) chromatic, black, tinged, turgid, puffed, bombastic, distent, fatigue; (v) fell, overwhelm,
tinted, colorful, dyed, coloured, expanded, enlarged; (adj, v) puffy; (v) overcome, floor, overthrow; (adj)
partial, dark, bleached, biased. blowzy, bigswoln. deject, knock down. ANTONYM:
ANTONYMS: (adj) truthful, white, fiendish: (adj, v) infernal, diabolic, (adj) upright.
uncolored, unbiased, pale, objective, satanic, hellish; (adj) demonic, tumult: (adj, n, v) hubbub, disturbance;
honest, genuine, real. diabolical, cruel, atrocious, inhuman, (n) stir, commotion, bustle, din, fuss,
discomfited: (adj) uncomfortable, ill at wicked, brutal. excitement; (n, v) clamor, disorder,
ease, disappointed, embarrassed, nobleman: (n) patrician, aristocrat, brawl. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, push,
frustrated, thwarted, self-conscious, lord, peer, marquis, nobility, serenity, order, calm.
 Edgar Allan Poe 33

To lighten the depression of his spirits, the Baron hurried into the open air.
At the principal gate of the palace he encountered three equerries. With much
difficulty, and at the imminent peril of their lives, they were restraining the
convulsive plunges of a gigantic and fiery-colored horse.%
“Whose horse? Where did you get him?” demanded the youth, in a
querulous and husky tone of voice, as he became instantly aware that the
mysterious steed in the tapestried chamber was the very counterpart of the
furious animal before his eyes.
“He is your own property, sire,” replied one of the equerries, “at least he is
claimed by no other owner. We caught him flying, all smoking and foaming with
rage, from the burning stables of the Castle Berlifitzing. Supposing him to have
belonged to the old Count’s stud of foreign horses, we led him back as an estray.
But the grooms there disclaim any title to the creature; which is strange, since he
bears evident marks of having made a narrow escape from the flames.
“The letters W.V.B. are also branded very distinctly on his forehead,”
interrupted a second equerry, “I supposed them, of course, to be the initials of
Wilhelm Von Berlifitzing--but all at the castle are positive in denying any
knowledge of the horse.”
“Extremely singular!” said the young Baron, with a musing air, and
apparently unconscious of the meaning of his words. “He is, as you say, a
remarkable horse--a prodigious horse! although, as you very justly observe, of a
suspicious and untractable character, let him be mine, however,” he added, after
a pause, “perhaps a rider like Frederick of Metzengerstein, may tame even the
devil from the stables of Berlifitzing.”
“You are mistaken, my lord; the horse, as I think we mentioned, is not from
the stables of the Count. If such had been the case, we know our duty better than
to bring him into the presence of a noble of your family.”
“True!” observed the Baron, dryly, and at that instant a page of the
bedchamber came from the palace with a heightened color, and a precipitate
step. He whispered into his master’s ear an account of the sudden disappearance
of a small portion of the tapestry, in an apartment which he designated; entering,
Thesaurus
bedchamber: (n) bedroom, dormitory, abnegate. ANTONYMS: (v) musing: (adj) contemplative,
room, sleeping room, master acknowledge, admit, accept. meditative, thoughtful, pensive; (n)
bedroom, boudoir. dryly: (adv) coldly, sternly, sourly, meditation, consideration, reflection,
branded: (adj) identified, known, sarcastically, laconically, huskily. rumination, reverie, thought,
proprietary, recognized. ANTONYMS: (adv) interestingly, cogitation.
convulsive: (adj) spastic, galvanic, warmly. querulous: (adj) petulant, irritable,
fitful, paroxysmal, violent, choreic, equerry: (n) functionary, groom, fretful, discontented, tetchy,
unsteady, hysterical; (v) unquiet, Querry, attendant. complaining, fractious, touchy, cross,
restless, saltatory. foaming: (adj) foamy, effervescent, grumpy, grouchy.
disclaim: (v) deny, renounce, abjure, effervescing, bubbly, bubbling, untractable: (adj) penurious,
disavow, disown, abdicate, gainsay, sparkling, spumy; (adj, n) frothing; niggardly, hidebound, contrary,
waive, repudiate, disaffirm, (n) surging, effervescence, scum. perverse, crossgrained, bigoted.
34 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

at the same time, into particulars of a minute and circumstantial character; but
from the low tone of voice in which these latter were communicated, nothing
escaped to gratify the excited curiosity of the equerries.%
The young Frederick, during the conference, seemed agitated by a variety of
emotions. He soon, however, recovered his composure, and an expression of
determined malignancy settled upon his countenance, as he gave peremptory
orders that a certain chamber should be immediately locked up, and the key
placed in his own possession.
“Have you heard of the unhappy death of the old hunter Berlifitzing?” said
one of his vassals to the Baron, as, after the departure of the page, the huge steed
which that nobleman had adopted as his own, plunged and curvetted, with
redoubled fury, down the long avenue which extended from the chateau to the
stables of Metzengerstein.
“No!” said the Baron, turning abruptly toward the speaker, “dead! say you?”
“It is indeed true, my lord; and, to a noble of your name, will be, I imagine,
no unwelcome intelligence.”
A rapid smile shot over the countenance of the listener. “How died he?”
“In his rash exertions to rescue a favorite portion of his hunting stud, he has
himself perished miserably in the flames.”
“I-n-d-e-e-d-!” ejaculated the Baron, as if slowly and deliberately impressed
with the truth of some exciting idea.
“Indeed;” repeated the vassal.
“Shocking!” said the youth, calmly, and turned quietly into the chateau.
From this date a marked alteration took place in the outward demeanor of
the dissolute young Baron Frederick Von Metzengerstein. Indeed, his behavior
disappointed every expectation, and proved little in accordance with the views
of many a manoeuvering mamma; while his habits and manner, still less than
formerly, offered any thing congenial with those of the neighboring aristocracy.
He was never to be seen beyond the limits of his own domain, and, in this wide
and social world, was utterly companionless--unless, indeed, that unnatural,
Thesaurus
accordance: (n) harmony, agreement, upright, chaste, restrained, good, indulge, cater; (n, v) humor; (adj)
conformity, unison, concordance, resolute, virtuous, pure, cautious, contented. ANTONYMS: (v)
coincidence, accordancy, admission, righteous, innocent. dissatisfy, displease, disappoint.
fitness, consensus, concent. favorite: (adj, n) darling, favourite, heard: (n) hearing.
demeanor: (n, v) bearing, conduct; (n) dear, number one; (adj) favored, manoeuvering: (n) gimmick, device,
carriage, air, deportment, attitude, beloved, popular; (n) pet, choice, artifice.
manner, behaviour, guise, mien, port. pick, preference. ANTONYMS: (n) neighboring: (adj, adv) adjacent, near;
dissolute: (adj, v) dissipated, fast, indifference, superior, underdog; (adj) adjoining, nearby, contiguous,
wanton; (adj) abandoned, depraved, (adj) unwanted, despised, disliked, neighbor, abutting, next, neighborly,
licentious, immoral, corrupt, hated, unusual. nigh, next to. ANTONYMS: (adj)
profligate, degenerate; (adj, n) gratify: (v) delight, please, appease, distant, remote, far, national.
libertine. ANTONYMS: (adj) moral, accommodate, satisfy, amuse, suit, redoubled: (adj) ingeminate.
 Edgar Allan Poe 35

impetuous, and fiery-colored horse, which he henceforward continually

bestrode, had any mysterious right to the title of his friend.%
Numerous invitations on the part of the neighborhood for a long time,
however, periodically came in. “Will the Baron honor our festivals with his
presence?” “Will the Baron join us in a hunting of the boar?”--“Metzengerstein
does not hunt;” “Metzengerstein will not attend,” were the haughty and laconic
answers.
These repeated insults were not to be endured by an imperious nobility. Such
invitations became less cordial--less frequent--in time they ceased altogether. The
widow of the unfortunate Count Berlifitzing was even heard to express a hope
“that the Baron might be at home when he did not wish to be at home, since he
disdained the company of his equals; and ride when he did not wish to ride,
since he preferred the society of a horse.” This to be sure was a very silly
explosion of hereditary pique; and merely proved how singularly unmeaning
our sayings are apt to become, when we desire to be unusually energetic.
The charitable, nevertheless, attributed the alteration in the conduct of the
young nobleman to the natural sorrow of a son for the untimely loss of his
parents--forgetting, however, his atrocious and reckless behavior during the
short period immediately succeeding that bereavement. Some there were,
indeed, who suggested a too haughty idea of self-consequence and dignity.
Others again (among them may be mentioned the family physician) did not
hesitate in speaking of morbid melancholy, and hereditary ill-health; while dark
hints, of a more equivocal nature, were current among the multitude.
Indeed, the Baron’s perverse attachment to his lately-acquired charger--an
attachment which seemed to attain new strength from every fresh example of the
animal’s ferocious and demon-like propensities--at length became, in the eyes of
all reasonable men, a hideous and unnatural fervor. In the glare of noon--at the
dead hour of night--in sickness or in health--in calm or in tempest--the young
Metzengerstein seemed rivetted to the saddle of that colossal horse, whose
intractable audacities so well accorded with his own spirit.

Thesaurus
behavior: (n, v) bearing, demeanor; (n) now on, from this time on, from this compact, taciturn, laconical,
carriage, conduct, deportment, act, moment on, after this. summary, short. ANTONYM: (adj)
behaviour, manner, character, action, impetuous: (adj) boisterous, hasty, voluble.
morality. fiery, headlong, heady, hot, brash, pique: (v) nettle, insult, outrage,
fervor: (adj, n) devotion, passion; (n) foolhardy, dashing, fierce; (adj, v) irritate, fret; (n) grudge, annoyance,
enthusiasm, zeal, eagerness, impulsive. ANTONYMS: (adj) umbrage, irritation; (n, v) anger,
fervency, energy, warmth, considered, careful, slow, sensible, spite.
earnestness, fervidness, ardour. patient. unmeaning: (adj) insignificant,
ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, insults: (adj) insulting; (n) abuse, meaningless, senseless, nonsensical,
apathy, impassiveness, aloofness, swearing. irrational, expressionless, gibberish,
coolness, dejection, doubt. laconic: (adj) curt, brief, terse, foolish, peanut, weetless,
henceforward: (adv) in future, from compendious, succinct, pithy, undistinguished.
36 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

There were circumstances, moreover, which coupled with late events, gave
an unearthly and portentous character to the mania of the rider, and to the
capabilities of the steed. The space passed over in a single leap had been
accurately measured, and was found to exceed, by an astounding difference, the
wildest expectations of the most imaginative. The Baron, besides, had no
particular name for the animal, although all the rest in his collection were
distinguished by characteristic appellations. His stable, too, was appointed at a
distance from the rest; and with regard to grooming and other necessary offices,
none but the owner in person had ventured to officiate, or even to enter the
enclosure of that particular stall. It was also to be observed, that although the
three grooms, who had caught the steed as he fled from the conflagration at
Berlifitzing, had succeeded in arresting his course, by means of a chain-bridle
and noose--yet no one of the three could with any certainty affirm that he had,
during that dangerous struggle, or at any period thereafter, actually placed his
hand upon the body of the beast. Instances of peculiar intelligence in the
demeanor of a noble and high-spirited horse are not to be supposed capable of
exciting unreasonable attention--especially among men who, daily trained to the
labors of the chase, might appear well acquainted with the sagacity of a horse--
but there were certain circumstances which intruded themselves per force upon
the most skeptical and phlegmatic; and it is said there were times when the
animal caused the gaping crowd who stood around to recoil in horror from the
deep and impressive meaning of his terrible stamp--times when the young
Metzengerstein turned pale and shrunk away from the rapid and searching
expression of his earnest and human-looking eye.%
Among all the retinue of the Baron, however, none were found to doubt the
ardor of that extraordinary affection which existed on the part of the young
nobleman for the fiery qualities of his horse; at least, none but an insignificant
and misshapen little page, whose deformities were in everybody’s way, and
whose opinions were of the least possible importance. He--if his ideas are worth
mentioning at all--had the effrontery to assert that his master never vaulted into
the saddle without an unaccountable and almost imperceptible shudder, and

Thesaurus
ardor: (adj, n) eagerness, zeal; (n) minister, serve, run, referee, do duty, modest, promising.
fervor, fervency, fire, flame, passion, marry, conduct, sprinkle. sagacity: (n, v) discernment, judgment,
enthusiasm, ardency, heat, avidity. phlegmatic: (adj) indifferent, listless, penetration; (n) judiciousness, sense,
ANTONYMS: (n) apathy, coolness, stolid, unconcerned, phlegmatical, prudence, gumption, acumen,
coldness, hatred. lethargic, passive, inert, nonchalant, perspicacity; (adj, n) discretion,
effrontery: (n) audacity, brass, cold, careless. ANTONYM: (adj) wisdom. ANTONYM: (n) foolishness.
presumption, face, boldness, demonstrative. skeptical: (adj) disbelieving, skeptic,
insolence, nerve, impertinence, portentous: (adj) fateful, sceptical, distrustful, doubting,
impudence, rudeness, assurance. extraordinary, pompous, amazing, doubtful, dubious, suspicious,
ANTONYMS: (n) timidity, deference, pontifical, prodigious, grandiloquent, unbelieving, freethinking, cynical.
courtesy. sinister, unusual, foreboding, ANTONYMS: (adj) credulous,
officiate: (v) function, act, manage, astonishing. ANTONYMS: (adj) believing, sure, convinced.
 Edgar Allan Poe 37

that, upon his return from every long-continued and habitual ride, an expression
of triumphant malignity distorted every muscle in his countenance.%
One tempestuous night, Metzengerstein, awaking from a heavy slumber,
descended like a maniac from his chamber, and, mounting in hot haste, bounded
away into the mazes of the forest. An occurrence so common attracted no
particular attention, but his return was looked for with intense anxiety on the
part of his domestics, when, after some hours’ absence, the stupendous and
magnificent battlements of the Chateau Metzengerstein, were discovered
crackling and rocking to their very foundation, under the influence of a dense
and livid mass of ungovernable fire.
As the flames, when first seen, had already made so terrible a progress that
all efforts to save any portion of the building were evidently futile, the
astonished neighborhood stood idly around in silent and pathetic wonder. But a
new and fearful object soon rivetted the attention of the multitude, and proved
how much more intense is the excitement wrought in the feelings of a crowd by
the contemplation of human agony, than that brought about by the most
appalling spectacles of inanimate matter.
Up the long avenue of aged oaks which led from the forest to the main
entrance of the Chateau Metzengerstein, a steed, bearing an unbonneted and
disordered rider, was seen leaping with an impetuosity which outstripped the
very Demon of the Tempest.
The career of the horseman was indisputably, on his own part,
uncontrollable. The agony of his countenance, the convulsive struggle of his
frame, gave evidence of superhuman exertion: but no sound, save a solitary
shriek, escaped from his lacerated lips, which were bitten through and through
in the intensity of terror. One instant, and the clattering of hoofs resounded
sharply and shrilly above the roaring of the flames and the shrieking of the
winds--another, and, clearing at a single plunge the gate-way and the moat, the
steed bounded far up the tottering staircases of the palace, and, with its rider,
disappeared amid the whirlwind of chaotic fire.

Thesaurus
awaking: (n) waking, awakening. enmity, hatred, evil, rancor, spite, (adj) normal.
clattering: (n) crash; (adj) clattery. malignancy, hate. ANTONYM: (n) tempestuous: (adj, n) rough,
impetuosity: (n) eagerness, haste, heat, benignity. boisterous, severe; (adj) raging,
violence, vehemence, impulsiveness, shrilly: (adv) sharply, acutely, furious, wild, angry, windy, fierce,
impetuousness, excitability, temerity, penetratingly, stridently, noisily, gusty; (adj, v) turbulent.
precipitation, fervency. harshly, raucously, keenly, loudly, ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, moderate,
ANTONYMS: (n) deliberation, discordantly, shrewdly. ANTONYM: relaxed.
patience, consideration, carefulness. (adv) softly. ungovernable: (adj) unruly,
lacerated: (adj) torn, blasted, mangled, superhuman: (adj) supernatural, uncontrollable, irrepressible,
hurt; (adj, prep) rent. heavenly, preterhuman, superman, intractable, licentious, violent, wild,
malignity: (n) malevolence, epic, daring, godlike, gallant, brave, indocile, uncontrolled, turbulent; (adj,
malignance, venom, animosity, celestial, incredible. ANTONYM: v) headstrong.
38 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

The fury of the tempest immediately died away, and a dead calm sullenly
succeeded. A white flame still enveloped the building like a shroud, and,
streaming far away into the quiet atmosphere, shot forth a glare of preternatural
light; while a cloud of smoke settled heavily over the battlements in the distinct
colossal figure of--a horse.%

Thesaurus
colossal: (adj) huge, gargantuan, outlandish, miraculous, uncanny, disheveled.
prodigious, Brobdingnagian, vast, transcendental, extraordinary, sullenly: (adv) sulkily, sourly,
enormous, great, mammoth, abnormal, weird, nonnatural, grumpily, morosely, moodily,
immense, massive, monstrous. otherworldly. dourly, somberly, peevishly, surly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, small, shroud: (adj, n, v) cover; (n, v) cloak, crossly, petulantly. ANTONYMS:
insignificant, minute, compact, hide, conceal; (adj, n) shelter; (v) (adv) graciously, contentedly, gladly,
microscopic, miniature, slight. shield, envelop, enshroud; (n) cheerily.
enveloped: (adj) convoluted, enclosed, covering, mantle, pall. ANTONYM: tempest: (adj, n) storm, gust; (n) gale,
cover, bounded, Byzantine, clothed, (v) disclose. hurricane, squall, disturbance,
involved, misty, swallowed, streaming: (adj) flowing, flapping, cyclone, typhoon, agitation, tornado,
vestured, emotionally involved. detached, incoherent, baggy, slack, blizzard. ANTONYM: (n) serenity.
preternatural: (adj) unearthly, occult, relaxed, loose, lax; (n) cyclosis; (v)
 Edgar Allan Poe 39

THE %SYSTEM OF DOCTOR TARR AND

PROFESSOR FETHER

During the autumn of 18--, while on a tour through the extreme southern
provinces of France, my route led me within a few miles of a certain Maison de
Sante or private mad-house, about which I had heard much in Paris from my
medical friends. As I had never visited a place of the kind, I thought the
opportunity too good to be lost; and so proposed to my travelling companion (a
gentleman with whom I had made casual acquaintance a few days before) that
we should turn aside, for an hour or so, and look through the establishment. To
this he objected--pleading haste in the first place, and, in the second, a very usual
horror at the sight of a lunatic. He begged me, however, not to let any mere
courtesy towards himself interfere with the gratification of my curiosity, and
said that he would ride on leisurely, so that I might overtake him during the
day, or, at all events, during the next. As he bade me good-bye, I bethought me
that there might be some difficulty in obtaining access to the premises, and
mentioned my fears on this point. He replied that, in fact, unless I had personal
knowledge of the superintendent, Monsieur Maillard, or some credential in the
way of a letter, a difficulty might be found to exist, as the regulations of these
private mad-houses were more rigid than the public hospital laws. For himself,
he added, he had, some years since, made the acquaintance of Maillard, and

Thesaurus
bade: (v) bid, command, bad. disenchantment, dismay, discontent, speedy, fast; (adv) formally, quickly.
credential: (n) diploma, certification, anxiety. lunatic: (n) madman, maniac,
credentials, authority, warrant, haste: (n, v) hurry, dash, dispatch, bedlamite; (adj) insane, foolish,
doquet, docket, documentation, rush; (n) celerity, expedition, moonstruck, mad, mental, deranged,
papers, voucher, birth certificate. rapidity, speed, bustle, hastiness, idiotic; (adj, n) madcap. ANTONYM:
good-bye: (n) bye, farewell, goodbye, quickness. ANTONYMS: (n) delay, (adj) sensible.
goodby, vale, adios, cheerio. patience, forethought, caution. obtaining: (n) acceptance, capture,
gratification: (adj, n) delight; (n, v) leisurely: (adj) slow, deliberate, collection; (adj) adeption, dominant.
content; (n) enjoyment, pleasure, easygoing, leisure, at ease, unhurried, overtake: (v) catch, attain, catch up
satisfaction, fruition, complacency, measured, idle; (adv) deliberately, with, exceed, overpower, overcome,
joy, luxury, treat, fulfillment. slowly, at leisure. ANTONYMS: (adj) go by, gain, devastate, outstrip, beat.
ANTONYMS: (n) dissatisfaction, rushed, hurried, formal, vigorous, provinces: (n) distance.
40 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

would so far assist me as to ride up to the door and introduce me; although his
feelings on the subject of lunacy would not permit of his entering the house.%
I thanked him, and, turning from the main road, we entered a grass-grown
by-path, which, in half an hour, nearly lost itself in a dense forest, clothing the
base of a mountain. Through this dank and gloomy wood we rode some two
miles, when the Maison de Sante came in view. It was a fantastic chateau, much
dilapidated, and indeed scarcely tenantable through age and neglect. Its aspect
inspired me with absolute dread, and, checking my horse, I half resolved to turn
back. I soon, however, grew ashamed of my weakness, and proceeded.
As we rode up to the gate-way, I perceived it slightly open, and the visage of
a man peering through. In an instant afterward, this man came forth, accosted
my companion by name, shook him cordially by the hand, and begged him to
alight. It was Monsieur Maillard himself. He was a portly, fine-looking
gentleman of the old school, with a polished manner, and a certain air of gravity,
dignity, and authority which was very impressive.
My friend, having presented me, mentioned my desire to inspect the
establishment, and received Monsieur Maillard’s assurance that he would show
me all attention, now took leave, and I saw him no more.
When he had gone, the superintendent ushered me into a small and
exceedingly neat parlor, containing, among other indications of refined taste,
many books, drawings, pots of flowers, and musical instruments. A cheerful fire
blazed upon the hearth. At a piano, singing an aria from Bellini, sat a young and
very beautiful woman, who, at my entrance, paused in her song, and received
me with graceful courtesy. Her voice was low, and her whole manner subdued. I
thought, too, that I perceived the traces of sorrow in her countenance, which was
excessively, although to my taste, not unpleasingly, pale. She was attired in deep
mourning, and excited in my bosom a feeling of mingled respect, interest, and
admiration.
I had heard, at Paris, that the institution of Monsieur Maillard was managed
upon what is vulgarly termed the “system of soothing”--that all punishments
were avoided--that even confinement was seldom resorted to--that the patients,

Thesaurus
afterward: (adv, conj) then, after that; cordially: (adv) warmly, genially, overweight; (adj, adv) burly, stately;
(adv) thereafter, afterwards, later, kindly, sincerely, heartfeltly, (adv) plumply. ANTONYMS: (adj,
subsequently, later on, next, soon; ardently, friendly, jovially, earnestly, adv) thin, slim; (adj) skinny.
(adj) following; (n) future. affectionately, harmoniously. visage: (n) face, look, mug,
ANTONYMS: (adv) now, previously, ANTONYMS: (adv) disagreeably, physiognomy, expression, kisser,
before. frostily. appearance, aspect, brow, smiler,
aria: (n) air, tune, melody, song, strain, parlor: (n) front room, lounge, sitting forehead.
apparent character, arietta, ariette, room, saloon, salon, parlour, parlors, vulgarly: (adv) crudely, commonly,
hymn, action. livingroom, common room, parlours, plebeianly, grossly, smuttily,
attired: (adj) clad, appareled, clothed, drawing room. uncouthly, boorishly, cheaply,
garbed, habilimented, robed; (adj, portly: (adj) plump, stout, corpulent, rudely, vilely, tastelessly.
prep) garmented. heavy, obese, chubby, fleshy, ANTONYM: (adv) decently.
 Edgar Allan Poe 41

while secretly watched, were left much apparent liberty, and that most of them
were permitted to roam about the house and grounds in the ordinary apparel of
persons in right mind.%
Keeping these impressions in view, I was cautious in what I said before the
young lady; for I could not be sure that she was sane; and, in fact, there was a
certain restless brilliancy about her eyes which half led me to imagine she was
not. I confined my remarks, therefore, to general topics, and to such as I thought
would not be displeasing or exciting even to a lunatic. She replied in a perfectly
rational manner to all that I said; and even her original observations were
marked with the soundest good sense, but a long acquaintance with the
metaphysics of mania, had taught me to put no faith in such evidence of sanity,
and I continued to practise, throughout the interview, the caution with which I
commenced it.
Presently a smart footman in livery brought in a tray with fruit, wine, and
other refreshments, of which I partook, the lady soon afterward leaving the
room. As she departed I turned my eyes in an inquiring manner toward my host.
“No,” he said, “oh, no--a member of my family--my niece, and a most
accomplished woman.”
“I beg a thousand pardons for the suspicion,” I replied, “but of course you
will know how to excuse me. The excellent administration of your affairs here is
well understood in Paris, and I thought it just possible, you know-
“Yes, yes--say no more--or rather it is myself who should thank you for the
commendable prudence you have displayed. We seldom find so much of
forethought in young men; and, more than once, some unhappy contre-temps
has occurred in consequence of thoughtlessness on the part of our visitors.
While my former system was in operation, and my patients were permitted the
privilege of roaming to and fro at will, they were often aroused to a dangerous
frenzy by injudicious persons who called to inspect the house. Hence I was
obliged to enforce a rigid system of exclusion; and none obtained access to the
premises upon whose discretion I could not rely.”

Thesaurus
apparel: (n, v) garb, attire, garment, ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, ill-judged, incautious. ANTONYMS:
array, vesture; (n) clothing, finery, agreeable. (adj) wise, sensible, careful, prudent,
costume, clothes; (v) adorn, clothe. forethought: (n) caution, care, forecast, judicious, discreet, advisable.
brilliancy: (n, v) brightness; (n) anticipation, deliberation, thoughtlessness: (n) inconsideration,
brilliance, lustre, luster, splendor, premeditation, precaution, counsel, rashness, carelessness,
glitter, glory, radiance, splendour; circumspection, consideration, impulsiveness, imprudence,
(adj, n) gorgeousness; (v) gloss. discretion. ANTONYMS: (n) indiscretion, heedlessness, bluntness,
displeasing: (adj) distasteful, hindsight, unpreparedness, neglect, foolhardiness, neglect, negligence.
offensive, disagreeable, obnoxious, impulsiveness, carelessness. ANTONYMS: (n) thoughtfulness,
objectionable, unacceptable, injudicious: (adj) foolish, unwise, care, responsibility, carefulness,
annoying, unwelcome, contrary; (adv) indiscreet, unadvised, careless, caution, wisdom, diplomacy,
displeasingly; (v) unpleasing. improper, thoughtless, rash, hasty, sensitivity.
42 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“While your former system was in operation!” I said, repeating his words--
”do I understand you, then, to say that the ‘soothing system’ of which I have
heard so much is no longer in force?”%
“It is now,” he replied, “several weeks since we have concluded to renounce
it forever.”
“Indeed! you astonish me!”
“We found it, sir,” he said, with a sigh, “absolutely necessary to return to the
old usages. The danger of the soothing system was, at all times, appalling; and its
advantages have been much overrated. I believe, sir, that in this house it has been
given a fair trial, if ever in any. We did every thing that rational humanity could
suggest. I am sorry that you could not have paid us a visit at an earlier period,
that you might have judged for yourself. But I presume you are conversant with
the soothing practice--with its details.”
“Not altogether. What I have heard has been at third or fourth hand.”
“I may state the system, then, in general terms, as one in which the patients
were menages-humored. We contradicted no fancies which entered the brains of
the mad. On the contrary, we not only indulged but encouraged them; and many
of our most permanent cures have been thus effected. There is no argument
which so touches the feeble reason of the madman as the argumentum ad
absurdum. We have had men, for example, who fancied themselves chickens.
The cure was, to insist upon the thing as a fact--to accuse the patient of stupidity
in not sufficiently perceiving it to be a fact--and thus to refuse him any other diet
for a week than that which properly appertains to a chicken. In this manner a
little corn and gravel were made to perform wonders.”
“But was this species of acquiescence all?”
“By no means. We put much faith in amusements of a simple kind, such as
music, dancing, gymnastic exercises generally, cards, certain classes of books,
and so forth. We affected to treat each individual as if for some ordinary physical
disorder, and the word ‘lunacy’ was never employed. A great point was to set
each lunatic to guard the actions of all the others. To repose confidence in the

Thesaurus
astonish: (adj, v) astound; (adj, n, v) fancies: (n) stock. conscious, percipient, reasonable.
surprise; (adj) astonishing, surprised; gymnastic: (n) gymnastics, athletics, renounce: (v) abandon, abdicate,
(v) flabbergast, daze, confound, physical education; (adj) acrobatic, abjure, relinquish, desert, reject, give
dazzle, stun, alarm, nonplus. gymnical; (v) palestric, herculean. up, disown, deny, quit, forgo.
ANTONYMS: (v) expect, bore. indulged: (adj) pet, privileged, ANTONYMS: (v) acknowledge,
classes: (n) lessons. cherished, admired. reassert, assert, continue, retain,
conversant: (adj) proficient, knowing, madman: (n) bedlamite, maniac, crazy, persist.
informed, familiar, versed, learned, loony, nut, madcap, looney, loco, repose: (n, v) recline, peace, lie, calm;
cognizant, conscious, erudite, sufferer, raver, nutcase. (n) composure, ease, quiet, leisure,
experienced, skilled. ANTONYMS: perceiving: (n) feeling, sensing, recreation, relaxation; (v) lay.
(adj) unfamiliar, oblivious, hearing, looking at, recognition, ANTONYMS: (n, v) work; (n)
inexperienced. thought, vision, lipreading; (adj) activity, panic, agitation.
 Edgar Allan Poe 43

understanding or discretion of a madman, is to gain him body and soul. In this

way we were enabled to dispense with an expensive body of keepers.”%
“And you had no punishments of any kind?”
“None.”
“And you never confined your patients?”
“Very rarely. Now and then, the malady of some individual growing to a
crisis, or taking a sudden turn of fury, we conveyed him to a secret cell, lest his
disorder should infect the rest, and there kept him until we could dismiss him to
his friends--for with the raging maniac we have nothing to do. He is usually
removed to the public hospitals.”
“And you have now changed all this--and you think for the better?”
“Decidedly. The system had its disadvantages, and even its dangers. It is
now, happily, exploded throughout all the Maisons de Sante of France.”
“I am very much surprised,” I said, “at what you tell me; for I made sure that,
at this moment, no other method of treatment for mania existed in any portion of
the country.”
“You are young yet, my friend,” replied my host, “but the time will arrive
when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world,
without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one-
half that you see. Now about our Maisons de Sante, it is clear that some
ignoramus has misled you. After dinner, however, when you have sufficiently
recovered from the fatigue of your ride, I will be happy to take you over the
house, and introduce to you a system which, in my opinion, and in that of every
one who has witnessed its operation, is incomparably the most effectual as yet
devised.”
“Your own?” I inquired--”one of your own invention?”
“I am proud,” he replied, “to acknowledge that it is--at least in some
measure.”

Thesaurus
conveyed: (v) borne, sent. booby. malady: (n, v) illness, ailment,
effectual: (adj, n) efficient, efficacious, incomparably: (adv) superlatively, indisposition, distemper; (adj, n, v)
able; (adj) forceful, telling, matchlessly, uniquely, exceptionally, disorder; (adj, n) complaint, infirmity;
authoritative, operative, potent, outstandingly, unbeatably, (n) sickness, condition, trouble, ill.
adequate, impressive, powerful. uncomparably, excellently, very, mania: (n) passion, craze, delirium,
ANTONYMS: (adj) ineffectual, greatly, beyond compare. fad, fury, enthusiasm, rage,
incapable, weak, impotent, ANTONYM: (adv) comparably. obsession; (adj, n) insanity, lunacy,
ineffective, unproductive, infect: (v) contaminate, corrupt, affect, madness.
unsuccessful, useless. inspire, foul, pollute, defile, poison, maniac: (n) madman, bedlamite,
ignoramus: (n) fool, dolt, idiot, touch, animate; (adj) contagious. madcap, freak, fanatic, nut, looney,
blockhead, simpleton, numskull, ANTONYMS: (v) purify, disinfect, bigot, madwoman; (adj) loco,
bungler, dullard, dumbbell, dummy, clean. maniacal.
44 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

In this manner I conversed with Monsieur Maillard for an hour or two,

during which he showed me the gardens and conservatories of the place.%
“I cannot let you see my patients,” he said, “just at present. To a sensitive
mind there is always more or less of the shocking in such exhibitions; and I do
not wish to spoil your appetite for dinner. We will dine. I can give you some veal
a la Menehoult, with cauliflowers in veloute sauce--after that a glass of Clos de
Vougeot—then your nerves will be sufficiently steadied.”
At six, dinner was announced; and my host conducted me into a large salle a
manger, where a very numerous company were assembled--twenty-five or thirty
in all. They were, apparently, people of rank-certainly of high breeding--
although their habiliments, I thought, were extravagantly rich, partaking
somewhat too much of the ostentatious finery of the vielle cour. I noticed that at
least two-thirds of these guests were ladies; and some of the latter were by no
means accoutred in what a Parisian would consider good taste at the present
day. Many females, for example, whose age could not have been less than
seventy were bedecked with a profusion of jewelry, such as rings, bracelets, and
earrings, and wore their bosoms and arms shamefully bare. I observed, too, that
very few of the dresses were well made--or, at least, that very few of them fitted
the wearers. In looking about, I discovered the interesting girl to whom
Monsieur Maillard had presented me in the little parlor; but my surprise was
great to see her wearing a hoop and farthingale, with high-heeled shoes, and a
dirty cap of Brussels lace, so much too large for her that it gave her face a
ridiculously diminutive expression. When I had first seen her, she was attired,
most becomingly, in deep mourning. There was an air of oddity, in short, about
the dress of the whole party, which, at first, caused me to recur to my original
idea of the “soothing system,” and to fancy that Monsieur Maillard had been
willing to deceive me until after dinner, that I might experience no
uncomfortable feelings during the repast, at finding myself dining with lunatics;
but I remembered having been informed, in Paris, that the southern
provincialists were a peculiarly eccentric people, with a vast number of

Thesaurus
becomingly: (adj, adv) seemly; (adv) economically, stingily, reasonably, repast: (n) feast, food, banquet, dinner,
decorously, fitly, properly, decently, meagerly, cheaply, modestly, lunch, refection, collation, luncheon,
fittingly, comely, adequately, humbly. spread, potluck, eating.
befittingly, rightly, worthily. farthingale: (n) jupe, skirt, pinafore, shamefully: (adv) ignominiously,
bedecked: (adj) decked out, decorated, kilt, hoop, panier, bustle, apron. ingloriously, scandalously,
ornate, ornamented. habiliments: (n) clothes, garb, apparel, infamously, shockingly,
extravagantly: (adv) excessively, clothing, costume, dress, equipage, discreditably, basely, outrageously;
immoderately, inordinately, material, tackle, thing, apparatus. (adv, v) dishonorably, foully, nastily.
luxuriously, prodigally, wastefully, jewelry: (n) jewellery, jewel, gem, ANTONYMS: (adv) commendably,
profligately, profusely, bijou, gems, adornment, bangle, compassionately, nobly.
ostentatiously, improvidently, earring, bead, bracelet, band. vielle: (n) clavier, dulcimer, eolian
unrestrainedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) partaking: (n) input, contribution. harp, pianino, virginals.
 Edgar Allan Poe 45

antiquated notions; and then, too, upon conversing with several members of the
company, my apprehensions were immediately and fully dispelled.%
The dining-room itself, although perhaps sufficiently comfortable and of
good dimensions, had nothing too much of elegance about it. For example, the
floor was uncarpeted; in France, however, a carpet is frequently dispensed with.
The windows, too, were without curtains; the shutters, being shut, were securely
fastened with iron bars, applied diagonally, after the fashion of our ordinary
shop-shutters. The apartment, I observed, formed, in itself, a wing of the chateau,
and thus the windows were on three sides of the parallelogram, the door being
at the other. There were no less than ten windows in all.
The table was superbly set out. It was loaded with plate, and more than
loaded with delicacies. The profusion was absolutely barbaric. There were meats
enough to have feasted the Anakim. Never, in all my life, had I witnessed so
lavish, so wasteful an expenditure of the good things of life. There seemed very
little taste, however, in the arrangements; and my eyes, accustomed to quiet
lights, were sadly offended by the prodigious glare of a multitude of wax
candles, which, in silver candelabra, were deposited upon the table, and all
about the room, wherever it was possible to find a place. There were several
active servants in attendance; and, upon a large table, at the farther end of the
apartment, were seated seven or eight people with fiddles, fifes, trombones, and
a drum. These fellows annoyed me very much, at intervals, during the repast, by
an infinite variety of noises, which were intended for music, and which appeared
to afford much entertainment to all present, with the exception of myself.
Upon the whole, I could not help thinking that there was much of the bizarre
about every thing I saw--but then the world is made up of all kinds of persons,
with all modes of thought, and all sorts of conventional customs. I had travelled,
too, so much, as to be quite an adept at the nil admirari; so I took my seat very
coolly at the right hand of my host, and, having an excellent appetite, did justice
to the good cheer set before me.
The conversation, in the meantime, was spirited and general. The ladies, as
usual, talked a great deal. I soon found that nearly all the company were well

Thesaurus
antiquated: (adj) old, aged, diagonally: (adv) obliquely, slantingly, huge, phenomenal, portentous,
antediluvian, archaic, obsolete, crossways, transversely, slopingly, stupendous, exceptional, colossal,
musty, old-fashioned, outdated, aslantly, biasly, slantedly, slantways, immense, gargantuan; (adj, v)
dowdy, outmoded, antique. cornerwise, bias. ANTONYM: (adv) monstrous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (adj) new, square. unexceptional, normal, average, tiny,
contemporary, fresh, modernistic, fellows: (n) fellow, membership, weak.
recent, current. faculty. profusion: (n) opulence, abundance,
candelabra: (n) candlestick, parallelogram: (n) rhomb, tetragon, prodigality, plenty, excess,
chandelier, sconce, electrolier, quadrilateral, diamond, rhombus, cornucopia, plenitude, profuseness,
branched candlestick, gaselier. rhomboidal, quadrangle, oblong, copiousness, exuberance; (adj)
delicacies: (n) food, delices, cates, rhomboid, rhombic. amplitude. ANTONYMS: (n)
regalia. prodigious: (adj) gigantic, enormous, insufficiency, scarcity.
46 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

educated; and my host was a world of good-humored anecdote in himself. He

seemed quite willing to speak of his position as superintendent of a Maison de
Sante; and, indeed, the topic of lunacy was, much to my surprise, a favorite one
with all present. A great many amusing stories were told, having reference to the
whims of the patients.%
“We had a fellow here once,” said a fat little gentleman, who sat at my right,--
”a fellow that fancied himself a tea-pot; and by the way, is it not especially
singular how often this particular crotchet has entered the brain of the lunatic?
There is scarcely an insane asylum in France which cannot supply a human tea-
pot. Our gentleman was a Britannia--ware tea-pot, and was careful to polish
himself every morning with buckskin and whiting.”
“And then,” said a tall man just opposite, “we had here, not long ago, a
person who had taken it into his head that he was a donkey--which allegorically
speaking, you will say, was quite true. He was a troublesome patient; and we
had much ado to keep him within bounds. For a long time he would eat nothing
but thistles; but of this idea we soon cured him by insisting upon his eating
nothing else. Then he was perpetually kicking out his heels-so-so-”
“Mr. De Kock! I will thank you to behave yourself!” here interrupted an old
lady, who sat next to the speaker. “Please keep your feet to yourself! You have
spoiled my brocade! Is it necessary, pray, to illustrate a remark in so practical a
style? Our friend here can surely comprehend you without all this. Upon my
word, you are nearly as great a donkey as the poor unfortunate imagined
himself. Your acting is very natural, as I live.”
“Mille pardons! Ma’m’selle!” replied Monsieur De Kock, thus addressed--”a
thousand pardons! I had no intention of offending. Ma’m’selle Laplace--
Monsieur De Kock will do himself the honor of taking wine with you.”
Here Monsieur De Kock bowed low, kissed his hand with much ceremony,
and took wine with Ma’m’selle Laplace.
“Allow me, mon ami,” now said Monsieur Maillard, addressing myself,
“allow me to send you a morsel of this veal a la St. Menhoult--you will find it
particularly fine.”
Thesaurus
allegorically: (adv) metaphorically, crank, hook, fad, whim, quirkiness, crumb, chew, particle, fragment,
symbolically, parabolicly, queerness, quarter note, oddity. taste, piece, nibble; (adj, v) gobbet,
parabolically, emblematically, good-humored: (adj) affable, cheerful, mite.
allusively, anagogically. ANTONYM: good-natured, pleasant, sweet, perpetually: (adv) eternally,
(adv) literally. funny, amicable, congenial, mild, everlastingly, always, incessantly,
anecdote: (n) tale, account, yarn, obliging. continually, endlessly, permanently,
narrative, story, fable, relation, ana, lunacy: (adj, n) frenzy, craziness, unceasingly, ceaselessly, ever; (adj,
fiction, trait, gossip. madness, derangement, aberration; adv) forever. ANTONYMS: (adv)
brocade: (n) brocatelle, cloth, fabric, (n) folly, foolishness, mania, erratically, sporadically.
fringe, galloon, lace, trapping, delirium, dementia; (adj) distraction. whims: (n) vagaries, freaks, humor, ill
edging, embroidery. ANTONYM: (n) sanity. humor, mood, facetiousness,
crotchet: (n, v) caprice; (n) quirk, kink, morsel: (n, v) bite, mouthful; (n) caprices, disposition, temper.
 Edgar Allan Poe 47

At this instant three sturdy waiters had just succeeded in depositing safely
upon the table an enormous dish, or trencher, containing what I supposed to be
the “monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.” A closer
scrutiny assured me, however, that it was only a small calf roasted whole, and
set upon its knees, with an apple in its mouth, as is the English fashion of
dressing a hare.%
“Thank you, no,” I replied; “to say the truth, I am not particularly partial to
veal a la St.--what is it?--for I do not find that it altogether agrees with me. I will
change my plate, however, and try some of the rabbit.”
There were several side-dishes on the table, containing what appeared to be
the ordinary French rabbit--a very delicious morceau, which I can recommend.
“Pierre,” cried the host, “change this gentleman’s plate, and give him a side-
piece of this rabbit au-chat.”
“This what?” said I.
“This rabbit au-chat.”
“Why, thank you--upon second thoughts, no. I will just help myself to some
of the ham.”
There is no knowing what one eats, thought I to myself, at the tables of these
people of the province. I will have none of their rabbit au-chat--and, for the
matter of that, none of their cat-au-rabbit either.
“And then,” said a cadaverous looking personage, near the foot of the table,
taking up the thread of the conversation where it had been broken off,--”and
then, among other oddities, we had a patient, once upon a time, who very
pertinaciously maintained himself to be a Cordova cheese, and went about, with
a knife in his hand, soliciting his friends to try a small slice from the middle of
his leg.”
“He was a great fool, beyond doubt,” interposed some one, “but not to be
compared with a certain individual whom we all know, with the exception of
this strange gentleman. I mean the man who took himself for a bottle of
champagne, and always went off with a pop and a fizz, in this fashion.”

Thesaurus
cadaverous: (adj) gaunt, wan, ghastly, interposed: (adj) interjacent, roasted: (adj) fried, baked.
thin, haggard, deathly, pale, ashen, intercedent, intervenient, soliciting: (n) traffic, suit; (adj)
dead, skeletal, bony. ANTONYMS: parenthetical, intermediate colors, petitory, petitioning.
(adj) rosy, ruddy, flushed, glowing, mediate. sturdy: (adj) strong, stout, solid,
lifelike, lively, plump. lumen: (n) lm. rugged, firm, mighty, robust, healthy,
champagne: (v) chain lightning, morceau: (adv) bourdon, drone, muscular; (adj, n) burly, brawny.
cocktail; (n) sparkling wine, blonde. terzetto; (adj) globule, grain, granule, ANTONYMS: (adj) flimsy, puny,
eats: (n) grub, chuck, food, meat, meal, minim, scruple, sip, spice, sup. fragile, rickety, slight, ramshackle,
diet, nurture, eat, dinner, board, feed. pertinaciously: (adv) stubbornly, infirm, frail, feeble, delicate, soft.
fizz: (n, v) froth, lather, buzz; (v) unyieldingly, firmly, tenaciously, trencher: (n) dish, platter, chopping
bubble, sparkle, effervesce, hiss, obstinately, doggedly, headstrongly, board, porringer, potager, ditch
seethe, simmer; (n) sizzle, fizzle. stiffly, contumaciously, dourly. digger, saucer, calabash, crucible.
48 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Here the speaker, very rudely, as I thought, put his right thumb in his left
cheek, withdrew it with a sound resembling the popping of a cork, and then, by a
dexterous movement of the tongue upon the teeth, created a sharp hissing and
fizzing, which lasted for several minutes, in imitation of the frothing of
champagne. This behavior, I saw plainly, was not very pleasing to Monsieur
Maillard; but that gentleman said nothing, and the conversation was resumed by
a very lean little man in a big wig.%
“And then there was an ignoramus,” said he, “who mistook himself for a
frog, which, by the way, he resembled in no little degree. I wish you could have
seen him, sir,”--here the speaker addressed myself--”it would have done your
heart good to see the natural airs that he put on. Sir, if that man was not a frog, I
can only observe that it is a pity he was not. His croak thus--o-o-o-o-gh--o-o-o-o-
gh! was the finest note in the world--B flat; and when he put his elbows upon the
table thus--after taking a glass or two of wine--and distended his mouth, thus,
and rolled up his eyes, thus, and winked them with excessive rapidity, thus, why
then, sir, I take it upon myself to say, positively, that you would have been lost in
admiration of the genius of the man.”
“I have no doubt of it,” I said.
“And then,” said somebody else, “then there was Petit Gaillard, who thought
himself a pinch of snuff, and was truly distressed because he could not take
himself between his own finger and thumb.”
“And then there was Jules Desoulieres, who was a very singular genius,
indeed, and went mad with the idea that he was a pumpkin. He persecuted the
cook to make him up into pies--a thing which the cook indignantly refused to do.
For my part, I am by no means sure that a pumpkin pie a la Desoulieres would
not have been very capital eating indeed!”
“You astonish me!” said I; and I looked inquisitively at Monsieur Maillard.
“Ha! ha! ha!” said that gentleman--”he! he! he!--hi! hi! hi!--ho! ho! ho!--hu! hu!
hu! hu!--very good indeed! You must not be astonished, mon ami; our friend
here is a wit--a drole--you must not understand him to the letter.”

Thesaurus
croak: (v) buy the farm, mutter, frothing: (adj) foamy, bubbling, pumpkin: (n) Autumn pumpkin,
murmur, complain, conk, maunder, effervescent, bubbly, spumous, vegetable, veggie, squash, gourd,
growl, perish, expire, decease; (n) spumy, effervescing, sudsy, agitated; head, punkin, pumpion, pumpkin
croaking. (n) effervescence, scum. vine.
dexterous: (adj) adept, deft, skillful, inquisitively: (adv) pryingly, nosily, rapidity: (n) expedition, quickness,
expert, clever, able, agile, cunning, inquiringly, questioningly, promptness, dispatch, celerity, haste,
handy, neat; (adj, v) crafty. meddlesomely, speculatively, velocity, pace, fleetness,
ANTONYMS: (adj) inept, awkward, searchingly, meddlingly, promptitude, speed. ANTONYM: (n)
uncoordinated, incompetent, useless. interestedly, interrogatively, eagerly. tardiness.
fizzing: (adj) fizzy, frothy, sparkling; persecuted: (adj) downtrodden, snuff: (v) smell, kill, douse, slay, scent,
(n) effervescence; (v) sizzle. aggrieved, laden, mistreated, snuffle, bump off, smother, snort;
ANTONYM: (adj) still. wronged. (adj) tobacco, nicotine.
 Edgar Allan Poe 49

“And then,” said some other one of the party,--”then there was Bouffon Le
Grand--another extraordinary personage in his way. He grew deranged through
love, and fancied himself possessed of two heads. One of these he maintained to
be the head of Cicero; the other he imagined a composite one, being
Demosthenes’ from the top of the forehead to the mouth, and Lord Brougham’s
from the mouth to the chin. It is not impossible that he was wrong; but he would
have convinced you of his being in the right; for he was a man of great
eloquence. He had an absolute passion for oratory, and could not refrain from
display. For example, he used to leap upon the dinner-table thus, and--and-”
Here a friend, at the side of the speaker, put a hand upon his shoulder and
whispered a few words in his ear, upon which he ceased talking with great
suddenness, and sank back within his chair.%
“And then,” said the friend who had whispered, “there was Boullard, the tee-
totum. I call him the tee-totum because, in fact, he was seized with the droll but
not altogether irrational crotchet, that he had been converted into a tee-totum.
You would have roared with laughter to see him spin. He would turn round
upon one heel by the hour, in this manner--so-
Here the friend whom he had just interrupted by a whisper, performed an
exactly similar office for himself.
“But then,” cried the old lady, at the top of her voice, “your Monsieur
Boullard was a madman, and a very silly madman at best; for who, allow me to
ask you, ever heard of a human tee-totum? The thing is absurd. Madame Joyeuse
was a more sensible person, as you know. She had a crotchet, but it was instinct
with common sense, and gave pleasure to all who had the honor of her
acquaintance. She found, upon mature deliberation, that, by some accident, she
had been turned into a chicken-cock; but, as such, she behaved with propriety.
She flapped her wings with prodigious effect--so--so--and, as for her crow, it was
delicious! Cock-a-doodle-doo!--cock-a-doodle-doo!--cock-a-doodle-de-doo-dooo-
do-o-o-o-o-o-o!”

Thesaurus
ceased: (adj) finished. (adj) calm, balanced, lucid, rational, correctness, aptitude; (n) decorum,
deliberation: (n) cogitation, counsel, stable. fitness, etiquette, civility, grace,
debate, caution, thought, advisement, eloquence: (n) style, fluency, oratory, politeness, manners. ANTONYMS:
attention, contemplation, rhetoric, articulateness, expression, (n) impropriety, rudeness,
consultation; (adj, n) calculation, volubility, persuasiveness, articulacy, unsuitableness, indecorum,
circumspection. ANTONYMS: (n) facundity, way with words. decadence, tactlessness, corruption,
thoughtlessness, carelessness, ANTONYM: (n) inarticulateness. vulgarity, indecency.
impetuosity, distraction, rashness. oratory: (n) elocution, rhetoric, suddenness: (n) steepness, hastiness,
deranged: (adj) demented, disordered, declamation, speech, oration, church, precipitance, precipitancy,
crazed, maddened, unbalanced, chapel, tabernacle, valediction, precipitateness, sudden, craggedness,
insane, lunatic, mad, confused, cathedral, public speaking. surprise, precipitousness,
disturbed, acephalous. ANTONYMS: propriety: (adj, n) decency, modesty, brusqueness, curtness.
50 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Madame Joyeuse, I will thank you to behave yourself!” here interrupted our
host, very angrily. “You can either conduct yourself as a lady should do, or you
can quit the table forthwith-take your choice.”
The lady (whom I was much astonished to hear addressed as Madame
Joyeuse, after the description of Madame Joyeuse she had just given) blushed up
to the eyebrows, and seemed exceedingly abashed at the reproof. She hung
down her head, and said not a syllable in reply. But another and younger lady
resumed the theme. It was my beautiful girl of the little parlor.%
“Oh, Madame Joyeuse was a fool!” she exclaimed, “but there was really
much sound sense, after all, in the opinion of Eugenie Salsafette. She was a very
beautiful and painfully modest young lady, who thought the ordinary mode of
habiliment indecent, and wished to dress herself, always, by getting outside
instead of inside of her clothes. It is a thing very easily done, after all. You have
only to do so--and then so--so--so--and then so--so--so--and then so--so--and
then-
“Mon dieu! Ma’m’selle Salsafette!” here cried a dozen voices at once. “What
are you about?--forbear!--that is sufficient!--we see, very plainly, how it is done!--
hold! hold!” and several persons were already leaping from their seats to
withhold Ma’m’selle Salsafette from putting herself upon a par with the
Medicean Venus, when the point was very effectually and suddenly
accomplished by a series of loud screams, or yells, from some portion of the main
body of the chateau.
My nerves were very much affected, indeed, by these yells; but the rest of the
company I really pitied. I never saw any set of reasonable people so thoroughly
frightened in my life. They all grew as pale as so many corpses, and, shrinking
within their seats, sat quivering and gibbering with terror, and listening for a
repetition of the sound. It came again--louder and seemingly nearer--and then a
third time very loud, and then a fourth time with a vigor evidently diminished.
At this apparent dying away of the noise, the spirits of the company were
immediately regained, and all was life and anecdote as before. I now ventured to
inquire the cause of the disturbance.

Thesaurus
abashed: (adj, v) discomfited; (adj) decisively; (adj) nicely, fully, head reproof: (n, v) reprimand, censure,
mortified, sheepish, embarrassed, and shoulders. ANTONYM: (adv) rebuke, lecture; (n) reproach,
ashamed, confused, humiliated, ineffectually. admonition, reprehension, blame,
afraid, shamefaced, confounded; (v) gibbering: (adj) wild. condemnation, objurgation,
dashed. ANTONYMS: (adj) proud, habiliment: (n) garment, habit, castigation.
undaunted, reassured, pleased, clothing, vesture, dress, vestment, vigor: (n, v) energy; (adj, n) intensity;
heartened, emboldened, cool, raiment, garb, gear, clothes, (n) spirit, vitality, force, life, strength,
confident, composed, relaxed, abiliment. power, might, vim, stamina.
unabashed. inquire: (v) demand, ask, explore, ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, apathy,
effectually: (adv) efficaciously, enquire, inspect, research, consult, frailty, laziness, enervation,
effectively, validly, adequately, pry, request, wonder; (n, v) question. inactivity, indifference, illness,
potently, tellingly, strongly, ANTONYM: (v) answer. lifelessness, sluggishness, tardiness.
 Edgar Allan Poe 51

“A mere bagtelle,” said Monsieur Maillard. “We are used to these things, and
care really very little about them. The lunatics, every now and then, get up a
howl in concert; one starting another, as is sometimes the case with a bevy of
dogs at night. It occasionally happens, however, that the concerto yells are
succeeded by a simultaneous effort at breaking loose, when, of course, some little
danger is to be apprehended.”
“And how many have you in charge?”
“At present we have not more than ten, altogether.”
“Principally females, I presume?”
“Oh, no--every one of them men, and stout fellows, too, I can tell you.”
“Indeed! I have always understood that the majority of lunatics were of the
gentler sex.”
“It is generally so, but not always. Some time ago, there were about twenty-
seven patients here; and, of that number, no less than eighteen were women; but,
lately, matters have changed very much, as you see.”
“Yes--have changed very much, as you see,” here interrupted the gentleman
who had broken the shins of Ma’m’selle Laplace.%
“Yes--have changed very much, as you see!” chimed in the whole company at
once.
“Hold your tongues, every one of you!” said my host, in a great rage.
Whereupon the whole company maintained a dead silence for nearly a minute.
As for one lady, she obeyed Monsieur Maillard to the letter, and thrusting out
her tongue, which was an excessively long one, held it very resignedly, with
both hands, until the end of the entertainment.
“And this gentlewoman,” said I, to Monsieur Maillard, bending over and
addressing him in a whisper--”this good lady who has just spoken, and who
gives us the cock-a-doodle-de-doo--she, I presume, is harmless--quite harmless,
eh?”

Thesaurus
bevy: (n) band, horde, cluster, party, exaggeratedly, intemperately. (adj) hardy, strong, robust, obese,
gang, bunch, group, flock, array, ANTONYMS: (adv) justifiably, husky, bold, corpulent, fleshy.
crew; (adj, n) swarm. ANTONYM: (n) moderately, insufficiently. ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, slim, flimsy,
individual. howl: (n, v) cry, roar, scream, bark, cowardly, slight, skinny, fragile,
concerto: (n) cavatina, concert, shout, yell, bay, yelp; (v) bawl, growl, weak.
overture, variations, piece of music, yawl. ANTONYM: (v) laugh. thrusting: (n) thrust, push, jab, poke,
fantasia, masterpiece, cadenza, resignedly: (adv) abjectly, jabbing, stab, driving force, scoke,
pastorale, classical music, roulade. submissively, patiently, subduedly, sack, punch, Phytolacca Americana.
excessively: (adj, adv) immoderately, passively, uncomplainingly, whereupon: (adv) thereupon,
exorbitantly, inordinately; (adv) despairingly, yieldingly, tolerantly, hereupon, upon which, at what, at
extremely, enormously, exceedingly, unhopefully. which.
very, profusely, overly, stout: (adj, n) sturdy, stocky, hearty; women: (n) sex, gentle sex.
52 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Harmless!” ejaculated he, in unfeigned surprise, “why--why, what can you

mean?”%
“Only slightly touched?” said I, touching my head. “I take it for granted that
she is not particularly not dangerously affected, eh?”
“Mon dieu! what is it you imagine? This lady, my particular old friend
Madame Joyeuse, is as absolutely sane as myself. She has her little eccentricities,
to be sure--but then, you know, all old women--all very old women--are more or
less eccentric!”
“To be sure,” said I,--”to be sure--and then the rest of these ladies and
gentlemen-”
“Are my friends and keepers,” interupted Monsieur Maillard, drawing
himself up with hauteur,--”my very good friends and assistants.”
“What! all of them?” I asked,--”the women and all?”
“Assuredly,” he said,--”we could not do at all without the women; they are
the best lunatic nurses in the world; they have a way of their own, you know;
their bright eyes have a marvellous effect;--something like the fascination of the
snake, you know.”
“To be sure,” said I,--”to be sure! They behave a little odd, eh?--they are a
little queer, eh?--don’t you think so?”
“Odd!--queer!--why, do you really think so? We are not very prudish, to be
sure, here in the South--do pretty much as we please--enjoy life, and all that sort
of thing, you know-”
“To be sure,” said I,--”to be sure.”
And then, perhaps, this Clos de Vougeot is a little heady, you know--a little
strong--you understand, eh?”
“To be sure,” said I,--”to be sure. By the bye, Monsieur, did I understand you
to say that the system you have adopted, in place of the celebrated soothing
system, was one of very rigorous severity?”

Thesaurus
heady: (adj) hot, intoxicating, exciting, funny, curious, gay, peculiar, strange, twist, curl, weave; (n, v) sneak.
keen, headstrong, strong, acute, quaint, fishy, outlandish. soothing: (adj) calming, soft, smooth,
quick, rude, vehement, brash. ANTONYMS: (adj) conventional, pacifying, quiet, restful, bland, calm,
ANTONYMS: (adj) bored, cautious, normal, well. assuasive; (adj, n) softening; (n)
dull, mild, weak, bland. sane: (adj, n) reasonable, lucid; (adj) alleviation. ANTONYMS: (adj)
prudish: (adj) priggish, prissy, rational, judicious, right, sensible, upsetting, disturbing, hostile, scary,
demure, coy, proper, squeamish, normal, wise, wholesome, sound, worrying, stimulating, exasperating,
puritanical, Victorian, straitlaced, prudent. ANTONYMS: (adj) annoying, invigorating, painful,
stiff, delicate. ANTONYMS: (adj) unbalanced, insane, crazed, delirious, intimidating.
brash, brazen, liberal, permissive, unreasonable, irrational, foolish. unfeigned: (adj) sincere, true, genuine,
strong. snake: (n) serpent, ophidian, viper, honest, unaffected, heartfelt, truthful,
queer: (adj) fantastic, odd, eccentric, constrictor, hydra, elapid; (v) wind, frank, hearty, straight, natural.
 Edgar Allan Poe 53

“By no means. Our confinement is necessarily close; but the treatment--the

medical treatment, I mean--is rather agreeable to the patients than otherwise.”
“And the new system is one of your own invention?”
“Not altogether. Some portions of it are referable to Professor Tarr, of whom
you have, necessarily, heard; and, again, there are modifications in my plan
which I am happy to acknowledge as belonging of right to the celebrated Fether,
with whom, if I mistake not, you have the honor of an intimate acquaintance.”
“I am quite ashamed to confess,” I replied, “that I have never even heard the
names of either gentleman before.”
“Good heavens!” ejaculated my host, drawing back his chair abruptly, and
uplifting his hands. “I surely do not hear you aright! You did not intend to say,
eh? that you had never heard either of the learned Doctor Tarr, or of the
celebrated Professor Fether?”
“I am forced to acknowledge my ignorance,” I replied; “but the truth should
be held inviolate above all things. Nevertheless, I feel humbled to the dust, not
to be acquainted with the works of these, no doubt, extraordinary men. I will
seek out their writings forthwith, and peruse them with deliberate care.
Monsieur Maillard, you have really--I must confess it--you have really--made me
ashamed of myself!”
And this was the fact.%
“Say no more, my good young friend,” he said kindly, pressing my hand,--
”join me now in a glass of Sauterne.”
We drank. The company followed our example without stint. They chatted--
they jested--they laughed--they perpetrated a thousand absurdities--the fiddles
shrieked--the drum row-de-dowed--the trombones bellowed like so many
brazen bulls of Phalaris--and the whole scene, growing gradually worse and
worse, as the wines gained the ascendancy, became at length a sort of
pandemonium in petto. In the meantime, Monsieur Maillard and myself, with
some bottles of Sauterne and Vougeot between us, continued our conversation at

Thesaurus
aright: (adv) correctly, right, well, true, abased, broken in, abject, ashamed; inspect, study, leaf, flip, flick, learn,
not Amis, satisfactorily, favorably, (n) humbler; (v) apart. review, to read, browse. ANTONYM:
justly, exactly, rightly, properly. inviolate: (adj, v) intact; (adj) sacred, (v) skim.
brazen: (adj) audacious, impudent, sacrosanct, whole, entire, pure; (v) in referable: (adj) ascribable, referrible,
brassy, insolent, bold, brash, petto, clandestine, auricular, close, attributable, accusable, culpable,
impertinent, blatant, flagrant, privy. chargeable.
forward, saucy. ANTONYMS: (adj) pandemonium: (n) chaos, confusion, uplifting: (n) ascent, exaltation,
shy, abashed, prudish, reserved, hubbub, disorder, commotion, racket, edification, upbuoyance; (adj)
quiet, discreet, respectful, ashamed, turmoil, noise, mayhem, clamor, heartening, healing, gratifying,
veiled, modest. hullabaloo. ANTONYMS: (n) order, exhilarating, exalted, curative,
humbled: (adj) humble, humiliated, peace, calm. cheering. ANTONYMS: (adj) deadly,
crushed, depressed, dispirited, peruse: (v) examine, look through, ridiculous, heartbreaking.
54 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

the top of the voice. A word spoken in an ordinary key stood no more chance of
being heard than the voice of a fish from the bottom of Niagra Falls.%
“And, sir,” said I, screaming in his ear, “you mentioned something before
dinner about the danger incurred in the old system of soothing. How is that?”
“Yes,” he replied, “there was, occasionally, very great danger indeed. There is
no accounting for the caprices of madmen; and, in my opinion as well as in that
of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, it is never safe to permit them to run at large
unattended. A lunatic may be ‘soothed,’ as it is called, for a time, but, in the end,
he is very apt to become obstreperous. His cunning, too, is proverbial and great.
If he has a project in view, he conceals his design with a marvellous wisdom; and
the dexterity with which he counterfeits sanity, presents, to the metaphysician,
one of the most singular problems in the study of mind. When a madman
appears thoroughly sane, indeed, it is high time to put him in a straitjacket.”
“But the danger, my dear sir, of which you were speaking, in your own
experience--during your control of this house--have you had practical reason to
think liberty hazardous in the case of a lunatic?”
“Here?--in my own experience?--why, I may say, yes. For example:--no very
long while ago, a singular circumstance occurred in this very house. The
‘soothing system,’ you know, was then in operation, and the patients were at
large. They behaved remarkably well-especially so, any one of sense might have
known that some devilish scheme was brewing from that particular fact, that the
fellows behaved so remarkably well. And, sure enough, one fine morning the
keepers found themselves pinioned hand and foot, and thrown into the cells,
where they were attended, as if they were the lunatics, by the lunatics
themselves, who had usurped the offices of the keepers.”
“You don’t tell me so! I never heard of any thing so absurd in my life!”
“Fact--it all came to pass by means of a stupid fellow--a lunatic--who, by
some means, had taken it into his head that he had invented a better system of
government than any ever heard of before--of lunatic government, I mean. He
wished to give his invention a trial, I suppose, and so he persuaded the rest of

Thesaurus
attended: (adj) attent, fraught, tended adroitness, address. ANTONYMS: (n) famed, legendary, famous, common,
to. clumsiness, awkwardness, true saying, trite saying,
devilish: (adj, v) diabolic, satanic, ineptitude, inability, uselessness, recognizable.
infernal, mephistophelian, inexperience, ineptness, inaccuracy. sanity: (n) reason, saneness, mind,
demoniacal; (adj) demonic, wicked, metaphysician: (v) mark. health, reasonableness, rationality,
diabolical, terrific; (v) Stygian; (adv) obstreperous: (adj) noisy, boisterous, soundness, mental health, lucidity,
devilishly. ANTONYMS: (adj) blatant, clamorous, defiant, common sense, prudence.
cherubic, godlike, good, saintly, disobedient, disorderly, unruly, ANTONYMS: (n) insanity, madness.
virtuous. vociferous, tumultuous, turbulent. unattended: (adj) ignored, neglected,
dexterity: (n) agility, cleverness, offices: (n) kitchen, pantry, scullery. alone, solitary, abandoned,
ability, aptitude, skill, deftness, proverbial: (adj) axiomatic, hackneyed disregarded, not safeguarded, lonely.
expertise; (adj, n) art, cunning; (n, v) saying, common saying, notorious, usurped: (adj) tortious.
 Edgar Allan Poe 55

the patients to join him in a conspiracy for the overthrow of the reigning
powers.”%
“And he really succeeded?”
“No doubt of it. The keepers and kept were soon made to exchange places.
Not that exactly either--for the madmen had been free, but the keepers were shut
up in cells forthwith, and treated, I am sorry to say, in a very cavalier manner.”
“But I presume a counter-revolution was soon effected. This condition of
things could not have long existed. The country people in the neighborhood-
visitors coming to see the establishment--would have given the alarm.”
“There you are out. The head rebel was too cunning for that. He admitted no
visitors at all--with the exception, one day, of a very stupid-looking young
gentleman of whom he had no reason to be afraid. He let him in to see the place--
just by way of variety,--to have a little fun with him. As soon as he had
gammoned him sufficiently, he let him out, and sent him about his business.”
“And how long, then, did the madmen reign?”
“Oh, a very long time, indeed--a month certainly--how much longer I can’t
precisely say. In the meantime, the lunatics had a jolly season of it--that you may
swear. They doffed their own shabby clothes, and made free with the family
wardrobe and jewels. The cellars of the chateau were well stocked with wine;
and these madmen are just the devils that know how to drink it. They lived well,
I can tell you.”
“And the treatment--what was the particular species of treatment which the
leader of the rebels put into operation?”
“Why, as for that, a madman is not necessarily a fool, as I have already
observed; and it is my honest opinion that his treatment was a much better
treatment than that which it superseded. It was a very capital system indeed--
simple--neat--no trouble at all--in fact it was delicious it was
Here my host’s observations were cut short by another series of yells, of the
same character as those which had previously disconcerted us. This time,
however, they seemed to proceed from persons rapidly approaching.

Thesaurus
cavalier: (adj) overbearing, arrogant, disconcerted: (adj) confused, jewels: (n) jewelry, gems, wealth,
haughty, offhand, supercilious, confounded, bewildered, blank, hoops, Perrie, riches, studs, fortune,
domineering, bumptious, embarrassed, disturbed, troubled, fineness, earrings, decoration.
adventurous, flippant; (n) escort, worried, ashamed, discombobulated, reigning: (adj) regnant, predominant,
equestrian. ANTONYMS: (adj) bemused. ANTONYMS: (adj) overruling, reign, sovereign,
humble, conscientious, obliging, composed, soothed, unabashed, controlling, royal, dominant,
careful, polite, considerate. relaxed. ascendant, prevalent, chief.
cellars: (n) cellar. forthwith: (adv) directly, immediately, stocked: (adj) stocked with, furnished,
cells: (n) flesh. at once, now, instantly, straight, full.
chateau: (n) mansion, palace, villa, presently, straightaway, superseded: (adj) outmoded, archaic,
hall, place, rotunda, winery, rus in incontinently; (adj, adv) quickly; (adj) extinct, obsolete, out of date,
urbe, vineyard, wine grower, lodge. immediate. outdated.
56 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Gracious heavens!” I ejaculated--”the lunatics have most undoubtedly

broken loose.”
“I very much fear it is so,” replied Monsieur Maillard, now becoming
excessively pale. He had scarcely finished the sentence, before loud shouts and
imprecations were heard beneath the windows; and, immediately afterward, it
became evident that some persons outside were endeavoring to gain entrance
into the room. The door was beaten with what appeared to be a sledge-hammer,
and the shutters were wrenched and shaken with prodigious violence.%
A scene of the most terrible confusion ensued. Monsieur Maillard, to my
excessive astonishment threw himself under the side-board. I had expected more
resolution at his hands. The members of the orchestra, who, for the last fifteen
minutes, had been seemingly too much intoxicated to do duty, now sprang all at
once to their feet and to their instruments, and, scrambling upon their table,
broke out, with one accord, into, “Yankee Doodle,” which they performed, if not
exactly in tune, at least with an energy superhuman, during the whole of the
uproar.
Meantime, upon the main dining-table, among the bottles and glasses, leaped
the gentleman who, with such difficulty, had been restrained from leaping there
before. As soon as he fairly settled himself, he commenced an oration, which, no
doubt, was a very capital one, if it could only have been heard. At the same
moment, the man with the teetotum predilection, set himself to spinning around
the apartment, with immense energy, and with arms outstretched at right angles
with his body; so that he had all the air of a tee-totum in fact, and knocked
everybody down that happened to get in his way. And now, too, hearing an
incredible popping and fizzing of champagne, I discovered at length, that it
proceeded from the person who performed the bottle of that delicate drink
during dinner. And then, again, the frog-man croaked away as if the salvation of
his soul depended upon every note that he uttered. And, in the midst of all this,
the continuous braying of a donkey arose over all. As for my old friend, Madame
Joyeuse, I really could have wept for the poor lady, she appeared so terribly

Thesaurus
braying: (adj) raucous, loud, harsh, springing; (adv) leapingly. partiality, inclination, bent,
shrill, discordant, clamorous, oration: (n) discourse, harangue, weakness, predisposition, liking,
vociferous. lecture, speech, declamation, homily, fondness, bias, taste. ANTONYMS:
endeavoring: (n) effort; (adj) aspiring. tirade, say, recitation, oratory, (n) indifference, horror.
intoxicated: (adj) drunken, drunk, language. scrambling: (adj) boisterous,
inebriate, tipsy, elated, stimulated, outstretched: (adj) extended, lengthy, impetuous, cursory, furious.
intoxicate, infatuated, fuddled, flat, open, unfolded, stretched, broad, shouts: (n) cries.
loaded, plastered. ANTONYM: (adj) wiredrawn, wide, long. teetotum: (n) top, toy, humming top,
sober. popping: (n) pop, blowing, cratering, peak, whirligig, superlative, summit,
leaping: (n) jump, bounce, bound, dad, Dada, flaring, pa, papa, pappa; roundabout, round top, plaything,
leap, spring, saltation, bouncing; (v) (adj) joyful, busy. elevation.
jumping; (adj, v) bounding; (adj) predilection: (n) penchant, preference, wrenched: (adj) strained, weakened.
 Edgar Allan Poe 57

perplexed. All she did, however, was to stand up in a corner, by the fireplace,
and sing out incessantly at the top of her voice, “Cock-a-doodle-de-dooooooh!”
And now came the climax--the catastrophe of the drama. As no resistance,
beyond whooping and yelling and cock-a-doodling, was offered to the
encroachments of the party without, the ten windows were very speedily, and
almost simultaneously, broken in. But I shall never forget the emotions of
wonder and horror with which I gazed, when, leaping through these windows,
and down among us pele-mele, fighting, stamping, scratching, and howling,
there rushed a perfect army of what I took to be Chimpanzees, Ourang-Outangs,
or big black baboons of the Cape of Good Hope.%
I received a terrible beating--after which I rolled under a sofa and lay still.
After lying there some fifteen minutes, during which time I listened with all my
ears to what was going on in the room, I came to same satisfactory denouement
of this tragedy. Monsieur Maillard, it appeared, in giving me the account of the
lunatic who had excited his fellows to rebellion, had been merely relating his
own exploits. This gentleman had, indeed, some two or three years before, been
the superintendent of the establishment, but grew crazy himself, and so became a
patient. This fact was unknown to the travelling companion who introduced me.
The keepers, ten in number, having been suddenly overpowered, were first well
tarred, then--carefully feathered, and then shut up in underground cells. They
had been so imprisoned for more than a month, during which period Monsieur
Maillard had generously allowed them not only the tar and feathers (which
constituted his “system”), but some bread and abundance of water. The latter
was pumped on them daily. At length, one escaping through a sewer, gave
freedom to all the rest.
The “soothing system,” with important modifications, has been resumed at
the chateau; yet I cannot help agreeing with Monsieur Maillard, that his own
“treatment” was a very capital one of its kind. As he justly observed, it was
“simple--neat--and gave no trouble at all--not the least.”

Thesaurus
baboons: (n) Papio, genus Papio. howling: (n) howl, cry; (adj) fierce, ANTONYMS: (adj) unperplexed,
denouement: (n) catastrophe, end, fantastic, gross, glaring, marvelous, assured, clear, knowing.
close, conclusion, consummation, wonderful, wondrous; (adj, n) sewer: (adj, n) cloaca; (n) channel,
ending, finish, result, issue, upshot, weeping, sniveling. ditch, gully, dike, culvert, sewerage,
outcome. ANTONYM: (n) start. overpowered: (adj) beaten, conquered, drainpipe, moat, main; (adj) latrines.
escaping: (n) evasion, getaway, break, inundated, engulfed, flooded, routed, speedily: (adj, adv) quickly, quick,
breakout, running away, running off, vanquished, subdued, subjugated, immediately; (adv) rapidly, promptly,
run-around; (adj) fugitive. overflowing, mild. hastily, swiftly, fast, apace, hurriedly,
feathered: (adj) plumy, plumelike, perplexed: (adj) confused, puzzled, fleetly. ANTONYMS: (adv) later,
featherlike, plumose, plumed, baffled, confounded, doubtful, eventually.
plumaged, fledged, plumigerous, distracted, disconcerted; (adj, v) stamping: (n) impression, blocking,
flighted, decorated; (v) fledge. intricate, complicated, lost, involved. coin, postage, stamping of rail.
58 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

I have only to add that, although I have searched every library in Europe for
the works of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, I have, up to the present day,
utterly failed in my endeavors at procuring an edition.%

Thesaurus
endeavors: (n) activities, deeds, library: (n) program library, collection, procuring: (v) procure.
events, Comings and Goings, depository library, atheneum, utterly: (adv) completely, absolutely,
undertakings, accomplishments, athenaeum, room, repository, series, totally, entirely, extremely,
happenings. public library, study, subroutine altogether, expressly, purely, dead,
every: (adj) each, total, whole, any, library. fully, wholly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
thorough; (n) everybody, everyone, present: (adj, n, v) gift, grant; (n, v) partly, uncertain, slightly,
everything; (adv) apiece, either; (pron) donation, display; (adj, v) confer, incompletely, hardly, somewhat.
every one. bestow; (v) introduce, give, prefer, works: (n) plant, workings, mill,
failed: (adj) unsuccessful, failing, offer, perform. ANTONYMS: (v) manufactory, deeds, whole caboodle,
abortive, bankrupt, fruitless, futile, withdraw, withhold, consume, take; kit and caboodle, kit and boodle,
declining, deteriorating, ineffective, (adj) missing, lost, dated, historical; industrial plant, full treatment,
insolvent. (adj, n) past, future; (n) history. distillery.
 Edgar Allan Poe 59

HOW TO WRITE A BLACKWOOD ARTICLE

“In the name of the Prophet--figs!!”%

--Cry of the Turkish fig-peddler

I presume everybody has heard of me. My name is the Signora Psyche

Zenobia. This I know to be a fact. Nobody but my enemies ever calls me Suky
Snobbs. I have been assured that Suky is but a vulgar corruption of Psyche,
which is good Greek, and means “the soul” (that’s me, I’m all soul) and
sometimes “a butterfly,” which latter meaning undoubtedly alludes to my
appearance in my new crimson satin dress, with the sky-blue Arabian mantelet,
and the trimmings of green agraffas, and the seven flounces of orange-colored
auriculas. As for Snobbs--any person who should look at me would be instantly
aware that my name wasn’t Snobbs. Miss Tabitha Turnip propagated that report
through sheer envy. Tabitha Turnip indeed! Oh the little wretch! But what can
we expect from a turnip? Wonder if she remembers the old adage about “blood
out of a turnip,” &c.? [Mem. put her in mind of it the first opportunity.] [Mem.
again--pull her nose.] Where was I? Ah! I have been assured that Snobbs is a
mere corruption of Zenobia, and that Zenobia was a queen--(So am I. Dr.
Moneypenny always calls me the Queen of the Hearts)--and that Zenobia, as well
as Psyche, is good Greek, and that my father was “a Greek,” and that

Thesaurus
adage: (n) aphorism, proverb, saying, speculate. vulgar: (adj) rude, coarse, plebeian,
byword, dictum, maxim, saw, satin: (adj) glossy, sleek, velvet, down, nasty, common, foul, indecent, gross,
locution, truism, expression, motto. silky, silklike, silken, satiny, velure; unrefined; (adj, n) low, vile.
crimson: (adj, n) carmine, ruby, scarlet, (n) cloth, fabric. ANTONYMS: (adj) refined,
maroon; (v) blush, flush, redden; (adj) trimmings: (n) embellishments, sophisticated, tasteful, polite,
bloody, ruddy, cherry; (n) deep red. trappings, finery, fixing, aesthetic, muted, fashionable, decent,
mantelet: (n) mantlet, shelter, mantle, superfluities, plumage, edge, artistic, pleasant, clean.
mantilla. paraphernalia, gear, additions, wretch: (n) victim, villain, scoundrel,
presume: (v) dare, consider, believe, fixings. reprobate, reptile, miscreant, martyr,
think, infer, guess, expect, esteem, turnip: (n) rutabaga, Swede, root object of compassion, poor devil,
conclude, suppose, conjecture. vegetable, cruciferous vegetable, prey, wreak.
ANTONYMS: (v) appreciate, despair, white turnip, clock.
60 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

consequently I have a right to our patronymic, which is Zenobia and not by any
means Snobbs. Nobody but Tabitha Turnip calls me Suky Snobbs. I am the
Signora Psyche Zenobia.%
As I said before, everybody has heard of me. I am that very Signora Psyche
Zenobia, so justly celebrated as corresponding secretary to the “Philadelphia,
Regular, Exchange, Tea, Total, Young, Belles, Lettres, Universal, Experimental,
Bibliographical, Association, To, Civilize, Humanity.” Dr. Moneypenny made the
title for us, and says he chose it because it sounded big like an empty rum-
puncheon. (A vulgar man that sometimes--but he’s deep.) We all sign the initials
of the society after our names, in the fashion of the R. S. A., Royal Society of Arts-
-the S. D. U. K., Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, &c, &c. Dr.
Moneypenny says that S. stands for stale, and that D. U. K. spells duck, (but it
don’t,) that S. D. U. K. stands for Stale Duck and not for Lord Brougham’s
society--but then Dr. Moneypenny is such a queer man that I am never sure
when he is telling me the truth. At any rate we always add to our names the
initials P. R. E. T. T. Y. B. L. U. E. B. A. T. C. H.--that is to say, Philadelphia,
Regular, Exchange, Tea, Total, Young, Belles, Lettres, Universal, Experimental,
Bibliographical, Association, To, Civilize, Humanity--one letter for each word,
which is a decided improvement upon Lord Brougham. Dr. Moneypenny will
have it that our initials give our true character--but for my life I can’t see what he
means.
Notwithstanding the good offices of the Doctor, and the strenuous exertions
of the association to get itself into notice, it met with no very great success until I
joined it. The truth is, the members indulged in too flippant a tone of discussion.
The papers read every Saturday evening were characterized less by depth than
buffoonery. They were all whipped syllabub. There was no investigation of first
causes, first principles. There was no investigation of any thing at all. There was
no attention paid to that great point, the “fitness of things.” In short there was no
fine writing like this. It was all low--very! No profundity, no reading, no
metaphysics--nothing which the learned call spirituality, and which the

Thesaurus
buffoonery: (n) farce, harlequinade, patronymic: (adj) patronymical ; (n) otherworldliness, benefice, religion,
fooling, joke, prank, clowning, surname. spiritualty, beneficiary, devoutness,
foolery, indulgence, folly, fun, profundity: (n) deepness, belongings, religious studies.
humor. profoundness, abstruseness, strenuous: (adj) arduous, energetic,
characterized: (adj) affected, formed, penetration, wisdom, obscurity, hard, grueling, active, keen, tough,
molded, cast. astuteness, abstrusity, erudition; (adj) eager, dynamic, forward, difficult.
flippant: (adj) frivolous, airy, saucy, profound, extensive. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adj) weak,
giddy, impertinent, impudent, rude, (n) superficiality, banality, flippancy, undemanding, refreshing, effortless,
lightheaded, pert; (adj, v) glib; (v) height, mildness, simplicity. feeble, light.
voluble. ANTONYMS: (adj) earnest, sounded: (adj) measured, oral. syllabub: (n) sillabub, dessert, drink,
caring, respectful. spirituality: (n) inwardness, sweet.
members: (n) convention, personnel. incorporeity, church property, whipped: (v) whipt.
 Edgar Allan Poe 61

unlearned choose to stigmatize as cant. [Dr. M. says I ought to spell “cant” with
a capital K--but I know better.]
When I joined the society it was my endeavor to introduce a better style of
thinking and writing, and all the world knows how well I have succeeded. We
get up as good papers now in the P. R. E. T. T. Y. B. L. U. E. B. A. T. C. H. as any
to be found even in Blackwood. I say, Blackwood, because I have been assured
that the finest writing, upon every subject, is to be discovered in the pages of that
justly celebrated Magazine. We now take it for our model upon all themes, and
are getting into rapid notice accordingly. And, after all, it’s not so very difficult a
matter to compose an article of the genuine Blackwood stamp, if one only goes
properly about it. Of course I don’t speak of the political articles. Everybody
knows how they are managed, since Dr. Moneypenny explained it. Mr.
Blackwood has a pair of tailor’s-shears, and three apprentices who stand by him
for orders. One hands him the “Times,” another the “Examiner” and a third a
“Culley’s New Compendium of Slang-Whang.” Mr. B. merely cuts out and
intersperses. It is soon done--nothing but “Examiner,” “Slang-Whang,” and
“Times”--then “Times,” “Slang-Whang,” and “Examiner”--and then “Times,”
“Examiner,” and “Slang-Whang.”
But the chief merit of the Magazine lies in its miscellaneous articles; and the
best of these come under the head of what Dr. Moneypenny calls the bizarreries
(whatever that may mean) and what everybody else calls the intensities. This is a
species of writing which I have long known how to appreciate, although it is
only since my late visit to Mr. Blackwood (deputed by the society) that I have
been made aware of the exact method of composition. This method is very
simple, but not so much so as the politics. Upon my calling at Mr. B.’s, and
making known to him the wishes of the society, he received me with great
civility, took me into his study, and gave me a clear explanation of the whole
process.%
“My dear madam,” said he, evidently struck with my majestic appearance,
for I had on the crimson satin, with the green agraffas, and orange-colored
auriclas. “My dear madam,” said he, “sit down. The matter stands thus: In the

Thesaurus
blackwood: (n) blacktree, wood, tree, compose: (v) build, compile, write, brand, impress, cast, punch, shape;
rosewood, logwood, lightwood, weave; (adj, v) appease, tranquilize, (v) trample; (n) impression.
black mangrove, blackwood tree. allay, lull; (n, v) calm, constitute, stigmatize: (v) denounce, mark,
cant: (n) jargon, lingo, slang, settle. ANTONYMS: (v) destroy, ruin, defame, stigmatise, gibbet, label,
vernacular, argot; (n, v) bank, tilt, unsettle, annihilate, discompose, expose, taint, disgrace; (n, v) post; (n)
bias, incline; (adj, n) bevel; (v) list. demolish, disturb, fluster. impute shame to.
civility: (n) politeness, courtesy, cuts: (n) film waste. unlearned: (adj) ignorant,
comity, attention, propriety, endeavor: (n, v) struggle, try, strain; unenlightened, illiterate, uninformed,
affability, amenity, cultivation, (n) effort, trial, essay, shot, enterprise, unlettered, unread, uninstructed,
complaisance, courteousness, work; (v) strive, aim. ANTONYMS: unconditioned, nescient, innate,
civilization. ANTONYMS: (n) (n, v) neglect. unknowing. ANTONYMS: (adj)
rudeness, incivility, coarseness. stamp: (n, v) print, imprint, mark, seal, conditioned, cultured, educated.
62 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

first place your writer of intensities must have very black ink, and a very big pen,
with a very blunt nib. And, mark me, Miss Psyche Zenobia!” he continued, after
a pause, with the most expressive energy and solemnity of manner, “mark me!--
that pen--must--never be mended! Herein, madam, lies the secret, the soul, of
intensity. I assume upon myself to say, that no individual, of however great
genius ever wrote with a good pen--understand me,--a good article. You may
take, it for granted, that when manuscript can be read it is never worth reading.
This is a leading principle in our faith, to which if you cannot readily assent, our
conference is at an end.”
He paused. But, of course, as I had no wish to put an end to the conference, I
assented to a proposition so very obvious, and one, too, of whose truth I had all
along been sufficiently aware. He seemed pleased, and went on with his
instructions.%
“It may appear invidious in me, Miss Psyche Zenobia, to refer you to any
article, or set of articles, in the way of model or study, yet perhaps I may as well
call your attention to a few cases. Let me see. There was ‘The Dead Alive,’ a
capital thing!--the record of a gentleman’s sensations when entombed before the
breath was out of his body--full of tastes, terror, sentiment, metaphysics, and
erudition. You would have sworn that the writer had been born and brought up
in a coffin. Then we had the ‘Confessions of an Opium-eater’--fine, very fine!--
glorious imagination--deep philosophy acute speculation--plenty of fire and
fury, and a good spicing of the decidedly unintelligible. That was a nice bit of
flummery, and went down the throats of the people delightfully. They would
have it that Coleridge wrote the paper--but not so. It was composed by my pet
baboon, Juniper, over a rummer of Hollands and water, ‘hot, without sugar.’“
[This I could scarcely have believed had it been anybody but Mr. Blackwood,
who assured me of it.] “Then there was ‘The Involuntary Experimentalist,’ all
about a gentleman who got baked in an oven, and came out alive and well,
although certainly done to a turn. And then there was ‘The Diary of a Late
Physician,’ where the merit lay in good rant, and indifferent Greek--both of them
taking things with the public. And then there was ‘The Man in the Bell,’ a paper

Thesaurus
baboon: (n) chacma, mandrill, Bavian, (adj) palaver, mere words, rant, fustian.
family Cercopithecidae, babion, jargon; (v) honeyed words. rummer: (n) goblet, bowl, cup, chalice,
Cercopithecidae, oaf; (adj) harridan, herein: (adv) here, therein. jorum, drinking glass, basin, punch
toad, specter, scarecrow. invidious: (adj) obnoxious, hateful, bowl, tumbler.
erudition: (n) education, scholarship, discriminatory, offensive, sensations: (n) feelings, vibrations,
letters, edification, reading, outrageous, jealous, abominable, ambiance.
learnedness, culture, lore, odious, loathsome, covetous; (adj, v) solemnity: (n) seriousness, sobriety,
eruditeness; (n, v) knowledge; (adj, n) spiteful. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, earnestness, formality, ceremony,
wisdom. ANTONYM: (n) simplicity. desirable. impressiveness, austerity, sedateness,
flummery: (n) pudding, rant: (n, v) harangue, rave, spout, rage, display, pomp, grandeur.
nonsensicality, meaninglessness, fume; (adj, v) jabber; (v) declaim, ANTONYMS: (n) humor, levity,
nonsense, mummery, knickknack; mouth, bluster; (n) bombast; (adj, n) cheerfulness, understatement.
 Edgar Allan Poe 63

by-the-by, Miss Zenobia, which I cannot sufficiently recommend to your

attention. It is the history of a young person who goes to sleep under the clapper
of a church bell, and is awakened by its tolling for a funeral. The sound drives
him mad, and, accordingly, pulling out his tablets, he gives a record of his
sensations. Sensations are the great things after all. Should you ever be drowned
or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations--they will be worth to you
ten guineas a sheet. If you wish to write forcibly, Miss Zenobia, pay minute
attention to the sensations.”
“That I certainly will, Mr. Blackwood,” said I.%
“Good!” he replied. “I see you are a pupil after my own heart. But I must put
you au fait to the details necessary in composing what may be denominated a
genuine Blackwood article of the sensation stamp--the kind which you will
understand me to say I consider the best for all purposes.
“The first thing requisite is to get yourself into such a scrape as no one ever
got into before. The oven, for instance,--that was a good hit. But if you have no
oven or big bell, at hand, and if you cannot conveniently tumble out of a balloon,
or be swallowed up in an earthquake, or get stuck fast in a chimney, you will
have to be contented with simply imagining some similar misadventure. I
should prefer, however, that you have the actual fact to bear you out. Nothing so
well assists the fancy, as an experimental knowledge of the matter in hand.
‘Truth is strange,’ you know, ‘stranger than fiction’--besides being more to the
purpose.”
Here I assured him I had an excellent pair of garters, and would go and hang
myself forthwith.
“Good!” he replied, “do so;--although hanging is somewhat hacknied.
Perhaps you might do better. Take a dose of Brandreth’s pills, and then give us
your sensations. However, my instructions will apply equally well to any variety
of misadventure, and in your way home you may easily get knocked in the head,
or run over by an omnibus, or bitten by a mad dog, or drowned in a gutter. But
to proceed.

Thesaurus
awakened: (adj) excited, aroused, woe, ill luck. prerequisite; (adj) required,
awakens, awoke, interested. omnibus: (n, v) bus, autobus; (n) mandatory, needful, compulsory,
composing: (v) compose, comprise, motorbus, coach, charabanc, obligatory. ANTONYMS: (adj)
constitute; (adj, v) component; (n) collection, anthology, compilation, voluntary, optional, dispensable; (n)
composition, arranging, jitney, car, motorcoach. inessential, luxury.
arrangement, placement, makeup, oven: (n) furnace, stove, fireplace, tablets: (n) pills, medicine, medication,
constitution, manufacturing. hearth, broiler, heater, bakery, range, drug.
drowned: (adj) prostrate, sunken; (v) kitchen appliance, boiler, coke oven tolling: (n) kneel, passing bell, clangor,
drenched, drent. chamber. pealing.
misadventure: (n) calamity, disaster, pills: (n) medicine, tablets. tumble: (n, v) drop, jumble, stumble,
mischance, ill, plague, mishap, requisite: (n) need, necessity, plunge, slip, spill, downfall; (v)
misfortune, bad luck, catastrophe, requirement, must; (adj, n) necessary, crumble, collapse, topple, confuse.
64 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Having determined upon your subject, you must next consider the tone, or
manner, of your narration. There is the tone didactic, the tone enthusiastic, the
tone natural--all common--place enough. But then there is the tone laconic, or
curt, which has lately come much into use. It consists in short sentences.
Somehow thus: Can’t be too brief. Can’t be too snappish. Always a full stop.
And never a paragraph.%
“Then there is the tone elevated, diffusive, and interjectional. Some of our
best novelists patronize this tone. The words must be all in a whirl, like a
humming-top, and make a noise very similar, which answers remarkably well
instead of meaning. This is the best of all possible styles where the writer is in too
great a hurry to think.
“The tone metaphysical is also a good one. If you know any big words this is
your chance for them. Talk of the Ionic and Eleatic schools--of Archytas, Gorgias,
and Alcmaeon. Say something about objectivity and subjectivity. Be sure and
abuse a man named Locke. Turn up your nose at things in general, and when
you let slip any thing a little too absurd, you need not be at the trouble of
scratching it out, but just add a footnote and say that you are indebted for the
above profound observation to the ‘Kritik der reinem Vernunft,’ or to the
‘Metaphysithe Anfongsgrunde der Noturwissenchaft.’ This would look erudite
and--and--and frank.
“There are various other tones of equal celebrity, but I shall mention only two
more--the tone transcendental and the tone heterogeneous. In the former the
merit consists in seeing into the nature of affairs a very great deal farther than
anybody else. This second sight is very efficient when properly managed. A little
reading of the ‘Dial’ will carry you a great way. Eschew, in this case, big words;
get them as small as possible, and write them upside down. Look over
Channing’s poems and quote what he says about a ‘fat little man with a delusive
show of Can.’ Put in something about the Supernal Oneness. Don’t say a syllable
about the Infernal Twoness. Above all, study innuendo. Hint everything--assert
nothing. If you feel inclined to say ‘bread and butter,’ do not by any means say it
outright. You may say any thing and every thing approaching to ‘bread and

Thesaurus
answers: (n) replies; (adj) answering. academic, knowledgeable, cultured, sponsor, patronage, favor, patronise,
delusive: (adj) deceptive, false, informed, profound; (adj, v) wise, condescend, defend, promote, back,
misleading, fallacious, untrue, unreal, prudent; (n) scholar, savant. help. ANTONYMS: (v) respect,
imaginary, fictitious, delusory, vain, ANTONYMS: (adj) unschooled, boycott.
illusory. ANTONYMS: (adj) truthful, uneducated, uncultured, illiterate, snappish: (adj) irritable, snappy,
real, honest, genuine, actual, unlearned, uninformed, foolish. fractious, crusty, curt, irascible,
authentic. eschew: (v) abstain, shun, elude, brusque, waspish, peppery, peevish,
diffusive: (adj) diffuse, copious, forbear, evade, shirk, refrain, keep morose. ANTONYMS: (adj)
diffusing, diffusible, bushy, from, let alone, duck, flinch. easygoing, gentle, rambling.
abundant, ample, ample justice, ANTONYMS: (v) like, choose, upside: (n) crest, crown, poll, top side,
bulky, capacious, centrifugal. embrace, participate, court. upper side, pate, round top, acme,
erudite: (adj) educated, scholarly, patronize: (v) frequent, support, summit, superlative, teetotum.
 Edgar Allan Poe 65

butter.’ You may hint at buck-wheat cake, or you may even go so far as to
insinuate oat-meal porridge, but if bread and butter be your real meaning, be
cautious, my dear Miss Psyche, not on any account to say ‘bread and butter!’
I assured him that I should never say it again as long as I lived. He kissed me
and continued:
“As for the tone heterogeneous, it is merely a judicious mixture, in equal
proportions, of all the other tones in the world, and is consequently made up of
every thing deep, great, odd, piquant, pertinent, and pretty.%
“Let us suppose now you have determined upon your incidents and tone.
The most important portion--in fact, the soul of the whole business, is yet to be
attended to--I allude to the filling up. It is not to be supposed that a lady, or
gentleman either, has been leading the life of a book worm. And yet above all
things it is necessary that your article have an air of erudition, or at least afford
evidence of extensive general reading. Now I’ll put you in the way of
accomplishing this point. See here!” (pulling down some three or four ordinary-
looking volumes, and opening them at random). “By casting your eye down
almost any page of any book in the world, you will be able to perceive at once a
host of little scraps of either learning or bel-espritism, which are the very thing
for the spicing of a Blackwood article. You might as well note down a few while I
read them to you. I shall make two divisions: first, Piquant Facts for the
Manufacture of Similes, and, second, Piquant Expressions to be introduced as
occasion may require. Write now!”--and I wrote as he dictated.
“PIQUANT FACTS FOR SIMILES. ‘There were originally but three Muses--Melete,
Mneme, Aoede--meditation, memory, and singing.’ You may make a good deal
of that little fact if properly worked. You see it is not generally known, and looks
recherche. You must be careful and give the thing with a downright improviso
air.
“Again. ‘The river Alpheus passed beneath the sea, and emerged without
injury to the purity of its waters.’ Rather stale that, to be sure, but, if properly
dressed and dished up, will look quite as fresh as ever.

Thesaurus
accomplishing: (n) doing; (adj) wholly, decidedly. ANTONYMS: reasonable, advisable. ANTONYMS:
effectual. (adj) semi, limited, incomplete, (adj) stupid, tactless, indiscriminate,
allude: (v) advert, refer, hint, glance, questionable, slight; (adv) hardly. reckless, illogical, extreme, untimely.
intimate, suggest, touch, bring up, improviso: (adj) improvised, piquant: (adj) peppery, spicy,
mean, notice, pertain. extemporaneous, impromptu. engaging, tasty, salty, strong, sharp,
dished: (adj) hollow, curved in, insinuate: (v) imply, hint, intimate, gamy; (adj, n) pungent, racy,
dipped; (v) stultified, befooled. indicate, suggest, adumbrate, trenchant. ANTONYMS: (adj) bland,
ANTONYM: (adj) convex. connote, signify, ingratiate, instill, dull, insipid, faint.
divisions: (n) contents. denote. recherche: (n) chic, modish; (adj)
downright: (adj, n) absolute; (adj, v) judicious: (adj, v) discreet; (adj) choice, rare, select, best, picked, elect,
sheer, clear; (adj) dead, blunt, candid, careful, discerning, sensible, prudent, dainty, priceless, elegant.
plain; (adv) absolutely, thoroughly, rational, sagacious, sound, cautious, worked: (adj) elaborated, beaten.
66 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Here is something better. ‘The Persian Iris appears to some persons to

possess a sweet and very powerful perfume, while to others it is perfectly
scentless.’ Fine that, and very delicate! Turn it about a little, and it will do
wonders. We’ll have some thing else in the botanical line. There’s nothing goes
down so well, especially with the help of a little Latin. Write!
“‘The Epidendrum Flos Aeris, of Java, bears a very beautiful flower, and will
live when pulled up by the roots. The natives suspend it by a cord from the
ceiling, and enjoy its fragrance for years.’ That’s capital! That will do for the
similes. Now for the Piquant Expressions.%
“PIQUANT EXPRESSIONS. ‘The Venerable Chinese novel Ju-Kiao-Li.’ Good! By
introducing these few words with dexterity you will evince your intimate
acquaintance with the language and literature of the Chinese. With the aid of this
you may either get along without either Arabic, or Sanscrit, or Chickasaw. There
is no passing muster, however, without Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, and
Greek. I must look you out a little specimen of each. Any scrap will answer,
because you must depend upon your own ingenuity to make it fit into your
article. Now write!
“‘Aussi tendre que Zaire’--as tender as Zaire-French. Alludes to the frequent
repetition of the phrase, la tendre Zaire, in the French tragedy of that name.
Properly introduced, will show not only your knowledge of the language, but
your general reading and wit. You can say, for instance, that the chicken you
were eating (write an article about being choked to death by a chicken-bone) was
not altogether aussi tendre que Zaire. Write!

‘Van muerte tan escondida,

Que no te sienta venir,
Porque el plazer del morir,
No mestorne a dar la vida.’

“That’s Spanish--from Miguel de Cervantes. ‘Come quickly, O death! but be

sure and don’t let me see you coming, lest the pleasure I shall feel at your

Thesaurus
botanical: (adj) vegetative, vegetal, fragrance: (n, v) aroma, perfume, marshal, accumulate; (n) levy,
plant, vegetation, phytological. scent, smell; (n) bouquet, odor, gathering; (n, v) draft. ANTONYM:
choked: (adj) clogged, smothered, essence, odour, redolence, sweetness; (v) demobilize.
congested, annoyed, high-strung, (adj) fragrant. ANTONYMS: (n) stink, natives: (n) nation, populace,
strained, neurotic, tense, angry, stench. community, citizens, public.
anxious, insecure. ingenuity: (adj, n) ability; (n) similes: (n) imagery, images,
cord: (n) band, bond, tie, twine, tape, adroitness, ingeniousness, cunning, metaphors.
whipcord, thread, yarn, lace, rope, imagination, acumen, resource, suspend: (adj, v) defer, put off; (v)
leash. originality, skill, wit, inventiveness. interrupt, stop, adjourn, postpone,
evince: (v) show, display, evidence, ANTONYM: (n) ineptness. hang, dangle, stay, shelve, debar.
argue, indicate, manifest, mark, muster: (v) assemble, gather, ANTONYMS: (v) continue, sustain,
express, prove, establish, exhibit. congregate, collect, convene, rally, rise, finish, advance, inaugurate.
 Edgar Allan Poe 67

appearance should unfortunately bring me back again to life.’ This you may slip
in %quite a propos when you are struggling in the last agonies with the chicken-
bone. Write!

‘Il pover ‘huomo che non se’n era accorto,

Andava combattendo, e era morto.’

That’s Italian, you perceive--from Ariosto. It means that a great hero, in the
heat of combat, not perceiving that he had been fairly killed, continued to fight
valiantly, dead as he was. The application of this to your own case is obvious--
for I trust, Miss Psyche, that you will not neglect to kick for at least an hour and a
half after you have been choked to death by that chicken-bone. Please to write!

‘Und sterb’ich doch, no sterb’ich denn

Durch sie--durch sie!’

That’s German--from Schiller. ‘And if I die, at least I die--for thee--for thee!’

Here it is clear that you are apostrophizing the cause of your disaster, the
chicken. Indeed what gentleman (or lady either) of sense, wouldn’t die, I should
like to know, for a well fattened capon of the right Molucca breed, stuffed with
capers and mushrooms, and served up in a salad-bowl, with orange-jellies en
mosaiques. Write! (You can get them that way at Tortoni’s)--Write, if you please!
“Here is a nice little Latin phrase, and rare too, (one can’t be too recherche or
brief in one’s Latin, it’s getting so common--ignoratio elenchi. He has committed
an ignoratio elenchi--that is to say, he has understood the words of your
proposition, but not the idea. The man was a fool, you see. Some poor fellow
whom you address while choking with that chicken-bone, and who therefore
didn’t precisely understand what you were talking about. Throw the ignoratio
elenchi in his teeth, and, at once, you have him annihilated. If he dares to reply,
you can tell him from Lucan (here it is) that speeches are mere anemonae
verborum, anemone words. The anemone, with great brilliancy, has no smell.

Thesaurus
anemone: (adj) geranium, ranunculus, suffocative, suffocating, smothering, care.
asphodel, rhododendron, buttercup, breathless, clogging, bitter, blinding. stuffed: (adj) crammed, packed,
daffodil, lily, rose; (n) sea anemone, fattened: (adj) finished. congested, replete, loaded, filled,
anemony, thimbleweed. killed: (n) casualty; (adj) fallen. fraught, chock-full, crowded,
annihilated: (adj) exterminated, lost, mushrooms: (n) fungi. jammed, gorged. ANTONYMS: (adj)
uncreated, wiped out, annihilate; (v) neglect: (n, v) disregard, slight, hungry, lacking.
perished. default; (v) ignore, fail, overlook, valiantly: (adv) bravely, valorously,
capon: (n) chicken, volaille, stot, miss, forget, drop; (n) carelessness, gallantly, intrepidly, heroically,
poulet, steer, gelding, ox, rooster, omission. ANTONYMS: (n) boldly, audaciously, fearlessly,
fowl, hen, pullet. development, surveillance, caution, doughtily, pluckily, heroicly.
choking: (n) strangulation, throttling, affection, cherish; (v) do, protect, ANTONYMS: (adv) execrably,
slugging, asphyxiation; (adj) complete, remember, heed; (n, v) nervously, timidly, fearfully.
68 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Or, if he begins to bluster, you may be down upon him with insomnia Jovis,
reveries of Jupiter--a phrase which Silius Italicus (see here!) applies to thoughts
pompous and inflated. This will be sure and cut him to the heart. He can do
nothing but roll over and die. Will you be kind enough to write?
“In Greek we must have some thing pretty--from Demosthenes, for example.
Ανερο φευων και παλιν µαχεσεται. [Anerh o pheugoen kai palin makesetai]
There is a tolerably good translation of it in Hudibras—

‘For he that flies may fight again,

Which he can never do that’s slain.’

In a Blackwood article nothing makes so fine a show as your Greek. The very
letters have an air of profundity about them. Only observe, madam, the astute
look of that Epsilon! That Phi ought certainly to be a bishop! Was ever there a
smarter fellow than that Omicron? Just twig that Tau! In short, there is nothing
like Greek for a genuine sensation-paper. In the present case your application is
the most obvious thing in the world. Rap out the sentence, with a huge oath, and
by way of ultimatum at the good-for-nothing dunder-headed villain who
couldn’t understand your plain English in relation to the chicken-bone. He’ll take
the hint and be off, you may depend upon it.”%
These were all the instructions Mr. B. could afford me upon the topic in
question, but I felt they would be entirely sufficient. I was, at length, able to write
a genuine Blackwood article, and determined to do it forthwith. In taking leave
of me, Mr. B. made a proposition for the purchase of the paper when written; but
as he could offer me only fifty guineas a sheet, I thought it better to let our
society have it, than sacrifice it for so paltry a sum. Notwithstanding this
niggardly spirit, however, the gentleman showed his consideration for me in all
other respects, and indeed treated me with the greatest civility. His parting
words made a deep impression upon my heart, and I hope I shall always
remember them with gratitude.

Thesaurus
bluster: (v) brag, gasconade, swash, niggardly: (adj) mean, stingy, acceptably, reasonably, enough,
bully; (n, v) swagger, roar, storm, closefisted, parsimonious, grudging, moderately, to a tolerable degree,
clatter; (n) boasting, bravado; (adj, v) close, near, skimpy, miserable, pretty, to an adequate degree; (adj,
vapor. ANTONYMS: (n) mildness, penurious; (adj, v) avaricious. adv) somewhat; (adj) pretty well.
reticence, timidity. ANTONYM: (adj) graceful. ANTONYMS: (adv) unbearably,
good-for-nothing: (adj) worthless, paltry: (adj, n) mean; (adj) intolerably, unacceptably,
feckless, pointless, asinine, unworthy; contemptible, measly, trifling, abject, unreasonably, insufficiently,
(n) loafer, do-nothing, rascal, rotter, insignificant, inconsiderable, puny, inadequately.
cur, trash. little, trivial, low. ANTONYMS: (adj) twig: (n) sprig, bough, limb, shoot,
insomnia: (n) restlessness, ahypnia, generous, substantial, plentiful, offshoot, spray, branchlet, scion,
wakefulness. ANTONYM: (n) enormous, important, profound. stalk; (n, v) stick; (v) grasp.
hypersomnia. tolerably: (adv) well enough, passably,
 Edgar Allan Poe 69

“My dear Miss Zenobia,” he said, while the tears stood in his eyes, “is there
anything else I can do to promote the success of your laudable undertaking? Let
me reflect! It is just possible that you may not be able, so soon as convenient, to--
to--get yourself drowned, or--choked with a chicken-bone, or--or hung,--or--
bitten by a--but stay! Now I think me of it, there are a couple of very excellent
bull-dogs in the yard--fine fellows, I assure you--savage, and all that--indeed just
the thing for your money--they’ll have you eaten up, auricula and all, in less
than five minutes (here’s my watch!)--and then only think of the sensations!
Here! I say--Tom!--Peter!--Dick, you villain!--let out those”--but as I was really in
a great hurry, and had not another moment to spare, I was reluctantly forced to
expedite my departure, and accordingly took leave at once--somewhat more
abruptly, I admit, than strict courtesy would have otherwise allowed.%
It was my primary object upon quitting Mr. Blackwood, to get into some
immediate difficulty, pursuant to his advice, and with this view I spent the
greater part of the day in wandering about Edinburgh, seeking for desperate
adventures--adventures adequate to the intensity of my feelings, and adapted to
the vast character of the article I intended to write. In this excursion I was
attended by one negro--servant, Pompey, and my little lap-dog Diana, whom I
had brought with me from Philadelphia. It was not, however, until late in the
afternoon that I fully succeeded in my arduous undertaking. An important event
then happened of which the following Blackwood article, in the tone
heterogeneous, is the substance and result.

Thesaurus
arduous: (adj) laborious, difficult, outing, digression, drive, tour, airing, ANTONYMS: (adj) homogeneous,
strenuous, onerous, heavy, uphill, voyage, deviation, stroll; (n, v) autogenous.
severe, painful, trying, tough, journey. laudable: (adj) commendable,
troublesome. ANTONYMS: (adj) expedite: (n, v) accelerate; (v) dispatch, creditable, admirable, praiseworthy,
facile, simple, painless, refreshing, advance, hasten, speed, quicken, worthy, deserving, good, honorable,
relaxing, insignificant, light, assist, hurry, hurry up, rush, meritorious, applaudable, estimable.
undemanding. precipitate. ANTONYMS: (v) stop, ANTONYMS: (adj) shameful,
auricula: (n) pouch, primula, pocket, delay, halt, hinder, impede. regrettable, unimpressive,
primrose, auricular appendage, heterogeneous: (adj, v) different; (adj) lamentable, poor, despicable.
auricular appendix. assorted, miscellaneous, mixed, pursuant: (adj) agreeable.
eaten: (v) eat. unlike, motley, varied, various, quitting: (n) departure, resignation.
excursion: (n) expedition, jaunt, disparate, heterogenous; (v) diverse.
 Edgar Allan Poe 71

A %PREDICAMENT

What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus?

--Comus

It was a quiet and still afternoon when I strolled forth in the goodly city of
Edina. The confusion and bustle in the streets were terrible. Men were talking.
Women were screaming. Children were choking. Pigs were whistling. Carts they
rattled. Bulls they bellowed. Cows they lowed. Horses they neighed. Cats they
caterwauled. Dogs they danced. Danced! Could it then be possible? Danced!
Alas, thought I, my dancing days are over! Thus it is ever. What a host of gloomy
recollections will ever and anon be awakened in the mind of genius and
imaginative contemplation, especially of a genius doomed to the everlasting and
eternal, and continual, and, as one might say, the--continued--yes, the continued
and continuous, bitter, harassing, disturbing, and, if I may be allowed the
expression, the very disturbing influence of the serene, and godlike, and
heavenly, and exalted, and elevated, and purifying effect of what may be rightly
termed the most enviable, the most truly enviable--nay! the most benignly
beautiful, the most deliciously ethereal, and, as it were, the most pretty (if I may
use so bold an expression) thing (pardon me, gentle reader!) in the world--but I
am always led away by my feelings. In such a mind, I repeat, what a host of

Thesaurus
anon: (adv) directly, immediately, insufficient; (v) reft. ANTONYMS: galling, thorny, vexatious; (v)
early, readily, soon, instantly, again, (adj) fulfilled, supplied, happy, bothering, pestering, tormenting,
forthwith, promptly, shortly, rath. consoled, satisfied. worrying, annoy, harass.
benignly: (adv) benignantly, genially, godlike: (adj) celestial, heavenly, lowed: (adj) dispirited, humbled,
nicely, graciously, goodly, mildly, seraphic, holy, angelic, godly, divine dejected.
generously, complaisantly, worship, deified, elysian, foreboding, purifying: (adj) purging, purgatorial,
benevolently, obligingly, humanely. divine songs. antiseptic, expurgatory, ablutionary,
ANTONYMS: (adv) malevolently, goodly: (adv) benignly, kindly, remedial; (v) cathartic, abstergent; (n)
cruelly, unkindly. strongly, rightly, graciously, purification.
bereft: (adj, v) cut off; (adj) destitute, virtuously, soundly, uprightly; (adj) recollections: (n) memories,
devoid, forlorn, void, deprived, sizable, handsome, respectable. reminiscences, recollection,
lovelorn, grieving, deserted, harassing: (adj) troublesome, carking, biography.
72 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

recollections are stirred up by a trifle! The dogs danced! I--I could not! They
frisked--I wept. They capered--I sobbed aloud. Touching circumstances! which
cannot fail to bring to the recollection of the classical reader that exquisite
passage in relation to the fitness of things, which is to be found in the
commencement of the third volume of that admirable and venerable Chinese
novel the Jo-Go-Slow.%
In my solitary walk through, the city I had two humble but faithful
companions. Diana, my poodle! sweetest of creatures! She had a quantity of hair
over her one eye, and a blue ribband tied fashionably around her neck. Diana
was not more than five inches in height, but her head was somewhat bigger than
her body, and her tail being cut off exceedingly close, gave an air of injured
innocence to the interesting animal which rendered her a favorite with all.
And Pompey, my negro!--sweet Pompey! how shall I ever forget thee? I had
taken Pompey’s arm. He was three feet in height (I like to be particular) and
about seventy, or perhaps eighty, years of age. He had bow-legs and was
corpulent. His mouth should not be called small, nor his ears short. His teeth,
however, were like pearl, and his large full eyes were deliciously white. Nature
had endowed him with no neck, and had placed his ankles (as usual with that
race) in the middle of the upper portion of the feet. He was clad with a striking
simplicity. His sole garments were a stock of nine inches in height, and a nearly--
new drab overcoat which had formerly been in the service of the tall, stately, and
illustrious Dr. Moneypenny. It was a good overcoat. It was well cut. It was well
made. The coat was nearly new. Pompey held it up out of the dirt with both
hands.
There were three persons in our party, and two of them have already been
the subject of remark. There was a third--that person was myself. I am the
Signora Psyche Zenobia. I am not Suky Snobbs. My appearance is commanding.
On the memorable occasion of which I speak I was habited in a crimson satin
dress, with a sky-blue Arabian mantelet. And the dress had trimmings of green
agraffas, and seven graceful flounces of the orange-colored auricula. I thus
formed the third of the party. There was the poodle. There was Pompey. There

Thesaurus
clad: (adj) dressed, attired, clothed, cheerless, somber, boring, dowdy, habited: (adj) clothed, dressed, garbed.
coated, garbed; (n) cladding; (prep) dark, colorless, dull, depressing. pompey: (n) Portsmouth, naval base,
gowned; (v) costume, shod, dress, ANTONYMS: (adj) colorful, vivid, Pompey the great.
attire. ANTONYMS: (adj) undressed, brilliant, chic, flashy, interesting, ribband: (n) riband, kerb, ribbon,
unclothed. cheerful, distinctive, smart, strong. chain, cable, painter, moorings, line,
companions: (n) circle, entourage, endowed: (adj) gifted, clever, cute, hawser, guy, halser.
people. felicitous, competent, blessed, artistic, venerable: (adj) ancient, reverend,
deliciously: (adv) delightfully, nicely, brilliant, ingenious, talented, estimable, August, respectable, aged,
scrumptiously, tastily, goodly, qualitied. distinguished, sacred, worthy, of
sweetly, delicately, toothsomely, fashionably: (adv) elegantly, smartly, long standing, revered. ANTONYMS:
appetizingly, daintily, juicily. trendily, stylishly, modishly, neatly. (adj) unworthy, unimpressive,
drab: (adj) dreary, gloomy, dingy, ANTONYM: (adv) unfashionably. undignified, disreputable.
 Edgar Allan Poe 73

was myself. We were three. Thus it is said there were originally but three Furies--
Melty, Nimmy, and Hetty--Meditation, Memory, and Fiddling.%
Leaning upon the arm of the gallant Pompey, and attended at a respectable
distance by Diana, I proceeded down one of the populous and very pleasant
streets of the now deserted Edina. On a sudden, there presented itself to view a
church--a Gothic cathedral--vast, venerable, and with a tall steeple, which
towered into the sky. What madness now possessed me? Why did I rush upon
my fate? I was seized with an uncontrollable desire to ascend the giddy pinnacle,
and then survey the immense extent of the city. The door of the cathedral stood
invitingly open. My destiny prevailed. I entered the ominous archway. Where
then was my guardian angel?--if indeed such angels there be. If! Distressing
monosyllable! what world of mystery, and meaning, and doubt, and uncertainty
is there involved in thy two letters! I entered the ominous archway! I entered;
and, without injury to my orange-colored auriculas, I passed beneath the portal,
and emerged within the vestibule. Thus it is said the immense river Alfred
passed, unscathed, and unwetted, beneath the sea.
I thought the staircase would never have an end. Round! Yes, they went
round and up, and round and up and round and up, until I could not help
surmising, with the sagacious Pompey, upon whose supporting arm I leaned in
all the confidence of early affection--I could not help surmising that the upper
end of the continuous spiral ladder had been accidentally, or perhaps
designedly, removed. I paused for breath; and, in the meantime, an accident
occurred of too momentous a nature in a moral, and also in a metaphysical point
of view, to be passed over without notice. It appeared to me--indeed I was quite
confident of the fact--I could not be mistaken--no! I had, for some moments,
carefully and anxiously observed the motions of my Diana--I say that I could not
be mistaken--Diana smelt a rat! At once I called Pompey’s attention to the
subject, and he--he agreed with me. There was then no longer any reasonable
room for doubt. The rat had been smelled--and by Diana. Heavens! shall I ever
forget the intense excitement of the moment? Alas! what is the boasted intellect
of man? The rat!--it was there--that is to say, it was somewhere. Diana smelled

Thesaurus
designedly: (adj, adv) advisedly, ANTONYMS: (adj) serious, dull. (v) closely packed. ANTONYM: (adj)
knowingly; (adv) purposely, invitingly: (adv) pleasingly, uninhabited.
intentionally, premeditatedly, tantalizingly, engagingly, invite, proceeded: (v) proceed, yode.
wilfully, willfully, on purpose, appealingly, attractively, enticingly, sagacious: (adj, v) judicious, prudent,
studiedly, by design; (adj) wittingly. seductively, alluringly, winningly, discreet; (adj) rational, astute, acute,
ANTONYMS: (adv) innocently, magnetically. discerning, keen, perspicacious,
unconsciously, unwittingly, monosyllable: (n) word, polysyllable, intelligent, shrewd. ANTONYMS:
impulsively. dissyllable. (adj) foolish, stupid, dense.
giddy: (adj, v) flighty; (adj) dizzy, faint, populous: (adj) multitudinous, vestibule: (n) lobby, hall, foyer,
silly, changeable, vertiginous, crowded, densely populated, antechamber, entrance hall, hallway,
featherbrained, light, fickle, multiple, thick, inhabited, numerous, entry, porch, passage, anteroom,
capricious; (adv) careless. manifold, multiplied; (adj, v) teeming; threshold.
74 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

the rat. I--I could not! Thus it is said the Prussian Isis has, for some persons, a
sweet and very powerful perfume, while to others it is perfectly scentless.%
The staircase had been surmounted, and there were now only three or four
more upward steps intervening between us and the summit. We still ascended,
and now only one step remained. One step! One little, little step! Upon one such
little step in the great staircase of human life how vast a sum of human
happiness or misery depends! I thought of myself, then of Pompey, and then of
the mysterious and inexplicable destiny which surrounded us. I thought of
Pompey!--alas, I thought of love! I thought of my many false steps which have
been taken, and may be taken again. I resolved to be more cautious, more
reserved. I abandoned the arm of Pompey, and, without his assistance,
surmounted the one remaining step, and gained the chamber of the belfry. I was
followed immediately afterward by my poodle. Pompey alone remained behind.
I stood at the head of the staircase, and encouraged him to ascend. He stretched
forth to me his hand, and unfortunately in so doing was forced to abandon his
firm hold upon the overcoat. Will the gods never cease their persecution? The
overcoat is dropped, and, with one of his feet, Pompey stepped upon the long
and trailing skirt of the overcoat. He stumbled and fell--this consequence was
inevitable. He fell forward, and, with his accursed head, striking me full in the--
in the breast, precipitated me headlong, together with himself, upon the hard,
filthy, and detestable floor of the belfry. But my revenge was sure, sudden, and
complete. Seizing him furiously by the wool with both hands, I tore out a vast
quantity of black, and crisp, and curling material, and tossed it from me with
every manifestation of disdain. It fell among the ropes of the belfry and
remained. Pompey arose, and said no word. But he regarded me piteously with
his large eyes and--sighed. Ye Gods--that sigh! It sunk into my heart. And the
hair--the wool! Could I have reached that wool I would have bathed it with my
tears, in testimony of regret. But alas! it was now far beyond my grasp. As it
dangled among the cordage of the bell, I fancied it alive. I fancied that it stood on
end with indignation. Thus the happy-dandy Flos Aeris of Java bears, it is said, a
beautiful flower, which will live when pulled up by the roots. The natives
suspend it by a cord from the ceiling and enjoy its fragrance for years.

Thesaurus
accursed: (adj) execrable, abominable, twine. honorable, desirable, nice.
detestable, accurst, hateful, damned, curling: (adj) curled, curly, moving, headlong: (adj, adv) headfirst; (adv)
damnable, maledict, blasted; (v) curled up; (adv) curlingly; (n) croquet, directly, hastily, precipitately; (adj)
atrocious, stranded. pallone, polo, tipcat, golf, curling rash, hurried, desperate, precipitous,
ascend: (n, v) mount; (v) arise, scale, edge. impetuous, sudden, precipitate.
uprise, climb, go up, come up, detestable: (adj) hateful, abhorrent, ANTONYMS: (adj) cautiously,
increase, elevate; (n) ascending, damnable, odious, offensive, considered; (adv) carefully.
ascent. ANTONYMS: (v) descend, despicable, execrable, horrible, piteously: (adj, adv) sadly; (adv)
drop, decline, fall, lower, set, sink. infamous; (adj, v) cursed; (adj, adv) pitifully, wretchedly, ruefully,
bathed: (adj) sweaty. atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj) woefully, poorly, plaintively, sorrily,
cordage: (n) rope, quantity, measure, admirable, adorable, sweet, loveable, grievously, sorrowfully, dolefully.
quantum, ropes, cord fabric, amount, lovable, likable, delightful, cherished, surmounted: (adj) beaten.
 Edgar Allan Poe 75

Our quarrel was now made up, and we looked about the room for an
aperture through which to survey the city of Edina. Windows there were none.
The sole light admitted into the gloomy chamber proceeded from a square
opening, about a foot in diameter, at a height of about seven feet from the floor.
Yet what will the energy of true genius not effect? I resolved to clamber up to
this hole. A vast quantity of wheels, pinions, and other cabalistic--looking
machinery stood opposite the hole, close to it; and through the hole there passed
an iron rod from the machinery. Between the wheels and the wall where the hole
lay there was barely room for my body--yet I was desperate, and determined to
persevere. I called Pompey to my side.%
“You perceive that aperture, Pompey. I wish to look through it. You will
stand here just beneath the hole--so. Now, hold out one of your hands, Pompey,
and let me step upon it--thus. Now, the other hand, Pompey, and with its aid I
will get upon your shoulders.”
He did every thing I wished, and I found, upon getting up, that I could easily
pass my head and neck through the aperture. The prospect was sublime.
Nothing could be more magnificent. I merely paused a moment to bid Diana
behave herself, and assure Pompey that I would be considerate and bear as
lightly as possible upon his shoulders. I told him I would be tender of his
feelings--ossi tender que beefsteak. Having done this justice to my faithful
friend, I gave myself up with great zest and enthusiasm to the enjoyment of the
scene which so obligingly spread itself out before my eyes.
Upon this subject, however, I shall forbear to dilate. I will not describe the
city of Edinburgh. Every one has been to the city of Edinburgh. Every one has
been to Edinburgh--the classic Edina. I will confine myself to the momentous
details of my own lamentable adventure. Having, in some measure, satisfied my
curiosity in regard to the extent, situation, and general appearance of the city, I
had leisure to survey the church in which I was, and the delicate architecture of
the steeple. I observed that the aperture through which I had thrust my head was
an opening in the dial-plate of a gigantic clock, and must have appeared, from
the street, as a large key-hole, such as we see in the face of the French watches.

Thesaurus
aperture: (n) breach, slit, puncture, broaden, develop, extend, increase, uncooperatively.
opening, gap, cleft, perforation, magnify. ANTONYMS: (v) contract, persevere: (v) persist, continue,
loophole, mouth, hiatus, outlet. constrict, shrink, lessen, reduce. endure, abide, go on, hang on, hold
ANTONYM: (n) closure. forbear: (v) refrain, desist, help, on, follow, keep, remain, pursue.
beefsteak: (v) barbecue, beche de tolerate, abide, eschew, endure, ANTONYMS: (v) surrender, stop,
MER, banana, avocado, atole; (n) relinquish; (n) predecessor, quit.
steak, porterhouse, beef patty. progenitor, forebear. pinions: (n) restraint.
clamber: (v) scramble, crawl, scale, obligingly: (adv) accommodatingly, zest: (n) gusto, taste, savor, flavor,
ascend, mount, shinny, shin, attentively, courteously, kindly, enthusiasm, piquancy, energy,
struggle, surmount, ramp, climber. thoughtfully, gentlely, cooperatively, enjoyment, tang, appetite; (n, v) spice.
dilate: (adj, v) enlarge, expatiate; (v) helpfully, benignly, goodly, ANTONYMS: (n) lethargy,
distend, amplify, heave, inflate, pleasantly. ANTONYM: (adv) blandness, dullness, indifference.
76 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

No doubt the true object was to admit the arm of an attendant, to adjust, when
necessary, the hands of the clock from within. I observed also, with surprise, the
immense size of these hands, the longest of which could not have been less than
ten feet in length, and, where broadest, eight or nine inches in breadth. They
were of solid steel apparently, and their edges appeared to be sharp. Having
noticed these particulars, and some others, I again turned my eyes upon the
glorious prospect below, and soon became absorbed in contemplation.%
From this, after some minutes, I was aroused by the voice of Pompey, who
declared that he could stand it no longer, and requested that I would be so kind
as to come down. This was unreasonable, and I told him so in a speech of some
length. He replied, but with an evident misunderstanding of my ideas upon the
subject. I accordingly grew angry, and told him in plain words, that he was a
fool, that he had committed an ignoramus e-clench-eye, that his notions were
mere insommary Bovis, and his words little better than an ennemywerrybor’em.
With this he appeared satisfied, and I resumed my contemplations.
It might have been half an hour after this altercation when, as I was deeply
absorbed in the heavenly scenery beneath me, I was startled by something very
cold which pressed with a gentle pressure on the back of my neck. It is needless
to say that I felt inexpressibly alarmed. I knew that Pompey was beneath my
feet, and that Diana was sitting, according to my explicit directions, upon her
hind legs, in the farthest corner of the room. What could it be? Alas! I but too
soon discovered. Turning my head gently to one side, I perceived, to my extreme
horror, that the huge, glittering, scimetar-like minute-hand of the clock had, in
the course of its hourly revolution, descended upon my neck. There was, I knew,
not a second to be lost. I pulled back at once--but it was too late. There was no
chance of forcing my head through the mouth of that terrible trap in which it was
so fairly caught, and which grew narrower and narrower with a rapidity too
horrible to be conceived. The agony of that moment is not to be imagined. I
threw up my hands and endeavored, with all my strength, to force upward the
ponderous iron bar. I might as well have tried to lift the cathedral itself. Down,
down, down it came, closer and yet closer. I screamed to Pompey for aid; but he

Thesaurus
altercation: (n, v) quarrel, squabble; (n) sparkling, flashing, dazzling, indescribably, beyond words.
affray, scrap, fight, hassle, glistering, glistening, glinting, ponderous: (adj) heavy, grave,
disagreement, fracas, strife, shining, scintillating, splendid; (adj, onerous, burdensome, massive,
controversy, contest. ANTONYMS: adv) aglitter. unwieldy, bulky, stodgy, hard,
(n) union, harmony, concord, hind: (adj, n) rear; (adj) after, posterior, tedious, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj)
agreement, unity, consensus. hindermost; (n) doe, clown, peasant, elegant, graceful, lively, brisk,
farthest: (adj) ultimate, extreme, roe, countryman, servant; (v) hinder. manageable.
farthermost, utmost, uttermost, last, hourly: (adv) always, by the hour, upward: (adv) upwards, upwardly,
furthermost, endmost, greatest, most daily, often, constantly, continually, aloft; (adj) overhead, rising, upper,
distant; (adj, adv) remotest. frequently; (adj) horary, continual, increasing, open, vertical, mounting,
ANTONYMS: (adv) closest, nearest. ephemeral; (n) an hour. upright. ANTONYMS: (adj)
glittering: (adj, v) brilliant; (adj) inexpressibly: (adv) unspeakably, descending, downward; (adv) down.
 Edgar Allan Poe 77

said that I had hurt his feelings by calling him ‘an ignorant old squint-eye:’ I
yelled to Diana; but she only said ‘bow-wow-wow,’ and that I had told her ‘on
no account to stir from the corner.’ Thus I had no relief to expect from my
associates.%
Meantime the ponderous and terrific Scythe of Time (for I now discovered
the literal import of that classical phrase) had not stopped, nor was it likely to
stop, in its career. Down and still down, it came. It had already buried its sharp
edge a full inch in my flesh, and my sensations grew indistinct and confused. At
one time I fancied myself in Philadelphia with the stately Dr. Moneypenny, at
another in the back parlor of Mr. Blackwood receiving his invaluable
instructions. And then again the sweet recollection of better and earlier times
came over me, and I thought of that happy period when the world was not all a
desert, and Pompey not altogether cruel.
The ticking of the machinery amused me. Amused me, I say, for my
sensations now bordered upon perfect happiness, and the most trifling
circumstances afforded me pleasure. The eternal click-clak, click-clak, click-clak
of the clock was the most melodious of music in my ears, and occasionally even
put me in mind of the graceful sermonic harangues of Dr. Ollapod. Then there
were the great figures upon the dial-plate--how intelligent how intellectual, they
all looked! And presently they took to dancing the Mazurka, and I think it was
the figure V. who performed the most to my satisfaction. She was evidently a
lady of breeding. None of your swaggerers, and nothing at all indelicate in her
motions. She did the pirouette to admiration--whirling round upon her apex. I
made an endeavor to hand her a chair, for I saw that she appeared fatigued with
her exertions--and it was not until then that I fully perceived my lamentable
situation. Lamentable indeed! The bar had buried itself two inches in my neck. I
was aroused to a sense of exquisite pain. I prayed for death, and, in the agony of
the moment, could not help repeating those exquisite verses of the poet Miguel
De Cervantes:

Vanny Buren, tan escondida

Thesaurus
apex: (n) top, peak, vertex, crown, worn, tired out, jaded, spent, worn hazy, neutral; (adj, n) confused,
acme, apices, extremity, height, out, done in, fagged, run-down. cloudy, dark. ANTONYMS: (adj)
summit, pinnacle, point. ANTONYMS: (adj) refreshed, alert, clear, slight, separate, certain, precise,
ANTONYMS: (n) base, nadir, trough, lively, energized, energetic. audible, strong, definite.
bottom, abyss, depth. indelicate: (adj) indecent, immodest, melodious: (adj) harmonious, musical,
bordered: (adj) fringed, edged, crude, gross, improper, coarse, crass, sweet, tuneful, mellow, dulcet, soft,
delimited, surrounded. bawdy, unbecoming, broad, gentle, full, canorous, mellifluous.
fancied: (adj) unreal, chimerical, scurrilous. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) harsh,
fictional, fanciful, fictitious, decorous, tasteful, sensitive, discreet, unmelodious, inharmonious,
fabricated, preferred, assumed, decent, correct. tuneless, grating, loud.
illusory, imagined, ideal. indistinct: (adj) indefinite, inarticulate, ticking: (n) tick, cloth, fabric, ticken;
fatigued: (adj) tired, weary, beat, faint, dull, fuzzy, indeterminate, (adj) living.
78 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Query no te senty venny

Pork and pleasure, delly morry
Nommy, torny, darry, widdy!

But now a new horror presented itself, and one indeed sufficient to startle the
strongest nerves. My eyes, from the cruel pressure of the machine, were
absolutely starting from their sockets. While I was thinking how I should
possibly manage without them, one actually tumbled out of my head, and,
rolling down the steep side of the steeple, lodged in the rain gutter which ran
along the eaves of the main building. The loss of the eye was not so much as the
insolent air of independence and contempt with which it regarded me after it
was out. There it lay in the gutter just under my nose, and the airs it gave itself
would have been ridiculous had they not been disgusting. Such a winking and
blinking were never before seen. This behavior on the part of my eye in the
gutter was not only irritating on account of its manifest insolence and shameful
ingratitude, but was also exceedingly inconvenient on account of the sympathy
which always exists between two eyes of the same head, however far apart. I was
forced, in a manner, to wink and to blink, whether I would or not, in exact
concert with the scoundrelly thing that lay just under my nose. I was presently
relieved, however, by the dropping out of the other eye. In falling it took the
same direction (possibly a concerted plot) as its fellow. Both rolled out of the
gutter together, and in truth I was very glad to get rid of them.%
The bar was now four inches and a half deep in my neck, and there was only
a little bit of skin to cut through. My sensations were those of entire happiness,
for I felt that in a few minutes, at farthest, I should be relieved from my
disagreeable situation. And in this expectation I was not at all deceived. At
twenty-five minutes past five in the afternoon, precisely, the huge minute-hand
had proceeded sufficiently far on its terrible revolution to sever the small
remainder of my neck. I was not sorry to see the head which had occasioned me
so much embarrassment at length make a final separation from my body. It first
rolled down the side of the steeple, then lodge, for a few seconds, in the gutter,
and then made its way, with a plunge, into the middle of the street.
Thesaurus
airs: (n, v) pretension; (n) affectation, arrogance, audacity, impudence, cut off, separate, rupture, rend,
pride, pose, pretensions, attitude; effrontery, cheek, assumption, gall, disconnect, crack, divorce.
(adj, n) arrogance; (v) precisianism, disrespect, haughtiness, crust. ANTONYMS: (v) join, associate,
euphuism, purism, pedantry. ANTONYMS: (n) respect, politeness, establish, initiate, unite, mend.
ANTONYMS: (n) humility, meekness, shyness. startle: (n, v) start, jump; (v) frighten,
personality, realness, truthfulness, insolent: (adj) impertinent, abusive, scare, astonish, shock, astound,
honesty. disrespectful, impudent, fresh, amaze, shake, threaten, electrify.
deceived: (adj) mistaken, misguided. arrogant, brazen, defiant, offensive, ANTONYM: (v) soothe.
ingratitude: (n) oblivion of benefits, brassy, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) winking: (n) twinkling, wink, blink,
thanklessness, ungratefulness, respectful, modest, gracious, meek, New York minute, jiffy, instant,
feeling. ANTONYM: (n) gratitude. submissive. nictation, nictitation, trice, blink of an
insolence: (n) impertinence, sever: (n, v) part, cut; (v) break, detach, eye; (adj) pink ribbons.
 Edgar Allan Poe 79

I %will candidly confess that my feelings were now of the most singular--nay,
of the most mysterious, the most perplexing and incomprehensible character. My
senses were here and there at one and the same moment. With my head I
imagined, at one time, that I, the head, was the real Signora Psyche Zenobia--at
another I felt convinced that myself, the body, was the proper identity. To clear
my ideas on this topic I felt in my pocket for my snuff-box, but, upon getting it,
and endeavoring to apply a pinch of its grateful contents in the ordinary manner,
I became immediately aware of my peculiar deficiency, and threw the box at
once down to my head. It took a pinch with great satisfaction, and smiled me an
acknowledgement in return. Shortly afterward it made me a speech, which I
could hear but indistinctly without ears. I gathered enough, however, to know
that it was astonished at my wishing to remain alive under such circumstances.
In the concluding sentences it quoted the noble words of Ariosto—
Il pover hommy che non sera corty
And have a combat tenty erry morty;

thus comparing me to the hero who, in the heat of the combat, not perceiving
that he was dead, continued to contest the battle with inextinguishable valor.
There was nothing now to prevent my getting down from my elevation, and I
did so. What it was that Pompey saw so very peculiar in my appearance I have
never yet been able to find out. The fellow opened his mouth from ear to ear, and
shut his two eyes as if he were endeavoring to crack nuts between the lids.
Finally, throwing off his overcoat, he made one spring for the staircase and
disappeared. I hurled after the scoundrel these vehement words of
Demosthenes—

Andrew O’Phlegethon, you really make haste to fly,

and then turned to the darling of my heart, to the one-eyed! the shaggy-haired
Diana. Alas! what a horrible vision affronted my eyes? Was that a rat I saw
skulking into his hole? Are these the picked bones of the little angel who has

Thesaurus
affronted: (adj) insulted, hurt, slighted, ambiguously, shyly. indefeasible, volcanic, irreducible,
embarrassed, angry, ashamed, ears: (n) antenna. simmering.
horrified, humiliated, piqued, indistinctly: (adv) vaguely, dimly, lids: (n) lid.
annoyed. ANTONYM: (adj) hazily, mistily, inarticulately, skulking: (adj) surreptitious, stealthy,
unconcerned. shadowily, obscurely, unclearly, lurking, hiding, clandestine,
candidly: (adv) openly, ingenuously, fuzzily, confusedly, ambiguously. backstairs, concealed, cowardly; (n)
sincerely, outspokenly, honestly, ANTONYMS: (adv) precisely, malingering, dodging, evasion.
forthrightly, straightforwardly, audibly, coherently, distinctly. valor: (n) bravery, courage, heroism,
plainly, bluntly, directly; (adj, adv) inextinguishable: (adj) indomitable, valiancy, daring, spirit, pluck,
freely. ANTONYMS: (adv) impregnable, dominating, audacity, boldness; (adj, n) gallantry,
deceitfully, hesitantly, dishonestly, quenchless, indestructible, prowess.
untruthfully, guardedly, unquenchable; (v) incommutable,
80 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

been cruelly devoured by the monster? Ye gods! and what do I behold--is that
the departed spirit, the shade, the ghost, of my beloved puppy, which I perceive
sitting with a grace so melancholy, in the corner? Hearken! for she speaks, and,
heavens! it is in the German of Schiller-

“Unt stubby duk, so stubby dun

Duk she! duk she!”

Alas! and are not her words too true?

“And if I died, at least I died

For thee--for thee.”

Sweet creature! she too has sacrificed herself in my behalf. Dogless, niggerless,
headless, what now remains for the unhappy Signora Psyche Zenobia? Alas--
nothing! I have done.%

Thesaurus
cruelly: (adv) harshly, ferociously, ANTONYMS: (adj) remaining, alive. depression. ANTONYMS: (n)
fiercely, viciously, inhumanly, devoured: (adj) eaten up. happiness, cheerfulness, hopefulness,
mercilessly, pitilessly, heartlessly, gods: (n) gallery. optimism; (adj) happy, bright, cheery,
roughly, unkindly; (adj, adv) bitterly. headless: (adj) acephalous, brainless, satisfied.
ANTONYMS: (adv) kindly, beheaded, foolish. puppy: (n) pup, cub, youth, doggy,
mercifully, sympathetically, tamely, hearken: (v) hark, harken, attend, whelp, younker, dog, brat, child,
peacefully, humanely, listen, hear, heed, list, listen in, listen youngster, frankfurter.
compassionately, sensitively, to, regard, look out. speaks: (n) talks.
respectfully, innocently, genially. melancholy: (adj, v) dreary; (adj, n) stubby: (adj) short, stocky, chunky,
departed: (adj) dead, bygone, late, gloom, melancholic; (adj) depressed, squat, thickset, stumpy, thick, bristly,
former, bypast, defunct, past, left; dejected, dismal, gloomy, doleful; (n, dumpy, podgy, obtuse. ANTONYM:
(adj, v) gone, extinct; (n) decedent. v) low spirits; (n) gloominess, (adj) tall.
 Edgar Allan Poe 81

MYSTIFICATION

Slid, if these be your “passados” and “montantes,” I’ll have none o’

them.%
--Ned Knowles

The Baron Ritzner von Jung was a noble Hungarian family, every member of
which (at least as far back into antiquity as any certain records extend) was more
or less remarkable for talent of some description- the majority for that species of
grotesquerie in conception of which Tieck, a scion of the house, has given a
vivid, although by no means the most vivid exemplifications. My acquaintance
with Ritzner commenced at the magnificent Chateau Jung, into which a train of
droll adventures, not to be made public, threw me during the summer months of
the year 18--. Here it was I obtained a place in his regard, and here, with
somewhat more difficulty, a partial insight into his mental conformation. In later
days this insight grew more clear, as the intimacy which had at first permitted it
became more close; and when, after three years separation, we met at G---n, I
knew all that it was necessary to know of the character of the Baron Ritzner von
Jung.
I remember the buzz of curiosity which his advent excited within the college
precincts on the night of the twenty-fifth of June. I remember still more

Thesaurus
adventures: (n) experiences, fortunes, commenced: (v) began, Gan; (adj) intercourse, affair, camaraderie,
confessions, journal, life, biography, initiate, present. conversance, confidence.
autobiography, personal narrative. conformation: (n) shape, compliance, ANTONYMS: (n) distance, formality.
antiquity: (n) ancientness, ancientry, constitution, configuration, precincts: (n) entourage, arena,
past, relic, status quo, artefact, accordance, composition, build, outskirts, neighbourhood, walk,
artifact, oldness, old age, hoariness; accord, cast, line, formation. neighborhood, proximity,
(adj, n) age. ANTONYMS: (n) today, ANTONYMS: (n) disobedience, surroundings, vicinity, limitations,
newness, modernity. noncompliance. suburbs.
buzz: (n, v) rumor, call, ring, hiss, grotesquerie: (n) grotesquery. scion: (n) offspring, progeny, child,
drone, gossip, purr, whisper, intimacy: (adj, n) familiarity, descendant, graft, sprout, cutting,
murmur; (n) report, hearsay. acquaintance; (n) closeness, slip, offshoot, branch, bud.
ANTONYM: (n) bore. fellowship, association, friendship, ANTONYM: (n) ancestor.
82 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

distinctly, that while he was pronounced by all parties at first sight “the most
remarkable man in the world,” no person made any attempt at accounting for his
opinion. That he was unique appeared so undeniable, that it was deemed
impertinent to inquire wherein the uniquity consisted. But, letting this matter
pass for the present, I will merely observe that, from the first moment of his
setting foot within the limits of the university, he began to exercise over the
habits, manners, persons, purses, and propensities of the whole community
which surrounded him, an influence the most extensive and despotic, yet at the
same time the most indefinite and altogether unaccountable. Thus the brief
period of his residence at the university forms an era in its annals, and is
characterized by all classes of people appertaining to it or its dependencies as
“that very extraordinary epoch forming the domination of the Baron Ritzner von
Jung.”
Upon his advent to G---n, he sought me out in my apartments. He was then
of no particular age, by which I mean that it was impossible to form a guess
respecting his age by any data personally afforded. He might have been fifteen or
fifty, and was twenty-one years and seven months. He was by no means a
handsome man- perhaps the reverse. The contour of his face was somewhat
angular and harsh. His forehead was lofty and very fair; his nose a snub; his eyes
large, heavy, glassy, and meaningless. About the mouth there was more to be
observed. The lips were gently protruded, and rested the one upon the other,
after such a fashion that it is impossible to conceive any, even the most complex,
combination of human features, conveying so entirely, and so singly, the idea of
unmitigated gravity, solemnity and repose.%
It will be perceived, no doubt, from what I have already said, that the Baron
was one of those human anomalies now and then to be found, who make the
science of mystification the study and the business of their lives. For this science
a peculiar turn of mind gave him instinctively the cue, while his physical
appearance afforded him unusual facilities for carrying his prospects into effect. I
firmly believe that no student at G---n, during that renowned epoch so quaintly
termed the domination of the Baron Ritzner von Jung, ever rightly entered into

Thesaurus
appertaining: (adj) appertinent. mystification: (n) bafflement, strange, unintelligible, unexplainable,
despotic: (adj) arbitrary, dictatorial, confusion, befuddlement, mysterious, impenetrable,
tyrannical, authoritarian, absolute, bemusement, puzzlement, deception, undiscoverable, undecipherable,
imperious, oppressive, autocratical, deceit, fraud, imposture, riddle, unknowable, unnatural.
domineering, overbearing, obfuscation. ANTONYMS: (adj) accountable,
tyrannous. ANTONYMS: (adj) protruded: (adj) extant, outstanding. explainable, responsible, explicable.
democratic, liberal. quaintly: (adv) unusually, oddly, unmitigated: (adj) absolute, total,
impertinent: (adj) fresh, pert, saucy, curiously, weirdly, singularly, thorough, consummate, sheer,
forward, audacious, brash, brazen, peculiarly, queerly, strangely, unqualified, unconditional, regular,
extraneous, discourteous, outlandishly, charmingly, pleasingly. perfect, entire, outright.
disrespectful, flippant. ANTONYMS: unaccountable: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) mixed, imperfect,
(adj) respectful, polite, courteous. incomprehensible, inexplicable, partial, rather.
 Edgar Allan Poe 83

the mystery which overshadowed his character. I truly think that no person at
the university, with the exception of myself, ever suspected him to be capable of
a joke, verbal or practical:- the old bull-dog at the garden-gate would sooner
have been accused,- the ghost of Heraclitus,- or the wig of the Emeritus Professor
of Theology. This, too, when it was evident that the most egregious and
unpardonable of all conceivable tricks, whimsicalities and buffooneries were
brought about, if not directly by him, at least plainly through his intermediate
agency or connivance. The beauty, if I may so call it, of his art mystifique, lay in
that consummate ability (resulting from an almost intuitive knowledge of human
nature, and a most wonderful self-possession,) by means of which he never
failed to make it appear that the drolleries he was occupied in bringing to a
point, arose partly in spite, and partly in consequence of the laudable efforts he
was making for their prevention, and for the preservation of the good order and
dignity of Alma Mater. The deep, the poignant, the overwhelming mortification,
which upon each such failure of his praise worthy endeavors, would suffuse
every lineament of his countenance, left not the slightest room for doubt of his
sincerity in the bosoms of even his most skeptical companions. The adroitness,
too, was no less worthy of observation by which he contrived to shift the sense of
the grotesque from the creator to the created- from his own person to the
absurdities to which he had given rise. In no instance before that of which I
speak, have I known the habitual mystific escape the natural consequence of his
manoevres- an attachment of the ludicrous to his own character and person.
Continually enveloped in an atmosphere of whim, my friend appeared to live
only for the severities of society; and not even his own household have for a
moment associated other ideas than those of the rigid and august with the
memory of the Baron Ritzner von Jung.%
During the epoch of his residence at G---n it really appeared that the demon
of the dolce far niente lay like an incubus upon the university. Nothing, at least,
was done beyond eating and drinking and making merry. The apartments of the
students were converted into so many pot-houses, and there was no pot-house of
them all more famous or more frequented than that of the Baron. Our carousals
here were many, and boisterous, and long, and never unfruitful of events.

Thesaurus
adroitness: (n) cleverness, ability, skill, incubus: (n) demon, load, weight, acarpous, unproductive, arid,
deftness, facility, nimbleness, devil, fiend, daemon, Ephialtes, onus, fruitless, effete, infecund, lean,
skillfulness, knack, finesse, art; (n, v) situation, cacodemon, responsibility. unfertile, inoperative. ANTONYMS:
address. ANTONYMS: (n) lineament: (n) line, character, (adj) fruitful, fertile.
uselessness, inaccuracy. characteristic, contour, quality, unpardonable: (adj) irremissible,
dolce: (adv) soft, dulcet. forehead, brow, turn, profile, unforgivable, indefensible, terrible,
egregious: (adj) rank, glaring, flagrant, silhouette; (adj) diagnostic. appalling, unwarranted, awful,
crying, infamous, outrageous, suffuse: (v) flush, infuse, saturate, unacceptable, shocking, not
peculiar, absurd, eccentric; (v) perfuse, pervade, impregnate, remissible; (v) inexpiable.
extravagant; (adj, v) preposterous. permeate, penetrate, fill, transfuse, ANTONYMS: (adj) pardonable,
ANTONYMS: (adj) petty, slight, bathe. excusable, justified, excellent,
trivial, measly, little, minor. unfruitful: (adj) sterile, infertile, justifiable.
84 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Upon one occasion we had protracted our sitting until nearly daybreak, and
an unusual quantity of wine had been drunk. The company consisted of seven or
eight individuals besides the Baron and myself. Most of these were young men of
wealth, of high connection, of great family pride, and all alive with an
exaggerated sense of honor. They abounded in the most ultra German opinions
respecting the duello. To these Quixotic notions some recent Parisian
publications, backed by three or four desperate and fatal recounters at G---n, had
given new vigor and impulse; and thus the conversation, during the greater part
of the night, had run wild upon the all- engrossing topic of the times. The Baron,
who had been unusually silent and abstracted in the earlier portion of the
evening, at length seemed to be aroused from his apathy, took a leading part in
the discourse, and dwelt upon the benefits, and more especially upon the
beauties, of the received code of etiquette in passages of arms with an ardor, an
eloquence, an impressiveness, and an affectionateness of manner, which elicited
the warmest enthusiasm from his hearers in general, and absolutely staggered
even myself, who well knew him to be at heart a ridiculer of those very points
for which he contended, and especially to hold the entire fanfaronade of duelling
etiquette in the sovereign contempt which it deserves.%
Looking around me during a pause in the Baron’s discourse (of which my
readers may gather some faint idea when I say that it bore resemblance to the
fervid, chanting, monotonous, yet musical sermonic manner of Coleridge), I
perceived symptoms of even more than the general interest in the countenance of
one of the party. This gentleman, whom I shall call Hermann, was an original in
every respect- except, perhaps, in the single particular that he was a very great
fool. He contrived to bear, however, among a particular set at the university, a
reputation for deep metaphysical thinking, and, I believe, for some logical talent.
As a duellist he had acquired great renown, even at G---n. I forget the precise
number of victims who had fallen at his hands; but they were many. He was a
man of courage undoubtedly. But it was upon his minute acquaintance with the
etiquette of the duello, and the nicety of his sense of honor, that he most
especially prided himself. These things were a hobby which he rode to the death.
To Ritzner, ever upon the lookout for the grotesque, his peculiarities had for a

Thesaurus
affectionateness: (n) tenderness, antagonist. v) warm, glowing.
feeling, emotionality, emotionalism, dwelt: (v) dwell, inhabit. impressiveness: (n) solemnity,
fondness, heart, lovingness, engrossing: (adj) fascinating, riveting, gravity, excellence, grandness, force,
protectiveness, regard, respect, gripping, captivating, entrancing, expansiveness, weightiness, loftiness,
warmth. enthralling, beguiling, charming, magnificence, majesty; (n, v)
daybreak: (adj, n) break of day; (n) enchanting; (adj, v) interesting; (v) importance.
sunrise, prime, morning, light, engross. ANTONYMS: (adj) nicety: (n) detail, exactness,
dawning, cockcrow, dayspring, uninteresting, dull, monotonous, fastidiousness, nuance, refinement,
aurora, sunup, daylight. tiresome, unexciting. exactitude, justness, precision,
ANTONYMS: (n) sunset, sundown, fervid: (adj) ardent, burning, hot, correctness, daintiness, elegance.
darkness, eventide, nightfall. vehement, eager, passionate, ridiculer: (n) Juvenal, ironist, satirist,
duellist: (n) dueler, dueller, adversary, impassioned, fiery, enthusiastic; (adj, swift.
 Edgar Allan Poe 85

long time past afforded food for mystification. Of this, however, I was not aware;
although, in the present instance, I saw clearly that something of a whimsical
nature was upon the tapis with my friend, and that Hermann was its especial
object.%
As the former proceeded in his discourse, or rather monologue I perceived
the excitement of the latter momently increasing. At length he spoke; offering
some objection to a point insisted upon by R., and giving his reasons in detail. To
these the Baron replied at length (still maintaining his exaggerated tone of
sentiment) and concluding, in what I thought very bad taste, with a sarcasm and
a sneer. The hobby of Hermann now took the bit in his teeth. This I could discern
by the studied hair-splitting farrago of his rejoinder. His last words I distinctly
remember. “Your opinions, allow me to say, Baron von Jung, although in the
main correct, are, in many nice points, discreditable to yourself and to the
university of which you are a member. In a few respects they are even unworthy
of serious refutation. I would say more than this, sir, were it not for the fear of
giving you offence (here the speaker smiled blandly), I would say, sir, that your
opinions are not the opinions to be expected from a gentleman.”
As Hermann completed this equivocal sentence, all eyes were turned upon
the Baron. He became pale, then excessively red; then, dropping his pocket-
handkerchief, stooped to recover it, when I caught a glimpse of his countenance,
while it could be seen by no one else at the table. It was radiant with the
quizzical expression which was its natural character, but which I had never seen
it assume except when we were alone together, and when he unbent himself
freely. In an instant afterward he stood erect, confronting Hermann; and so total
an alteration of countenance in so short a period I certainly never saw before. For
a moment I even fancied that I had misconceived him, and that he was in sober
earnest. He appeared to be stifling with passion, and his face was cadaverously
white. For a short time he remained silent, apparently striving to master his
emotion. Having at length seemingly succeeded, he reached a decanter which
stood near him, saying as he held it firmly clenched “The language you have
thought proper to employ, Mynheer Hermann, in addressing yourself to me, is

Thesaurus
cadaverously: (adv) gauntly, ghastly, farrago: (n) mishmash, gallimaufry, derisive, jocular, waggish, ironical,
haggardly, wanly, skeletally, pallidly, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, jumble, ironic.
palely, ashenly, pinchedly, drawnly, melange, miscellany, welter, medley, rejoinder: (n) reply, comeback,
spectrally. mixture, motley. response, riposte, return, reaction,
decanter: (n) carafe, jar, flask, jug, misconceived: (adj) inaccurate, demurrer, plea, replication, retort,
flagon, amphora, cag, drum, firkin, erroneous, deformed. objection.
cask, butt. momently: (adv) momentarily, in a tapis: (n) tapestry, textile, cloth, fabric,
discreditable: (adj, n) disgraceful; (adj) moment, presently. material, arras.
dishonorable, shameful, pocket-handkerchief: (n) unbent: (adj) straight, upright, erect,
dishonourable, scandalous, handkerchief. neat, level, consecutive, good, just,
reprehensible, outrageous, ignoble, quizzical: (adj) mocking, eccentric, accurately fitted; (v) virgate; (n)
humiliating, base, reproachful. fanciful, fantastic, queer, playful, erecter.
86 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

objectionable in so many particulars, that I have neither temper nor time for
specification. That my opinions, however, are not the opinions to be expected
from a gentleman, is an observation so directly offensive as to allow me but one
line of conduct. Some courtesy, nevertheless, is due to the presence of this
company, and to yourself, at this moment, as my guest. You will pardon me,
therefore, if, upon this consideration, I deviate slightly from the general usage
among gentlemen in similar cases of personal affront. You will forgive me for
the moderate tax I shall make upon your imagination, and endeavor to consider,
for an instant, the reflection of your person in yonder mirror as the living
Mynheer Hermann himself. This being done, there will be no difficulty
whatever. I shall discharge this decanter of wine at your image in yonder mirror,
and thus fulfil all the spirit, if not the exact letter, of resentment for your insult,
while the necessity of physical violence to your real person will be obviated.”
With these words he hurled the decanter, full of wine, against the mirror
which hung directly opposite Hermann; striking the reflection of his person with
great precision, and of course shattering the glass into fragments. The whole
company at once started to their feet, and, with the exception of myself and
Ritzner, took their departure. As Hermann went out, the Baron whispered me
that I should follow him and make an offer of my services. To this I agreed; not
knowing precisely what to make of so ridiculous a piece of business.%
The duellist accepted my aid with his stiff and ultra recherche air, and, taking
my arm, led me to his apartment. I could hardly forbear laughing in his face
while he proceeded to discuss, with the profoundest gravity, what he termed
“the refinedly peculiar character” of the insult he had received. After a tiresome
harangue in his ordinary style, he took down from his book shelves a number of
musty volumes on the subject of the duello, and entertained me for a long time
with their contents; reading aloud, and commenting earnestly as he read. I can
just remember the titles of some of the works. There were the “Ordonnance of
Philip le Bel on Single Combat”; the “Theatre of Honor,” by Favyn, and a treatise
“On the Permission of Duels,” by Andiguier. He displayed, also, with much
pomposity, Brantome’s “Memoirs of Duels,”- published at Cologne, 1666, in the

Thesaurus
affront: (n, v) insult, abuse, outrage, harangue: (v) declaim; (n) rant, screed, ostentatiousness. ANTONYMS: (n)
slight, snub; (v) face, offend; (n) address, tirade, oration, diatribe, modesty, informality.
disgrace, slur, offense, mortification. sermon; (n, v) lecture, discourse, refinedly: (adv) tastefully,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise; (v) please, stump. sophisticatedly, delicately,
placate, mollify, gratify, flatter, musty: (adj) fusty, rancid, stale, polishedly, gentlely, chastely,
assuage, appease, adulate; (n) mouldy, rank, bad, obsolete, culturedly, cultivatedly, sublimately,
pleasantry, appeasement. antiquated, stuffy, threadbare, trite. subtlely, elegantly.
deviate: (v) stray, vary, deflect, ANTONYMS: (adj) airy, modern. shelves: (n) shelf, rack, shelving.
diverge, swerve, digress, warp, turn, pomposity: (n) haughtiness, yonder: (adv) beyond, further, farther,
wander, shift; (adj, n) deviant. arrogance, glitter, conceit, pretension, abroad, thither, further away, at that
ANTONYMS: (v) keep, converge, pompousness, strut, vanity, place; (adj) distant, yond, furious,
agree. pretentiousness, dash, fierce.
 Edgar Allan Poe 87

types of Elzevir- a precious and unique vellum-paper volume, with a fine

margin, and bound by Derome. But he requested my attention particularly, and
with an air of mysterious sagacity, to a thick octavo, written in barbarous Latin
by one Hedelin, a Frenchman, and having the quaint title, “Duelli Lex Scripta, et
non; aliterque.” From this he read me one of the drollest chapters in the world
concerning “Injuriae per applicationem, per constructionem, et per se,” about
half of which, he averred, was strictly applicable to his own “refinedly peculiar”
case, although not one syllable of the whole matter could I understand for the life
of me. Having finished the chapter, he closed the book, and demanded what I
thought necessary to be done. I replied that I had entire confidence in his
superior delicacy of feeling, and would abide by what he proposed. With this
answer he seemed flattered, and sat down to write a note to the Baron. It ran
thus:

SIR,--My friend, M. P.---, will hand you this note. I find it incumbent
upon me to request, at your earliest convenience, an explanation of this
evening’s occurrences at your chambers. In the event of your declining
this request, Mr. P. will be happy to arrange, with any friend whom you
may appoint, the steps preliminary to a meeting.%
With sentiments of perfect respect,
Your most humble servant,
JOHANN HERMAN

To the Baron Ritzner von Jung,

August 18th, 18--.

Not knowing what better to do, I called upon Ritzner with this epistle. He
bowed as I presented it; then, with a grave countenance, motioned me to a seat.
Having perused the cartel, he wrote the following reply, which I carried to
Hermann.

Thesaurus
abide: (v) endure, bide, undergo, refined, humane. communication, message,
tolerate, take, suffer, stomach, bear, cartel: (n) syndicate, ring, combine, correspondence, post card, favor,
brook; (adj, v) stay, dwell. compromise, organization, group, missive, writing, memo, dispatch.
ANTONYMS: (v) check, depart, mob, agreement, consortium, flattered: (adj) pleased.
disallow, disapprove, disbelieve, defiance, team. octavo: (n) folio, eightvo, size, quarto,
journey, dodge, leave, migrate, move, countenance: (n) aspect, expression, book.
pass. brow, complexion; (n, v) face, quaint: (adj) odd, funny, picturesque,
barbarous: (adj) barbaric, savage, sanction, support, favor; (v) allow, comical, fanciful, curious, whimsical,
gothic, brutal, heathen, truculent, tolerate, uphold. ANTONYMS: (v) strange, queer, peculiar, droll.
rude, fell, ferocious, fierce, reject, oppose, discourage, ANTONYMS: (adj) modern,
uncivilized. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, disapprove, prohibit. ordinary, dull.
cultured, civilized, sophisticated, epistle: (n) letter, note, sentiments: (n) breast.
88 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

SIR,- Through our common friend, Mr. P., I have received your note
of this evening. Upon due reflection I frankly admit the propriety of the
explanation you suggest. This being admitted, I still find great difficulty,
(owing to the refinedly peculiar nature of our disagreement, and of the
personal affront offered on my part,) in so wording what I have to say by
way of apology, as to meet all the minute exigencies, and all the variable
shadows, of the case. I have great reliance, however, on that extreme
delicacy of discrimination, in matters appertaining to the rules of
etiquette, for which you have been so long and so pre-eminently
distinguished. With perfect certainty, therefore, of being comprehended,
I beg leave, in lieu of offering any sentiments of my own, to refer you to
the opinions of Sieur Hedelin, as set forth in the ninth paragraph of the
chapter of “Injuriae per applicationem, per constructionem, et per se,” in
his “Duelli Lex scripta, et non; aliterque.” The nicety of your
discernment in all the matters here treated, will be sufficient, I am
assured, to convince you that the mere circumstance of me referring you
to this admirable passage, ought to satisfy your request, as a man of
honor, for explanation.%
With sentiments of profound respect,
Your most obedient servant,
VON JUNG
The Herr Johann Hermann
August 18th, 18--.

Hermann commenced the perusal of this epistle with a scowl, which,

however, was converted into a smile of the most ludicrous self-complacency as
he came to the rigmarole about Injuriae per applicationem, per constructionem,
et per se. Having finished reading, he begged me, with the blandest of all
possible smiles, to be seated, while he made reference to the treatise in question.
Turning to the passage specified, he read it with great care to himself, then
closed the book, and desired me, in my character of confidential acquaintance, to
express to the Baron von Jung his exalted sense of his chivalrous behavior, and,

Thesaurus
chivalrous: (adj) gallant, brave, understanding, insight, over, studying, literary scholarship,
knightly, courteous, courageous, discrimination, perception, perusing, lection, look.
gentlemanly, sublime, magnanimous, recognition. ANTONYMS: (n) pre-eminently: (adv) principally,
polite, thoughtful, considerate. ignorance, tastelessness, eminently.
ANTONYMS: (adj) rude, fearful, uncouthness, clumsiness. rigmarole: (n) nonsense, boloney,
brutish, afraid, dishonorable, lieu: (n) office, position, locality, stead, bosh, absurdity, baloney, tripe,
cowardly, barbaric, boorish. behalf, part, role, berth, station, site, trumpery, double-talk; (adj)
comprehended: (adj) understood, seat. rodomontade, nonsensical, foolish.
apprehended. ninth: (adv) ninthly; (n) common scowl: (n, v) glare, grimace, roar,
discernment: (n, v) appreciation, fraction. sneer; (v) glower, pout, lower, sulk;
sense, apprehension; (n) perusal: (n) examination, scrutiny, (adj) black looks, mumps; (n) growl.
comprehension, discretion, taste, study, survey, inspection, poring ANTONYMS: (n, v) grin.
 Edgar Allan Poe 89

in that of second, to assure him that the explanation offered was of the fullest, the
most honorable, and the most unequivocally satisfactory nature.%
Somewhat amazed at all this, I made my retreat to the Baron. He seemed to
receive Hermann’s amicable letter as a matter of course, and after a few words of
general conversation, went to an inner room and brought out the everlasting
treatise “Duelli Lex scripta, et non; aliterque.” He handed me the volume and
asked me to look over some portion of it. I did so, but to little purpose, not being
able to gather the least particle of meaning. He then took the book himself, and
read me a chapter aloud. To my surprise, what he read proved to be a most
horribly absurd account of a duel between two baboons. He now explained the
mystery; showing that the volume, as it appeared prima facie, was written upon
the plan of the nonsense verses of Du Bartas; that is to say, the language was
ingeniously framed so as to present to the ear all the outward signs of
intelligibility, and even of profundity, while in fact not a shadow of meaning
existed. The key to the whole was found in leaving out every second and third
word alternately, when there appeared a series of ludicrous quizzes upon a
single combat as practised in modern times.
The Baron afterwards informed me that he had purposely thrown the treatise
in Hermann’s way two or three weeks before the adventure, and that he was
satisfied, from the general tenor of his conversation, that he had studied it with
the deepest attention, and firmly believed it to be a work of unusual merit. Upon
this hint he proceeded. Hermann would have died a thousand deaths rather than
acknowledge his inability to understand anything and everything in the universe
that had ever been written about the duello.

Thesaurus
appeared: (n) appearing. great, noble. ANTONYMS: (adj) comprehensibility, clarity, lucidity,
everlasting: (adj) eternal, ceaseless, shameful, disgraceful, corrupt, simplicity, articulation,
endless, constant, continual, degenerate, immoral, humiliating, understandability, perspicuity,
perpetual, immortal, deathless, dishonest, unethical, decadent, bad, precision, speech intelligibility,
ageless, aeonian; (adj, n) lasting. deceitful. intelligibleness. ANTONYM: (n)
ANTONYMS: (adj) finite, ephemeral, ingeniously: (adv) artfully, cleverly, unintelligibility.
fleeting, mortal, ending, terminating, adroitly, skillfully, inventively, purposely: (adj, adv) designedly,
inconstant, fragile, perishable. resourcefully, shrewdly, advisedly, knowingly; (adv)
hermann: (n) Arminius, Armin. imaginatively, cunningly, craftily, intentionally, on purpose, by design,
honorable: (adj) good, estimable, artistically. ANTONYM: (adv) consciously, by choice, calculatedly,
exalted, respectable, fair, decent, ineptly. explicitly; (adj) wittingly.
reputable, ethical, honor; (adj, v) intelligibility: (n) readability, ANTONYM: (adv) unintentionally.
 Edgar Allan Poe 91

DIDDLING

CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE EXACT SCIENCES

Hey, diddle diddle,

The cat and the fiddle.%

Since the world began there have been two Jeremys. The one wrote a
Jeremiad about usury, and was called Jeremy Bentham. He has been much
admired by Mr. John Neal, and was a great man in a small way. The other gave
name to the most important of the Exact Sciences, and was a great man in a great
way--I may say, indeed, in the very greatest of ways.
Diddling--or the abstract idea conveyed by the verb to diddle--is sufficiently
well understood. Yet the fact, the deed, the thing diddling, is somewhat difficult
to define. We may get, however, at a tolerably distinct conception of the matter
in hand, by defining- not the thing, diddling, in itself--but man, as an animal that
diddles. Had Plato but hit upon this, he would have been spared the affront of
the picked chicken.
Very pertinently it was demanded of Plato, why a picked chicken, which was
clearly “a biped without feathers,” was not, according to his own definition, a
man? But I am not to be bothered by any similar query. Man is an animal that

Thesaurus
biped: (adj, n) bipedal, human; (n) major, essential, dioristic, crucial; (n) ask, examine, interpellate, wonder,
creature, brute, fauna, animate being, shaping. challenge. ANTONYMS: (n, v)
beast. diddle: (v) cheat, do, fool, gull, answer; (n) certainty; (v) trust, accept.
chicken: (n) fowl, hen, broiler, coward, swindle, trick, con, cozen, dally, usury: (n) usure, rapacity, rate of
cock, poultry, weakling, nestling; jockey, mulct. interest, vigorish; (v) accustom,
(adj) yellow, fearful, chicken-hearted. diddling: (n) hoax. common occurrence, practice, treat,
ANTONYM: (n) daredevil. pertinently: (adv) relevantly, usage, use, usefulness.
deed: (n) accomplishment, act, feat, appositely, aptly, fitly, properly, verb: (n) copulative, participle, copula,
behavior, action, exploit, covenant, fittingly, rightly, patly, germanely, word, transitive verb form, transitive
doing, document, title, fact. relatedly, apropos. verb, participial, part of speech,
ANTONYM: (n) failure. query: (n, v) doubt, inquire, quiz; (n) intransitive verb form, intransitive
defining: (v) define; (adj) important, inquiry, interrogative; (v) interrogate, verb, form class.
92 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

diddles, and there is no animal that diddles but man. It will take an entire hen-
coop of picked chickens to get over that.%
What constitutes the essence, the nare, the principle of diddling is, in fact,
peculiar to the class of creatures that wear coats and pantaloons. A crow thieves;
a fox cheats; a weasel outwits; a man diddles. To diddle is his destiny. “Man was
made to mourn,” says the poet. But not so:--he was made to diddle. This is his
aim--his object- his end. And for this reason when a man’s diddled we say he’s
“done.”
Diddling, rightly considered, is a compound, of which the ingredients are
minuteness, interest, perseverance, ingenuity, audacity, nonchalance,
originality, impertinence, and grin.
Minuteness:--Your diddler is minute. His operations are upon a small scale.
His business is retail, for cash, or approved paper at sight. Should he ever be
tempted into magnificent speculation, he then, at once, loses his distinctive
features, and becomes what we term “financier.” This latter word conveys the
diddling idea in every respect except that of magnitude. A diddler may thus be
regarded as a banker in petto--a “financial operation,” as a diddle at Brobdignag.
The one is to the other, as Homer to “Flaccus”--as a Mastodon to a mouse--as the
tail of a comet to that of a pig.
Interest:--Your diddler is guided by self-interest. He scorns to diddle for the
mere sake of the diddle. He has an object in view- his pocket--and yours. He
regards always the main chance. He looks to Number One. You are Number
Two, and must look to yourself.
Perseverance:--Your diddler perseveres. He is not readily discouraged.
Should even the banks break, he cares nothing about it. He steadily pursues his
end, and

Ut canis a corio nunquam absterrebitur uncto,

so he never lets go of his game.

Thesaurus
audacity: (n) nerve, audaciousness, impudence, insolence, disrespect, negligence, casualness; (adj, n)
effrontery, arrogance, temerity, effrontery, brass, boldness, unconcern; (adj) insouciance,
cheek, impertinence, insolence, impertinency, sauciness, freshness. indifferent. ANTONYMS: (n) anxiety,
courage; (n, v) impudence; (adj, n) ANTONYMS: (n) politeness, interest.
presumption. ANTONYMS: (n) seriousness, reticence. pantaloons: (n) pants, small clothes,
cowardice, propriety, decorum, ingredients: (n) contents, element. smalls, pantaloon, trousers,
circumspection, courtesy, fear, minuteness: (n) diminutiveness, inexpressibles, overalls.
respect, spinelessness, reticence. smallness, attention to detail, self-interest: (n) selfishness.
comet: (n) Ariel, iris, Dendrocometes, petiteness, tininess, weeness. weasel: (n) muishond, informer,
celestial body. nonchalance: (n) indifference, apathy, whittret, vare, troublemaker, shorttail
diddled: (adj) misspent. composure, disregard, weasel; (v) equivocate, evade, hedge,
impertinence: (n) audacity, gall, impassiveness, equanimity, pussyfoot, dodge.
 Edgar Allan Poe 93

Ingenuity:--Your diddler is ingenious. He has constructiveness large. He

understands plot. He invents and circumvents. Were he not Alexander he would
be Diogenes. Were he not a diddler, he would be a maker of patent rat-traps or
an angler for trout.%
Audacity:--Your diddler is audacious.--He is a bold man. He carries the war
into Africa. He conquers all by assault. He would not fear the daggers of Frey
Herren. With a little more prudence Dick Turpin would have made a good
diddler; with a trifle less blarney, Daniel O’Connell; with a pound or two more
brains Charles the Twelfth.
Nonchalance:--Your diddler is nonchalant. He is not at all nervous. He never
had any nerves. He is never seduced into a flurry. He is never put out--unless
put out of doors. He is cool--cool as a cucumber. He is calm--”calm as a smile
from Lady Bury.” He is easy- easy as an old glove, or the damsels of ancient
Baiae.
Originality:--Your diddler is original--conscientiously so. His thoughts are his
own. He would scorn to employ those of another. A stale trick is his aversion. He
would return a purse, I am sure, upon discovering that he had obtained it by an
unoriginal diddle.
Impertinence:--Your diddler is impertinent. He swaggers. He sets his arms a-
kimbo. He thrusts. his hands in his trowsers’ pockets. He sneers in your face. He
treads on your corns. He eats your dinner, he drinks your wine, he borrows your
money, he pulls your nose, he kicks your poodle, and he kisses your wife.
Grin:--Your true diddler winds up all with a grin. But this nobody sees but
himself. He grins when his daily work is done--when his allotted labors are
accomplished--at night in his own closet, and altogether for his own private
entertainment. He goes home. He locks his door. He divests himself of his
clothes. He puts out his candle. He gets into bed. He places his head upon the
pillow. All this done, and your diddler grins. This is no hypothesis. It is a matter
of course. I reason a priori, and a diddle would be no diddle without a grin.
The origin of the diddle is referrable to the infancy of the Human Race.
Perhaps the first diddler was Adam. At all events, we can trace the science back
Thesaurus
angler: (n) monkfish, allmouth, cajole, palaver, inveigle, persuade; (n) insouciant, unconcerned, casual,
plotter, schemer, fisher, fisherman, flattery, adulation, coaxing, sweet carefree, calm, heedless, listless,
troller, angler fish, piscator, talk. apathetic, offhand. ANTONYMS:
anglerfish, angelfish. borrows: (v) borrow; (n) lends. (adj) concerned, uptight, careful,
aversion: (n) antipathy, distaste, constructiveness: (n) usefulness. excited.
abhorrence, disinclination, dislike, cucumber: (n) cuke, gherkin, trowsers: (n) pants, trews.
grudge, aversation, nausea, enmity, vegetable, veggie, melon, cucumber unoriginal: (adj) derivative, stale, old,
revulsion; (n, v) disgust. vine, cucumbers, dollar. imitative, hackneyed, banal,
ANTONYMS: (n) attraction, love, grins: (n) merriment, amusement, unimaginative, uninspired, trite,
inclination, predilection, desire, entertainment, fun, gaiety, levity, tired, timeworn. ANTONYMS: (adj)
fondness, goodwill. diversion, mirth, recreation, sport. original, unique, clever, inspired,
blarney: (v) wheedle, coax, flatter, nonchalant: (adj) careless, indifferent, exceptional, imaginative.
94 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

to a very remote period of antiquity. The moderns, however, have brought it to a

perfection never dreamed of by our thick-headed progenitors. Without pausing
to speak of the “old saws,” therefore, I shall content myself with a compendious
account of some of the more “modern instances.”
A very good diddle is this. A housekeeper in want of a sofa, for instance, is
seen to go in and out of several cabinet warehouses. At length she arrives at one
offering an excellent variety. She is accosted, and invited to enter, by a polite and
voluble individual at the door. She finds a sofa well adapted to her views, and
upon inquiring the price, is surprised and delighted to hear a sum named at
least twenty per cent. lower than her expectations. She hastens to make the
purchase, gets a bill and receipt, leaves her address, with a request that the article
be sent home as speedily as possible, and retires amid a profusion of bows from
the shopkeeper. The night arrives and no sofa. A servant is sent to make inquiry
about the delay. The whole transaction is denied. No sofa has been sold--no
money received--except by the diddler, who played shop-keeper for the nonce.%
Our cabinet warehouses are left entirely unattended, and thus afford every
facility for a trick of this kind. Visiters enter, look at furniture, and depart
unheeded and unseen. Should any one wish to purchase, or to inquire the price
of an article, a bell is at hand, and this is considered amply sufficient.
Again, quite a respectable diddle is this. A well-dressed individual enters a
shop, makes a purchase to the value of a dollar; finds, much to his vexation, that
he has left his pocket-book in another coat pocket; and so says to the shopkeeper-
“My dear sir, never mind; just oblige me, will you, by sending the bundle
home? But stay! I really believe that I have nothing less than a five dollar bill,
even there. However, you can send four dollars in change with the bundle, you
know.”
“Very good, sir,” replies the shop-keeper, who entertains, at once, a lofty
opinion of the high-mindedness of his customer. “I know fellows,” he says to
himself, “who would just have put the goods under their arm, and walked off
with a promise to call and pay the dollar as they came by in the afternoon.”

Thesaurus
cent: (adj) picayune, mill, pistareen; (n) intrusive; (adj, n) questioning; (v) unnoted, unmarked, unmissed.
subunit, rupee, red cent, centime. inquire; (n) enquiry, question, vexation: (adj, n) annoyance, nuisance;
compendious: (adj) concise, summary, examination. ANTONYM: (adj) (n) irritation, worry, aggravation,
brief, compact, synoptic, curt, laconic, uninquiring. displeasure, chagrin, chafe, anger,
short, terse, comprehensive, progenitors: (n) lineage. frustration, botheration.
summarized. ANTONYMS: (adj) shopkeeper: (n) merchant, tradesman, voluble: (adj) loquacious, glib,
unabridged, expanded, lengthened. merchandiser, shopman, seller, talkative, garrulous, eloquent,
dollars: (n) bread. storekeeper, florist, hosier, market flowing, chatty, conversational,
high-mindedness: (n) virtue, keeper, cleaner, dealer. articulate, flippant, wordy.
greatness. unheeded: (adj) unnoticed, neglected, ANTONYMS: (adj) taciturn,
inquiring: (adj) inquisitive, quizzical, disregarded, ignored; (v) unthought uncommunicative, gentle, reticent.
interested, analytical, probing, of, unseen, unperceived, unobserved, well-dressed: (adj) handsome.
 Edgar Allan Poe 95

A boy is sent with the parcel and change. On the route, quite accidentally, he
is met by the purchaser, who exclaims:
“Ah! This is my bundle, I see--I thought you had been home with it, long ago.
Well, go on! My wife, Mrs. Trotter, will give you the five dollars--I left
instructions with her to that effect. The change you might as well give to me--I
shall want some silver for the Post Office. Very good! One, two, is this a good
quarter?- three, four--quite right! Say to Mrs. Trotter that you met me, and be
sure now and do not loiter on the way.”
The boy doesn’t loiter at all--but he is a very long time in getting back from
his errand--for no lady of the precise name of Mrs. Trotter is to be discovered. He
consoles himself, however, that he has not been such a fool as to leave the goods
without the money, and re-entering his shop with a self-satisfied air, feels
sensibly hurt and indignant when his master asks him what has become of the
change.%
A very simple diddle, indeed, is this. The captain of a ship, which is about to
sail, is presented by an official looking person with an unusually moderate bill of
city charges. Glad to get off so easily, and confused by a hundred duties pressing
upon him all at once, he discharges the claim forthwith. In about fifteen minutes,
another and less reasonable bill is handed him by one who soon makes it evident
that the first collector was a diddler, and the original collection a diddle.
And here, too, is a somewhat similar thing. A steamboat is casting loose from
the wharf. A traveller, portmanteau in hand, is discovered running toward the
wharf, at full speed. Suddenly, he makes a dead halt, stoops, and picks up
something from the ground in a very agitated manner. It is a pocket-book, and--
”Has any gentleman lost a pocketbook?” he cries. No one can say that he has
exactly lost a pocket-book; but a great excitement ensues, when the treasure
trove is found to be of value. The boat, however, must not be detained.
“Time and tide wait for no man,” says the captain.
“For God’s sake, stay only a few minutes,” says the finder of the book--”the
true claimant will presently appear.”

Thesaurus
agitated: (adj) upset, excited, nervous, saunter. ANTONYMS: (v) leave, lead. steamboat: (n) liner, steamer, steam
restive, tumultuous, distressed, tense, parcel: (n) bale, pack, bundle, package, boat, steamship, cruise ship, ocean
jumpy, overwrought, anxious, packet, section, division, batch; (n, v) liner.
alarmed. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, portion; (v) distribute, apportion. trotter: (adv) falter; (n) bangtail, race
lethargic, tranquil, relaxed, assured, portmanteau: (n) valise, Gladstone, horse, racehorse, trotting horse,
cool, still. portmanteau word, blend, Gladstone animal foot.
finder: (n) discoverer, view finder, line bag, word, suitcase, box, blending, trove: (n) treasure trove, treasure,
finder, observer, perceiver, inventor, grip, portmantle. accumulation, conglomeration,
artificer, beholder, spotter. self-satisfied: (adj) smug, self- hoarded wealth, hoard.
loiter: (v) dawdle, dally, tarry, hang complacent, self-righteous, wharf: (n) quay, harbor, port, pier,
around, prowl; (adj, v) loaf, delay, sanctimonious, proud, waterfront, jetty, nailery, bindery,
lounge, hesitate; (adv, v) lag; (n, v) presumptuous, imperturbable. beehive, basin; (n, v) berth.
96 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Can’t wait!” replies the man in authority; “cast off there, d’ye hear?”
“What am I to do?” asks the finder, in great tribulation. “I am about to leave
the country for some years, and I cannot conscientiously retain this large
amount in my possession. I beg your pardon, sir,” [here he addresses a
gentleman on shore,] “but you have the air of an honest man. Will you confer
upon me the favor of taking charge of this pocket-book--I know I can trust you--
and of advertising it? The notes, you see, amount to a very considerable sum.
The owner will, no doubt, insist upon rewarding you for your trouble-
“Me!--no, you!--it was you who found the book.”
“Well, if you must have it so--I will take a small reward--just to satisfy your
scruples. Let me see--why these notes are all hundreds- bless my soul! a hundred
is too much to take--fifty would be quite enough, I am sure-
“Cast off there!” says the captain.%
“But then I have no change for a hundred, and upon the whole, you had
better-
“Cast off there!” says the captain.
“Never mind!” cries the gentleman on shore, who has been examining his
own pocket-book for the last minute or so--”never mind! I can fix it--here is a
fifty on the Bank of North America--throw the book.”
And the over-conscientious finder takes the fifty with marked reluctance, and
throws the gentleman the book, as desired, while the steamboat fumes and fizzes
on her way. In about half an hour after her departure, the “large amount” is seen
to be a “counterfeit presentment,” and the whole thing a capital diddle.
A bold diddle is this. A camp-meeting, or something similar, is to be held at a
certain spot which is accessible only by means of a free bridge. A diddler stations
himself upon this bridge, respectfully informs all passers by of the new county
law, which establishes a toll of one cent for foot passengers, two for horses and
donkeys, and so forth, and so forth. Some grumble but all submit, and the
diddler goes home a wealthier man by some fifty or sixty dollars well earned.

Thesaurus
addresses: (n) wooing, suit, courtship. establishes: (v) establish; (adj) ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise; (v)
confer: (v) give, accord, award, afford, established. compliment, rejoice.
grant, discuss, converse, consult, favor: (n, v) countenance, aid, grace, informs: (v) inform; (n) informing.
show; (n, v) talk; (adj, v) present. support, benefit, boon; (adj, n) scruples: (n) conscience, moral sense,
ANTONYMS: (v) withdraw, deny, kindness; (n) advantage; (v) befriend, sense of right and wrong, morality,
dishonor, retrieve, take. encourage, patronize. ANTONYMS: ethical motive, principle, ethics,
conscientiously: (adv) carefully, (v) hinder, contradict, dislike, hurt, moral fiber, morals.
thoroughly, painstakingly, faithfully, differ, thwart, reject, demean; (n) tribulation: (n) trial, misery, distress,
religiously, meticulously, dutifully, derogation, disapproval, unkindness. ordeal, calamity, trouble, affliction,
assiduously, closely, diligently, grumble: (n, v) mutter, gripe, growl, suffering, hardship, pain, grief.
industriously. ANTONYMS: (adv) moan, rumble, mumble, groan, roar; ANTONYMS: (n) peace, ease,
irresponsibly, hastily. (v) complain, grouch; (n) complaint. opportunity.
 Edgar Allan Poe 97

This taking a toll from a great crowd of people is an excessively troublesome

thing.%
A neat diddle is this. A friend holds one of the diddler’s promises to pay,
filled up and signed in due form, upon the ordinary blanks printed in red ink.
The diddler purchases one or two dozen of these blanks, and every day dips one
of them in his soup, makes his dog jump for it, and finally gives it to him as a
bonne bouche. The note arriving at maturity, the diddler, with the diddler’s dog,
calls upon the friend, and the promise to pay is made the topic of discussion. The
friend produces it from his escritoire, and is in the act of reaching it to the
diddler, when up jumps the diddler’s dog and devours it forthwith. The diddler
is not only surprised but vexed and incensed at the absurd behavior of his dog,
and expresses his entire readiness to cancel the obligation at any moment when
the evidence of the obligation shall be forthcoming.
A very mean diddle is this. A lady is insulted in the street by a diddler’s
accomplice. The diddler himself flies to her assistance, and, giving his friend a
comfortable thrashing, insists upon attending the lady to her own door. He
bows, with his hand upon his heart, and most respectfully bids her adieu. She
entreats him, as her deliverer, to walk in and be introduced to her big brother
and her papa. With a sigh, he declines to do so. “Is there no way, then, sir,” she
murmurs, “in which I may be permitted to testify my gratitude?”
“Why, yes, madam, there is. Will you be kind enough to lend me a couple of
shillings?”
In the first excitement of the moment the lady decides upon fainting outright.
Upon second thought, however, she opens her purse-strings and delivers the
specie. Now this, I say, is a diddle minute--for one entire moiety of the sum
borrowed has to be paid to the gentleman who had the trouble of performing the
insult, and who had then to stand still and be thrashed for performing it.
Rather a small but still a scientific diddle is this. The diddler approaches the
bar of a tavern, and demands a couple of twists of tobacco. These are handed to
him, when, having slightly examined them, he says:

Thesaurus
adieu: (int, n) farewell; (n) vale, fainting: (n) swoon, syncope, moiety: (n) mediety, portion, part,
valediction, goodbye, leave, cheerio, deliquium, lipothymy, prostration, parcel, section, piece, bit, division,
adios, bye, so long, parting; (int) bon stupor; (adj) lipothymic. cut, class.
voyage. ANTONYM: (n) greeting. incensed: (adj) angry, exasperated, specie: (n) currency, cash, mintage,
bonne: (n) ayah, nurse, biddy. enraged, indignant, irate, infuriated, coinage, money, piece, hard cash,
deliverer: (n) saviour, deliveryman, irritated, mad, livid, angered, metal money, circulating medium,
redeemer, rescuer, bailor, Christ, aggravated. ANTONYM: (adj) sort, species.
individual, human, somebody, pleased. vexed: (adj) troubled, irritated, angry,
person, helper. insulted: (adj) affronted, offended, pestered, peeved, harassed, sore,
escritoire: (n) secretary, desk, injured, huffy. harried, uneasy, cross, offended.
secretaire, writing table, vitrine, jumps: (n) fit, nervousness, tension, ANTONYMS: (adj) calm,
vargueno, etagere, cabinet, scrutoire. anxiety, jitters. uncomplicated.
98 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“I don’t much like this tobacco. Here, take it back, and give me a glass of
brandy and water in its place.” The brandy and water is furnished and imbibed,
and the diddler makes his way to the door. But the voice of the tavern-keeper
arrests him.%
“I believe, sir, you have forgotten to pay for your brandy and water.”
“Pay for my brandy and water!--didn’t I give you the tobacco for the brandy
and water? What more would you have?”
“But, sir, if you please, I don’t remember that you paid me for the tobacco.”
“What do you mean by that, you scoundrel?--Didn’t I give you back your
tobacco? Isn’t that your tobacco lying there? Do you expect me to pay for what I
did not take?”
“But, sir,” says the publican, now rather at a loss what to say, “but sir-”
“But me no buts, sir,” interrupts the diddler, apparently in very high
dudgeon, and slamming the door after him, as he makes his escape.--”But me no
buts, sir, and none of your tricks upon travellers.”
Here again is a very clever diddle, of which the simplicity is not its least
recommendation. A purse, or pocket-book, being really lost, the loser inserts in
one of the daily papers of a large city a fully descriptive advertisement.
Whereupon our diddler copies the facts of this advertisement, with a change
of heading, of general phraseology and address. The original, for instance, is
long, and verbose, is headed “A Pocket-Book Lost!” and requires the treasure,
when found, to be left at No. 1 Tom Street. The copy is brief, and being headed
with “Lost” only, indicates No. 2 Dick, or No. 3 Harry Street, as the locality at
which the owner may be seen. Moreover, it is inserted in at least five or six of the
daily papers of the day, while in point of time, it makes its appearance only a few
hours after the original. Should it be read by the loser of the purse, he would
hardly suspect it to have any reference to his own misfortune. But, of course, the
chances are five or six to one, that the finder will repair to the address given by
the diddler, rather than to that pointed out by the rightful proprietor. The former
pays the reward, pockets the treasure and decamps.

Thesaurus
buts: (adv) however. misadventure, disaster, calamity, tapster, mixologist, tapper.
dudgeon: (n) resentment, huff, pique, mischance, catastrophe, mishap, bad rightful: (adj) right, lawful, just,
umbrage, spleen bitterness, luck, misery, affliction. ANTONYMS: justifiable, proper, legal, equitable,
virulence, gall, rancor; (adj) dumps, (n) joy, bonus, opportunity, privilege, licit, real, genuine, true.
mumps, scowl. success, happiness. ANTONYMS: (adj) wrongful, illegal,
inserted: (prep) between; (adj) phraseology: (n) language, expression, unlawful, fake.
parenthetical. phrasing, wording, idiom, verbose: (adj) wordy, prolix, tedious,
loser: (n) flop, washout, underdog, vernacular, dialect, choice of words, redundant, talkative, garrulous,
lame duck, dud, also-ran, geek, oaf, terminology, locution; (n, v) style. windy, lengthy, diffuse, copious,
nerd; (adj) defeated, stupid. publican: (n) bartender, barman, loquacious. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) winner, achiever. landlord, cafe proprietor, barkeep, concise, straightforward, succinct,
misfortune: (n) accident, hardship, caf owner, cafe owner, caf proprietor, brisk, taciturn.
 Edgar Allan Poe 99

Quite an analogous diddle is this. A lady of ton has dropped, some where in
the street, a diamond ring of very unusual value. For its recovery, she offers
some forty or fifty dollars reward--giving, in her advertisement, a very minute
description of the gem, and of its settings, and declaring that, on its restoration at
No. so and so, in such and such Avenue, the reward would be paid instanter,
without a single question being asked. During the lady’s absence from home, a
day or two afterwards, a ring is heard at the door of No. so and so, in such and
such Avenue; a servant appears; the lady of the house is asked for and is
declared to be out, at which astounding information, the visitor expresses the
most poignant regret. His business is of importance and concerns the lady
herself. In fact, he had the good fortune to find her diamond ring. But perhaps it
would be as well that he should call again. “By no means!” says the servant; and
“By no means!” says the lady’s sister and the lady’s sister-in-law, who are
summoned forthwith. The ring is clamorously identified, the reward is paid, and
the finder nearly thrust out of doors. The lady returns and expresses some little
dissatisfaction with her sister and sister-in-law, because they happen to have
paid forty or fifty dollars for a fac-simile of her diamond ring--a fac-simile made
out of real pinch-beck and unquestionable paste.%
But as there is really no end to diddling, so there would be none to this essay,
were I even to hint at half the variations, or inflections, of which this science is
susceptible. I must bring this paper, perforce, to a conclusion, and this I cannot
do better than by a summary notice of a very decent, but rather elaborate diddle,
of which our own city was made the theatre, not very long ago, and which was
subsequently repeated with success, in other still more verdant localities of the
Union. A middle-aged gentleman arrives in town from parts unknown. He is
remarkably precise, cautious, staid, and deliberate in his demeanor. His dress is
scrupulously neat, but plain, unostentatious. He wears a white cravat, an ample
waistcoat, made with an eye to comfort alone; thick-soled cosy-looking shoes,
and pantaloons without straps. He has the whole air, in fact, of your well-to-do,
sober-sided, exact, and respectable “man of business,” Par excellence--one of the
stern and outwardly hard, internally soft, sort of people that we see in the crack
high comedies--fellows whose words are so many bonds, and who are noted for

Thesaurus
clamorously: (adv) noisily, loudly, perforce: (n) on compulsion; (adv) dubious, uncertain, doubtful,
obstreperously, vociferously, needs. indefinite, tenuous, provisional,
blatantly, importunately, urgently, unostentatious: (adj) unassuming, debatable, disputable.
uproariously, raucously, turbulently, unpretentious, unobtrusive, humble, verdant: (adj) lush, leafy, flourishing,
tumultuously. restrained, understated, simple, fresh, raw, verdurous, blooming,
cravat: (n) neckerchief, neckcloth, homely, lowly, unpretending; (adj, n) immature, inexperienced, emerald,
stock, ascot, collar, handkerchief, plain. young. ANTONYMS: (adj) dying,
scarf, neckwear, necktie, ruff. unquestionable: (adj) incontrovertible, urban, withering.
instanter: (adv) immediately, now, indisputable, sure, incontestable, waistcoat: (n) CHUDDER, barbe,
directly, right, straightway, at once, indubitable, certain, unequivocal, garment, jerkin, jubbah, oilskins,
straight; (adj) suddenly, like a shot, irrefutable, undoubted, definite; (v) pilot jacket, pajamas, cardigan,
subito, presto. unimpeachable. ANTONYMS: (adj) singlet, talma jacket.
100 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

giving away guineas, in charity, with the one hand, while, in the way of mere
bargain, they exact the uttermost fraction of a farthing with the other.%
He makes much ado before he can get suited with a boarding house. He
dislikes children. He has been accustomed to quiet. His habits are methodical--
and then he would prefer getting into a private and respectable small family,
piously inclined. Terms, however, are no object--only he must insist upon
settling his bill on the first of every month, (it is now the second) and begs his
landlady, when he finally obtains one to his mind, not on any account to forget
his instructions upon this point--but to send in a bill, and receipt, precisely at ten
o’clock, on the first day of every month, and under no circumstances to put it off
to the second.
These arrangements made, our man of business rents an office in a reputable
rather than a fashionable quarter of the town. There is nothing he more despises
than pretense. “Where there is much show,” he says, “there is seldom any thing
very solid behind”--an observation which so profoundly impresses his
landlady’s fancy, that she makes a pencil memorandum of it forthwith, in her
great family Bible, on the broad margin of the Proverbs of Solomon.
The next step is to advertise, after some such fashion as this, in the principal
business six-pennies of the city--the pennies are eschewed as not “respectable”--
and as demanding payment for all advertisements in advance. Our man of
business holds it as a point of his faith that work should never be paid for until
done.

“WANTED.--The advertisers, being about to commence extensive business

operations in this city, will require the services of three or four intelligent and
competent clerks, to whom a liberal salary will be paid. The very best
recommendations, not so much for capacity, as for integrity, will be expected.
Indeed, as the duties to be performed involve high responsibilities, and large
amounts of money must necessarily pass through the hands of those engaged, it
is deemed advisable to demand a deposit of fifty dollars from each clerk
employed. No person need apply, therefore, who is not prepared to leave this

Thesaurus
accustomed: (adj, n) habitual; (adj) landlady: (n) landlord, madam, reputable: (adj) estimable, honorable,
familiar, normal, wonted, usual, proprietor, hostess, innkeeper, respectable, famous, sound, good,
natural, everyday, ordinary, landholder, lady of the house. honest, prestigious, reliable, worthy,
habituated, common, traditional. piously: (adv) religiously, reverently, distinguished. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, green, godly, spiritually, devotedly, seedy, unreliable, shameful, wicked,
unseasoned, unconventional, righteously, sacredly, earnestly, notorious.
untrained, abnormal, saintly, purely, devotionally. uttermost: (adj, n) extreme; (adj, adv)
uncharacteristic, exceptional. pretense: (n) affectation, pretension, farthest; (n) maximum, level best;
farthing: (n) craps, faro, ante, chuck, deception, show, cover, masquerade, (adj) furthest, utter, last, farthermost,
doit, small change; (adj) bulrush, hypocrisy, mask, facade, sham; (adj, furthermost, ultimate, most.
pinch of snuff, peppercorn, old son, n) feint. ANTONYMS: (n) reality, ANTONYM: (adj) moderate.
jot. honesty, humility, sincerity, genuine.
 Edgar Allan Poe 101

sum in the possession of the advertisers, and who cannot furnish the most
satisfactory testimonials of morality. Young gentlemen piously inclined will be
preferred. Application should be made between the hours of ten and eleven A.
M., and four and five P. M., of Messrs.%

“Bogs, Hogs Logs, Frogs & Co.,

“No. 110 Dog Street”

By the thirty-first day of the month, this advertisement has brought to the
office of Messrs. Bogs, Hogs, Logs, Frogs, and Company, some fifteen or twenty
young gentlemen piously inclined. But our man of business is in no hurry to
conclude a contract with any--no man of business is ever precipitate--and it is not
until the most rigid catechism in respect to the piety of each young gentleman’s
inclination, that his services are engaged and his fifty dollars receipted for, just
by way of proper precaution, on the part of the respectable firm of Bogs, Hogs,
Logs, Frogs, and Company. On the morning of the first day of the next month,
the landlady does not present her bill, according to promise--a piece of neglect
for which the comfortable head of the house ending in ogs would no doubt have
chided her severely, could he have been prevailed upon to remain in town a day
or two for that purpose.
As it is, the constables have had a sad time of it, running hither and thither,
and all they can do is to declare the man of business most emphatically, a “hen
knee high”--by which some persons imagine them to imply that, in fact, he is n.
e. i.--by which again the very classical phrase non est inventus, is supposed to be
understood. In the meantime the young gentlemen, one and all, are somewhat
less piously inclined than before, while the landlady purchases a shilling’s worth
of the Indian rubber, and very carefully obliterates the pencil memorandum that
some fool has made in her great family Bible, on the broad margin of the
Proverbs of Solomon.

Thesaurus
catechism: (n) interrogation, creed, divest. religion, religiousness, piousness,
education, question, test; (v) hither: (adv) here, whither, sanctity, goodness. ANTONYMS: (n)
challenge. hitherward, thither. sin, profanity, wickedness.
emphatically: (adv) decidedly, inclination: (n, v) desire, bent; (n) precaution: (n) foresight, care,
definitely, positively, categorically, fancy, affection, tendency, leaning, prevention, discretion, anticipation,
flatly, distinctly, absolutely, drift, appetite, dip, proclivity, bias. caution, circumspection, prudence,
explicitly, forcefully, firmly, ANTONYMS: (n) disinclination, safeguard, protection; (adj)
expressly. reluctance, aversion, indifference, precautionary.
furnish: (v) afford, provide, unwillingness, antipathy, dislike, thither: (adv) hither, whither, on that
contribute, render, offer, horror. point, in that respect, at that place, in
accommodate, supply, outfit, yield, piety: (n) godliness, devoutness, faith, that location; (adj) further, ulterior,
decorate; (n, v) give. ANTONYM: (v) righteousness, holiness, reverence, remoter, succeeding, more distant.
 Edgar Allan Poe 103

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 Griswold’s “Curiosities”; I am willing to confess, therefore, that I
now felt a little stupid. I made effort to arouse myself by aid of frequent Lafitte,
and, all failing, I betook myself to a stray newspaper in despair. Having carefully
perused the column of “houses to let,” and the column of “dogs lost,” and then
the two columns of “wives and apprentices runaway,” I attacked with great
resolution the editorial matter, and, reading it from beginning to end without
understanding a syllable, conceived the possibility of its being Chinese, and so
re-read it from the end to the beginning, but with no more satisfactory result. I
was about throwing away, in disgust,

Thesaurus
apologies: (n) regret. bever, dejeuner. (adj) unhealthy, frail, old, weak,
arouse: (v) wake, stir, agitate, excite, dyspeptic: (adj) atrabilious, irritable, sluggish, unwholesome, meager.
awaken, stimulate, anger, kindle, liverish, ill-natured, biliary; (n) liqueur: (v) spirits, malt liquor, stingo;
provoke, raise; (n, v) rouse. sufferer, diseased person. (n) honeysuckle, absinthe, absinth,
ANTONYMS: (v) calm, dampen, fender: (n) wing, cushion, barrier, kummel, anisette, hydromel, sweet
stifle, sedate, quiet, pacify, bore, mudguard, dashboard, guard, wine, ale.
allay, lull, quench, suppress. mudguard seat, cowcatcher, miscellaneous: (adj) heterogeneous,
consummated: (adj) perfected, done, framework, sheer log, framing. mixed, different, general, sundry,
fulfilled; (v) completed, crowned. hearty: (adj) heartfelt, healthy, genial, indiscriminate, motley, varied,
dessert: (n) sweet, afters, pudding, sturdy, cheering, fervent, diverse, multifarious, versatile.
ambrosia, blancmange, compote, wholehearted, lusty, enthusiastic, ANTONYMS: (adj) uniform,
confectionery, confection; (v) bait, convivial; (adj, n) well. ANTONYMS: homogeneous, limited.
104 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“This folio of four pages, happy work

Which not even critics criticise,”%

when I felt my attention somewhat aroused by the paragraph which follows :

“The avenues to death are numerous and strange. A London paper
mentions the decease of a person from a singular cause. He was playing
at ‘puff the dart,’ which is played with a long needle inserted in some
worsted, and blown at a target through a tin tube. He placed the needle
at the wrong end of the tube, and drawing his breath strongly to puff the
dart forward with force, drew the needle into his throat. It entered the
lungs, and in a few days killed him.”

Upon seeing this I fell into a great rage, without exactly knowing why. “This
thing,” I exclaimed, “is a contemptible falsehood--a poor hoax--the lees of the
invention of some pitiable penny-a-liner--of some wretched concoctor of
accidents in Cocaigne. These fellows, knowing the extravagant gullibility of the
age, set their wits to work in the imagination of improbable possibilities--of odd
accidents, as they term them; but to a reflecting intellect (like mine,” I added, in
parenthesis, putting my forefinger unconsciously to the side of my nose,) “to a
contemplative understanding such as I myself possess, it seems evident at once
that the marvelous increase of late in these ‘odd accidents’ is by far the oddest
accident of all. For my own part, I intend to believe nothing henceforward that
has anything of the ‘singular’ about it.”
“Mein Gott, den, vat a vool you bees for dat!” replied one of the most
remarkable voices I ever heard. At first I took it for a rumbling in my ears--such
as a man sometimes experiences when getting very drunk--but, upon second
thought, I considered the sound as more nearly resembling that which proceeds
from an empty barrel beaten with a big stick; and, in fact, this I should have
concluded it to be, but for the articulation of the syllables and words. I am by no
means naturally nervous, and the very few glasses of Lafitte which I had sipped
served to embolden me no little, so that I felt nothing of trepidation, but merely

Thesaurus
drew: (n) move, John Drew. (adj, n) cullibility. ANTONYMS: (n) unimpressive, unremarkable, boring.
embolden: (adj, n, v) encourage; (v) sophistication, wariness. parenthesis: (n) brackets, bracket,
hearten, animate, comfort, inspire, lees: (adj, n) grounds; (n) sediment, digression, interlude, episode,
enhearten, nerve, strengthen; (n) deposit, residue, ground, lee, dreg, anastrophe, metastasis, hyperbaton,
buoy up, assure; (adj, n) reassure. feculence, bottom, silt, feces. hypallage, excursus, anastrophy.
folio: (n) leaf, sheet, number, page marvelous: (adj) wonderful, fantastic, pitiable: (adj) forlorn, abject, pathetic,
number, flyleaf, quarto, octavo, incredible, fabulous, extraordinary, miserable, pitiful, wretched,
blade, foliage, number the folios, tremendous, grand, astonishing, lamentable, poor, squalid; (adj, v)
book. terrific, great; (adj, v) prodigious. deplorable, mournful. ANTONYMS:
gullibility: (n) ingenuousness, ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary, (adj) privileged, strong.
simplicity, credulousness, credulity, mundane, abysmal, bad, dreadful, worsted: (adj) disappointed; (n) fabric,
naivety, naivete, inexperience, navet; unworthy, dire, humdrum, knitting worsted, cloth.
 Edgar Allan Poe 105

uplifted my eyes with a leisurely movement, and looked carefully around the
room for the intruder. I could not, however, perceive any one at all.%
“Humph!” resumed the voice, as I continued my survey, “you mus pe so
dronk as de pig, den, for not zee me as I zit here at your zide.”
Hereupon I bethought me of looking immediately before my nose, and there,
sure enough, confronting me at the table sat a personage nondescript, although
not altogether indescribable. His body was a wine-pipe, or a rum-puncheon, or
something of that character, and had a truly Falstaffian air. In its nether
extremity were inserted two kegs, which seemed to answer all the purposes of
legs. For arms there dangled from the upper portion of the carcass two tolerably
long bottles, with the necks outward for hands. All the head that I saw the
monster possessed of was one of those Hessian canteens which resemble a large
snuff-box with a hole in the middle of the lid. This canteen (with a funnel on its
top, like a cavalier cap slouched over the eyes) was set on edge upon the
puncheon, with the hole toward myself; and through this hole, which seemed
puckered up like the mouth of a very precise old maid, the creature was emitting
certain rumbling and grumbling noises which he evidently intended for
intelligible talk.
“I zay,” said he, “you mos pe dronk as de pig, vor zit dare and not zee me zit
ere; and I zay, doo, you mos pe pigger vool as de goose, vor to dispelief vat iz
print in de print. ‘Tiz de troof--dat it iz--eberry vord ob it.”
“Who are you, pray?” said I, with much dignity, although somewhat
puzzled; “how did you get here? and what is it you are talking about?”
“Az vor ow I com’d ere,” replied the figure, “dat iz none of your pizzness;
and as vor vat I be talking apout, I be talk apout vat I tink proper; and as vor
who I be, vy dat is de very ting I com’d here for to let you zee for yourzelf.”
“You are a drunken vagabond,” said I, “and I shall ring the bell and order my
footman to kick you into the street.”
“He! he! he!” said the fellow, “hu! hu! hu! dat you can’t do.”
“Can’t do!” said I, “what do you mean? --I can’t do what?”

Thesaurus
emitting: (n) emission; (adj) flowing, nondescript: (adj) indescribable, dull, adv) somewhat; (adj) pretty well.
mittent, emissive. ordinary, vague, indefinite, ANTONYMS: (adv) unbearably,
footman: (n) attendant, butler, indefinable, unremarkable; (n) soul, intolerably, unacceptably,
follower, flunkey, flunky, varlet, someone, somebody, person. unreasonably, insufficiently,
servitor, valet de chambre, boy, ANTONYMS: (adj) extraordinary, inadequately.
knave; (n, v) lackey. distinctive, exciting, special. uplifted: (adj) high, raised, noble, not
indescribable: (adj) indefinable, slouched: (adj) slumped. inverted, not prone, proud,
ineffable, unutterable, vague, beyond tink: (v) clink, check, tinkle, sound, go. undismayed, stately, lofty, sublime,
expression, nameless, inexpressible, tolerably: (adv) well enough, passably, animated.
nondescript, terrible, intangible, acceptably, reasonably, enough,
termless. ANTONYMS: (adj) moderately, to a tolerable degree,
explainable, conceivable, concrete. pretty, to an adequate degree; (adj,
106 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Ring de pell;” he replied, attempting a grin with his little villanous mouth.%
Upon this I made an effort to get up, in order to put my threat into execution;
but the ruffian just reached across the table very deliberately, and hitting me a
tap on the forehead with the neck of one of the long bottles, knocked me back
into the arm-chair from which I had half arisen. I was utterly astounded; and, for
a moment, was quite at a loss what to do. In the meantime, he continued his talk.
“You zee,” said he, “it iz te bess vor zit still; and now you shall know who I
pe. Look at me! zee! I am te Angel ov te Odd.”
“And odd enough, too,” I ventured to reply; “but I was always under the
impression that an angel had wings.”
“Te wing!” he cried, highly incensed, “vat I pe do mit te wing? Mein Gott! do
you take me vor a shicken?”
“No--oh no!” I replied, much alarmed, “you are no chicken--certainly not.”
“Well, den, zit still and pehabe yourself, or I’ll rap you again mid me vist. It
iz te shicken ab te wing, und te owl ab te wing, und te imp ab te wing, und te
head-teuffel ab te wing. Te angel ab not te wing, and I am te Angel ov te Odd.”
“And your business with me at present is--is” -
“My pizzness!” ejaculated the thing, “vy vat a low bred buppy you mos pe
vor to ask a gentleman und an angel apout his pizziness!”
This language was rather more than I could bear, even from an angel; so,
plucking up courage, I seized a salt-cellar which lay within reach, and hurled it
at the head of the intruder. Either he dodged, however, or my aim was
inaccurate; for all I accomplished was the demolition of the crystal which
protected the dial of the clock upon the mantel-piece. As for the Angel, he
evinced his sense of my assault by giving me two or three hard consecutive raps
upon the forehead as before. These reduced me at once to submission, and I am
almost ashamed to confess that either through pain or vexation, there came a few
tears into my eyes.
“Mein Gott!” said the Angel of the Odd, apparently much softened at my
distress; “mein Gott, te man is eder ferry dronk or ferry zorry. You mos not trink
Thesaurus
alarmed: (adj) afraid, scared, eradication, ruination, disintegration, reliable, valid.
frightened, apprehensive, horrified, ravage, rack, wrecking. intruder: (n) trespasser, interloper,
anxious, uneasy, agitated, shocked, ANTONYMS: (n) construction, encroacher, raider, invader,
terrified, concerned. ANTONYM: creation, restoration, building. aggressor, go between, gatecrasher,
(adj) carefree. dial: (n) face, disc, control, selector, stalker, boarder; (adj, n) stranger.
arisen: (adj) risen. gnomon, pendulum, hourglass, clock, plucking: (n) harvesting, rip out.
astounded: (adj) amazed, stunned, gauge; (v) telephone, operate. ruffian: (n) rowdy, rascal, hooligan,
flabbergasted, bewildered, inaccurate: (adj) incorrect, faulty, false, bully, brute, hoodlum, tough,
dumbfounded, surprised, staggered, wrong, inexact, improper, loose, miscreant, villain, rogue, roughneck.
astonied, dazed, astound, aghast. untrue, mistaken, not exact, shall: (n) must, necessity; (v) require,
demolition: (n) demolishment, ruin, imprecise. ANTONYMS: (adj) correct, bequeath, leave.
destruction, devastation, obliteration, exact, accurate, truthful, careful, villanous: (adj) vile.
 Edgar Allan Poe 107

it so strong--you mos put te water in te wine. Here, trink dis, like a goot veller,
und don’t gry now--don’t!”%
Hereupon the Angel of the Odd replenished my goblet (which was about a
third full of Port) with a colorless fluid that he poured from one of his hand
bottles. I observed that these bottles had labels about their necks, and that these
labels were inscribed “Kirschenwasser.”
The considerate kindness of the Angel mollified me in no little measure; and,
aided by the water with which he diluted my Port more than once, I at length
regained sufficient temper to listen to his very extraordinary discourse. I cannot
pretend to recount all that he told me, but I gleaned from what he said that he
was the genius who presided over the contretemps of mankind, and whose
business it was to bring about the odd accidents which are continually astonishing
the skeptic. Once or twice, upon my venturing to express my total incredulity in
respect to his pretensions, he grew very angry indeed, so that at length I
considered it the wiser policy to say nothing at all, and let him have his own
way. He talked on, therefore, at great length, while I merely leaned back in my
chair with my eyes shut, and amused myself with munching raisins and filliping
the stems about the room. But, by-and-by, the Angel suddenly construed this
behavior of mine into contempt. He arose in a terrible passion, slouched his
funnel down over his eyes, swore a vast oath, uttered a threat of some character
which I did not precisely comprehend, and finally made me a low bow and
departed, wishing me, in the language of the archbishop in Gil-Blas, “beaucoup de
bonheur et un peu plus de bon sens.”
His departure afforded me relief. The very few glasses of Lafitte that I had
sipped had the effect of rendering me drowsy, and I felt inclined to take a nap of
some fifteen or twenty minutes, as is my custom after dinner. At six I had an
appointment of consequence, which it was quite indispensable that I should
keep. The policy of insurance for my dwelling house had expired the day before;
and, some dispute having arisen, it was agreed that, at six, I should meet the
board of directors of the company and settle the terms of a renewal. Glancing
upward at the clock on the mantel-piece, (for I felt too drowsy to take out my

Thesaurus
aided: (adj) power, favored. drowsy: (adj, n) sleepy; (adj) lazy, munching: (n) feeding.
colorless: (adj) achromatic, neutral, comatose, somnolent, slow, lethargic, pretensions: (n) airs, affected manner,
drab, dull, monotonous, wan, tame, sluggish, dull, indolent, soporific, mannerism.
pallid, bloodless, white, colourless. listless. ANTONYMS: (adj) energetic, recount: (v) tell, recite, relate, describe,
ANTONYMS: (adj) rosy, interesting, awake, lively, vigorous, vivacious, enumerate, inform, detail, rehearse,
rich, vivid, brilliant, vibrant, refreshed. count, report, convey.
stimulating, lively, glamorous, funnel: (n) flue, tunnel, funnel shape, skeptic: (adj, n) unbeliever, atheist; (n)
exciting, distinctive. shaft, cone, hopper, trachea, agnostic, sceptic, pessimist, doubting
contretemps: (n) adversity, casualty, weasand; (v) channel, move, pipe. Thomas, disbeliever, cynic,
misfortune, check, hitch, encounter, goblet: (n) bowl, chalice, cup, mug, pyrrhonist, infidel; (adj) sceptical.
screw loose, skirmish, mischance, grail, beaker, basin, tumbler, ANTONYMS: (n) supporter,
rub, mishap. rummer, flask; (v) glass. adherent, conformist.
108 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

watch), I had the pleasure to find that I had still twenty-five minutes to spare. It
was half past five; I could easily walk to the insurance office in five minutes; and
my usual siestas had never been known to exceed five and twenty. I felt
sufficiently safe, therefore, and composed myself to my slumbers forthwith.%
Having completed them to my satisfaction, I again looked toward the time-
piece and was half inclined to believe in the possibility of odd accidents when I
found that, instead of my ordinary fifteen or twenty minutes, I had been dozing
only three; for it still wanted seven and twenty of the appointed hour. I betook
myself again to my nap, and at length a second time awoke, when, to my utter
amazement, it still wanted twenty-seven minutes of six. I jumped up to examine
the clock, and found that it had ceased running. My watch informed me that it
was half past seven; and, of course, having slept two hours, I was too late for my
appointment. “It will make no difference,” I said : “I can call at the office in the
morning and apologize; in the meantime what can be the matter with the clock?”
Upon examining it I discovered that one of the raisin stems which I had been
filliping about the room during the discourse of the Angel of the Odd, had flown
through the fractured crystal, and lodging, singularly enough, in the key-hole,
with an end projecting outward, had thus arrested the revolution of the minute
hand.
“Ah!” said I, “I see how it is. This thing speaks for itself. A natural accident,
such as will happen now and then!”
I gave the matter no further consideration, and at my usual hour retired to
bed. Here, having placed a candle upon a reading stand at the bed head, and
having made an attempt to peruse some pages of the “Omnipresence of the
Deity,” I unfortunately fell asleep in less than twenty seconds, leaving the light
burning as it was.
My dreams were terrifically disturbed by visions of the Angel of the Odd.
Methought he stood at the foot of the couch, drew aside the curtains, and, in the
hollow, detestable tones of a rum puncheon, menaced me with the bitterest
vengeance for the contempt with which I had treated him. He concluded a long
harangue by taking off his funnel-cap, inserting the tube into my gullet, and thus

Thesaurus
awoke: (adj) awakened. address, hospice. singularly: (adv) peculiarly, uniquely,
dozing: (adj) drowsy, dozy, nodding, menaced: (adj) doomed, exposed. unusually, curiously, rarely,
napping, asleep, sleepy, tired. projecting: (adj) projected, protruding, uncommonly, oddly, solely,
fractured: (v) cracked, contrite, broken jutting, protrusive, pendent; (adj, v) exceptionally, individually; (adj, adv)
friendship, blighted, apart, disunited, overhanging, jutting over, salient; (v) remarkably.
disconnected; (adj) torn, fissured. beetling, protuberant, convex. terrifically: (adv) wonderfully,
gullet: (n) esophagus, gorge, orifice, puncheon: (n) punch, vat, barrel, cask, marvelously, greatly, excellently,
mouth, throat, oesophagus, weasand, tun, keg, butt, filling piece, drum, superbly, stupendously, extremely,
muzzle, pharynx, larynx; (v) gill. caldron. marvellously, enormously, terribly,
lodging: (n) abode, apartment, raisin: (n) plum, sultana, Valencia exceptionally. ANTONYM: (adv)
accommodation, housing, hostel, raisins, raisins, grape, dried fruit, abysmally.
residence, quarter, home, lodgement, dried raisin.
 Edgar Allan Poe 109

deluging me with an ocean of Kirschenwässer, which he poured, in a continuous

flood, from one of the long necked bottles that stood him instead of an arm. My
agony was at length insufferable, and I awoke just in time to perceive that a rat
had ran off with the lighted candle from the stand, but not in season to prevent
his making his escape with it through the hole. Very soon, a strong suffocating
odor assailed my nostrils; the house, I clearly perceived, was on fire. In a few
minutes the blaze broke forth with violence, and in an incredibly brief period the
entire building was wrapped in flames. All egress from my chamber, except
through a window, was cut off. The crowd, however, quickly procured and
raised a long ladder. By means of this I was descending rapidly, and in apparent
safety, when a huge hog, about whose rotund stomach, and indeed about whose
whole air and physiognomy, there was something which reminded me of the
Angel of the Odd,--when this hog, I say, which hitherto had been quietly
slumbering in the mud, took it suddenly into his head that his left shoulder
needed scratching, and could find no more convenient rubbing-post than that
afforded by the foot of the ladder. In an instant I was precipitated and had the
misfortune to fracture my arm.%
This accident, with the loss of my insurance, and with the more serious loss
of my hair, the whole of which had been singed off by the fire, predisposed me to
serious impressions, so that, finally, I made up my mind to take a wife. There
was a rich widow disconsolate for the loss of her seventh husband, and to her
wounded spirit I offered the balm of my vows. She yielded a reluctant consent to
my prayers. I knelt at her feet in gratitude and adoration. She blushed and
bowed her luxuriant tresses into close contact with those supplied me,
temporarily, by Grandjean. I know not how the entanglement took place, but so
it was. I arose with a shining pate, wigless; she in disdain and wrath, half buried
in alien hair. Thus ended my hopes of the widow by an accident which could not
have been anticipated, to be sure, but which the natural sequence of events had
brought about.
Without despairing, however, I undertook the siege of a less implacable
heart. The fates were again propitious for a brief period; but again a trivial

Thesaurus
disconsolate: (adj) inconsolable, blue, abhorrent; (adj) excruciating, cranium, scull, upper story.
cheerless, melancholy, dejected, impossible, unbearable, physiognomy: (n) face, kisser, phiz,
depressed, sad, miserable, dark, insupportable, unendurable, visage, mug, look, brow, contour,
crestfallen, gloomy. ANTONYMS: unsufferable, hateful, painful; (v) aspect, physnomy , metoposcopy.
(adj) happy, joyous, euphoric, nauseous. ANTONYMS: (adj) rotund: (adj) obese, chubby, round,
consolable, enthusiastic. manageable, nice, lovable. plump, corpulent, circular, full,
egress: (n) exit, egression, outlet, door, nostrils: (n) naris, nose. orotund, rounded, globular,
emergence, departure, emersion, odor: (n) aroma, scent, odour, overweight. ANTONYMS: (adj)
emission, way out, dissilience; (v) bouquet, flavour, perfume, flavor, gangling, slim, thin.
emerge. ANTONYMS: (n) entry, savor, stink; (n, v) smell, stench. slumbering: (adj) dormant, asleep,
ingress. pate: (n) crown, noddle, nob, crest, latent. ANTONYM: (adj) awake.
insufferable: (adj, v) intolerable, chief, poll, cerebrum, brainpan, tresses: (n) locks, mop, head of hair.
110 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

incident interfered. Meeting my betrothed in an avenue thronged with the élite of

the city, I was hastening to greet her with one of my best considered bows, when
a small particle of some foreign matter, lodging in the corner of my eye, rendered
me, for the moment, completely blind. Before I could recover my sight, the lady
of my love had disappeared--irreparably affronted at what she chose to consider
my premeditated rudeness in passing her by ungreeted. While I stood
bewildered at the suddenness of this accident, (which might have happened,
nevertheless, to any one under the sun), and while I still continued incapable of
sight, I was accosted by the Angel of the Odd, who proffered me his aid with a
civility which I had no reason to expect. He examined my disordered eye with
much gentleness and skill, informed me that I had a drop in it, and (whatever a
“drop” was) took it out, and afforded me relief.%
I now considered it high time to die, (since fortune had so determined to
persecute me,) and accordingly made my way to the nearest river. Here,
divesting myself of my clothes, (for there is no reason why we cannot die as we
were born), I threw myself headlong into the current; the sole witness of my fate
being a solitary crow that had been seduced into the eating of brandy-saturated
corn, and so had staggered away from his fellows. No sooner had I entered the
water than this bird took it into its head to fly away with the most indispensable
portion of my apparel. Postponing, therefore, for the present, my suicidal design,
I just slipped my nether extremities into the sleeves of my coat, and betook
myself to a pursuit of the felon with all the nimbleness which the case required
and its circumstances would admit. But my evil destiny attended me still. As I
ran at full speed, with my nose up in the atmosphere, and intent only upon the
purloiner of my property, I suddenly perceived that my feet rested no longer
upon terra-firma; the fact is, I had thrown myself over a precipice, and should
inevitably have been dashed to pieces but for my good fortune in grasping the
end of a long guide-rope, which depended from a passing balloon.
As soon as I sufficiently recovered my senses to comprehend the terrific
predicament in which I stood or rather hung, I exerted all the power of my lungs
to make that predicament known to the æronaut overhead. But for a long time I

Thesaurus
betrothed: (adj) affianced, intended, alertness, adroitness, legerity, premeditated: (adj) intentional,
bespoken, busy, occupied, deftness, quickness, lightsomeness, planned, designed, conscious,
contracted, attached, bargained for; haste, legerdemain, grace. calculated, studied, intended,
(n) fiance, fiancee; (v) engage. ANTONYMS: (n) clumsiness, prearranged; (v) prepense; (adj, v)
felon: (n) convict, culprit, crook, heaviness, awkwardness. aforethought, premeditate.
malefactor, thug, desperado, persecute: (v) molest, chase, badger, ANTONYMS: (adj) accidental,
miscreant, offender, hoodlum, harry, follow, plague, bait, afflict, ingenuous, spontaneous,
outlaw; (adj) felonious. beset; (adj, v) oppress; (adj) aggrieve. unintentional, unpremeditated,
hastening: (n) quickening, speed, ANTONYMS: (v) comfort, support. automatic, casual.
hurrying, speeding up, faster, fast, precipice: (n) abyss, chasm, purloiner: (n) crook.
stepping up. escarpment, gulf, steep, crag, verge, seduced: (adj) profaned, infatuated,
nimbleness: (n) lightness, dexterity, brink, abysm, ravine, drop. fascinated.
 Edgar Allan Poe 111

exerted myself in vain. Either the fool could not, or the villain would not
perceive me. Meantime the machine rapidly soared, while my strength even
more rapidly failed. I was soon upon the point of resigning myself to my fate,
and dropping quietly into the sea, when my spirits were suddenly revived by
hearing a hollow voice from above, which seemed to be lazily humming an
opera air. Looking up, I perceived the Angel of the Odd. He was leaning with his
arms folded, over the rim of the car; and with a pipe in his mouth, at which he
puffed leisurely, seemed to be upon excellent terms with himself and the
universe. I was too much exhausted to speak, so I merely regarded him with an
imploring air.%
For several minutes, although he looked me full in the face, he said nothing.
At length removing carefully his meerschaum from the right to the left corner of
his mouth, he condescended to speak.
“Who pe you,” he asked, “und what der teuffel you pe do dare?”
To this piece of impudence, cruelty and affectation, I could reply only by
ejaculating the monosyllable “Help!”
“Elp!” echoed the ruffian--“not I. Dare iz te pottle--elp yourself, und pe
tam’d!”
With these words he let fall a heavy bottle of Kirschenwasser which,
dropping precisely upon the crown of my head, caused me to imagine that my
brains were entirely knocked out. Impressed with this idea, I was about to
relinquish my hold and give up the ghost with a good grace, when I was
arrested by the cry of the Angel, who bade me hold on.
“Old on!” he said; “don’t pe in te urry--don’t. Will you pe take de odder
pottle, or ave you pe got zober yet and come to your zenzes?”
I made haste, hereupon, to nod my head twice--once in the negative,
meaning thereby that I would prefer not taking the other bottle at present--and
once in the affirmative, intending thus to imply that I was sober and had
positively come to my senses. By these means I somewhat softened the Angel.

Thesaurus
affectation: (n) pretension, feint, pose, whereupon, thereupon. insolence, face, cheekiness,
display, airs, affectedness, humming: (adj) droning, zippy, effrontery, assurance. ANTONYMS:
ostentation, show, pretense, reeking, bustling, grunting, stinking; (n) cowardice, reticence.
mannerism, sham. ANTONYMS: (n) (n) buzzing, vocalizing, sound, meerschaum: (n) mineral, pipe, sea
artlessness, honesty, modesty. murmur, growling. foam, kiefekil.
affirmative: (adj) positive, affirmatory, imploring: (adj) appealing, begging, relinquish: (v) abandon, abdicate,
assertive, ratifying, concurring; (adv) suppliant, pleading, entreating, leave, cede, quit, renounce, give up,
yes; (n) affirmation, avowal, piteous, importunate, entreating discard, disclaim, yield, desert.
assenting; (adj, v) predicatory, urgently; (v) supplicate, plead; (n) ANTONYMS: (v) keep, accept,
declaratory. ANTONYMS: (adj) prayer. continue, enforce, acquire.
dissenting; (n) no. impudence: (adj, n) boldness, brass; (n) removing: (adj) departing.
hereupon: (adv) immediately, cheek, gall, audacity, impertinence, thereby: (adv) whereby, hereby.
112 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Und you pelief, ten,” he inquired, “at te last? You pelief, ten, in te possibilty
of te odd?”
I again nodded my head in assent.%
“Und you ave pelief in me, te Angel of te Odd?”
I nodded again.
“Und you acknowledge tat you pe te blind dronk and te vool?”
I nodded once more.
“Put your right hand into your left hand preeches pocket, ten, in token ov
your vull zubmizzion unto te Angel ov te Odd.”
This thing, for very obvious reasons, I found it quite impossible to do. In the
first place, my left arm had been broken in my fall from the ladder, and,
therefore, had I let go my hold with the right hand, I must have let go altogether.
In the second place, I could have no breeches until I came across the crow. I was
therefore obliged, much to my regret, to shake my head in the negative--
intending thus to give the Angel to understand that I found it inconvenient, just
at that moment, to comply with his very reasonable demand! No sooner,
however, had I ceased shaking my head than -
“Go to der teuffel, ten!” roared the Angel of the Odd.
In pronouncing these words, he drew a sharp knife across the guide-rope by
which I was suspended, and as we then happened to be precisely over my own
house, (which, during my peregrinations, had been handsomely rebuilt,) it so
occurred that I tumbled headlong down the ample chimney and alit upon the
dining-room hearth.
Upon coming to my senses, (for the fall had very thoroughly stunned me,) I
found it about four o’clock in the morning. I lay outstretched where I had fallen
from the balloon. My head grovelled in the ashes of an extinguished fire, while
my feet reposed upon the wreck of a small table, overthrown, and amid the
fragments of a miscellaneous dessert, intermingled with a newspaper, some
broken glass and shattered bottles, and an empty jug of the Schiedam
Kirschenwasser. Thus revenged himself the Angel of the Odd.
Thesaurus
breeches: (n) knickers, inexpressibles, extermination, extinction. timely, advantageous.
knickerbockers, brogues, short, handsomely: (adv) liberally, prettily, intermingled: (adj) amalgamated,
smalls, overalls, small clothes, pants, magnanimously, bonnily, largely, integrated, coalesced, blended,
trousers, pantaloons. lovely, charmingly, finely, incorporated, assorted, consolidated,
crow: (n, v) brag, cry, snigger; (v) generously, good-lookingly, smartly. incorporate, amalgamate, fused.
exult, triumph, cackle, chuckle, talk ANTONYM: (adv) poorly. overthrown: (adj) overcome,
big; (n) gasconade, crowing; (adj) inconvenient: (adj) inopportune, conquered, battered, overpowered,
raven. awkward, disadvantageous, dejected, cast down, dissolute,
extinguished: (adj) extinct, out, dead, bothersome, improper, unfavorable, doomed, flooded, discomfit, mat.
quenched, allayed, destroyed; (n) troublesome, hard, inapt, untoward, pronouncing: (v) pronounce; (n)
defunctness, complete annihilation, unfortunate. ANTONYMS: (adj) pronunciation, utterance.
experimental extinction, convenient, suitable, opportune, tumbled: (adj) disordered.
 Edgar Allan Poe 113

MELLONTA TAUTA

TO THE EDITORS OF THE LADY’S BOOK:

I have the honor of sending you, for your magazine, an article which
I hope you will be able to comprehend rather more distinctly than I do
myself. It is a translation, by my friend, Martin Van Buren Mavis,
(sometimes called the “Poughkeepsie Seer”) of an odd-looking MS.
which I found, about a year ago, tightly corked up in a jug floating in the
Mare Tenebrarum--a sea well described by the Nubian geographer, but
seldom visited now-a-days, except for the transcendentalists and divers
for crotchets.%
Truly yours,
EDGAR A. POE

ON BOARD BALLOON “SKYLARK”

APRIL, 1, 2848

Now, my dear friend--now, for your sins, you are to suffer the infliction of a
long gossiping letter. I tell you distinctly that I am going to punish you for all
your impertinences by being as tedious, as discursive, as incoherent and as

Thesaurus
comprehend: (v) grasp, catch, see, divers: (adj, v) sundry, various, clear, articulate, eloquent, intelligible,
comprise, appreciate, feel, sense, separate; (adj) several, many, diverse, lucid, sound, concise, consistent.
apperceive, read; (adj, v) understand; miscellaneous, not a few, varied; (v) infliction: (adj) affliction; (n)
(n, v) embrace. ANTONYMS: (v) diversified; (n) diver. punishment, annoyance, imposition,
mistake, misapprehend, exclude, geographer: (n) cartographer. discipline, worry, penalty, nuisance,
misunderstand, misconceive. gossiping: (adj) gabby, garrulous, bother, hardship, misery.
corked: (adj) bad. scandalous; (n) gossipmongering. punish: (v) amerce, discipline,
discursive: (adj, v) excursive, incoherent: (adj) disjointed, castigate, chasten, chastise, penalize,
discursory; (adj) diffuse, desultory, disconnected, delirious, rambling, strike, avenge, pay, beat, execute.
dianoetic, indirect, discoursive, confused, disordered, incompatible, ANTONYMS: (v) excuse, exonerate,
digressive; (v) ambulatory, monadic, wandering, muddled, inconsistent, pardon, reward, commend.
vagrant. contradictory. ANTONYMS: (adj) yours: (adj) own.
114 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

unsatisfactory as possible. Besides, here I am, cooped up in a dirty balloon, with

some one or two hundred of the canaille, all bound on a pleasure excursion,
(what a funny idea some people have of pleasure!) and I have no prospect of
touching terra firma for a month at least. Nobody to talk to. Nothing to do. When
one has nothing to do, then is the time to correspond with ones friends. You
perceive, then, why it is that I write you this letter--it is on account of my ennui
and your sins.%
Get ready your spectacles and make up your mind to be annoyed. I mean to
write at you every day during this odious voyage.
Heigho! when will any Invention visit the human pericranium? Are we
forever to be doomed to the thousand inconveniences of the balloon? Will
nobody contrive a more expeditious mode of progress? The jog-trot movement,
to my thinking, is little less than positive torture. Upon my word we have not
made more than a hundred miles the hour since leaving home! The very birds
beat us--at least some of them. I assure you that I do not exaggerate at all. Our
motion, no doubt, seems slower than it actually is--this on account of our having
no objects about us by which to estimate our velocity, and on account of our
going with the wind. To be sure, whenever we meet a balloon we have a chance
of perceiving our rate, and then, I admit, things do not appear so very bad.
Accustomed as I am to this mode of travelling, I cannot get over a kind of
giddiness whenever a balloon passes us in a current directly overhead. It always
seems to me like an immense bird of prey about to pounce upon us and carry us
off in its claws. One went over us this morning about sunrise, and so nearly
overhead that its drag-rope actually brushed the network suspending our car,
and caused us very serious apprehension. Our captain said that if the material of
the bag had been the trumpery varnished “silk” of five hundred or a thousand
years ago, we should inevitably have been damaged. This silk, as he explained it
to me, was a fabric composed of the entrails of a species of earth-worm. The
worm was carefully fed on mulberries--kind of fruit resembling a water-melon--
and, when sufficiently fat, was crushed in a mill. The paste thus arising was
called papyrus in its primary state, and went through a variety of processes until

Thesaurus
canaille: (n) rout, horde, canell , canal, prompt, quick, hasty, fast, rapid, paper reed, Cyperus papyrus, sedge,
rabble, chaff. speedy, efficient, ready. bulrush; (v) foolscap, pillar, tablet,
ennui: (n) fatigue, tedium, weariness, ANTONYMS: (adj) ineffectual, table, slate, vellum.
melancholy, monotony, tediousness, sluggish, slothful, inefficient, pericranium: (n) pate, skull, cranium,
dissatisfaction, listlessness, apathy; leisurely. noddle, upper story, sconce,
(v) bore, pall. ANTONYMS: (n) giddiness: (n) flightiness, frivolity, brainpan, scull, noggin, cerebrum.
variation, liveliness, enthusiasm, vertigo, silliness, frivolousness, suspending: (adj) suspended,
energy, interest. levity, lightness, capriciousness, suspensory, depending, hanging.
entrails: (n) bowels, gut, bowel, rashness, symptom, swimming. trumpery: (n) nonsense, trash,
viscera, innards, internal organs, ANTONYMS: (n) seriousness, frippery, gimcracks, gimcrackery,
insides, intestines, guts, tripe, inside. reliability. tripe, frills, folderol, falderal; (adj)
expeditious: (adj) agile, brisk, swift, papyrus: (n) paper rush, Egyptian trashy, worthless.
 Edgar Allan Poe 115

it finally became “silk.” Singular to relate, it was once much admired as an article
of female dress! Balloons were also very generally constructed from it. A better
kind of material, it appears, was subsequently found in the down surrounding
the seed-vessels of a plant vulgarly called euphorbium, and at that time
botanically termed milk-weed. This latter kind of silk was designated as silk-
buckingham, on account of its superior durability, and was usually prepared for
use by being varnished with a solution of gum caoutchouc--a substance which in
some respects must have resembled the gutta percha now in common use. This
caoutchouc was occasionally called Indian rubber or rubber of twist, and was no
doubt one of the numerous fungi. Never tell me again that I am not at heart an
antiquarian.%
Talking of drag-ropes--our own, it seems, has this moment knocked a man
overboard from one of the small magnetic propellers that swarm in ocean below
us--a boat of about six thousand tons, and, from all accounts, shamefully
crowded. These diminutive barques should be prohibited from carrying more
than a definite number of passengers. The man, of course, was not permitted to
get on board again, and was soon out of sight, he and his life-preserver. I rejoice,
my dear friend, that we live in an age so enlightened that no such a thing as an
individual is supposed to exist. It is the mass for which the true Humanity cares.
By-the-by, talking of Humanity, do you know that our immortal Wiggins is not
so original in his views of the Social Condition and so forth, as his
contemporaries are inclined to suppose? Pundit assures me that the same ideas
were put nearly in the same way, about a thousand years ago, by an Irish
philosopher called Furrier, on account of his keeping a retail shop for cat peltries
and other furs. Pundit knows, you know; there can be no mistake about it. How
very wonderfully do we see verified every day, the profound observation of the
Hindoo Aries Tottle (as quoted by Pundit)--”Thus must we say that, not once or
twice, or a few times, but with almost infinite repetitions, the same opinions
come round in a circle among men.”

Thesaurus
accounts: (n) financial statement. persistence, stability, hardiness, ANTONYMS: (v) lament, mourn,
caoutchouc: (n) rubber, gum elastic, permanence, toughness, endurance. complain.
whalebone, natural rubber, arctic, ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, repetitions: (n) iteration, reiteration,
latex, baleen, Indian rubber, ebonite, flimsiness. iterance.
vulcanite. overboard: (adj) exorbitant, rabid. swarm: (n) host, horde, multitude,
diminutive: (adj) minute, Lilliputian, pundit: (n) critic, connoisseur, drove, throng, cloud, assembly; (n, v)
small, petite, tiny, bantam, baby, authority, scholar, learned person, mob; (v) teem, pour; (adj) shoal.
exiguous, short, miniature, midget. jurist, initiate, legist, wrangler, ANTONYMS: (v) retreat; (n) few.
ANTONYMS: (adj) big, huge, Schoolman, professional. varnished: (adj) sullied, polished,
gigantic, large, giant, tall. rejoice: (v) cheer, gladden, triumph, spotted, shiny, lustrous, smooth,
durability: (n) continuity, durableness, revel, jubilate, gratify, gloat, please; painted, besmirched, glossy, tainted,
longevity, stamina, firmness, (n, v) delight, glory, joy. flyblown. ANTONYM: (adj) dull.
116 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

April %2.--Spoke to-day the magnetic cutter in charge of the middle section of
floating telegraph wires. I learn that when this species of telegraph was first put
into operation by Horse, it was considered quite impossible to convey the wires
over sea, but now we are at a loss to comprehend where the difficulty lay! So
wags the world. Tempora mutantur--excuse me for quoting the Etruscan. What
would we do without the Atalantic telegraph? (Pundit says Atlantic was the
ancient adjective.) We lay to a few minutes to ask the cutter some questions, and
learned, among other glorious news, that civil war is raging in Africa, while the
plague is doing its good work beautifully both in Yurope and Ayesher. Is it not
truly remarkable that, before the magnificent light shed upon philosophy by
Humanity, the world was accustomed to regard War and Pestilence as
calamities? Do you know that prayers were actually offered up in the ancient
temples to the end that these evils (!) might not be visited upon mankind? Is it
not really difficult to comprehend upon what principle of interest our forefathers
acted? Were they so blind as not to perceive that the destruction of a myriad of
individuals is only so much positive advantage to the mass!

April 3.--It is really a very fine amusement to ascend the rope-ladder leading
to the summit of the balloon-bag, and thence survey the surrounding world.
From the car below you know the prospect is not so comprehensive--you can see
little vertically. But seated here (where I write this) in the luxuriously-cushioned
open piazza of the summit, one can see everything that is going on in all
directions. Just now there is quite a crowd of balloons in sight, and they present a
very animated appearance, while the air is resonant with the hum of so many
millions of human voices. I have heard it asserted that when Yellow or (Pundit
will have it) Violet, who is supposed to have been the first aeronaut, maintained
the practicability of traversing the atmosphere in all directions, by merely
ascending or descending until a favorable current was attained, he was scarcely
hearkened to at all by his contemporaries, who looked upon him as merely an
ingenious sort of madman, because the philosophers (?) of the day declared the
thing impossible. Really now it does seem to me quite unaccountable how any
thing so obviously feasible could have escaped the sagacity of the ancient savans.
Thesaurus
aeronaut: (n) airman, balloonist, pilot, helpful; (adj, v) friendly; (adj, n) likelihood.
aerial navigator, aerostation, Icarus, kindly. ANTONYMS: (adj) adverse, quoting: (n) citation.
flyer, ballooner, aviatrix, flier, negative, ominous, disapproving, resonant: (adj) vibrant, sonorous,
aviatress. inauspicious, detrimental, deep, full, melodious, rich, distinct,
ascending: (adj) uphill, rising, unfriendly, disagreeable, hindering, reverberative, reverberant,
assurgent, climbing, ascendent; (n) harmful, untimely. resounding, reverberating.
ascension, ascent, rise, advance, forefathers: (n) patriarchs, forefather, ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, faint, reedy,
movement; (v) go up. ancestor, colony, lineage, family. shrill.
evils: (n) mala. practicability: (n) practicableness, traversing: (n) traverse,
favorable: (adj) lucky, fortunate, practicality, possibility, probability, perambulation, crossing; (adj)
propitious, prosperous, convenient, usefulness, utility, viability, moving.
advantageous, encouraging, happy, convenience, feasibleness, handiness, wags: (adv) as the world goes.
 Edgar Allan Poe 117

But in all ages the great obstacles to advancement in Art have been opposed by
the so-called men of science. To be sure, our men of science are not quite so
bigoted as those of old:--oh, I have something so queer to tell you on this topic.
Do you know that it is not more than a thousand years ago since the
metaphysicians consented to relieve the people of the singular fancy that there
existed but two possible roads for the attainment of Truth! Believe it if you can! It
appears that long, long ago, in the night of Time, there lived a Turkish
philosopher (or Hindoo possibly) called Aries Tottle. This person introduced, or
at all events propagated what was termed the deductive or a priori mode of
investigation. He started with what he maintained to be axioms or “self-evident
truths,” and thence proceeded “logically” to results. His greatest disciples were
one Neuclid, and one Cant. Well, Aries Tottle flourished supreme until advent of
one Hog, surnamed the “Ettrick Shepherd,” who preached an entirely different
system, which he called the a posteriori or inductive. His plan referred altogether
to Sensation. He proceeded by observing, analyzing, and classifying facts-
instantiae naturae, as they were affectedly called--into general laws. Aries
Tottle’s mode, in a word, was based on noumena; Hog’s on phenomena. Well, so
great was the admiration excited by this latter system that, at its first
introduction, Aries Tottle fell into disrepute; but finally he recovered ground and
was permitted to divide the realm of Truth with his more modern rival. The
savans now maintained the Aristotelian and Baconian roads were the sole
possible avenues to knowledge. “Baconian,” you must know, was an adjective
invented as equivalent to Hog-ian and more euphonious and dignified.%
Now, my dear friend, I do assure you, most positively, that I represent this
matter fairly, on the soundest authority and you can easily understand how a
notion so absurd on its very face must have operated to retard the progress of all
true knowledge--which makes its advances almost invariably by intuitive
bounds. The ancient idea confined investigations to crawling; and for hundreds
of years so great was the infatuation about Hog especially, that a virtual end was
put to all thinking, properly so called. No man dared utter a truth to which he
felt himself indebted to his Soul alone. It mattered not whether the truth was
even demonstrably a truth, for the bullet-headed savans of the time regarded

Thesaurus
affectedly: (adv) pretentiously, humanitarian, liberal, moderate, fair. euphonical orthography; (adj, n)
pompously, insincerely, stiltedly, classifying: (n) sorting, classing, euphonous; (n) euphemism.
unnaturally, theatrically, feignedly, categorization, assortment, infatuation: (adj) devotion,
snobbishly, contrivedly, pedantically, classification, identification. fascination, enchantment, gross
pedanticly. ANTONYMS: (adv) demonstrably: (adv) provably, clearly, credulity; (adj, n) passion, fervor,
modestly, naturally. blatantly, boldly, deliberately, fanaticism; (n) crush, idolatry, love,
analyzing: (n) study. incontrovertibly, measurably, hobby. ANTONYM: (n) indifference.
bigoted: (adj) fanatic, opinionated, noticeably, obviously, visibly. retard: (adj, v) hinder, check, obstruct,
narrow, fanatical, hidebound, bigot, ANTONYM: (adv) secretly. deaden; (v) slow, detain, impede,
insular, zealot, arbitrary, dogmatic, euphonious: (adj) sweet, euphonic, arrest, decelerate; (n, v) lag, defer.
biased. ANTONYMS: (adj) harmonious, melodious, musical, ANTONYMS: (v) expedite, hasten,
broadminded, tolerant, unprejudiced, sonorous, tuneful, euphemistic, prompt.
118 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

only the road by which he had attained it. They would not even look at the end.
“Let us see the means,” they cried, “the means!” If, upon investigation of the
means, it was found to come under neither the category Aries (that is to say
Ram) nor under the category Hog, why then the savans went no farther, but
pronounced the “theorist” a fool, and would have nothing to do with him or his
truth.%
Now, it cannot be maintained, even, that by the crawling system the greatest
amount of truth would be attained in any long series of ages, for the repression
of imagination was an evil not to be compensated for by any superior certainty in
the ancient modes of investigation. The error of these Jurmains, these Vrinch,
these Inglitch, and these Amriccans (the latter, by the way, were our own
immediate progenitors), was an error quite analogous with that of the wiseacre
who fancies that he must necessarily see an object the better the more closely he
holds it to his eyes. These people blinded themselves by details. When they
proceeded Hoggishly, their “facts” were by no means always facts--a matter of
little consequence had it not been for assuming that they were facts and must be
facts because they appeared to be such. When they proceeded on the path of the
Ram, their course was scarcely as straight as a ram’s horn, for they never had an
axiom which was an axiom at all. They must have been very blind not to see this,
even in their own day; for even in their own day many of the long “established”
axioms had been rejected. For example--”Ex nihilo nihil fit”; “a body cannot act
where it is not”; “there cannot exist antipodes”; “darkness cannot come out of
light”--all these, and a dozen other similar propositions, formerly admitted
without hesitation as axioms, were, even at the period of which I speak, seen to
be untenable. How absurd in these people, then, to persist in putting faith in
“axioms” as immutable bases of Truth! But even out of the mouths of their
soundest reasoners it is easy to demonstrate the futility, the impalpability of
their axioms in general. Who was the soundest of their logicians? Let me see! I
will go and ask Pundit and be back in a minute.... Ah, here we have it! Here is a
book written nearly a thousand years ago and lately translated from the Inglitch-
-which, by the way, appears to have been the rudiment of the Amriccan. Pundit
says it is decidedly the cleverest ancient work on its topic, Logic. The author

Thesaurus
axiom: (n) maxim, adage, apothegm, insignificance. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYM: (n) tangibility.
principle, proposition, truism, saying, importance, worth, worthiness, nihil: (n) naught, aught, cypher,
saw, proverb, truth, motto. fruitfulness, effectiveness, cipher, goose egg, nada, zip, zilch,
ANTONYMS: (n) foolishness, competence, usefulness. nix; (adj, n) nil.
paradox, absurdity. immutable: (adj) unchangeable, rudiment: (n) basis, fundamental,
blinded: (adj) blindfolded, blinder, permanent, changeless, eternal, germ, element, egg, principle,
blindly, reckless, unsighted, inflexible, unchanging, irrevocable, essential, embryo, bedrock,
blindfold, dizzy. stable, unalterable, invariable, fixed. fundamentals, vestige.
futility: (n) emptiness, inanity, ANTONYMS: (adj) changeable, wiseacre: (n) witling, fool, tomfool,
worthlessness, vanity, uselessness, variable, flexible. idiot, weisenheimer, smart aleck,
fruitlessness, frivolity, unusefulness, impalpability: (n) intangibility, upstart, whippersnapper,
purposelessness, hollowness, incorporeality, intangibleness. wisenheimer, wiseling, simpleton.
 Edgar Allan Poe 119

(who was much thought of in his day) was one Miller, or Mill; and we find it
recorded of him, as a point of some importance, that he had a mill-horse called
Bentham. But let us glance at the treatise!
Ah!--”Ability or inability to conceive,” says Mr. Mill, very properly, “is in no
case to be received as a criterion of axiomatic truth.” What modern in his senses
would ever think of disputing this truism? The only wonder with us must be,
how it happened that Mr. Mill conceived it necessary even to hint at any thing so
obvious. So far good--but let us turn over another paper. What have we here?--
”Contradictories cannot both be true--that is, cannot co-exist in nature.” Here Mr.
Mill means, for example, that a tree must be either a tree or not a tree--that it
cannot be at the same time a tree and not a tree. Very well; but I ask him why.
His reply is this--and never pretends to be any thing else than this--”Because it is
impossible to conceive that contradictories can both be true.” But this is no
answer at all, by his own showing, for has he not just admitted as a truism that
“ability or inability to conceive is in no case to be received as a criterion of
axiomatic truth.”
Now I do not complain of these ancients so much because their logic is, by
their own showing, utterly baseless, worthless and fantastic altogether, as
because of their pompous and imbecile proscription of all other roads of Truth,
of all other means for its attainment than the two preposterous paths--the one of
creeping and the one of crawling--to which they have dared to confine the Soul
that loves nothing so well as to soar.%
By the by, my dear friend, do you not think it would have puzzled these
ancient dogmaticians to have determined by which of their two roads it was that
the most important and most sublime of all their truths was, in effect, attained? I
mean the truth of Gravitation. Newton owed it to Kepler. Kepler admitted that
his three laws were guessed at--these three laws of all laws which led the great
Inglitch mathematician to his principle, the basis of all physical principle--to go
behind which we must enter the Kingdom of Metaphysics. Kepler guessed--that
is to say imagined. He was essentially a “theorist”--that word now of so much
sanctity, formerly an epithet of contempt. Would it not have puzzled these old

Thesaurus
attained: (adj) attains, attaint, reached, wanton, invalid, flimsy, undue. (adj) genius.
complete, earned, fulfilled. ANTONYMS: (adj) founded, sound, kepler: (n) Johannes Kepler.
axiomatic: (adj) obvious, axiomatical, substantial, justified, valid, proven. proscription: (n) prohibition, ban,
aphoristic, self-evident, gnomic, disputing: (adj) opposed; (v) embargo, expulsion, anathema,
postulational, understood, taken for disputant. expatriation; (adj, n) exclusion, exile,
granted, proverbial, apothegmatic, epithet: (n) name, cognomen, banishment, ostracism; (adj)
fundamental. ANTONYMS: (adj) appellation, denomination, excommunication. ANTONYM: (n)
questionable, misunderstood, nickname, moniker, sobriquet, title, permission.
dubious. picture, byname, byword. truism: (n) platitude, commonplace,
baseless: (adj) groundless, imbecile: (adj) foolish, idiotic, fatuous, banality, aphorism, theorem,
unwarranted, ungrounded, dumb, imbecilic, simple; (n) idiot, proverb, adage, maxim, clich,
gratuitous, idle, unsupported, unfair, moron, cretin, ass, oaf. ANTONYM: scholium, saying.
120 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

moles too, to have explained by which of the two “roads” a cryptographist

unriddles a cryptograph of more than usual secrecy, or by which of the two
roads Champollion directed mankind to those enduring and almost innumerable
truths which resulted from his deciphering the Hieroglyphics.%
One word more on this topic and I will be done boring you. Is it not passing
strange that, with their eternal prattling about roads to Truth, these bigoted
people missed what we now so clearly perceive to be the great highway--that of
Consistency? Does it not seem singular how they should have failed to deduce
from the works of God the vital fact that a perfect consistency must be an
absolute truth! How plain has been our progress since the late announcement of
this proposition! Investigation has been taken out of the hands of the ground-
moles and given, as a task, to the true and only true thinkers, the men of ardent
imagination. These latter theorize. Can you not fancy the shout of scorn with
which my words would be received by our progenitors were it possible for them
to be now looking over my shoulder? These men, I say, theorize; and their
theories are simply corrected, reduced, systematized--cleared, little by little, of
their dross of inconsistency--until, finally, a perfect consistency stands apparent
which even the most stolid admit, because it is a consistency, to be an absolute
and an unquestionable truth.

April 4.--The new gas is doing wonders, in conjunction with the new
improvement with gutta percha. How very safe, commodious, manageable, and
in every respect convenient are our modern balloons! Here is an immense one
approaching us at the rate of at least a hundred and fifty miles an hour. It seems
to be crowded with people--perhaps there are three or four hundred passengers--
and yet it soars to an elevation of nearly a mile, looking down upon poor us with
sovereign contempt. Still a hundred or even two hundred miles an hour is slow
travelling after all. Do you remember our flight on the railroad across the
Kanadaw continent?--fully three hundred miles the hour--that was travelling.
Nothing to be seen though--nothing to be done but flirt, feast and dance in the
magnificent saloons. Do you remember what an odd sensation was experienced

Thesaurus
commodious: (adj) capacious, wide, guess, deduct, conclude, construe, tram road, tramway, rails, doctrine;
roomy, spacious, comfortable, understand, reason, take, surmise. (v) dragoon, push, coerce, bully,
voluminous, extensive, useful, large; ANTONYMS: (v) misinterpret, dispatch.
(adj, v) convenient, easy. misunderstand, speculate, confuse. stolid: (adj) impassive, obtuse, stupid,
ANTONYMS: (adj) small, dross: (n) trash, rubbish, scoria, refuse, heavy, doltish, bovine, insulse,
uncomfortable, tight, incommodious, slag, waste, impurity, dregs, garbage, expressionless, shallow, petty,
confined, squeezed. offal, cinder. apathetic. ANTONYMS: (adj)
cryptograph: (n) code, cryptogram, flirt: (n, v) coquette; (v) dally, coquet, emotional, imaginative, exciting.
cipher, cypher, writing, device, toy, romance, trifle, spoon; (n) theorize: (v) suppose, speculate,
cryptographer, cryptography, secret dalliance, vamp, tease, flirting. theorise, guess, hypothesize,
code, coding, secret writing. prattling: (n) gab; (adj) voluble, gabby. meditate, hypothecate, formulate,
deduce: (v) infer, assume, derive, railroad: (n) railway, railway system, develop, retrace, construct.
 Edgar Allan Poe 121

when, by chance, we caught a glimpse of external objects while the cars were in
full flight? Every thing seemed unique--in one mass. For my part, I cannot say
but that I preferred the travelling by the slow train of a hundred miles the hour.
Here we were permitted to have glass windows--even to have them open--and
something like a distinct view of the country was attainable.... Pundit says that
the route for the great Kanadaw railroad must have been in some measure
marked out about nine hundred years ago! In fact, he goes so far as to assert that
actual traces of a road are still discernible--traces referable to a period quite as
remote as that mentioned. The track, it appears was double only; ours, you
know, has twelve paths; and three or four new ones are in preparation. The
ancient rails were very slight, and placed so close together as to be, according to
modern notions, quite frivolous, if not dangerous in the extreme. The present
width of track--fifty feet--is considered, indeed, scarcely secure enough. For my
part, I make no doubt that a track of some sort must have existed in very remote
times, as Pundit asserts; for nothing can be clearer, to my mind, than that, at
some period--not less than seven centuries ago, certainly--the Northern and
Southern Kanadaw continents were united; the Kanawdians, then, would have
been driven, by necessity, to a great railroad across the continent.%
April 5.--I am almost devoured by ennui. Pundit is the only conversible
person on board; and he, poor soul! can speak of nothing but antiquities. He has
been occupied all the day in the attempt to convince me that the ancient
Amriccans governed themselves!--did ever anybody hear of such an absurdity?--
that they existed in a sort of every-man-for-himself confederacy, after the fashion
of the “prairie dogs” that we read of in fable. He says that they started with the
queerest idea conceivable, viz: that all men are born free and equal--this in the
very teeth of the laws of gradation so visibly impressed upon all things both in
the moral and physical universe. Every man “voted,” as they called it--that is to
say meddled with public affairs--until at length, it was discovered that what is
everybody’s business is nobody’s, and that the “Republic” (so the absurd thing
was called) was without a government at all. It is related, however, that the first
circumstance which disturbed, very particularly, the self-complacency of the
philosophers who constructed this “Republic,” was the startling discovery that

Thesaurus
antiquities: (n) antique. combination, league, merger, faction. important, solemn, worthwhile, vital,
conceivable: (adj) imaginable, ANTONYM: (n) divergence. weighty, staid, significant, sensible,
thinkable, believable, conversible: (adj) companionable, responsible, crucial, heavy.
comprehensible, likely, earthly, communicative, accessible, social. gradation: (n) degree, scale, ablaut,
potential, credible, plausible, fable: (n) legend, fiction, tale, story, progression, graduation, tier, step,
cogitable, reasonable. ANTONYMS: fabrication, fairy tale, lie, myth, level, shade, form, extent.
(adj) unthinkable, difficult, anecdote; (adj, n) apologue, parable. startling: (adj) wonderful, shocking,
implausible, impossible, ANTONYMS: (n) fact, history. surprising, striking, alarming,
unimaginable. frivolous: (adj) empty, foolish, dizzy, appalling, marvellous, dramatic,
confederacy: (n) coalition, petty, idle, light, flighty, frightful, sensational, lurid.
confederation, federation, unimportant, flippant, trivial, ANTONYMS: (adj) unremarkable,
association, union, conspiracy, cabal, superficial. ANTONYMS: (adj) soothing, comforting.
122 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

universal suffrage gave opportunity for fraudulent schemes, by means of which

any desired number of votes might at any time be polled, without the possibility
of prevention or even detection, by any party which should be merely villainous
enough not to be ashamed of the fraud. A little reflection upon this discovery
sufficed to render evident the consequences, which were that rascality must
predominate--in a word, that a republican government could never be any thing
but a rascally one. While the philosophers, however, were busied in blushing at
their stupidity in not having foreseen these inevitable evils, and intent upon the
invention of new theories, the matter was put to an abrupt issue by a fellow of
the name of Mob, who took every thing into his own hands and set up a
despotism, in comparison with which those of the fabulous Zeros and
Hellofagabaluses were respectable and delectable. This Mob (a foreigner, by-the-
by), is said to have been the most odious of all men that ever encumbered the
earth. He was a giant in stature--insolent, rapacious, filthy, had the gall of a
bullock with the heart of a hyena and the brains of a peacock. He died, at length,
by dint of his own energies, which exhausted him. Nevertheless, he had his uses,
as every thing has, however vile, and taught mankind a lesson which to this day
it is in no danger of forgetting--never to run directly contrary to the natural
analogies. As for Republicanism, no analogy could be found for it upon the face
of the earth--unless we except the case of the “prairie dogs,” an exception which
seems to demonstrate, if anything, that democracy is a very admirable form of
government--for dogs.%

April 6.--Last night had a fine view of Alpha Lyrae, whose disk, through our
captain’s spy-glass, subtends an angle of half a degree, looking very much as our
sun does to the naked eye on a misty day. Alpha Lyrae, although so very much
larger than our sun, by the by, resembles him closely as regards its spots, its
atmosphere, and in many other particulars. It is only within the last century,
Pundit tells me, that the binary relation existing between these two orbs began
even to be suspected. The evident motion of our system in the heavens was
(strange to say!) referred to an orbit about a prodigious star in the centre of the

Thesaurus
bullock: (n) ox, steer, kine, cows, oxen, deep, clayey, cloggy. ANTONYM: predatory, edacious, acquisitive,
cattle. (adj) unencumbered. ravenous, gluttonous, ferocious,
despotism: (n) tyranny, dictatorship, hyena: (n) wild beast, aardwolf, hyen, raptorial; (adj, v) covetous, avaricious.
autocracy, monocracy, oppression, hangman, canine, canid, butcher, rascality: (n) dishonesty, deviltry,
authoritarianism, autarchy, cruelty, brown hyena, tiger. devilry, devilment, naughtiness,
Stalinism, domination; (adj) violence. odious: (adj, v) hateful, obnoxious; mischief, misdeed, roguishness,
dint: (v) indent; (n) indentation, blow, (adj) detestable, hideous, nasty, mischievousness, prankishness; (adj,
strength, percussion, agency, hollow, execrable, disgusting, abhorrent, n) roguery.
depression, might, impression; (adj) abominable, heinous, forbidding. villainous: (adj, v) base, infamous, vile,
delve. ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, black, shameful; (adj) heinous,
encumbered: (adj) burdened, delightful, agreeable, lovable, nice. atrocious, depraved, wicked, evil,
burdensome, weighed down, heavy, rapacious: (adj) avid, voracious, vicious.
 Edgar Allan Poe 123

galaxy. %About this star, or at all events about a centre of gravity common to all
the globes of the Milky Way and supposed to be near Alcyone in the Pleiades,
every one of these globes was declared to be revolving, our own performing the
circuit in a period of 117,000,000 of years! We, with our present lights, our vast
telescopic improvements, and so forth, of course find it difficult to comprehend
the ground of an idea such as this. Its first propagator was one Mudler. He was
led, we must presume, to this wild hypothesis by mere analogy in the first
instance; but, this being the case, he should have at least adhered to analogy in its
development. A great central orb was, in fact, suggested; so far Mudler was
consistent. This central orb, however, dynamically, should have been greater
than all its surrounding orbs taken together. The question might then have been
asked--”Why do we not see it?”--we, especially, who occupy the mid region of
the cluster--the very locality near which, at least, must be situated this
inconceivable central sun. The astronomer, perhaps, at this point, took refuge in
the suggestion of non-luminosity; and here analogy was suddenly let fall. But
even admitting the central orb non-luminous, how did he manage to explain its
failure to be rendered visible by the incalculable host of glorious suns glaring in
all directions about it? No doubt what he finally maintained was merely a centre
of gravity common to all the revolving orbs--but here again analogy must have
been let fall. Our system revolves, it is true, about a common centre of gravity,
but it does this in connection with and in consequence of a material sun whose
mass more than counterbalances the rest of the system. The mathematical circle
is a curve composed of an infinity of straight lines; but this idea of the circle--this
idea of it which, in regard to all earthly geometry, we consider as merely the
mathematical, in contradistinction from the practical, idea--is, in sober fact, the
practical conception which alone we have any right to entertain in respect to
those Titanic circles with which we have to deal, at least in fancy, when we
suppose our system, with its fellows, revolving about a point in the centre of the
galaxy. Let the most vigorous of human imaginations but attempt to take a single
step toward the comprehension of a circuit so unutterable! I would scarcely be
paradoxical to say that a flash of lightning itself, travelling forever upon the
circumference of this inconceivable circle, would still forever be travelling in a

Thesaurus
astronomer: (n) stargazer, physicist, dynamically: (adv) forcefully, calculable, negligible, limited,
Galilean, Ptolemaic, Celsius, aggressively, vivaciously, strongly, worthless, tiny, slight, finite, few,
cosmologist, uranologist, muller, hall, drivingly, vitally, powerfully, definite, small, minor.
Herschel, astrophysicist. strenuously, actively, keenly, propagator: (n) communicator,
circumference: (n) circuit, border, spiritedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) phytologist, botanist, plant scientist.
perimeter, boundary, periphery, lifelessly, wearily, lethargically, revolving: (adj) turning, rotating,
outline, brim, compass, circle, edge, languorously, passively. vertiginous, rotary, gyratory,
rim. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, inside, incalculable: (adj) countless, wheeling, rotative, rotatory,
interior, center. innumerable, numberless, boundless, rotational; (n) revolution; (v) revolve.
contradistinction: (n) distinction, inestimable, immense, infinite, telescopic: (adj) wide of, visible,
opposition, differentiation, antithesis, myriad, numerous, invaluable, farsighted, distant, distal, collapsible,
variation, antagonism. unpredictable. ANTONYMS: (adj) sliding.
124 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

straight line. That the path of our sun along such a circumference--that the
direction of our system in such an orbit--would, to any human perception,
deviate in the slightest degree from a straight line even in a million of years, is a
proposition not to be entertained; and yet these ancient astronomers were
absolutely cajoled, it appears, into believing that a decisive curvature had
become apparent during the brief period of their astronomical history--during
the mere point--during the utter nothingness of two or three thousand years!
How incomprehensible, that considerations such as this did not at once indicate
to them the true state of affairs--that of the binary revolution of our sun and
Alpha Lyrae around a common centre of gravity!

April 7.--Continued last night our astronomical amusements. Had a fine view
of the five Neptunian asteroids, and watched with much interest the putting up
of a huge impost on a couple of lintels in the new temple at Daphnis in the
moon. It was amusing to think that creatures so diminutive as the lunarians, and
bearing so little resemblance to humanity, yet evinced a mechanical ingenuity so
much superior to our own. One finds it difficult, too, to conceive the vast masses
which these people handle so easily, to be as light as our own reason tells us they
actually are.%

April 8.--Eureka! Pundit is in his glory. A balloon from Kanadaw spoke us to-
day and threw on board several late papers; they contain some exceedingly
curious information relative to Kanawdian or rather Amriccan antiquities. You
know, I presume, that laborers have for some months been employed in
preparing the ground for a new fountain at Paradise, the Emperor’s principal
pleasure garden. Paradise, it appears, has been, literally speaking, an island time
out of mind--that is to say, its northern boundary was always (as far back as any
record extends) a rivulet, or rather a very narrow arm of the sea. This arm was
gradually widened until it attained its present breadth--a mile. The whole length
of the island is nine miles; the breadth varies materially. The entire area (so
Pundit says) was, about eight hundred years ago, densely packed with houses,

Thesaurus
asteroids: (n) stars, heavenly bodies. Scot, sess, stone. significantly, really, essentially,
astronomical: (adj) vast, celestial, incomprehensible: (adj) corporally, vitally, solidly,
astrophysical, great, uranic, inapprehensible, inscrutable, momentously, fundamentally.
enormous, large, galactic, universal, inarticulate, abstruse, cryptic, nothingness: (n) nothing, void,
elevated, excessive. unfathomable, puzzling, obscure, nullity, nihility, emptiness,
densely: (adv) solidly, heavily, slowly, inexplicable, inconceivable, insignificance, nonentity, blankness,
obtusely, compactly, firmly, dully, unaccountable. ANTONYMS: (adj) vacuum, cipher; (adj) nonbeing.
dumbly, closely, tightly, stupidly. comprehensible, explicable, ANTONYMS: (n) being, importance,
ANTONYMS: (adv) loosely, sparsely, understandable, intelligible, legible, significance.
brightly. obvious, straightforward. rivulet: (n) stream, creek, streamlet,
impost: (n) custom, tax, customs, materially: (adv) physically, brook, arroyo, brooklet, rillet, runnel,
customs duty, toll, dues, cess, excise, substantially, corporeally, watercourse, gill, river.
 Edgar Allan Poe 125

some of them twenty stories high; land (for some most unaccountable reason)
being considered as especially precious just in this vicinity. The disastrous
earthquake, however, of the year 2050, so totally uprooted and overwhelmed the
town (for it was almost too large to be called a village) that the most
indefatigable of our antiquarians have never yet been able to obtain from the site
any sufficient data (in the shape of coins, medals or inscriptions) wherewith to
build up even the ghost of a theory concerning the manners, customs, &c., &c.,
&c., of the aboriginal inhabitants. Nearly all that we have hitherto known of
them is, that they were a portion of the Knickerbocker tribe of savages infesting
the continent at its first discovery by Recorder Riker, a knight of the Golden
Fleece. They were by no means uncivilized, however, but cultivated various arts
and even sciences after a fashion of their own. It is related of them that they were
acute in many respects, but were oddly afflicted with monomania for building
what, in the ancient Amriccan, was denominated “churches”--a kind of pagoda
instituted for the worship of two idols that went by the names of Wealth and
Fashion. In the end, it is said, the island became, nine tenths of it, church. The
women, too, it appears, were oddly deformed by a natural protuberance of the
region just below the small of the back--although, most unaccountably, this
deformity was looked upon altogether in the light of a beauty. One or two
pictures of these singular women have in fact, been miraculously preserved.
They look very odd, very--like something between a turkey-cock and a
dromedary.%
Well, these few details are nearly all that have descended to us respecting the
ancient Knickerbockers. It seems, however, that while digging in the centre of the
emperors garden, (which, you know, covers the whole island), some of the
workmen unearthed a cubical and evidently chiseled block of granite, weighing
several hundred pounds. It was in good preservation, having received,
apparently, little injury from the convulsion which entombed it. On one of its
surfaces was a marble slab with (only think of it!) an inscription--a legible
inscription. Pundit is in ecstacies. Upon detaching the slab, a cavity appeared,
containing a leaden box filled with various coins, a long scroll of names, several
documents which appear to resemble newspapers, with other matters of intense

Thesaurus
chiseled: (adj) distinct, rigid. n) irregularity. pagoda: (n) tower, pagod, pagody,
convulsion: (adj, n, v) spasm; (n) fit, detaching: (adj) peeling, disengaging, temple.
paroxysm, commotion, attack, shedding; (n) division. protuberance: (n) prominence, bulge,
clonus, shake, seizure, upheaval, legible: (adj) readable, distinct, fair, swelling, bump, hump, lump, nub,
cramp; (adj, n) disturbance. plain, clean, definite, explicit, node, knob, protrusion, jut.
ANTONYM: (n) peace. understandable, direct, cloudless, uncivilized: (adj) savage, barbarian,
cubical: (adj) cubelike, cuboid, light. ANTONYM: (adj) unreadable. barbarous, wild, barbaric, brutal,
cubiform, cuboidal. monomania: (adj, n) madness, coarse, rude, rustic, ferocious,
deformity: (n) malformation, fanaticism, frenzy, derangement, impolite. ANTONYMS: (adj)
disfigurement, defect, blemish, aberration, alienation, insanity, sophisticated, civilized, polite,
disfiguration, defacement, disability, lunacy; (adj) infatuation; (n) passion, cultured, pleasant.
abnormality, distortion, clubfoot; (adj, craze. wherewith: (adv) therewith, herewith.
126 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

interest to the antiquarian! There can be no doubt that all these are genuine
Amriccan relics belonging to the tribe called Knickerbocker. The papers thrown
on board our balloon are filled with fac-similes of the coins, MSS., typography,
&c., &c. I copy for your amusement the Knickerbocker inscription on the marble
slab:-

This Corner Stone of a Monument to

The Memory of
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
was laid with appropriate ceremonies on the
19TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 1847
The anniversary of the surrender of
Lord Cornwallis
to General Washington at Yorktown
A. D. 1781
under the Auspices of the
Washington Monument Association of
the city of New York.%

This, as I give it, is a verbatim translation done by Pundit himself, so there

can be no mistake about it. From the few words thus preserved, we glean several
important items of knowledge, not the least interesting of which is the fact that a
thousand years ago actual monuments had fallen into disuse--as was all very
proper--the people contenting themselves, as we do now, with a mere indication
of the design to erect a monument at some future time; a corner-stone being
cautiously laid by itself “solitary and alone” (excuse me for quoting the great
American poet Benton!), as a guarantee of the magnanimous intention. We
ascertain, too, very distinctly, from this admirable inscription, the how as well as
the where and the what, of the great surrender in question. As to the where, it
was Yorktown (wherever that was), and as to the what, it was General
Cornwallis (no doubt some wealthy dealer in corn). He was surrendered. The

Thesaurus
admirable: (adj) fine, outstanding, learn, discover, check, tell, control, handsome, lofty, large, charitable,
beautiful, great, commendable, find, ensure, detect; (adj, v) establish. considerate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
lovely, good, creditable, ANTONYM: (v) disprove. miserly, unforgiving, petty.
praiseworthy, worthy, grand. glean: (v) cull, garner, reap, harvest, relics: (n) relic, rood, rosary, thurible,
ANTONYMS: (adj) appalling, poor, gather, extract, accumulate, winnow, reliquary, remainder, remain,
unworthy, despicable, contemptible, assemble, pick up, to gather. leavings, remains, remnants, patera.
detestable, dishonorable, rotten, inscription: (n) epigraph, entry, surrendered: (adj) given.
unimpressive, loathsome, low. dedication, autograph, epitaph, typography: (n) composition, musical
antiquarian: (adj) antique, ancient. registration, lettering, writing, creation, musical composition,
ANTONYMS: (adj) young, modern, record, superscription, title. makeup, lettering, craft, print,
new. magnanimous: (adj) generous, great, constitution, font, opus, paper.
ascertain: (v) determine, find out, noble, bountiful, exalted, big,
 Edgar Allan Poe 127

inscription commemorates the surrender of--what? why, “of Lord Cornwallis.”

The only question is what could the savages wish him surrendered for. But when
we remember that these savages were undoubtedly cannibals, we are led to the
conclusion that they intended him for sausage. As to the how of the surrender,
no language can be more explicit. Lord Cornwallis was surrendered (for sausage)
“under the auspices of the Washington Monument Association”--no doubt a
charitable institution for the depositing of corner-stones.--But, Heaven bless me!
what is the matter? Ah, I see--the balloon has collapsed, and we shall have a
tumble into the sea. I have, therefore, only time enough to add that, from a hasty
inspection of the fac-similes of newspapers, &c., &c., I find that the great men in
those days among the Amriccans, were one John, a smith, and one Zacchary, a
tailor.%
Good-bye, until I see you again. Whether you ever get this letter or not is
point of little importance, as I write altogether for my own amusement. I shall
cork the MS. up in a bottle, however, and throw it into the sea.
Yours everlastingly,
PUNDITA

Thesaurus
auspices: (n) auspice, aegis, patronage, blessing. ANTONYMS: (v) curse, sudden, rash, impetuous, careless,
forecast, backing, security, condemn, disapprove, damn, speedy, hurried, quick. ANTONYMS:
sponsorship, guidance, means, disallow, deny. (adj) deliberate, considered, leisurely,
custody, agency. cork: (n, v) plug; (n) bung, stopper, sensible, gradual, thorough, cautious,
balloon: (v) inflate, ball, soar, distend, phellem, bobber, bob, bobfloat; (v) careful, roundabout, prudent,
bulge, swell, bloat, billow, fly, cap, stop, close; (adj) cobweb. patient.
increase; (adj, n) bubble. everlastingly: (adv) perpetually, newspapers: (n) press, papers, the
ANTONYMS: (v) contract, flatten, always, lastingly, continually, media, journalists, reporters.
shrink, decrease. endlessly, unendingly, incessantly, sausage: (n) frank, blimp, pepperoni,
bless: (v) consecrate, celebrate, permanently, constantly, undyingly; pudding, salami, hot dog, wiener,
sanctify, anoint, eulogize, sign, (adj, adv) forever. intestine, hotdog, headcheese,
praise, keep, grant, glorify; (n) hasty: (adj) fast, abrupt, cursory, fleet, dirigible.
 Edgar Allan Poe 129

THE DUC DE L’OMELETTE

And stepped at once into a cooler clime.%

--Cowper

Keats fell by a criticism. Who was it died of “The Andromache”? Ignoble

souls!--De L’Omelette perished of an ortolan. L’histoire en est breve. Assist me,
Spirit of Apicius!
A golden cage bore the little winged wanderer, enamored, melting, indolent,
to the Chaussee D’Antin, from its home in far Peru. From its queenly possessor
La Bellissima, to the Duc De L’Omelette, six peers of the empire conveyed the
happy bird.
That night the Duc was to sup alone. In the privacy of his bureau he reclined
languidly on that ottoman for which he sacrificed his loyalty in outbidding his
king--the notorious ottoman of Cadet.
He buries his face in the pillow. The clock strikes! Unable to restrain his
feelings, his Grace swallows an olive. At this moment the door gently opens to
the sound of soft music, and lo! the most delicate of birds is before the most
enamored of men! But what inexpressible dismay now overshadows the
countenance of the Duc?--”Horreur!--chien!--Baptiste!--l’oiseau! ah, bon Dieu! cet
oiseau modeste que tu as deshabille de ses plumes, et que tu as servi sans

Thesaurus
breve: (n) diacritic, minim, quaver, despicable, caddish. ANTONYMS: undefinable. ANTONYM: (adj)
semibreve. (adj) honorable, glorious. definite.
deshabille: (n) dishabille, status, indolent: (adj) idle, lazy, slothful, ortolan: (n) Emberiza hortulana,
condition. sluggish, careless, slow, dull, torpid, bunting.
enamored: (adj) loving, smitten, crazy, inert, drowsy, listless. ANTONYMS: queenly: (adj) queenlike, royal, noble,
taken with, dotty, amorous, besotted, (adj) active, industrious, vigorous, dignified, regal, majestic, imperial,
captivated, hooked, mad, diligent. sovereign.
enamoured. ANTONYMS: (adj) inexpressible: (adj, v) indescribable; wanderer: (n) vagabond, roamer,
sickened, repelled. (adj) ineffable, unspeakable, tramp, nomad, drifter, traveler,
ignoble: (adj) contemptible, abject, unutterable, indefinable, wayfarer, stranger, hobo, traveller;
base, dishonorable, disgraceful, incommunicable, nameless, untold, (n, v) rambler.
beggarly, mean, humble, degraded, beyond description, unexpressible,
130 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

papier!” It is superfluous to say more:--the Duc expired in a paroxysm of

disgust.%
“Ha! ha! ha!” said his Grace on the third day after his decease.
“He! he! he!” replied the Devil faintly, drawing himself up with an air of
hauteur.
“Why, surely you are not serious,” retorted De L’Omelette. “I have sinned--
c’est vrai--but, my good sir, consider!--you have no actual intention of putting
such--such barbarous threats into execution.”
“No what?” said his majesty--”come, sir, strip!”
“Strip, indeed! very pretty i’ faith! no, sir, I shall not strip. Who are you, pray,
that I, Duc De L’Omelette, Prince de Foie-Gras, just come of age, author of the
‘Mazurkiad,’ and Member of the Academy, should divest myself at your bidding
of the sweetest pantaloons ever made by Bourdon, the daintiest robe-de-chambre
ever put together by Rombert--to say nothing of the taking my hair out of paper--
not to mention the trouble I should have in drawing off my gloves?”
“Who am I?--ah, true! I am Baal-Zebub, Prince of the Fly. I took thee, just
now, from a rose-wood coffin inlaid with ivory. Thou wast curiously scented,
and labelled as per invoice. Belial sent thee,--my Inspector of Cemeteries. The
pantaloons, which thou sayest were made by Bourdon, are an excellent pair of
linen drawers, and thy robe-de-chambre is a shroud of no scanty dimensions.”
“Sir!” replied the Duc, “I am not to be insulted with impunity!- Sir! I shall
take the earliest opportunity of avenging this insult!- Sir! you shall hear from me!
in the meantime au revoir!”--and the Duc was bowing himself out of the Satanic
presence, when he was interrupted and brought back by a gentleman in waiting.
Hereupon his Grace rubbed his eyes, yawned, shrugged his shoulders, reflected.
Having become satisfied of his identity, he took a bird’s eye view of his
whereabouts.
The apartment was superb. Even De L’Omelette pronounced it bien comme il
faut. It was not its length nor its breadth,--but its height--ah, that was appalling!--
There was no ceiling--certainly none- but a dense whirling mass of fiery-colored

Thesaurus
avenging: (adj) justificatory, clothe, cover, dress, provide, convulsion, outburst, explosion,
vindictive, vengeful, rigorous, bequeath, harbor, add. attack, seizure, spasm, gust, agony;
ruthless, retributive, retributory; (n) expired: (adj) lapsed, deceased, (adj) breaking out.
revenge, vengeance, eye for an eye, invalid, dead, overdue, extinct, scanty: (adj) insufficient, few,
reprisal. elapsed, out. inadequate, bare, deficient, poor,
belial: (n) Asmodeus, Ahriman, titan, hauteur: (n) arrogance, pride, disdain, narrow, scant, light; (adj, v) spare,
Moloch, the Devil, Lucifer, Shedim, conceit, assumption, conceitedness, lean. ANTONYMS: (adj) generous,
Mephistopheles. insolence, loftiness, lordliness, airs, abundant, ample, strong.
divest: (v) bereave, dispossess, elegance. ANTONYM: (n) modesty. whirling: (adj) rotary, revolving,
dismantle, denude, despoil, strip, inlaid: (adj) decorated. dizzy, giddy, lightheaded, rotating,
disrobe, free, relieve, discharge, labelled: (adj) tagged. vortical; (n) rotation, gyration,
unclothe. ANTONYMS: (v) invest, paroxysm: (adj, n) fit, burst; (n) revolution; (adj, n) swirling.
 Edgar Allan Poe 131

clouds. His Grace’s brain reeled as he glanced upward. From above, hung a
chain of an unknown blood-red metal--its upper end lost, like the city of Boston,
parmi les nues. From its nether extremity swung a large cresset. The Duc knew it
to be a ruby; but from it there poured a light so intense, so still, so terrible, Persia
never worshipped such--Gheber never imagined such--Mussulman never
dreamed of such when, drugged with opium, he has tottered to a bed of poppies,
his back to the flowers, and his face to the God Apollo. The Duc muttered a slight
oath, decidedly approbatory.%
The corners of the room were rounded into niches. Three of these were filled
with statues of gigantic proportions. Their beauty was Grecian, their deformity
Egyptian, their tout ensemble French. In the fourth niche the statue was veiled; it
was not colossal. But then there was a taper ankle, a sandalled foot. De
L’Omelette pressed his hand upon his heart, closed his eyes, raised them, and
caught his Satanic Majesty--in a blush.
But the paintings!--Kupris! Astarte! Astoreth!--a thousand and the same! And
Rafaelle has beheld them! Yes, Rafaelle has been here, for did he not paint the ---?
and was he not consequently damned? The paintings--the paintings! O luxury! O
love!--who, gazing on those forbidden beauties, shall have eyes for the dainty
devices of the golden frames that besprinkled, like stars, the hyacinth and the
porphyry walls?
But the Duc’s heart is fainting within him. He is not, however, as you
suppose, dizzy with magnificence, nor drunk with the ecstatic breath of those
innumerable censers. C’est vrai que de toutes ces choses il a pense beaucoup--
mais! The Duc De L’Omelette is terror-stricken; for, through the lurid vista which
a single uncurtained window is affording, lo! gleams the most ghastly of all fires!
Le pauvre Duc! He could not help imagining that the glorious, the
voluptuous, the never-dying melodies which pervaded that hall, as they passed
filtered and transmuted through the alchemy of the enchanted window-panes,
were the wailings and the howlings of the hopeless and the damned! And there,
too!--there!--upon the ottoman!--who could he be?--he, the petitmaitre--no, the

Thesaurus
alchemy: (n) pseudoscience, alchymy, thick. canvass, blow, gas, bespeak,
interpersonal chemistry, alchemist, hyacinth: (n) zircon, amethyst, cape gasconade, swash; (n) hotel runner.
alchemistic, magic, sorcery, hyacinth, carbuncle, common ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, understate.
alchemistry. hyacinth, hyacine. uncurtained: (adj) curtainless.
cresset: (n) torch. porphyry: (n) igneous rock. ANTONYM: (adj) curtained.
dainty: (adj, v) nice; (adj, n, v) delicacy; sandalled: (adj) shoder, shod. voluptuous: (adj) luscious, voluptuary,
(adj) fastidious, savory, tasteful, taper: (n) candle, taper hole, bougie, sensual, carnal, sybaritic, epicurean,
squeamish, particular, mincing, rushlight, taper ratio; (v) sharpen, buxom, sexy, sensuous, lascivious,
refined; (adj, n) tidbit; (n) luxury. point, acuminate, diminish, lessen, erotic. ANTONYM: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (adj) coarse, vulgar, reduce. ANTONYMS: (v) rise, widen. underdeveloped.
rough, inelegant, harsh, gross, terror-stricken: (adj) afraid, scared. worshipped: (adj) adored, idolized,
awkward, accepting, heavy, careless, tout: (v) bluster, brag, advertise, boast, venerable.
132 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Deity--who sat as if carved in marble, et qui sourit, with his pale countenance, si
amerement?
Mais il faut agir--that is to say, a Frenchman never faints outright. Besides, his
Grace hated a scene--De L’Omelette is himself again. There were some foils upon
a table--some points also. The Duc s’echapper. He measures two points, and,
with a grace inimitable, offers his Majesty the choice. Horreur! his Majesty does
not fence!
Mais il joue!--how happy a thought!--but his Grace had always an excellent
memory. He had dipped in the “Diable” of Abbe Gualtier. Therein it is said “que
le Diable n’ose pas refuser un jeu d’ecarte.”
But the chances--the chances! True--desperate: but scarcely more desperate
than the Duc. Besides, was he not in the secret?--had he not skimmed over Pere
Le Brun?--was he not a member of the Club Vingt-un? “Si je perds,” said he, “je
serai deux fois perdu--I shall be doubly dammed--voila tout! (Here his Grace
shrugged his shoulders.) Si je gagne, je reviendrai a mes ortolans--que les cartes
soient preparees!”
His Grace was all care, all attention--his Majesty all confidence. A spectator
would have thought of Francis and Charles. His Grace thought of his game. His
Majesty did not think; he shuffled. The Duc cut.%
The cards were dealt. The trump is turned--it is--it is--the king! No--it was the
queen. His Majesty cursed her masculine habiliments. De L’Omelette placed his
hand upon his heart.
They play. The Duc counts. The hand is out. His Majesty counts heavily,
smiles, and is taking wine. The Duc slips a card.
“C’est a vous a faire,” said his Majesty, cutting. His Grace bowed, dealt, and
arose from the table en presentant le Roi.
His Majesty looked chagrined.
Had Alexander not been Alexander, he would have been Diogenes; and the
Duc assured his antagonist in taking leave, “que s’il n’eut ete De L’Omelette il
n’aurait point d’objection d’etre le Diable.”

Thesaurus
antagonist: (n) opponent, adversary, execrable, cussed, wretched, unlucky, special, unmatched, supreme,
enemy, foe, rival, match, opposition, accursed, blamed, blasted, unparagoned, exclusive, single.
opposer, assailant, opposite, confounded; (v) accurst. ANTONYMS: (adj) universal,
competitor. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) commendable, ordinary.
supporter, advocate, colleague, honorable, nice, sweet, kine. shuffled: (adj) disorganized.
synergist, ally, defender. dipped: (adj) immersed, unfit, skimmed: (v) flet, flotten.
chagrined: (adj) ashamed, mortified, swaybacked, lordotic, curved in, slips: (n) pad.
hurt, annoyed, vexed, afflicted, swayback. therein: (adv) in this, in there.
displeased, discomposed, sorry; (v) doubly: (adv) twice, twofold, two trump: (n) trump card, brick; (adj)
horrified, cut up. times, in two ways, dualistically. truepenny, quell, silence, stalemate,
counts: (adj) details, particulars, items. inimitable: (adj) unique, matchless, checkmate, nonplus; (v)
cursed: (adj) damned, doomed, particular, unrivaled, unparalleled, outmaneuver, crossruff, scoop.
 Edgar Allan Poe 133

THE OBLONG BOX

Some years ago, I engaged passage from Charleston, S. C, to the city of New
York, in the fine packet-ship “Independence,” Captain Hardy. We were to sail on
the fifteenth of the month (June), weather permitting; and on the fourteenth, I
went on board to arrange some matters in my state-room.%
I found that we were to have a great many passengers, including a more than
usual number of ladies. On the list were several of my acquaintances, and
among other names, I was rejoiced to see that of Mr. Cornelius Wyatt, a young
artist, for whom I entertained feelings of warm friendship. He had been with me
a fellow-student at C--University, where we were very much together. He had
the ordinary temperament of genius, and was a compound of misanthropy,
sensibility, and enthusiasm. To these qualities he united the warmest and truest
heart which ever beat in a human bosom.
I observed that his name was carded upon three state-rooms; and, upon again
referring to the list of passengers, I found that he had engaged passage for
himself, wife, and two sisters--his own. The state-rooms were sufficiently roomy,
and each had two berths, one above the other. These berths, to be sure, were so
exceedingly narrow as to be insufficient for more than one person; still, I could
not comprehend why there were three state-rooms for these four persons. I was,
just at that epoch, in one of those moody frames of mind which make a man

Thesaurus
acquaintances: (n) associates. ANTONYMS: (adv) slightly, hardly, world.
bosom: (n) heart, interior, boob, insufficiently, somewhat. roomy: (adj, n) capacious; (adj) broad,
thorax, chest, bust, tit; (n, v) embrace; frames: (n) framework, ribs. extensive, large, commodious, ample,
(v) cherish, hug; (adj) intimate. misanthropy: (n) hatred, hate, voluminous, expansive, big, rangy,
ANTONYMS: (n) outside, exteriority. incivism. comprehensive. ANTONYMS: (adj)
epoch: (n) era, date, period, day, moody: (adj) gloomy, dark, irritable, small, narrow, airless, tiny, tight.
season, time, term, cycle, crisis, date morose, capricious, glum, grumpy, sensibility: (adj, n, v) feeling, notion;
of reference, times. fickle, petulant, dour, sullen. (n, v) sensation, appreciation, sense;
exceedingly: (adj, adv) very, highly; ANTONYMS: (adj) equable, happy, (n) emotion, sensitivity,
(adv) too, exceptionally, overly, reliable, stable, calm. consciousness, perceptivity,
surpassingly, extraordinarily, greatly, permitting: (adj) lenient, permitted. awareness; (adj, n) sentiment.
awfully, terrifically, eminently. persons: (n) folk, public, society, ANTONYM: (n) insensitivity.
134 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

abnormally inquisitive about trifles: and I confess, with shame, that I busied
myself in a variety of ill-bred and preposterous conjectures about this matter of
the supernumerary state-room. It was no business of mine, to be sure, but with
none the less pertinacity did I occupy myself in attempts to resolve the enigma.
At last I reached a conclusion which wrought in me great wonder why I had not
arrived at it before. “It is a servant of course,” I said; “what a fool I am, not
sooner to have thought of so obvious a solution!” And then I again repaired to
the list--but here I saw distinctly that no servant was to come with the party,
although, in fact, it had been the original design to bring one--for the words “and
servant” had been first written and then overscored. “Oh, extra baggage, to be
sure,” I now said to myself--”something he wishes not to be put in the hold--
something to be kept under his own eye--ah, I have it--a painting or so--and this
is what he has been bargaining about with Nicolino, the Italian Jew.” This idea
satisfied me, and I dismissed my curiosity for the nonce.%
Wyatt’s two sisters I knew very well, and most amiable and clever girls they
were. His wife he had newly married, and I had never yet seen her. He had often
talked about her in my presence, however, and in his usual style of enthusiasm.
He described her as of surpassing beauty, wit, and accomplishment. I was,
therefore, quite anxious to make her acquaintance.
On the day in which I visited the ship (the fourteenth), Wyatt and party were
also to visit it--so the captain informed me--and I waited on board an hour longer
than I had designed, in hope of being presented to the bride, but then an apology
came. “Mrs. W. was a little indisposed, and would decline coming on board
until to-morrow, at the hour of sailing.”
The morrow having arrived, I was going from my hotel to the wharf, when
Captain Hardy met me and said that, “owing to circumstances” (a stupid but
convenient phrase), “he rather thought the ‘Independence’ would not sail for a
day or two, and that when all was ready, he would send up and let me know.”
This I thought strange, for there was a stiff southerly breeze; but as “the
circumstances” were not forthcoming, although I pumped for them with much

Thesaurus
accomplishment: (n) attainment, unwilling, unwell, diseased. supernumerary: (adj, v) spare; (adj, n)
completion, exploit, performance, ANTONYMS: (adj) inclined, willing, additional; (adj) redundant,
deed, skill, fulfillment, feat, action, keen, disposed. superfluous, supererogatory, surplus,
act, acquisition. ANTONYMS: (n) pertinacity: (n) persistence, excess, otiose; (n) super, spear carrier,
abandonment, washout, flop, persistency, doggedness, obstinacy, increment.
debacle, defeat. tenacity, contumacy, pertinacy, surpassing: (adj) excellent, superior,
ill-bred: (adj) boorish, discourteous, purpose, endurance, firmness, transcendent, exceptional,
impertinent, graceless, gruff, constancy. prodigious, fine, outstanding,
uncouth, uncivil, ill-mannered, southerly: (n) souther, south wind, extraordinary; (v) surpass; (adv)
crude, inurbane, indelicate. austral, austrine; (adj) southern, surpassingly; (prep) above.
indisposed: (adj) ill, ailing, loath, sick, meridional; (adv) southwards, trifles: (n) jests, nonsense, nugae,
averse, poorly, sickly, reluctant, southly. trivia.
 Edgar Allan Poe 135

perseverance, I had nothing to do but to return home and digest my impatience

at leisure.%
I did not receive the expected message from the captain for nearly a week. It
came at length, however, and I immediately went on board. The ship was
crowded with passengers, and every thing was in the bustle attendant upon
making sail. Wyatt’s party arrived in about ten minutes after myself. There were
the two sisters, the bride, and the artist--the latter in one of his customary fits of
moody misanthropy. I was too well used to these, however, to pay them any
special attention. He did not even introduce me to his wife--this courtesy
devolving, per force, upon his sister Marian--a very sweet and intelligent girl,
who, in a few hurried words, made us acquainted.
Mrs. Wyatt had been closely veiled; and when she raised her veil, in
acknowledging my bow, I confess that I was very profoundly astonished. I
should have been much more so, however, had not long experience advised me
not to trust, with too implicit a reliance, the enthusiastic descriptions of my
friend, the artist, when indulging in comments upon the loveliness of woman.
When beauty was the theme, I well knew with what facility he soared into the
regions of the purely ideal.
The truth is, I could not help regarding Mrs. Wyatt as a decidedly plain-
looking woman. If not positively ugly, she was not, I think, very far from it. She
was dressed, however, in exquisite taste--and then I had no doubt that she had
captivated my friend’s heart by the more enduring graces of the intellect and
soul. She said very few words, and passed at once into her state-room with Mr.
W.
My old inquisitiveness now returned. There was no servant--that was a
settled point. I looked, therefore, for the extra baggage. After some delay, a cart
arrived at the wharf, with an oblong pine box, which was every thing that
seemed to be expected. Immediately upon its arrival we made sail, and in a short
time were safely over the bar and standing out to sea.
The box in question was, as I say, oblong. It was about six feet in length by
two and a half in breadth; I observed it attentively, and like to be precise. Now

Thesaurus
attentively: (adv) carefully, mindfully, bored. good looks, cuteness, fineness.
watchfully, observantly, heedfully, indulging: (n) pampering, excess, ANTONYMS: (n) unattractiveness,
vigilantly, cautiously, considerately, indulgence, orgy, folly, foolery, unpleasantness, awkwardness.
diligently, alertly, obligingly. gratification. oblong: (adj) oval, elliptical,
ANTONYMS: (adv) unhelpfully, inquisitiveness: (n) curiosity, rectangular, rounded; (v)
neglectfully, abruptly, carelessly, nosiness, prying, appetite for longitudinal; (n) block, quadrangle.
hastily, casually. knowledge, foreignness, exactness, perseverance: (n) endurance, tenacity,
captivated: (adj) spellbound, charmed, accuracy, elaboration, eagerness to resolution, constancy, fortitude,
enchanted, absorbed, enthralled, learn, carefulness. assiduity, industry, doggedness,
engrossed, rapt, enamored, loveliness: (n) comeliness, fairness, firmness, persistence, determination.
delighted, beguiled, infatuated. grace, attractiveness, charm, ANTONYMS: (n) vacillation,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unenthusiastic, glamour, pulchritude, beauteousness, cowardice, indecision, indifference.
136 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

this shape was peculiar; and no sooner had I seen it, than I took credit to myself
for the accuracy of my guessing. I had reached the conclusion, it will be
remembered, that the extra baggage of my friend, the artist, would prove to be
pictures, or at least a picture; for I knew he had been for several weeks in
conference with Nicolino:--and now here was a box, which, from its shape, could
possibly contain nothing in the world but a copy of Leonardo’s “Last Supper;”
and a copy of this very “Last Supper,” done by Rubini the younger, at Florence, I
had known, for some time, to be in the possession of Nicolino. This point,
therefore, I considered as sufficiently settled. I chuckled excessively when I
thought of my acumen. It was the first time I had ever known Wyatt to keep
from me any of his artistical secrets; but here he evidently intended to steal a
march upon me, and smuggle a fine picture to New York, under my very nose;
expecting me to know nothing of the matter. I resolved to quiz him well, now
and hereafter.%
One thing, however, annoyed me not a little. The box did not go into the
extra state-room. It was deposited in Wyatt’s own; and there, too, it remained,
occupying very nearly the whole of the floor--no doubt to the exceeding
discomfort of the artist and his wife;--this the more especially as the tar or paint
with which it was lettered in sprawling capitals, emitted a strong, disagreeable,
and, to my fancy, a peculiarly disgusting odor. On the lid were painted the
words--”Mrs. Adelaide Curtis, Albany, New York. Charge of Cornelius Wyatt,
Esq. This side up. To be handled with care.”
Now, I was aware that Mrs. Adelaide Curtis, of Albany, was the artist’s
wife’s mother,--but then I looked upon the whole address as a mystification,
intended especially for myself. I made up my mind, of course, that the box and
contents would never get farther north than the studio of my misanthropic
friend, in Chambers Street, New York.
For the first three or four days we had fine weather, although the wind was
dead ahead; having chopped round to the northward, immediately upon our
losing sight of the coast. The passengers were, consequently, in high spirits and
disposed to be social. I must except, however, Wyatt and his sisters, who

Thesaurus
acumen: (n) perception, insight, amiable, inoffensive, acceptable, northward: (adj, adv) north; (adj)
understanding, intellect, wisdom, desirable, easygoing, happy, northbound; (adv) northerly,
acuteness, astuteness, discrimination, pleasing, sweet, nice. northwards, in the north, to the
cleverness, discernment, judgment. lettered: (adj, v) erudite; (adj) learned, north.
ANTONYMS: (n) stupidity, naivete, educated, enlightened, literate, smuggle: (v) run, poach, insinuate,
ineptness, inability, ignorance, knowledgeable, scholarly, knowing, contraband, bootleg, sneak, mold,
denseness, dullness, foolishness. literary; (v) instructed, leaned. manage, cast, sell, shape.
disagreeable: (adj) nasty, offensive, misanthropic: (adj) cynical, sprawling: (adj) sprawled, roomy,
uncomfortable, distasteful, pessimistic, misanthropical, sizeable, untidy, straggling,
cantankerous, cross, ungrateful, antisocial, standoffish, solitary, expansive, sprawly, wide, extensive;
abhorrent, horrible, bad, painful. reserved, reclusive, distrustful, (adv) asprawl; (n) attitude.
ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, friendly, crabby, unfriendly. ANTONYM: (adj) narrow.
 Edgar Allan Poe 137

behaved stiffly, and, I could not help thinking, uncourteously to the rest of the
party. Wyatt’s conduct I did not so much regard. He was gloomy, even beyond
his usual habit--in fact he was morose--but in him I was prepared for eccentricity.
For the sisters, however, I could make no excuse. They secluded themselves in
their staterooms during the greater part of the passage, and absolutely refused,
although I repeatedly urged them, to hold communication with any person on
board.%
Mrs. Wyatt herself was far more agreeable. That is to say, she was chatty; and
to be chatty is no slight recommendation at sea. She became excessively intimate
with most of the ladies; and, to my profound astonishment, evinced no
equivocal disposition to coquet with the men. She amused us all very much. I
say “amused”- and scarcely know how to explain myself. The truth is, I soon
found that Mrs. W. was far oftener laughed at than with. The gentlemen said
little about her; but the ladies, in a little while, pronounced her “a good-hearted
thing, rather indifferent looking, totally uneducated, and decidedly vulgar.” The
great wonder was, how Wyatt had been entrapped into such a match. Wealth
was the general solution- but this I knew to be no solution at all; for Wyatt had
told me that she neither brought him a dollar nor had any expectations from any
source whatever. “He had married,” he said, “for love, and for love only; and his
bride was far more than worthy of his love.” When I thought of these
expressions, on the part of my friend, I confess that I felt indescribably puzzled.
Could it be possible that he was taking leave of his senses? What else could I
think? He, so refined, so intellectual, so fastidious, with so exquisite a perception
of the faulty, and so keen an appreciation of the beautiful! To be sure, the lady
seemed especially fond of him- particularly so in his absence--when she made
herself ridiculous by frequent quotations of what had been said by her “beloved
husband, Mr. Wyatt.” The word “husband” seemed forever--to use one of her
own delicate expressions- forever “on the tip of her tongue.” In the meantime, it
was observed by all on board, that he avoided her in the most pointed manner,
and, for the most part, shut himself up alone in his state-room, where, in fact, he
might have been said to live altogether, leaving his wife at full liberty to amuse
herself as she thought best, in the public society of the main cabin.

Thesaurus
chatty: (adj) gabby, garrulous, doubtful, dubious, questionable, uncritical, easy, indifferent,
loquacious, familiar, informal, elusive, cryptic, precarious, undemanding, slapdash, relaxed,
communicative, gossipy, voluble, problematic, apocryphal, double. easygoing.
talky, conversable, expansive. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, good-hearted: (adj) benign, good-
ANTONYMS: (adj) taciturn, quiet, unequivocal, definite, obvious, plain, natured, kindly, kindhearted.
formal, silent, laconic, reticent, unquestionable, certain, direct. indescribably: (adv) unspeakably,
restrained, reserved. fastidious: (adj, n) exacting, critical, incredibly, inconceivably, beyond
coquet: (v) dally, coquette, toy, trifle, accurate; (adj) delicate, particular, words, unbelievably, unutterably,
vamp, philander, romance, chat up, careful, exigent, dainty, unthinkably.
bill and coo, blow hot and cold, discriminating, nice, fussy. sisters: (n) sistren.
straddle. ANTONYMS: (adj) sloppy, wyatt: (n) James Wyatt, Wyat, sir
equivocal: (adj) ambiguous, indefinite, unfastidious, careless, uncouth, Thomas Wyatt.
138 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

My conclusion, from what I saw and heard, was, that, the artist, by some
unaccountable freak of fate, or perhaps in some fit of enthusiastic and fanciful
passion, had been induced to unite himself with a person altogether beneath
him, and that the natural result, entire and speedy disgust, had ensued. I pitied
him from the bottom of my heart--but could not, for that reason, quite forgive his
incommunicativeness in the matter of the “Last Supper.” For this I resolved to
have my revenge.%
One day he came upon deck, and, taking his arm as had been my wont, I
sauntered with him backward and forward. His gloom, however (which I
considered quite natural under the circumstances), seemed entirely unabated.
He said little, and that moodily, and with evident effort. I ventured a jest or two,
and he made a sickening attempt at a smile. Poor fellow!--as I thought of his
wife, I wondered that he could have heart to put on even the semblance of mirth.
I determined to commence a series of covert insinuations, or innuendoes, about
the oblong box--just to let him perceive, gradually, that I was not altogether the
butt, or victim, of his little bit of pleasant mystification. My first observation was
by way of opening a masked battery. I said something about the “peculiar shape
of that box-,” and, as I spoke the words, I smiled knowingly, winked, and
touched him gently with my forefinger in the ribs.
The manner in which Wyatt received this harmless pleasantry convinced me,
at once, that he was mad. At first he stared at me as if he found it impossible to
comprehend the witticism of my remark; but as its point seemed slowly to make
its way into his brain, his eyes, in the same proportion, seemed protruding from
their sockets. Then he grew very red--then hideously pale--then, as if highly
amused with what I had insinuated, he began a loud and boisterous laugh,
which, to my astonishment, he kept up, with gradually increasing vigor, for ten
minutes or more. In conclusion, he fell flat and heavily upon the deck. When I
ran to uplift him, to all appearance he was dead.
I called assistance, and, with much difficulty, we brought him to himself.
Upon reviving he spoke incoherently for some time. At length we bled him and
put him to bed. The next morning he was quite recovered, so far as regarded his

Thesaurus
bled: (v) bleed; (n) bulla. wanderingly. ANTONYM: (adv) ribs: (n) dinner, chest, bosom.
hideously: (adv) dreadfully, ghastly, clearly. unabated: (adj) unreduced,
awfully, loathsomely, horrendously, insinuated: (adj) subtle. unrestricted, unmitigated,
fearfully, odiously, gruesomely, moodily: (adv) morosely, peevishly, unflagging, relentless, intense,
shockingly, repulsively, heinously. glumly, sulkily, grumpily, unrelenting.
ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, capriciously, temperamentally, witticism: (n) humor, jest, wit, gag,
wonderfully, appealingly. petulantly, saturninely, crossly, repartee, humour, pun, quip, crack,
incoherently: (adv) unconnectedly, erratically. ANTONYM: (adv) pleasantry, epigram.
disconnectedly, disjointedly, loosely, cheerily. wont: (adj, n) use, custom, usage; (n)
confusedly, ramblingly, pleasantry: (n) joke, wit, jocularity, practice, tradition, cleanliness,
inarticulately, deliriously, jest, fancy, waggery, drollery, esprit, assuetude, assuefaction, convention,
disorderedly, incongruously, banter, sport, jocosity. rut; (v) practise.
 Edgar Allan Poe 139

mere bodily health. Of his mind I say nothing, of course. I avoided him during
the rest of the passage, by advice of the captain, who seemed to coincide with me
altogether in my views of his insanity, but cautioned me to say nothing on this
head to any person on board.%
Several circumstances occurred immediately after this fit of Wyatt which
contributed to heighten the curiosity with which I was already possessed.
Among other things, this: I had been nervous--drank too much strong green tea,
and slept ill at night--in fact, for two nights I could not be properly said to sleep
at all. Now, my state-room opened into the main cabin, or dining-room, as did
those of all the single men on board. Wyatt’s three rooms were in the after-cabin,
which was separated from the main one by a slight sliding door, never locked
even at night. As we were almost constantly on a wind, and the breeze was not a
little stiff, the ship heeled to leeward very considerably; and whenever her
starboard side was to leeward, the sliding door between the cabins slid open,
and so remained, nobody taking the trouble to get up and shut it. But my berth
was in such a position, that when my own state-room door was open, as well as
the sliding door in question (and my own door was always open on account of
the heat,) I could see into the after-cabin quite distinctly, and just at that portion
of it, too, where were situated the state-rooms of Mr. Wyatt. Well, during two
nights (not consecutive) while I lay awake, I clearly saw Mrs. W., about eleven
o’clock upon each night, steal cautiously from the state-room of Mr. W., and
enter the extra room, where she remained until daybreak, when she was called
by her husband and went back. That they were virtually separated was clear.
They had separate apartments--no doubt in contemplation of a more permanent
divorce; and here, after all I thought was the mystery of the extra state-room.
There was another circumstance, too, which interested me much. During the
two wakeful nights in question, and immediately after the disappearance of Mrs.
Wyatt into the extra state-room, I was attracted by certain singular cautious,
subdued noises in that of her husband. After listening to them for some time,
with thoughtful attention, I at length succeeded perfectly in translating their
import. They were sounds occasioned by the artist in prying open the oblong

Thesaurus
berth: (n) bunk, place, bed, position, ANTONYMS: (n) sanity, sense. ANTONYM: (adj) port.
post, office, spot, situation; (n, v) leeward: (n) lee side, direction, Bruce steal: (v) purloin, abstract, sneak, filch,
dock, wharf; (v) moor. Lee, Henry Lee, Gypsy Rose Lee, Lee pinch, creep, misappropriate, rob,
heighten: (v) amplify, enlarge, Yuen Kam; (adv) upwind, against the pilfer; (n) bargain; (n, v) snatch.
aggravate, raise, deepen, elevate, wind, into the wind. translating: (n) communication,
boost, grow, expand, compound, prying: (adj) inquisitive, meddlesome, movement.
advance. ANTONYMS: (v) alleviate, nosy, inquiring, nosey, intrusive, wakeful: (adj) vigilant, sleepless,
damage, decrease, improve, lessen. busy, snoopy; (n) nosiness, curiosity; awake, observant, restless, light,
insanity: (adj, n) craziness, (adj, n) meddling. ANTONYMS: (adj) wary, psychologically light,
derangement, frenzy, aberration; (n) apathetic; (n) apathy. lightheaded, tripping; (v) wistful.
delirium, dementia, mania, folly, starboard: (n) dexter, offside; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) unaware, asleep,
lunacy, idiocy; (adj) madness. proper, good, ripe, correct. inattentive, relaxed.
140 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

box, by means of a chisel and mallet--the latter being apparently muffled, or

deadened, by some soft woollen or cotton substance in which its head was
enveloped.%
In this manner I fancied I could distinguish the precise moment when he
fairly disengaged the lid--also, that I could determine when he removed it
altogether, and when he deposited it upon the lower berth in his room; this latter
point I knew, for example, by certain slight taps which the lid made in striking
against the wooden edges of the berth, as he endeavored to lay it down very
gently--there being no room for it on the floor. After this there was a dead
stillness, and I heard nothing more, upon either occasion, until nearly daybreak;
unless, perhaps, I may mention a low sobbing, or murmuring sound, so very
much suppressed as to be nearly inaudible--if, indeed, the whole of this latter
noise were not rather produced by my own imagination. I say it seemed to
resemble sobbing or sighing- but, of course, it could not have been either. I rather
think it was a ringing in my own ears. Mr. Wyatt, no doubt, according to custom,
was merely giving the rein to one of his hobbies--indulging in one of his fits of
artistic enthusiasm. He had opened his oblong box, in order to feast his eyes on
the pictorial treasure within. There was nothing in this, however, to make him
sob. I repeat, therefore, that it must have been simply a freak of my own fancy,
distempered by good Captain Hardy’s green tea. just before dawn, on each of
the two nights of which I speak, I distinctly heard Mr. Wyatt replace the lid upon
the oblong box, and force the nails into their old places by means of the muffled
mallet. Having done this, he issued from his state-room, fully dressed, and
proceeded to call Mrs. W. from hers.
We had been at sea seven days, and were now off Cape Hatteras, when there
came a tremendously heavy blow from the southwest. We were, in a measure,
prepared for it, however, as the weather had been holding out threats for some
time. Every thing was made snug, alow and aloft; and as the wind steadily
freshened, we lay to, at length, under spanker and foretopsail, both double-
reefed.

Thesaurus
chisel: (v) cut, cheat, shape, beguile, disordered. ANTONYMS: (adj) baggy,
screw, engrave, beat, victimize, mallet: (n) maul, club, gavel, mall, uncomfortable, unwelcoming, bleak,
sculpture, cozen; (n) burin. beetle, heavy rapping hammer, mace, formal, loose.
deadened: (adj) dead, numb, numbed, beat, pestle, hit, drumstick. southwest: (adj) southwestern,
without sensation, duller, unfeeling, murmuring: (n) murmuration, Colorado, California, Arizona; (n)
under, frozen, insensible, insensitive, murmur, complaint, grumble, Sw, geographic area, geographical
knocked out. muttering, mutter, murmur vowel; region, geographic region,
disengaged: (adj) vacant, unemployed, (adj) whispering, humming, droning, geographical area, compass point;
disentangled, free, freed, murmurous. (adv) sou'west.
untrammelled, devoid, unreserved, snug: (adj, v) cosy, trim; (adj) cozy, spanker: (adj) cord, lump, clod,
detached, liberated, loosened. easy, comfy, tight, close, warm, bushel, loaf, bulk, whooper, mass,
distempered: (adj) sick, diseased, secure, homely; (v) neat. nugget; (n) coachman, driver.
 Edgar Allan Poe 141

In this trim we rode safely enough for forty-eight hours--the ship proving
herself an excellent sea-boat in many respects, and shipping no water of any
consequence. At the end of this period, however, the gale had freshened into a
hurricane, and our after--sail split into ribbons, bringing us so much in the
trough of the water that we shipped several prodigious seas, one immediately
after the other. By this accident we lost three men overboard with the caboose,
and nearly the whole of the larboard bulwarks. Scarcely had we recovered our
senses, before the foretopsail went into shreds, when we got up a storm stay--sail
and with this did pretty well for some hours, the ship heading the sea much
more steadily than before.%
The gale still held on, however, and we saw no signs of its abating. The
rigging was found to be ill-fitted, and greatly strained; and on the third day of
the blow, about five in the afternoon, our mizzen-mast, in a heavy lurch to
windward, went by the board. For an hour or more, we tried in vain to get rid of
it, on account of the prodigious rolling of the ship; and, before we had succeeded,
the carpenter came aft and announced four feet of water in the hold. To add to
our dilemma, we found the pumps choked and nearly useless.
All was now confusion and despair--but an effort was made to lighten the
ship by throwing overboard as much of her cargo as could be reached, and by
cutting away the two masts that remained. This we at last accomplished--but we
were still unable to do any thing at the pumps; and, in the meantime, the leak
gained on us very fast.
At sundown, the gale had sensibly diminished in violence, and as the sea
went down with it, we still entertained faint hopes of saving ourselves in the
boats. At eight P. M., the clouds broke away to windward, and we had the
advantage of a full moon--a piece of good fortune which served wonderfully to
cheer our drooping spirits.
After incredible labor we succeeded, at length, in getting the longboat over
the side without material accident, and into this we crowded the whole of the
crew and most of the passengers. This party made off immediately, and, after

Thesaurus
abating: (n) dwindling, lessening, languid, floppy, lax, tired; (n) droop. rigging: (n) rig, tackle, apparatus,
point; (adj) decreasing, waning, ANTONYMS: (adj) taut, firm. outfit, accouterment, trappings,
diminishing, declining, deteriorating, ill-fitted: (adj) ill-suited, inapt. harness, tackling, suit, paraphernalia,
fading, flagging, comforting. labor: (n, v) toil, endeavor, drudgery, caparison.
bulwarks: (n) breakwater, barrier. travail, struggle, confinement, sundown: (n) nightfall, evening, dusk,
caboose: (n) camboose, kitchen, van, childbirth, delivery, grind; (n) effort, twilight, hour. ANTONYMS: (n)
jail, cookhouse, cabin car, cabin, exertion. ANTONYMS: (n, v) rest; (v) dawn, daybreak, sunrise.
cuddy. relax, ignore; (n) management, windward: (adv) downwind; (n)
carpenter: (n) woodman, woodsman, leisure, death, relaxation. weatherboard, to windward, weather
woodworker, Joseph; (v) build. larboard: (adj) left; (n) sinister, side, direction; (adj) tempestuous,
drooping: (adj) flabby, pendulous, embrasure, interface, nearside. flatulent, empty, airy, windy,
limp, flaccid, cernuous, flagging, pumps: (n) heart, spectator. boisterous.
142 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

undergoing much suffering, finally arrived, in safety, at Ocracoke Inlet, on the

third day after the wreck.%
Fourteen passengers, with the captain, remained on board, resolving to trust
their fortunes to the jolly-boat at the stern. We lowered it without difficulty,
although it was only by a miracle that we prevented it from swamping as it
touched the water. It contained, when afloat, the captain and his wife, Mr. Wyatt
and party, a Mexican officer, wife, four children, and myself, with a negro valet.
We had no room, of course, for any thing except a few positively necessary
instruments, some provisions, and the clothes upon our backs. No one had
thought of even attempting to save any thing more. What must have been the
astonishment of all, then, when having proceeded a few fathoms from the ship,
Mr. Wyatt stood up in the stern-sheets, and coolly demanded of Captain Hardy
that the boat should be put back for the purpose of taking in his oblong box!
“Sit down, Mr. Wyatt,” replied the captain, somewhat sternly, “you will
capsize us if you do not sit quite still. Our gunwhale is almost in the water now.”
“The box!” vociferated Mr. Wyatt, still standing--”the box, I say! Captain
Hardy, you cannot, you will not refuse me. Its weight will be but a trifle--it is
nothing- mere nothing. By the mother who bore you--for the love of Heaven--by
your hope of salvation, I implore you to put back for the box!”
The captain, for a moment, seemed touched by the earnest appeal of the
artist, but he regained his stern composure, and merely said:
“Mr. Wyatt, you are mad. I cannot listen to you. Sit down, I say, or you will
swamp the boat. Stay--hold him--seize him!--he is about to spring overboard!
There--I knew it--he is over!”
As the captain said this, Mr. Wyatt, in fact, sprang from the boat, and, as we
were yet in the lee of the wreck, succeeded, by almost superhuman exertion, in
getting hold of a rope which hung from the fore-chains. In another moment he
was on board, and rushing frantically down into the cabin.
In the meantime, we had been swept astern of the ship, and being quite out
of her lee, were at the mercy of the tremendous sea which was still running. We

Thesaurus
afloat: (adj) buoyant, floating, current, exertion: (n) application, exercise, (adj) dark.
in circulation, directionless, endeavor, attempt, struggle, trouble, sternly: (adv) severely, strictly,
undirected, rudderless; (adv) adrift, diligence, strain, labor, pull, essay. austerely, harshly, rigidly, grimly,
aboard; (v) afoot; (n) on foot. ANTONYMS: (n) idleness, inactivity, rigorously, stringently, seriously,
astern: (adv) aft, after, aback, behind, inertia, relaxation, laziness, ease. relentlessly, solemnly. ANTONYMS:
sternmost, rearwards; (adj, adv) implore: (v) beg, beseech, supplicate, (adv) leniently, lightheartedly, kindly,
backward; (adj) back, rear. ask, conjure, crave, pray, importune, warmly, cheerfully.
ANTONYM: (adv) forward. appeal, plead, solicit. ANTONYMS: swept: (adj) clean.
capsize: (v) upset, invert, reverse, (v) demand, grant, reject. valet: (n) man, attendant, lackey,
topple, overturn, turn over, flip over, negro: (n) black, darky, blackamoor, butler, flunkey, manservant, waiter,
keel, subvert; (adj) shipwreck, nigger, Negroid, black person, gentleman, livery servant, servant,
swamp. ANTONYM: (v) upright. darkie, coon, moke, lightlessness; retainer.
 Edgar Allan Poe 143

made a determined effort to put back, but our little boat was like a feather in the
breath of the tempest. We saw at a glance that the doom of the unfortunate artist
was sealed.%
As our distance from the wreck rapidly increased, the madman (for as such
only could we regard him) was seen to emerge from the companion--way, up
which by dint of strength that appeared gigantic, he dragged, bodily, the oblong
box. While we gazed in the extremity of astonishment, he passed, rapidly,
several turns of a three-inch rope, first around the box and then around his body.
In another instant both body and box were in the sea--disappearing suddenly, at
once and forever.
We lingered awhile sadly upon our oars, with our eyes riveted upon the spot.
At length we pulled away. The silence remained unbroken for an hour. Finally, I
hazarded a remark.
“Did you observe, captain, how suddenly they sank? Was not that an
exceedingly singular thing? I confess that I entertained some feeble hope of his
final deliverance, when I saw him lash himself to the box, and commit himself to
the sea.”
“They sank as a matter of course,” replied the captain, “and that like a shot.
They will soon rise again, however--but not till the salt melts.”
“The salt!” I ejaculated.
“Hush!” said the captain, pointing to the wife and sisters of the deceased.
“We must talk of these things at some more appropriate time.”

We suffered much, and made a narrow escape, but fortune befriended us, as
well as our mates in the long-boat. We landed, in fine, more dead than alive, after
four days of intense distress, upon the beach opposite Roanoke Island. We
remained here a week, were not ill-treated by the wreckers, and at length
obtained a passage to New York.
About a month after the loss of the “Independence,” I happened to meet
Captain Hardy in Broadway. Our conversation turned, naturally, upon the

Thesaurus
deliverance: (n) salvation, rescue, v) plume; (adj, n, v) fringe; (v) fledge. phenomenal, rare, queer, single,
release, freedom, escape, lash: (n, v) beat, chastise, scourge, quaint, exceptional. ANTONYMS:
emancipation, delivery, relief, goad; (v) flog, bind, batter; (adj, v) (adj) ordinary, normal, together,
liberation, liberty, salvage. strap, tie, lace; (n) hit. ANTONYMS: usual, customary.
ANTONYMS: (n) downfall, (v) unlash, untie. suffered: (adj) permitted, permissive.
suppression. riveted: (adj) immovable, immobile, unbroken: (adj) continuous, entire,
doom: (n, v) sentence, destine, fate; (v) irremovable, rooted, wrapped up, complete, continual, constant, intact,
condemn, convict, damn; (n) destiny, intent; (v) wrapped in, engrossed in, incessant, endless, whole, undivided,
day of reckoning, chance, luck, lot. rapt, absorbed, transfixed. solid. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) plan; (v) absolve. ANTONYM: (adj) detached. intermittent, temporary, plowed,
feather: (n) pen, feathering, pinion, singular: (adj, n) extraordinary; (adj) discontinuous, disturbed, sporadic,
nib, plumage, quill, kind, spline; (n, odd, individual, particular, peculiar, partial.
144 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

disaster, and especially upon the sad fate of poor Wyatt. I thus learned the
following particulars.%
The artist had engaged passage for himself, wife, two sisters and a servant.
His wife was, indeed, as she had been represented, a most lovely, and most
accomplished woman. On the morning of the fourteenth of June (the day in
which I first visited the ship), the lady suddenly sickened and died. The young
husband was frantic with grief--but circumstances imperatively forbade the
deferring his voyage to New York. It was necessary to take to her mother the
corpse of his adored wife, and, on the other hand, the universal prejudice which
would prevent his doing so openly was well known. Nine-tenths of the
passengers would have abandoned the ship rather than take passage with a dead
body.
In this dilemma, Captain Hardy arranged that the corpse, being first partially
embalmed, and packed, with a large quantity of salt, in a box of suitable
dimensions, should be conveyed on board as merchandise. Nothing was to be
said of the lady’s decease; and, as it was well understood that Mr. Wyatt had
engaged passage for his wife, it became necessary that some person should
personate her during the voyage. This the deceased lady’s-maid was easily
prevailed on to do. The extra state-room, originally engaged for this girl during
her mistress’ life, was now merely retained. In this state-room the pseudo-wife,
slept, of course, every night. In the daytime she performed, to the best of her
ability, the part of her mistress--whose person, it had been carefully ascertained,
was unknown to any of the passengers on board.
My own mistake arose, naturally enough, through too careless, too
inquisitive, and too impulsive a temperament. But of late, it is a rare thing that I
sleep soundly at night. There is a countenance which haunts me, turn as I will.
There is an hysterical laugh which will forever ring within my ears.

Thesaurus
ascertained: (adj) discovered, inquisitive: (adj) inquiring, mock, embody.
determined; (v) absolute, recognized, speculative, nosy, prying, sickened: (adj) aghast, horrified,
received, noted, notorious, decisive, questioning, nosey, meddling, appalled, shocked.
unmistakable, unequivocal, positive. investigative, meddlesome, quizzical, soundly: (adv) sound, fully, solidly,
deferring: (n) deferral. overcurious. ANTONYMS: (adj) thoroughly, deeply, substantially,
embalmed: (adj) inebriated. apathetic, uninterested. validly, strongly, stably, fastly, safely.
forbade: (v) prohibit, to prohibit. merchandise: (v) market, deal; (n) ANTONYMS: (adv) harmfully,
imperatively: (adv) commandingly, freight, cargo, product, commodity, halfheartedly, fitfully,
imperiously, urgently, pressingly, goods, consignment, wares; (adj) unconvincingly.
authoritatively, obligatorily, commodities, ware. voyage: (n, v) travel, cruise, tour; (n)
essentially, magisterially, necessarily, personate: (v) act, mimic, perform, do, trip, passage, expedition, flight,
instantly, critically. play, personify, pose, simulate, ape, crossing, quest; (v) sail, navigate.
 Edgar Allan Poe 145

LOSS OF BREATH

O Breathe not, etc.

--Moore’s Melodies

The most notorious ill-fortune must in the end yield to the untiring courage
of philosophy--as the most stubborn city to the ceaseless vigilance of an enemy.
Shalmanezer, as we have it in holy writings, lay three years before Samaria; yet it
fell. Sardanapalus--see Diodorus--maintained himself seven in Nineveh; but to
no purpose. Troy expired at the close of the second lustrum; and Azoth, as
Aristaeus declares upon his honour as a gentleman, opened at last her gates to
Psammetichus, after having barred them for the fifth part of a century....%
“Thou wretch!--thou vixen!--thou shrew!” said I to my wife on the morning
after our wedding; “thou witch!--thou hag!--thou whippersnapper--thou sink of
iniquity!--thou fiery-faced quintessence of all that is abominable!--thou--thou-”
here standing upon tiptoe, seizing her by the throat, and placing my mouth close
to her ear, I was preparing to launch forth a new and more decided epithet of
opprobrium, which should not fail, if ejaculated, to convince her of her
insignificance, when to my extreme horror and astonishment I discovered that I
had lost my breath.

Thesaurus
ceaseless: (adj) eternal, uninterrupted, slightness, smallness, meanness, archetype, nub, substance, soul.
constant, perpetual, everlasting, littleness, futility, inconsequentiality. tiptoe: (v) tip, tippytoe, creep, patter,
endless, continuous, unremitting, ANTONYMS: (n) seriousness, skirt, skip, tilt, sidle, lean; (adj) alert;
continual, unending, nonstop. importance, gravity, appropriateness, (n) quieter. ANTONYM: (v) clump.
ANTONYMS: (adj) intermittent, value, fame. troy: (n) city, Ilion, ilium, metropolis,
temporary, sporadic, completed, opprobrium: (n) infamy, dishonor, system of weights, troy weight.
restricted, limited, fleeting, finished, disgrace, defamation, reproach; (n, v) untiring: (adj) indefatigable,
concluded, ending, inconstant. insult, abuse, invective, contumely; unflagging, persistent, assiduous,
gates: (n) bill Gates. (adj, n) obloquy, odium. ANTONYM: industrious, persevering,
insignificance: (n) unimportance, (n) fame. indomitable, diligent, hardworking,
insignificancy, indifference, quintessence: (n) heart, epitome, patient, unfaltering. ANTONYMS:
immateriality, inconsiderableness, marrow, gist, core, model, paragon, (adj) irresolute, failing, weary.
146 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

The phrases “I am out of breath,” “I have lost my breath,” etc., are often
enough repeated in common conversation; but it had never occurred to me that
the terrible accident of which I speak could bona fide and actually happen!
Imagine--that is if you have a fanciful turn--imagine, I say, my wonder--my
consternation--my despair!
There is a good genius, however, which has never entirely deserted me. In
my most ungovernable moods I still retain a sense of propriety, et le chemin des
passions me conduit--as Lord Edouard in the “Julie” says it did him--a la
philosophie veritable.%
Although I could not at first precisely ascertain to what degree the occurence
had affected me, I determined at all events to conceal the matter from my wife,
until further experience should discover to me the extent of this my unheard of
calamity. Altering my countenance, therefore, in a moment, from its bepuffed
and distorted appearance, to an expression of arch and coquettish benignity, I
gave my lady a pat on the one cheek, and a kiss on the other, and without saying
one syllable (Furies! I could not), left her astonished at my drollery, as I
pirouetted out of the room in a Pas de Zephyr.
Behold me then safely ensconced in my private boudoir, a fearful instance of
the ill consequences attending upon irascibility--alive, with the qualifications of
the dead--dead, with the propensities of the living--an anomaly on the face of the
earth--being very calm, yet breathless.
Yes! breathless. I am serious in asserting that my breath was entirely gone. I
could not have stirred with it a feather if my life had been at issue, or sullied
even the delicacy of a mirror. Hard fate!--yet there was some alleviation to the
first overwhelming paroxysm of my sorrow. I found, upon trial, that the powers
of utterance which, upon my inability to proceed in the conversation with my
wife, I then concluded to be totally destroyed, were in fact only partially
impeded, and I discovered that had I, at that interesting crisis, dropped my voice
to a singularly deep guttural, I might still have continued to her the
communication of my sentiments; this pitch of voice (the guttural) depending, I

Thesaurus
alleviation: (n) remission, abatement, affliction, misfortune, plague, posited.
relaxation, easement, solace, catastrophe, tragedy, blow, bale, guttural: (adj) hoarse, throaty, gruff,
assuagement, mitigation, palliation, distress; (n, v) trouble. ANTONYMS: croaking, husky, harsh, velar,
reprieve, comfort, easing. (n) blessing, boon, luck, joy, raucous, grum; (n) dental; (v) nasal.
benignity: (n) kindliness, benignancy, opportunity. ANTONYMS: (adj) soft, smooth,
favor, graciousness, tenderness, coquettish: (adj) flirtatious, coy, high.
friendliness, amiability, benefaction; kittenish, charming, coquet, arch, occurence: (n) event.
(adj, n) kindness, humanity; (adj) fickle. sullied: (adj) foul, soiled, tainted,
beneficence. drollery: (n) buffoonery, whim, stained, besmirched, unclean, filthy,
boudoir: (n) bedchamber, bedroom, waggery, joke, sport, wit, clowning, spotted, sordid, flyblown, dim.
master bedroom. jocularity, tomfoolery, frolic, humor. ANTONYMS: (adj) untarnished,
calamity: (n) disaster, adversity, ensconced: (v) imbedded, situate, clean.
 Edgar Allan Poe 147

find, not upon the current of the breath, but upon a certain spasmodic action of
the muscles of the throat.%
Throwing myself upon a chair, I remained for some time absorbed in
meditation. My reflections, be sure, were of no consolatory kind. A thousand
vague and lachrymatory fancies took possesion of my soul--and even the idea of
suicide flitted across my brain; but it is a trait in the perversity of human nature
to reject the obvious and the ready, for the far-distant and equivocal. Thus I
shuddered at self-murder as the most decided of atrocities while the tabby cat
purred strenuously upon the rug, and the very water dog wheezed assiduously
under the table, each taking to itself much merit for the strength of its lungs, and
all obviously done in derision of my own pulmonary incapacity.
Oppressed with a tumult of vague hopes and fears, I at length heard the
footsteps of my wife descending the staircase. Being now assured of her absence,
I returned with a palpitating heart to the scene of my disaster.
Carefully locking the door on the inside, I commenced a vigorous search. It
was possible, I thought, that, concealed in some obscure corner, or lurking in
some closet or drawer, might be found the lost object of my inquiry. It might
have a vapory--it might even have a tangible form. Most philosophers, upon
many points of philosophy, are still very unphilosophical. William Godwin,
however, says in his “Mandeville,” that “invisible things are the only realities,”
and this, all will allow, is a case in point. I would have the judicious reader pause
before accusing such asseverations of an undue quantum of absurdity.
Anaxagoras, it will be remembered, maintained that snow is black, and this I
have since found to be the case.
Long and earnestly did I continue the investigation: but the contemptible
reward of my industry and perseverance proved to be only a set of false teeth,
two pair of hips, an eye, and a bundle of billets-doux from Mr. Windenough to
my wife. I might as well here observe that this confirmation of my lady’s
partiality for Mr. W. occasioned me little uneasiness. That Mrs. Lackobreath
should admire anything so dissimilar to myself was a natural and necessary evil.
I am, it is well known, of a robust and corpulent appearance, and at the same

Thesaurus
consolatory: (adj) consoling, soothing, perversity: (n) perverseness, zealously, arduously, severely,
cheering. cussedness, evil, perversion, forcefully, earnestly, laboriously,
lachrymatory: (n) lacrymal. willfulness, unruliness, corruption, busily, toilsomely, forwardly, hardly.
palpitating: (adj) fluttering, throbbing, wilfulness, depravity; (adj) uneasiness: (n) disquiet, discomfort,
aflare, flittering, flying, unsteady, contumacy, spinosity. inquietude, anxiety, unease, malaise,
vibrant, flaring. spasmodic: (adj) spastic, convulsive, disquietude, apprehension, unrest,
partiality: (n) favor, fondness, leaning, intermittent, erratic, broken, impatience; (n, v) agitation.
fancy, favour, predilection, liking, irregular, sporadic, desultory, ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm,
prejudice, favoritism, bias, affection. sudden, discontinuous; (v) confidence.
ANTONYMS: (n) impartiality, inconsonant. ANTONYM: (adj) unphilosophical: (adj) irrational,
fairness, indifference, horror, continuous. undiscerning, unenlightened,
antipathy. strenuously: (adv) energetically, ungifted, unwise.
148 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

time somewhat diminutive in stature. What wonder, then, that the lath-like
tenuity of my acquaintance, and his altitude, which has grown into a proverb,
should have met with all due estimation in the eyes of Mrs. Lackobreath. But to
return.%
My exertions, as I have before said, proved fruitless. Closet after closet--
drawer after drawer--corner after corner--were scrutinized to no purpose. At one
time, however, I thought myself sure of my prize, having, in rummaging a
dressing-case, accidentally demolished a bottle of Grandjean’s Oil of Archangels-
-which, as an agreeable perfume, I here take the liberty of recommending.
With a heavy heart I returned to my boudoir--there to ponder upon some
method of eluding my wife’s penetration, until I could make arrangements prior
to my leaving the country, for to this I had already made up my mind. In a
foreign climate, being unknown, I might, with some probability of success,
endeavor to conceal my unhappy calamity--a calamity calculated, even more
than beggary, to estrange the affections of the multitude, and to draw down
upon the wretch the well-merited indignation of the virtuous and the happy. I
was not long in hesitation. Being naturally quick, I committed to memory the
entire tragedy of “Metamora.” I had the good fortune to recollect that in the
accentuation of this drama, or at least of such portion of it as is allotted to the
hero, the tones of voice in which I found myself deficient were altogether
unnecessary, and the deep guttural was expected to reign monotonously
throughout.
I practised for some time by the borders of a well frequented marsh;--herein,
however, having no reference to a similar proceeding of Demosthenes, but from
a design peculiarly and conscientiously my own. Thus armed at all points, I
determined to make my wife believe that I was suddenly smitten with a passion
for the stage. In this, I succeeded to a miracle; and to every question or
suggestion found myself at liberty to reply in my most frog-like and sepulchral
tones with some passage from the tragedy--any portion of which, as I soon took
great pleasure in observing, would apply equally well to any particular subject. It
is not to be supposed, however, that in the delivery of such passages I was found

Thesaurus
accentuation: (n) stress, emphasis, against; (adj) rile, incense, repel, sow sepulchral: (adj, v) hollow, hoarse; (v)
inflection, emphasizing, prosody, dissension. ANTONYMS: (v) involve, mortuary, harsh, rough, horrisonous,
accenting, stressing, intonation, beat, engage, espouse, reconcile, unite, grum; (adj) ghastly, raucous, husky;
accent mark. conciliate. (n) funeral.
beggary: (n) poverty, want, begging, monotonously: (adv) uninterestingly, smitten: (adj, v) stricken; (adj) in love,
penury, pauperism, need, indigence, boringly, drearily, tiresomely, crazy, enamored, struck, nuts, dotty,
solicitation, misery, squalor, tediously, wearisomely, flatly, besotted, gaga, taken with, affected.
destitution. humdrumly, prosaically, tonelessly, tenuity: (n) feebleness, rareness,
eluding: (n) chemise, case, cutting, routinely. ANTONYM: (adv) brightly. thinness, low density, slenderness,
slip, berth; (adj) intangible. proverb: (n) adage, byword, aphorism, debility, infirmity, weakness,
estrange: (v) disaffect, alien, separate, dictum, saying, axiom, parable, indigence, fineness, frailness.
wean, divide, dissociate; (adj, v) set motto, expression; (n, v) maxim, saw. ANTONYM: (n) thickness.
 Edgar Allan Poe 149

at all deficient in the looking asquint--the showing my teeth--the working my

knees--the shuffling my feet--or in any of those unmentionable graces which are
now justly considered the characteristics of a popular performer. To be sure they
spoke of confining me in a strait-jacket--but, good God! they never suspected me
of having lost my breath.%
Having at length put my affairs in order, I took my seat very early one
morning in the mail stage for --, giving it to be understood, among my
acquaintances, that business of the last importance required my immediate
personal attendance in that city.
The coach was crammed to repletion; but in the uncertain twilight the
features of my companions could not be distinguished. Without making any
effectual resistance, I suffered myself to be placed between two gentlemen of
colossal dimensions; while a third, of a size larger, requesting pardon for the
liberty he was about to take, threw himself upon my body at full length, and
falling asleep in an instant, drowned all my guttural ejaculations for relief, in a
snore which would have put to blush the roarings of the bull of Phalaris.
Happily the state of my respiratory faculties rendered suffocation an accident
entirely out of the question.
As, however, the day broke more distinctly in our approach to the outskirts
of the city, my tormentor, arising and adjusting his shirt-collar, thanked me in a
very friendly manner for my civility. Seeing that I remained motionless (all my
limbs were dislocated and my head twisted on one side), his apprehensions
began to be excited; and arousing the rest of the passengers, he communicated,
in a very decided manner, his opinion that a dead man had been palmed upon
them during the night for a living and responsible fellow-traveller; here giving
me a thump on the right eye, by way of demonstrating the truth of his
suggestion.
Hereupon all, one after another (there were nine in company), believed it
their duty to pull me by the ear. A young practising physician, too, having
applied a pocket-mirror to my mouth, and found me without breath, the
assertion of my persecutor was pronounced a true bill; and the whole party

Thesaurus
arousing: (adj, n) stirring; (adj) faculties: (n) mother wit. laxity, abjection; (n, v) prevarication.
moving, stimulating, affecting, persecutor: (n) tormentor, bully, snore: (n) snoring; (v) snort, saw logs,
animating, hopeful, pitiful, poignant; gadfly, tormenter, teaser, pursuer, snooze, siesta, hibernation, breathe,
(n) awakening, start, beginning. dictator, annoyer, tantalizer, pesterer, doze, saw wood, coma, dream.
confining: (adj) restricting, limiting, pest. tormentor: (n) pest, tormenter,
narrow, confined, oppressive, repletion: (n) satiety, surfeit, glut, torturer, pesterer, annoyer, teaser,
stringent, constrictive, restrictive, satisfaction, excess, plethora, tease, tantalizer, persecutor, gadfly,
closemouthed; (v) confine; (n) satiation, saturation, plenitude, flat.
contraction. suffusion, impletion. unmentionable: (n) scandalous, too
dislocated: (adj) disordered, dislocate, shuffling: (n) shuffle, evasion, bad; (adj) impermissible, impious,
disorderly, disconnected, separated, shambling, make, shamble; (adj) disreputable, execrable, forbidden,
topsy-turvy, confused, detached. evasive, moral turpitude, milling, nameless, nefandous, taboo.
150 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

expressed a determination to endure tamely no such impositions for the future,

and to proceed no farther with any such carcasses for the present.%
I was here, accordingly, thrown out at the sign of the “Crow” (by which
tavern the coach happened to be passing), without meeting with any farther
accident than the breaking of both my arms, under the left hind wheel of the
vehicle. I must besides do the driver the justice to state that he did not forget to
throw after me the largest of my trunks, which, unfortunately falling on my
head, fractured my skull in a manner at once interesting and extraordinary.
The landlord of the “Crow,” who is a hospitable man, finding that my trunk
contained sufficient to indemnify him for any little trouble he might take in my
behalf, sent forthwith for a surgeon of his acquaintance, and delivered me to his
care with a bill and receipt for ten dollars.
The purchaser took me to his apartments and commenced operations
immediately. Having cut off my ears, however, he discovered signs of animation.
He now rang the bell, and sent for a neighboring apothecary with whom to
consult in the emergency. In case of his suspicions with regard to my existence
proving ultimately correct, he, in the meantime, made an incision in my stomach,
and removed several of my viscera for private dissection.
The apothecary had an idea that I was actually dead. This idea I endeavored
to confute, kicking and plunging with all my might, and making the most
furious contortions--for the operations of the surgeon had, in a measure, restored
me to the possession of my faculties. All, however, was attributed to the effects of
a new galvanic battery, wherewith the apothecary, who is really a man of
information, performed several curious experiments, in which, from my personal
share in their fulfillment, I could not help feeling deeply interested. It was a
course of mortification to me, nevertheless, that although I made several
attempts at conversation, my powers of speech were so entirely in abeyance, that
I could not even open my mouth; much less, then, make reply to some ingenious
but fanciful theories of which, under other circumstances, my minute
acquaintance with the Hippocratian pathology would have afforded me a ready
confutation.

Thesaurus
confutation: (n) disproof, attainment, execution, necrosis, degradation; (adj, n)
contradiction, refutation, falsification, consummation, contentment, vexation; (adj) grievance.
confutement, negation, denial, observance, discharge. ANTONYMS: tamely: (adv) dully, blandly, gentlely,
reproof, chiding, conviction; (v) pick (n) disobedience, dissatisfaction, insipidly, obediently, uninterestingly,
apart an argument. abandonment, dismay. moderately, brokenly, subduedly,
confute: (v) refute, rebut, explode, galvanic: (adj) Voltaic, hasty, hurried, domestically, flatly. ANTONYMS:
controvert, confound, convict, restless, electrical, mercurial, unquiet, (adv) cruelly, assertively,
invalidate, deny, overcome, defeat; galvanizing, galvanising, fussy, disobediently, interestingly, wildly.
(adj) falsify. ANTONYMS: (v) prove, fidgety. viscera: (n) innards, intestines, bowels,
affirm, confirm, verify, accept. mortification: (n) chagrin, guts, insides, womb, internal organs,
fulfillment: (n) completion, fruition, embarrassment, shame, gangrene, gut; (adj, n) the bowels; (adj) internal,
achievement, satisfaction, fulfilment, disappointment, disgrace, corruption, inward.
 Edgar Allan Poe 151

Not being able to arrive at a conclusion, the practitioners remanded me for

farther examination. I was taken up into a garret; and the surgeon’s lady having
accommodated me with drawers and stockings, the surgeon himself fastened my
hands, and tied up my jaws with a pocket-handkerchief--then bolted the door on
the outside as he hurried to his dinner, leaving me alone to silence and to
meditation.%
I now discovered to my extreme delight that I could have spoken had not my
mouth been tied up with the pocket-handkerchief. Consoling myself with this
reflection, I was mentally repeating some passages of the “Omnipresence of the
Deity,” as is my custom before resigning myself to sleep, when two cats, of a
greedy and vituperative turn, entering at a hole in the wall, leaped up with a
flourish a la Catalani, and alighting opposite one another on my visage, betook
themselves to indecorous contention for the paltry consideration of my nose.
But, as the loss of his ears proved the means of elevating to the throne of
Cyrus, the Magian or Mige-Gush of Persia, and as the cutting off his nose gave
Zopyrus possession of Babylon, so the loss of a few ounces of my countenance
proved the salvation of my body. Aroused by the pain, and burning with
indignation, I burst, at a single effort, the fastenings and the bandage. Stalking
across the room I cast a glance of contempt at the belligerents, and throwing
open the sash to their extreme horror and disappointment, precipitated myself,
very dexterously, from the window. this moment passing from the city jail to the
scaffold erected for his execution in the suburbs. His extreme infirmity and long
continued ill health had obtained him the privilege of remaining unmanacled;
and habited in his gallows costume--one very similar to my own,--he lay at full
length in the bottom of the hangman’s cart (which happened to be under the
windows of the surgeon at the moment of my precipitation) without any other
guard than the driver, who was asleep, and two recruits of the sixth infantry,
who were drunk.
As ill-luck would have it, I alit upon my feet within the vehicle. immediately,
he bolted out behind, and turning down an alley, was out of sight in the
twinkling of an eye. The recruits, aroused by the bustle, could not exactly

Thesaurus
accommodated: (adj) meet. elevating: (adj) inspiring, exhilarating. decorous, proper, dignified, correct,
consoling: (adj) consolatory, cheering, gallows: (n) gibbet, gallous, gallows- decent.
encouraging, grateful, reassuring, bitts, hanging, noose, scaffold, halter, twinkling: (n) moment, jiffy, minute,
soothing, calming; (n) tree, rope, gallowstree, bough. second, flash, trice, twinkle, wink,
encouragement. ANTONYM: (adj) garret: (n) cockloft, loft, attic, house split second, breath; (adj) sparkling.
upsetting. top, storey, level, upper story, story, ANTONYM: (adj) dull.
dexterously: (adv) adroitly, skillfully, dome, noggin, classical Greek. vituperative: (adj, v) reproachful; (v)
expertly, craftily, skilfully, indecorous: (adj) indecent, objurgatory, condemnatory,
dextrously, handily, cleverly, unbecoming, impolite, unseemly, clamorous, denunciatory, damnatory,
proficiently, aptly; (adj, adv) readily. coarse, indelicate, inappropriate, disparaging; (adj) scurrilous,
ANTONYMS: (adv) ineptly, untoward, immodest, unsuitable, scathing, defamatory, libelous.
incompetently, awkwardly. tasteless. ANTONYMS: (adj) polite, ANTONYM: (adj) loving.
152 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

comprehend the merits of the transaction. Seeing, however, a man, the precise
counterpart of the felon, standing upright in the cart before their eyes, they were
of (so they expressed themselves,) and, having communicated this opinion to one
another, they took each a dram, and then knocked me down with the butt-ends
of their muskets.%
It was not long ere we arrived at the place of destination. Of course nothing
could be said in my defence. Hanging was my inevitable fate. I resigned myself
thereto with a feeling half stupid, half acrimonious. Being little of a cynic, I had
all the sentiments of a dog. The hangman, however, adjusted the noose about my
neck. The drop fell.
I forbear to depict my sensations upon the gallows; although here,
undoubtedly, I could speak to the point, and it is a topic upon which nothing has
been well said. In fact, to write upon such a theme it is necessary to have been
hanged. Every author should confine himself to matters of experience. Thus
Mark Antony composed a treatise upon getting drunk.
I may just mention, however, that die I did not. My body was, but I had no
breath to be, suspended; and but for the knot under my left ear (which had the
feel of a military stock) I dare say that I should have experienced very little
inconvenience. As for the jerk given to my neck upon the falling of the drop, it
merely proved a corrective to the twist afforded me by the fat gentleman in the
coach.
For good reasons, however, I did my best to give the crowd the worth of their
trouble. My convulsions were said to be extraordinary. My spasms it would
have been difficult to beat. The populace encored. Several gentlemen swooned;
and a multitude of ladies were carried home in hysterics. Pinxit availed himself
of the opportunity to retouch, from a sketch taken upon the spot, his admirable
painting of the “Marsyas flayed alive.”
When I had afforded sufficient amusement, it was thought proper to remove
my body from the gallows;--this the more especially as the real culprit had in the
meantime been retaken and recognized, a fact which I was so unlucky as not to
know.

Thesaurus
acrimonious: (adj) bitter, sour, sharp, ANTONYMS: (n) supporter, behavior, dramatics, paroxysm, rage,
virulent, sarcastic, biting, caustic, optimist. tantrum, affected behavior.
acerbic, acid, severe; (adj, v) pungent. dram: (n) drachma, nip, ankus, spot, jerk: (n, v) jump, yank, shake, twitch,
ANTONYMS: (adj) sweet, kindly, dynamic random access memory, jar, tug, bump, heave, pull; (v) fling,
civil, peaceable, harmonious, cordial, snifter, blast, apothecaries' weight; (n, flip. ANTONYM: (v) ease.
amicable. v) potion; (v) drench, swill. noose: (n) loop, trap, gin, lasso, net,
convulsions: (n) convulsion, spasm, hangman: (n) executioner, headsman, gibbet, gallows, bowstring, snare,
epilepsy, eclampsia, mirth. hanger, tormentor, tiger, boggle, girdle; (v) hang.
cynic: (adj, n) skeptic; (n) doubter, crossword puzzle, scrabble, wild retouch: (v) touch up, mend, restore,
critic, misanthrope, detractor, yogi, beast, hyena. correct, vamp, tinker, emend, modify;
sanyasi, doubting Thomas, frondeur, hysterics: (adj) frenzy, hysterical, (n) amendment, correction,
man hater; (adj) cynical. phrensy; (n) panic, mirth, emotional modification.
 Edgar Allan Poe 153

Much sympathy was, of course, exercised in my behalf, and as no one made

claim to my corpse, it was ordered that I should be interred in a public vault.%
Here, after due interval, I was deposited. The sexton departed, and I was left
alone. A line of Marston’s “Malcontent”--

Death’s a good fellow and keeps open house—

struck me at that moment as a palpable lie.

I knocked off, however, the lid of my coffin, and stepped out. The place was
dreadfully dreary and damp, and I became troubled with ennui. By way of
amusement, I felt my way among the numerous coffins ranged in order around. I
lifted them down, one by one, and breaking open their lids, busied myself in
speculations about the mortality within.
“This,” I soliloquized, tumbling over a carcass, puffy, bloated, and rotund--
”this has been, no doubt, in every sense of the word, an unhappy--an
unfortunate man. It has been his terrible lot not to walk but to waddle--to pass
through life not like a human being, but like an elephant--not like a man, but like
a rhinoceros.
“His attempts at getting on have been mere abortions, and his
circumgyratory proceedings a palpable failure. Taking a step forward, it has
been his misfortune to take two toward the right, and three toward the left. His
studies have been confined to the poetry of Crabbe. He can have no idea of the
wonder of a pirouette. To him a pas de papillon has been an abstract conception.
He has never ascended the summit of a hill. He has never viewed from any
steeple the glories of a metropolis. Heat has been his mortal enemy. In the dog-
days his days have been the days of a dog. Therein, he has dreamed of flames
and suffocation--of mountains upon mountains--of Pelion upon Ossa. He was
short of breath--to say all in a word, he was short of breath. He thought it
extravagant to play upon wind instruments. He was the inventor of self-moving
fans, wind-sails, and ventilators. He patronized Du Pont the bellows-maker, and

Thesaurus
bloated: (adj) swollen, inflated, exciting, clear, cheery, pleasant, imaginary, intangible, impalpable,
distended, turgid, proud, exotic. doubtful, furtive, imperceptible,
supercilious, haughty, puffed, interred: (adj) buried, inhumed, insignificant, obscure, unclear.
pompous, tumescent, tumid. hidden. ANTONYM: (adj) unburied. rhinoceros: (n) hippopotamus, black
carcass: (n) body, frame, corpse, metropolis: (n) city, capital, town, rhinoceros, order Perissodactyla,
cadaver, framework, shell, carrion, municipality, buffalo, meshed, pachyderm, perissodactyl,
remains, dead body, skeleton, bomb. borough, burgh, independence, hull, perissodactyl mammal,
dreary: (adj) depressing, drab, dull, bale. Perissodactyla, rhinocerote, extinct
cheerless, drear, miserable, gloomy, palpable: (adj) tangible, obvious, forms.
dark, dismal, stuffy, disconsolate. evident, apparent, clear, transparent, sexton: (n) beadle, verger, almoner,
ANTONYMS: (adj) interesting, indubitable, noticeable, lucid, patent, Anne sexton, Suisse, gravedigger,
cheerful, sunny, brilliant, lively, light, perceptible. ANTONYMS: (adj) church officer, caretaker.
154 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

he died miserably in attempting to smoke a cigar. His was a case in which I feel a
deep interest--a lot in which I sincerely sympathize.%
“But here,”--said I--”here”--and I dragged spitefully from its receptacle a
gaunt, tall and peculiar-looking form, whose remarkable appearance struck me
with a sense of unwelcome familiarity--”here is a wretch entitled to no earthly
commiseration.” Thus saying, in order to obtain a more distinct view of my
subject, I applied my thumb and forefinger to its nose, and causing it to assume a
sitting position upon the ground, held it thus, at the length of my arm, while I
continued my soliloquy.
--”Entitled,” I repeated, “to no earthly commiseration. Who indeed would
think of compassioning a shadow? Besides, has he not had his full share of the
blessings of mortality? He was the originator of tall monuments--shot-towers--
lightning-rods--Lombardy poplars. His treatise upon “Shades and Shadows” has
immortalized him. He edited with distinguished ability the last edition of “South
on the Bones.” He went early to college and studied pneumatics. He then came
home, talked eternally, and played upon the French-horn. He patronized the
bagpipes. Captain Barclay, who walked against Time, would not walk against
him. Windham and Allbreath were his favorite writers,--his favorite artist, Phiz.
He died gloriously while inhaling gas--levique flatu corrupitur, like the fama
pudicitae in Hieronymus. He was indubitably a”--
“How can you?--how--can--you?”--interrupted the object of my
animadversions, gasping for breath, and tearing off, with a desperate exertion,
the bandage around its jaws--”how can you, Mr. Lackobreath, be so infernally
cruel as to pinch me in that manner by the nose? Did you not see how they had
fastened up my mouth--and you must know--if you know any thing--how vast a
superfluity of breath I have to dispose of! If you do not know, however, sit down
and you shall see. In my situation it is really a great relief to be able to open ones
mouth--to be able to expatiate--to be able to communicate with a person like
yourself, who do not think yourself called upon at every period to interrupt the
thread of a gentleman’s discourse. Interruptions are annoying and should
undoubtedly be abolished--don’t you think so?--no reply, I beg you,--one person

Thesaurus
commiseration: (n) pity, compassion, fiendishly, diabolically, devilishly, vindictively, viciously, venomously,
sympathy, condolence, ruth, mercy, wickedly, unholy, demonically, malignantly, meanly, nastily,
commiserate, bowels, consolation, satanicly, deucedly, blessedly, rancorously, hatefully. ANTONYMS:
fellow feeling, acknowledgement. damnedly. (adv) kindly, friendly, harmoniously,
indubitably: (adv) certainly, surely, pneumatics: (adj) pneumatostatics; (n) genially, mercifully, benevolently,
positively, incontrovertibly, mechanics, aerometry. compassionately, innocently.
unquestionably, clearly, poplars: (n) genus Populus. superfluity: (n) plethora, redundancy,
undoubtedly, of course, absolutely, receptacle: (n) box, holder, case, torus, superabundance, nimiety,
indisputably, decidedly. can, outlet, pocket, pyx, beehive, overabundance, overplus,
ANTONYMS: (adv) possibly, cuspidor, pix. embarrassment, redundance,
arguably, doubtfully. spitefully: (adv) maliciously, extravagance, surplus, glut.
infernally: (adv) satanically, malevolently, resentfully, ANTONYM: (n) shortfall.
 Edgar Allan Poe 155

is enough to be speaking at a time.--I shall be done by and by, and then you may
begin.--How the devil sir, did you get into this place?--not a word I beseech you-
-been here some time myself--terrible accident!--heard of it, I suppose?--awful
calamity!--walking under your windows--some short while ago--about the time
you were stage-struck--horrible occurrence!--heard of “catching one’s breath,”
eh?--hold your tongue I tell you!--I caught somebody elses!--had always too
much of my own--met Blab at the corner of the street--wouldn’t give me a chance
for a word--couldn’t get in a syllable edgeways--attacked, consequently, with
epilepsis--Blab made his escape--damn all fools!--they took me up for dead, and
put me in this place--pretty doings all of them!--heard all you said about me--
every word a lie--horrible!--wonderful--outrageous!--hideous!--
incomprehensible!--et cetera--et cetera--et cetera--et cetera-”
It is impossible to conceive my astonishment at so unexpected a discourse, or
the joy with which I became gradually convinced that the breath so fortunately
caught by the gentleman (whom I soon recognized as my neighbor
Windenough) was, in fact, the identical expiration mislaid by myself in the
conversation with my wife. Time, place, and circumstances rendered it a matter
beyond question. I did not at least during the long period in which the inventor
of Lombardy poplars continued to favor me with his explanations.%
In this respect I was actuated by that habitual prudence which has ever been
my predominating trait. I reflected that many difficulties might still lie in the
path of my preservation which only extreme exertion on my part would be able
to surmount. Many persons, I considered, are prone to estimate commodities in
their possession--however valueless to the then proprietor--however
troublesome, or distressing--in direct ratio with the advantages to be derived by
others from their attainment, or by themselves from their abandonment. Might
not this be the case with Mr. Windenough? In displaying anxiety for the breath
of which he was at present so willing to get rid, might I not lay myself open to
the exactions of his avarice? There are scoundrels in this world, I remembered
with a sigh, who will not scruple to take unfair opportunities with even a next
door neighbor, and (this remark is from Epictetus) it is precisely at that time

Thesaurus
actuated: (adj) motivated, actuate. mislaid: (adj) misplaced, absent, distrust, objection; (n, v) mistrust; (v)
avarice: (n) cupidity, covetousness, disordered, gone astray, not there, falter, question.
rapacity, avariciousness, avidity, missing, lost temporarily. surmount: (v) overcome, conquer,
eagerness, voracity, voraciousness, ANTONYM: (adj) found. subdue, defeat, master, excel,
stinginess; (adj, n) greediness; (adj) neighbor: (v) abut, adjoin, populate, transcend, outstrip, surpass,
extortion. ANTONYMS: (n) touch; (n) acquaintance, vanquish, outmatch. ANTONYMS:
philanthropy, benevolence, charity. neighborhood, national; (adj) (v) yield, fail.
beseech: (v) beg, crave, implore, ask, neighborly, neighbouring, valueless: (adj) useless, futile,
request, adjure, pray, sue, appeal, neighboring, adjacent. ANTONYM: insignificant, meaningless, null,
solicit, plead. ANTONYMS: (v) give, (n) foreigner. unvalued, trifling, of no value,
offer, grant, reject. scruple: (adj, v) hesitate, demur, pause; rubbish, priceless, refuse.
displaying: (n) advertising. (n) hesitation, qualm, misgiving, ANTONYM: (adj) valuable.
156 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

when men are most anxious to throw off the burden of their own calamities that
they feel the least desirous of relieving them in others.%
Upon considerations similar to these, and still retaining my grasp upon the
nose of Mr. W., I accordingly thought proper to model my reply.
“Monster!” I began in a tone of the deepest indignation--”monster and
double-winded idiot!--dost thou, whom for thine iniquities it has pleased heaven
to accurse with a two-fold respimtion--dost thou, I say, presume to address me in
the familiar language of an old acquaintance?--’I lie,’ forsooth! and ‘hold my
tongue,’ to be sure!--pretty conversation indeed, to a gentleman with a single
breath!--all this, too, when I have it in my power to relieve the calamity under
which thou dost so justly suffer--to curtail the superfluities of thine unhappy
respiration.”
Like Brutus, I paused for a reply--with which, like a tornado, Mr.
Windenough immediately overwhelmed me. Protestation followed upon
protestation, and apology upon apology. There were no terms with which he
was unwilling to comply, and there were none of which I failed to take the fullest
advantage.
Preliminaries being at length arranged, my acquaintance delivered me the
respiration; for which (having carefully examined it) I gave him afterward a
receipt.
I am aware that by many I shall be held to blame for speaking in a manner so
cursory, of a transaction so impalpable. It will be thought that I should have
entered more minutely, into the details of an occurrence by which--and this is
very true--much new light might be thrown upon a highly interesting branch of
physical philosophy.
To all this I am sorry that I cannot reply. A hint is the only answer which I am
permitted to make. There were circumstances--but I think it much safer upon
consideration to say as little as possible about an affair so delicate--so delicate, I
repeat, and at the time involving the interests of a third party whose sulphurous
resentment I have not the least desire, at this moment, of incurring.

Thesaurus
accurse: (v) damn, imprecate, forbid, minutely: (adv) precisely, in detail, applicable; (n) encouragement.
execrate, curse. closely, tinily, smally, insignificantly, sulphurous: (adj) stifling, acerb, hot,
forsooth: (adv) really, actually, infinitesimally, diminutively, nicely, sulphureous, infernal, brimstony,
certainly, indeed, in truth, truly, by exactly, microscopically. virulent, caustic, containing acid,
right; (adj) in fact, joking apart; (int) preliminaries: (n) introduction, sultry, burning hot.
quotha. preparation, opening, initiation, superfluities: (n) added extras,
impalpable: (adj) imperceptible, training, preface, preamble. additions, embellishments, trappings,
shadowy, invisible, efflorescent, protestation: (n) protest, objection, accompaniments.
gritty, insubstantial, incorporeal, declaration, outcry, complaint, claim, tornado: (n) storm, hurricane, gale,
inscrutable, ethereal, demur, dissent, opposition, cyclone, squall, whirlwind, twister,
inapprehensible, elusive. statement, affirmation. typhoon, waterspout, windstorm,
ANTONYMS: (adj) tangible, definite. relieving: (adj) pertinent, comforting, crack.
 Edgar Allan Poe 157

We were not long after this necessary arrangement in effecting an escape

from the dungeons of the sepulchre. The united strength of our resuscitated
voices was soon sufficiently apparent. Scissors, the Whig editor, republished a
treatise upon “the nature and origin of subterranean noises.” A reply--rejoinder--
confutation--and justification--followed in the columns of a Democratic Gazette.
It was not until the opening of the vault to decide the controversy, that the
appearance of Mr. Windenough and myself proved both parties to have been
decidedly in the wrong.%
I cannot conclude these details of some very singular passages in a life at all
times sufficiently eventful, without again recalling to the attention of the reader
the merits of that indiscriminate philosophy which is a sure and ready shield
against those shafts of calamity which can neither be seen, felt nor fully
understood. It was in the spirit of this wisdom that, among the ancient Hebrews,
it was believed the gates of Heaven would be inevitably opened to that sinner, or
saint, who, with good lungs and implicit confidence, should vociferate the word
“Amen!” It was in the spirit of this wisdom that, when a great plague raged at
Athens, and every means had been in vain attempted for its removal,
Epimenides, as Laertius relates, in his second book, of that philosopher, advised
the erection of a shrine and temple “to the proper God.”
LYTTLETON BARRY

Thesaurus
effecting: (n) accomplishment, confused, aimless, disorderly, sinner: (n) criminal, miscreant, culprit,
implementation, completing, motley, indiscriminating, irregular; sinful, trespasser, transgressor,
finishing, fulfillment, carrying out; (adj, v) miscellaneous. ANTONYMS: evildoer, magdalen, rascal, villain,
(adj) effectual. (adj) discerning, discriminating, sinners.
eventful: (adj) fateful, weighty, lively, selective, specific, systematic, subterranean: (adj) underground,
important, momentous, memorable, isolated, methodical, deliberate. backdoor, profound, subaqueous,
notable, hectic, significant; (n) recalling: (adj) revocatory; (n) submarine, subterrene, subterrestrial,
stirring; (v) full of incident. recognition. deep, hole-and-corner,
ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, insignificant, sepulchre: (n) mausoleum, burial, subterraneous, subterrany.
ordinary, slow, empty. monument, repository, crypt, vociferate: (v) cry, roar, bawl, exclaim,
indiscriminate: (adj) random, sepulture, burial chamber, tomb, bier; yell, shout out, call, holler, outcry,
haphazard, sweeping, general, (v) inter, bury. scream, utter.
 Edgar Allan Poe 159

THE MAN THAT WAS USED UP

A TALE OF THE LATE BUGABOO AND KICKAPOO CAMPAIGN

Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez vous en eau!

La moitié; de ma vie a mis l’ autre au tombeau.%
--Corneille

I cannot just now remember when or where I first made the acquaintance of
that truly fine-looking fellow, Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith. Some
one did introduce me to the gentleman, I am sure--at some public meeting, I
know very well--held about something of great importance, no doubt--at some
place or other, I feel convinced,--whose name I have unaccountably forgotten.
The truth is--that the introduction was attended, upon my part, with a degree of
anxious embarrassment which operated to prevent any definite impressions of
either time or place. I am constitutionally nervous--this, with me, is a family
failing, and I can’t help it. In especial, the slightest appearance of mystery--of any
point I cannot exactly comprehend--puts me at once into a pitiable state of
agitation.
There was something, as it were, remarkable--yes, remarkable, although this is
but a feeble term to express my full meaning--about the entire individuality of

Thesaurus
acquaintance: (n) connection, friend, deterrent. persuasive, able.
acquaintanceship, mate, awareness, constitutionally: (adv) legally, impressions: (n) impersonation,
associate, buddy, friendship, organically, naturally, innately, imitation.
intercourse, companion; (n, v) lawfully, inbornly, inherently, individuality: (n) character,
knowledge. ANTONYMS: (n) integrally, intrinsically, essentially, individualism, personality,
ignorance, inexperience, constituently. originality, distinctiveness, identity,
unfamiliarity, animosity, enemy. feeble: (adj) delicate, decrepit, ailing, peculiarity, selfhood, ego,
agitation: (n) disturbance, excitement, helpless, powerless, poor, mild, lax, disposition, independence.
tumult, stirring, convulsion, stir, thin; (adj, v) faint, debilitated. ANTONYMS: (n) commonality,
commotion, emotion, unrest, shake, ANTONYMS: (adj) strong, vigorous, sameness, conformity.
turmoil. ANTONYMS: (n) serenity, hearty, tough, effective, powerful, unaccountably: (adv) mysteriously,
calm, equanimity, rest, peace, unrelenting, robust, potent, especially, curiously, bizarrely.
160 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

the personage in question. He was, perhaps, six feet in height, and of a presence
singularly commanding. There was an air distingué pervading the whole man,
which spoke of high breeding, and hinted at high birth. Upon this topic--the
topic of Smith’s personal appearance--I have a kind of melancholy satisfaction in
being minute. His head of hair would have done honor to a Brutus;--nothing
could be more richly flowing, or possess a brighter gloss. It was of a jetty black;--
which was also the color, or more properly the no color of his unimaginable
whiskers. You perceive I cannot speak of these latter without enthusiasm; it is
not too much to say that they were the handsomest pair of whiskers under the
sun. At all events, they encircled, and at times partially overshadowed, a mouth
utterly unequalled. Here were the most entirely even, and the most brilliantly
white of all conceivable teeth. From between them, upon every proper occasion,
issued a voice of surpassing clearness, melody, and strength. In the matter of
eyes, also, my acquaintance was pre-eminently endowed. Either one of such a
pair was worth a couple of the ordinary ocular organs. They were of a deep
hazel, exceedingly large and lustrous; and there was perceptible about them,
ever and anon, just that amount of interesting obliquity which gives pregnancy
to expression.%
The bust of the General was unquestionably the finest bust I ever saw. For
your life you could not have found a fault with its wonderful proportion. This
rare peculiarity set off to great advantage a pair of shoulders which would have
called up a blush of conscious inferiority into the countenance of the marble
Apollo. I have a passion for fine shoulders, and may say that I never beheld them
in perfection before. The arms altogether were admirably modelled. Nor were
the lower limbs less superb. These were, indeed, the ne plus ultra of good legs.
Every connoisseur in such matters admitted the legs to be good. There was
neither too much flesh, nor too little,--neither rudeness nor fragility. I could not
imagine a more graceful curve than that of the os femoris, and there was just that
due gentle prominence in the rear of the fibula which goes to the conformation of
a properly proportioned calf. I wish to God my young and talented friend
Chiponchipino, the sculptor, had but seen the legs of Brevet Brigadier General
John A. B. C. Smith.

Thesaurus
clearness: (n) clarity, brightness, shining, light, luminous, sleek, pervading: (adj) penetrating, general,
distinctness, perspicuity, lucidity, radiant. ANTONYM: (adj) unhealthy. profound, permeating, permeant,
explicitness, sharpness, simplicity, modelled: (adj) patterned. overmastering, lowly, deeply felt,
purity, limpidity, intelligibility. obliquity: (n) inclination, crookedness, intellectually deep, deep, almighty.
ANTONYMS: (n) ambiguity, opacity, slope, depravity, asynclitism, proportioned: (adj) attemperate,
dirtiness, vagueness, unclearness, meretriciousness, deceptiveness, shapely, regular, properly adapted,
obscureness, indistinctness, clutter, grade, deviousness; (adj) pollution, even, balanced. ANTONYM: (adj)
haziness, mustiness. pravity. asymmetrical.
femoris: (n) femur. ocular: (adj, v) visual; (adj) optical, unequalled: (adj) unequaled, unique,
issued: (adj) executed, done. ophthalmic, visible, optic, sensory, alone, peerless, incomparable,
lustrous: (adj, v) bright, splendent; opthalmic, oculary; (n) lens system, matchless, unrivaled, unsurpassed,
(adj) glossy, brilliant, lucid, shiny, lens. unrivalled, solitary, inimitable.
 Edgar Allan Poe 161

But although men so absolutely fine-looking are neither as plenty as reasons

or blackberries, still I could not bring myself to believe that the remarkable
something to which I alluded just now,--that the odd air of je ne sais quoi which
hung about my new acquaintance,--lay altogether, or indeed at all, in the
supreme excellence of his bodily endowments. Perhaps it might be traced to the
manner;--yet here again I could not pretend to be positive. There was a primness,
not to say stiffness, in his carriage--a degree of measured, and, if I may so express
it, of rectangular precision, attending his every movement, which, observed in a
more diminutive figure, would have had the least little savor in the world, of
affectation, pomposity or constraint, but which noticed in a gentleman of his
undoubted dimensions, was readily placed to the account of reserve, hauteur--of
a commendable sense, in short, of what is due to the dignity of colossal
proportion.%
The kind friend who presented me to General Smith whispered in my ear
some few words of comment upon the man. He was a remarkable man--a very
remarkable man--indeed one of the most remarkable men of the age. He was an
especial favorite, too, with the ladies--chiefly on account of his high reputation
for courage.
“In that point he is unrivalled--indeed he is a perfect desperado--a down-
right fire-eater, and no mistake,” said my friend, here dropping his voice
excessively low, and thrilling me with the mystery of his tone.
“A downright fire-eater, and no mistake. Showed that, I should say, to some
purpose, in the late tremendous swamp-fight away down South, with the
Bugaboo and Kickapoo Indians.” [Here my friend opened his eyes to some
extent.] “Bless my soul! --blood and thunder, and all that! --prodigies of valor! --
heard of him of course?--you know he’s the man” ---
“Man alive, how do you do? why, how are ye? very glad to see ye, indeed!”
here interrupted the General himself, seizing my companion by the hand as he
drew near, and bowing stiffly, but profoundly, as I was presented. I then
thought, (and I think so still,) that I never heard a clearer nor a stronger voice,
nor beheld a finer set of teeth : but I must say that I was sorry for the interruption

Thesaurus
bowing: (n) obeisance, playing, lamentable, poor. savor: (n, v) taste, smack, smell,
gesticulation, capitulation, endowments: (n) beneficence, savour; (n) flavor, gusto, sapidity,
genuflection, scraping, submission; accomplishments, advantage. tang, flavour; (v) enjoy, bask.
(adj) bowed, bent, fawning, finer: (adj) superior, advanced, bigger, ANTONYM: (v) dislike.
submissive. higher, more, greater. thrilling: (adj, n) electric; (adj) exciting,
commendable: (adj, n) praiseworthy; fire-eater: (adj) daring, combative, sensational, exhilarating, electrifying,
(adj) admirable, creditable, good, argumentative. emotional, rousing, gripping,
worthy, deserving, meritorious, noticed: (adj) noted. stimulating; (adj, v) impressive; (n, v)
applaudable; (adv) praiseworthily, primness: (n) priggishness, swelling. ANTONYMS: (adj) boring,
laudably, admirably. ANTONYMS: Grundyism, propriety, properness, depressing, discouraging, upsetting,
(adj) unworthy, despicable, correctitude, prudery, prudishness, uninspiring.
contemptible, disgraceful, rotten, reserve, modesty. traced: (adj) graphic.
162 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

just at that moment, as, owing to the whispers and insinuations aforesaid, my
interest had been greatly excited in the hero of the Bugaboo and Kickapoo
campaign.%
However, the delightfully luminous conversation of Brevet Brigadier General
John A. B. C. Smith soon completely dissipated this chagrin. My friend leaving
us immediately, we had quite a long tête-à-tête, and I was not only pleased but
really--instructed. I never heard a more fluent talker, or a man of greater general
information. With becoming modesty, he forebore, nevertheless, to touch upon
the theme I had just then most at heart--I mean the mysterious circumstances
attending the Bugaboo war--and, on my own part, what I conceive to be a proper
sense of delicacy forbade me to broach the subject; although, in truth, I was
exceedingly tempted to do so. I perceived, too, that the gallant soldier preferred
topics of philosophical interest, and that he delighted, especially, in commenting
upon the rapid march of mechanical invention. Indeed, lead him where I would,
this was a point to which he invariably came back.
“There is nothing at all like it,” he would say; “we are a wonderful people,
and live in a wonderful age. Parachutes and rail-roads--man-traps and spring-
guns! Our steam-boats are upon every sea, and the Nassau balloon packet is
about to run regular trips (fare either way only twenty pounds sterling) between
London and Timbuctoo. And who shall calculate the immense influence upon
social life--upon arts--upon commerce--upon literature--which will be the
immediate result of the great principles of electro magnetics! Nor, is this all, let
me assure you! There is really no end to the march of invention. The most
wonderful--the most ingenious--and let me add, Mr. --Mr. --Thompson, I believe,
is your name--let me add, I say, the most useful--the most truly useful mechanical
contrivances, are daily springing up like mushrooms, if I may so express myself,
or, more figuratively, like--ah--grasshoppers--like grasshoppers, Mr. Thompson-
-about us and ah--ah--ah--around us!”
Thompson, to be sure, is not my name; but it is needless to say that I left
General Smith with a heightened interest in the man, with an exalted opinion of
his conversational powers, and a deep sense of the valuable privileges we enjoy

Thesaurus
aforesaid: (adj) aforenamed, said, pride, satisfaction. factually.
foregoing, above-mentioned, same, dissipated: (adj, v) fast; (adj) dissolute, heightened: (adj) excited, intense,
preceding, former, foresaid. immoral, abandoned, profligate, irritate, keen, resonant, sensitive.
broach: (v) bring up, mention, raise, prodigal, gay, rakish, degenerate, magnetics: (n) magnetism, geophysics,
suggest, tap, open; (n, v) propose, squandered, licentious. geophysical science, magnetic
utter; (n) advance, drift, propound. ANTONYMS: (adj) upright, moral. attraction, magnetic force.
ANTONYMS: (v) close, suppress. electro: (n) electrotype. perceived: (adj) sensed, apparent,
chagrin: (n) mortification, vexation, figuratively: (adv) allegorically, supposed, professed, ostensible.
annoyance, shame, disappointment, symbolically, tropically, typically, talker: (n) speaker, conversationalist,
letdown, humiliation; (n, v) disquiet, representatively, parabolically, orator, chatterbox, babbler, raver,
gangrene; (v) disappoint, mortify. parabolicly, flowerily, symbolicly, stammerer, chatterer, speechmaker,
ANTONYMS: (v) please, delight; (n) floridly, figurally. ANTONYM: (adv) caller, mutterer.
 Edgar Allan Poe 163

in living in this age of mechanical invention. My curiosity, however, had not

been altogether satisfied, and I resolved to prosecute immediate inquiry among
my acquaintances touching the Brevet Brigadier General himself, and
particularly respecting the tremendous events quorum pars magna fuit, during the
Bugaboo and Kickapoo campaign.%
The first opportunity which presented itself, and which (horresco referens) I
did not in the least scruple to seize, occurred at the Church of the Reverend
Doctor Drummummupp, where I found myself established, one Sunday, just at
sermon time, not only in the pew, but by the side, of that worthy and
communicative little friend of mine, Miss Tabitha T. Thus seated, I congratulated
myself, and with much reason, upon the very flattering state of affairs. If any
person knew anything about Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith, that
person, it was clear to me, was Miss Tabitha T. We telegraphed a few signals, and
then commenced, soto voce, a brisk tête-à-tête.
“Smith!” said she, in reply to my very earnest inquiry; “Smith! --why, not
General John A. B. C.? Bless me, I thought you knew all about him! This is a
wonderfully inventive age! Horrid affair that! --a bloody set of wretches, those
Kickapoos! --fought like a hero--prodigies of valor--immortal renown. Smith!--
Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C.! why, you know he’s the man” ---
“Man,” here broke in Doctor Drummummupp, at the top of his voice, and
with a thump that came near knocking the pulpit about our ears; “man that is
born of a woman hath but a short time to live; he cometh up and is cut down like
a flower!” I started to the extremity of the pew, and perceived by the animated
looks of the divine, that the wrath which had nearly proved fatal to the pulpit
had been excited by the whispers of the lady and myself. There was no help for
it; so I submitted with a good grace, and listened, in all the martyrdom of
dignified silence, to the balance of that very capital discourse.
Next evening found me a somewhat late visitor at the Rantipole theatre,
where I felt sure of satisfying my curiosity at once, by merely stepping into the
box of those exquisite specimens of affability and omniscience, the Misses
Arabella and Miranda Cognoscenti. That fine tragedian, Climax, was doing Iago

Thesaurus
affability: (n) geniality, courtesy, unflattering, unattractive, wounding, distinction, eminence, notoriety,
cordiality, amiability, affableness, uncomplimentary, negative; (adv) kudos, name, popularity, prestige,
politeness, friendliness, amenity, partially. prominence, honor. ANTONYMS: (n)
sociability, kindness, amiableness. martyrdom: (n) torture, suffering, infamy, commonness; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) unfriendliness, calvary, agony, pain, ordeal, anonymity.
frostiness, incivility, remoteness, Golgotha; (adj) devotion, suttee, respecting: (prep) about, regarding,
reserve, rudeness. stoicism; (v) vivisection. apropos, as regards, pertaining to;
flattering: (adj) ingratiating, omniscience: (n) omnipotence, (adj) relative, not absolute,
complimentary, courtly, obsequious, pantology, state, omnisciency, pertaining, referring, loving.
adulatory, fulsome, bland, candied, omnipresence. stepping: (n) steps.
smooth, encouraging; (n) flattery. quorum: (n) gathering. tragedian: (n) thespian, comedian, role
ANTONYMS: (adj) assertive, critical, renown: (n, v) fame; (n) glory, player, histrion, actor, author, player.
164 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

to a very crowded house, and I experienced some little difficulty in making my

wishes understood; especially, as our box was next the slips, and completely
overlooked the stage.%
“Smith?” said Miss Arabella, as she at length comprehended the purport of
my query; “Smith? --why, not General John A. B. C.?”
“Smith?” inquired Miranda, musingly. “God bless me, did you ever behold a
finer figure?”
“Never, madam, but do tell me” ---
“Or so inimitable grace?”
“Never, upon my word! --But pray inform me” ---
“Or so just an appreciation of stage effect?”
“Madam!”
“Or a more delicate sense of the true beauties of Shakespeare? Be so good as
to look at that leg!”
“The devil!” and I turned again to her sister.
“Smith?” said she, “why, not General John A. B. C.? Horrid affair that, wasn’t
it? --great wretches, those Bugaboos--savage and so on--but we live in a
wonderfully inventive age! --Smith! --O yes! great man! --perfect desperado--
immortal renown--prodigies of valor! Never heard!” [This was given in a scream.]
“Bless my soul! why, he’s the man---”

“----- mandragora
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owd’st yesterday!”

here roared our Climax just in my ear, and shaking his fist in my face all the time,
in a way that I couldn’t stand, and I wouldn’t. I left the Misses Cognoscenti

Thesaurus
behold: (v) see, view, contemplate, innovative, originative, productive, gigabyte, Gb, curtilage.
regard, perceive, observe, look, artistic, bright; (adj, v) original. wishes: (n) desires, requirements,
consider, discern, descry, watch. ANTONYMS: (adj) unoriginal, requests, needs, will.
ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, disregard, uninventive, stale, hackneyed. wonderfully: (adv) superbly,
ignore, overlook. mandragora: (n) genus mandragora. astonishingly, terrifically,
horrid: (adj) grisly, ghastly, ugly, overlooked: (adj) ignored, neglected, magnificently, fantastically,
gruesome, grim, fearful, dreadful, unobserved, unnoted, unmarked. marvellously, wondrously,
direful, dire, horrible, fearsome. purport: (n, v) aim, amount; (n) intent, amazingly, excellently; (adj, adv)
ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, nice, drift, intention, meaning, end, effect, strangely, famously. ANTONYMS:
appealing, attractive, kind. design; (v) mean, propose. (adv) awfully, unpleasantly, poorly,
inventive: (adj) imaginative, thou: (n) chiliad, grand, m, g, one abysmally, unremarkably, mildly,
ingenious, clever, fertile, resourceful, thousand, gramme, gram, gm, horribly, badly, incompetently.
 Edgar Allan Poe 165

immediately, went behind the scenes forthwith, and gave the beggarly scoundrel
such a thrashing as I trust he will remember to the day of his death.%
At the soirée of the lovely widow, Mrs. Kathleen O’Trump, I was confident
that I should meet with no similar disappointment. Accordingly, I was no sooner
seated at the card-table, with my pretty hostess for a vis-à-vis, than I propounded
those questions the solution of which had become a matter so essential to my
peace.
“Smith?” said my partner, “why, not General John A. B. C.? Horrid affair
that, wasn’t it? --diamonds, did you say? --terrible wretches those Kickapoos! --
we are playing whist, if you please, Mr. Tattle--however, this is the age of
invention, most certainly the age, one may say--the age par excellence--speak
French? --oh, quite a hero--perfect desperado!--no hearts, Mr. Tattle? I don’t
believe it! --immortal renown and all that! --prodigies of valor! Never heard!!--
why, bless me, he’s the man” ---
“Mann? --Captain Mann?” here screamed some little feminine interloper from
the farthest corner of the room. “Are you talking about Captain Mann and the
duel? --oh, I must hear--do tell--go on, Mrs. O’Trump! --do now go on!” And go
on Mrs. O’Trump did--all about a certain Captain Mann, who was either shot or
hung, or should have been both shot and hung. Yes! Mrs. O’Trump, she went on,
and I--I went off. There was no chance of hearing anything farther that evening
in regard to Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith.
Still I consoled myself with the reflection that the tide of ill luck would not
run against me forever, and so determined to make a bold push for information
at the rout of that bewitching little angel, the graceful Mrs. Pirouette.
“Smith?” said Mrs. P., as we twirled about together in a pas de zephyr,
“Smith? --why, not General John A. B. C.? Dreadful business that of the
Bugaboos, wasn’t it? --dreadful creatures, those Indians! --do turn out your toes! I
really am ashamed of you--man of great courage, poor fellow! --but this is a
wonderful age for invention--O dear me, I’m out of breath--quite a desperado--
prodigies of valor--never heard!!--can’t believe it--I shall have to sit down and
enlighten you--Smith! why, he’s the man” ---

Thesaurus
beggarly: (adj) base, mean, shabby, enlighten: (v) advise, edify, educate, tattle: (v) gossip, babble, chat, chatter,
sorry, miserable, poor, humble, inform, clarify, apprise, instruct, blather, snitch, blabber, talk, prate,
pitiable, ignoble; (adj, n) scrubby, illuminate, clear, notify; (adj, v) prattle, blither. ANTONYMS: (v)
vile. lighten. ANTONYMS: (v) puzzle, hide, conceal.
bewitching: (adj, v) charming, obfuscate, mystify, confound, cloud, whist: (adj) quiet, noiseless; (n) long
fascinating, captivating, engaging; brutalize, bewilder, muddle. whist, short whist, whisk, tut, tush,
(adj) attractive, seductive, lovely, hearts: (n) Black Maria, spades. dummy whist, cards, card game; (v)
winning, entrancing, enthralling; (v) interloper: (adj, n) stranger, alien; (n) shut up.
bewitch. encroacher, trespasser, invader, zephyr: (n) wind, air, breath, gentle
duel: (v) combat, duello, contest, buck, boarder, bodkin, foreigner, wind, whiff, puff, gentle breeze,
repel, resist; (n, v) fight, tilt; (n) affaire gatecrasher, go between, unknown. aviation; (v) Boreas, Eolus, cave of
d'honneur, monomachy, prize fight. ANTONYM: (n) native. Eolus.
166 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“Man-Fred, I tell you!” here bawled out Miss Bas-Bleu, as I led Mrs. Pirouette
to a seat. “Did ever anybody hear the like? It’s Man-Fred, I say, and not at all by
any means Man-Friday.” Here Miss Bas-Bleu beckoned to me in a very
peremptory manner; and I was obliged, will I nill I, to leave Mrs. P. for the
purpose of deciding a dispute touching the title of a certain poetical drama of
Lord Byron’s. Although I pronounced, with great promptness, that the true title
was Man-Friday, and not by any means Man-Fred, yet when I returned to seek
Mrs. Pirouette she was not to be discovered, and I made my retreat from the
house in a very bitter spirit of animosity against the whole race of the Bas-
Bleus.%
Matters had now assumed a really serious aspect, and I resolved to call at
once upon my particular friend, Mr. Theodore Sinivate; for I knew that here at
least I should get something like definite information.
“Smith?” said he, in his well-known peculiar way of drawling out his
syllables; “Smith? --why, not General John A. B. C.? Savage affair that with the
Kickapo-o-o-os, wasn’t it? Say! don’t you think so? --perfect despera-a-ado--great
pity, ‘pon my honor!--wonderfully inventive age! --pro-o-odigies of valor! By the
by, did you ever hear about Captain Ma-a-a-a-n?”
“Captain Mann be d--d!” said I; “please to go on with your story.”
“Hem! --oh well! --quite la même cho-o-ose, as we say in France. Smith, eh?
Brigadier-General John A. B. C.? I say”--[here Mr. S. thought proper to put his
finger to the side of his nose]--“I say, you don’t mean to insinuate now, really
and truly, and conscientiously, that you don’t know all about that affair of
Smith’s, as well as I do, eh? Smith? John A-B-C.? Why, bless me, he’s the ma-a-
an” ---
“Mr. Sinivate,” said I, imploringly, “is he the man in the mask?”
“No-o-o!” said he, looking wise, “nor the man in the mo-o-on.”
This reply I considered a pointed and positive insult, and so left the house at
once in high dudgeon, with a firm resolve to call my friend, Mr. Sinivate, to a
speedy account for his ungentlemanly conduct and ill-breeding.

Thesaurus
animosity: (n) hatred, enmity, anger, overbearing, decisive, magisterial; speedy: (adj, v) rapid, prompt, fleet,
malice, rancor, resentment, venom, (adj, v) authoritative, dogmatic, flat, swift; (adj) fast, agile, ready,
bad blood, antagonism, spite, absolute; (v) decided. ANTONYM: immediate, cursory, hurried, brisk.
abhorrence. ANTONYMS: (n) (adj) polite. ANTONYMS: (adj) leisurely,
companionship, affection, love, poetical: (adj) imaginative, rhetorical, plodding.
friendship, harmony, goodwill, poematic, figurative, inventive. ungentlemanly: (adj) ribald,
cooperation. promptness: (n) promptitude, agility, discourteous, shabby, uncouth,
imploringly: (adv) beseechingly, celerity, readiness, eagerness, unrefined, impolite.
pleadingly, importunately, expedition, dispatch, rapidity, well-known: (adj) noted, prominent,
beggingly, suppliantly, appealingly. alacrity, punctuality, speed. renowned, celebrated, distinguished,
peremptory: (adj) imperious, ANTONYMS: (n) slowness, known, familiar, eminent, notorious,
commanding, dictatorial, sluggishness, tardiness, delay. reputable, outstanding.
 Edgar Allan Poe 167

In the meantime, however, I had no notion of being thwarted touching the

information I desired. There was one resource left me yet. I would go to the
fountain-head. I would call forthwith upon the General himself, and demand, in
explicit terms, a solution of this abominable piece of mystery. Here, at least,
there should be no chance for equivocation. I would be plain, positive,
peremptory--as short as pie-crust--as concise as Tacitus or Montesquieu.%
It was early when I called, and the General was dressing; but I pleaded
urgent business, and was shown at once into his bed-room by an old negro valet,
who remained in attendance during my visit. As I entered the chamber, I looked
about, of course, for the occupant, but did not immediately perceive him. There
was a large and exceedingly odd-looking bundle of something which lay close by
my feet on the floor, and, as I was not in the best humor in the world, I gave it a
kick out of the way.
“Hem! ahem! rather civil that, I should say!” said the bundle, in one of the
smallest, and altogether the funniest little voices, between a squeak and a
whistle, that I ever heard in all the days of my existence.
“Ahem! rather civil that, I should observe.”
I fairly shouted with terror, and made off, at a tangent, into the farthest
extremity of the room.
“God bless me! my dear fellow,” here again whistled the bundle, “what--
what--what--why, what is the matter? I really believe you don’t know me at all.”
What could I say to all this--what could I? I staggered into an arm-chair, and,
with staring eyes and open mouth, awaited the solution of the wonder.
“Strange you shouldn’t know me though, isn’t it?” presently re-squeaked the
nondescript, which I now perceived was performing, upon the floor, some
inexplicable evolution, very analogous to the drawing on of a stocking. There
was only a single leg, however, apparent.
“Strange you shouldn’t know me, though, isn’t it? Pompey, bring me that
leg!” Here Pompey handed the bundle, a very capital cork leg, already dressed,
which it screwed on in a trice; and then it stood up before my eyes.

Thesaurus
abominable: (adj, v) odious, foul; (adj) misrepresentation, hedging, creak, screak, scrape.
abhorrent, detestable, dreadful, equivocalness, tergiversation, tangent: (n) digression, aside, tan,
awful, execrable, terrible, loathsome, circumlocution, deception; (n, v) grade, departure, burn, tack, suntan,
cursed, wicked. ANTONYMS: (adj) shuffling. sunburn, straight line.
nice, lovable, admirable, alluring, feet: (v) legs, pegs, pins, trotters; (n) thwarted: (adj) disappointed, foiled,
appealing, commendable, laudable, foots, ft, fete, meter, rescue. discomfited, defeated, not victorious,
delightful, desirable, enjoyable, occupant: (n) tenant, inhabitant, baffled, balked, beaten, upset,
likable. dweller, denizen, occupier, inmate, embarrassed, saddened. ANTONYM:
awaited: (adj) expected, appointed, holder, citizen, householder, (adj) satisfied.
scheduled, forthcoming, prospective. dalesman, coaster. trice: (n) minute, instant, jiffy, flash,
equivocation: (n) evasion, quibble, squeak: (n, v) screech, shriek, scream, second, twinkling, breath, wink,
ambiguity, casuistry, peep, yell, howl, chirp, cheep; (v) blink of an eye, split second, while.
168 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

“And a bloody action it was,” continued the thing, as if in a soliloquy; “but

then one mustn’t fight with the Bugaboos and Kickapoos, and think of coming
off with a mere scratch. Pompey, I’ll thank you now for that arm. Thomas”
[turning to me] “is decidedly the best hand at a cork leg; but if you should ever
want an arm, my dear fellow, you must really let me recommend you to Bishop.”
Here Pompey screwed on an arm.%
“We had rather hot work of it, that you may say. Now, you dog, slip on my
shoulders and bosom! Pettitt makes the best shoulders, but for a bosom you will
have to go to Ducrow.”
“Bosom!” said I.
“Pompey, will you never be ready with that wig? Scalping is a rough process
after all; but then you can procure such a capital scratch at De L’Orme’s.”
“Scratch!”
“Now, you nigger, my teeth! For a good set of these you had better go to
Parmly’s at once; high prices, but excellent work. I swallowed some very capital
articles, though, when the big Bugaboo rammed me down with the butt end of
his rifle.”
“Butt end! ram down!! my eye!!”
“O yes, by-the-by, my eye--here, Pompey, you scamp, screw it in! Those
Kickapoos are not so very slow at a gouge; but he’s a belied man, that Dr.
Williams, after all; you can’t imagine how well I see with the eyes of his make.”
I now began very clearly to perceive that the object before me was nothing
more nor less than my new acquaintance, Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C.
Smith. The manipulations of Pompey had made, I must confess, a very striking
difference in the appearance of the personal man. The voice, however, still
puzzled me no little; but even this apparent mystery was speedily cleared up.
“Pompey, you black rascal,” squeaked the General, “I really do believe you
would let me go out without my palate.”
Hereupon, the negro, grumbling out an apology, went up to his master,
opened his mouth with the knowing air of a horse-jockey, and adjusted therein a
Thesaurus
butt: (v) bunt, abut; (n) extremity, ANTONYMS: (adv) uncertainly, gain, have, purchase, induce, derive,
stump, grip, stub, rump, cask, rear, equivocally, slightly, vaguely. find. ANTONYM: (v) give.
tail; (n, v) edge. grumbling: (n) grumble, growling, scalping: (n) defeat.
confess: (adj, v) own, allow, admit, murmur, murmuring, mutter, scamp: (n) rascal, imp, miscreant,
avow; (v) concede, profess, recognize, muttering; (adj, n) rumbling; (adv) scalawag, rogue, monkey, villain,
divulge, disclose, reveal, receive. grumblingly; (adj) grouchy, grumpy, brat, scallywag, rapscallion; (v)
ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, hide, irritable. skimp.
dispute, conceal, repress, harbor. nigger: (adj) blackamoor, Negro, man screwed: (adj) threaded, firm,
decidedly: (adv) clearly, positively, of color; (n) darky, spade, darkie, maudlin, muddled, muzzy, raddled,
definitely, absolutely, emphatically, boy, jigaboo, black person, Ethiop, corned; (n) whittled.
decisively, resolutely, firmly, nigra. soliloquy: (n) language, oral
markedly, surely, determinedly. procure: (v) get, obtain, buy, earn, win, communication, apostrophe.
 Edgar Allan Poe 169

somewhat singular-looking machine, in a very dexterous manner, that I could

not altogether comprehend. The alteration, however, in the entire expression of
the General’s countenance was instantaneous and surprising. When he again
spoke, his voice had resumed all that rich melody and strength which I had
noticed upon our original introduction.%
“D--n the vagabonds!” said he, in so clear a tone that I positively started at
the change, “D--n the vagabonds! they not only knocked in the roof of my
mouth, but took the trouble to cut off at least seven-eighths of my tongue. There
isn’t Bonfanti’s equal, however, in America, for really good articles of this
description. I can recommend you to him with confidence,” [here the General
bowed,] “ and assure you that I have the greatest pleasure in so doing.”
I acknowledged his kindness in my best manner, and took leave of him at
once, with a perfect understanding of the true state of affairs--with a full
comprehension of the mystery which had troubled me so long. It was evident. It
was a clear case. Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith was the man ---
was the man that was used up.

Thesaurus
alteration: (n) adjustment, change, intelligence, grasp, wit, capacity, graciousness, humanity, goodness,
revision, shift, changeover, familiarity, discernment, uptake. affection; (adj, n) courtesy, gentleness.
conversion, modification, variation, ANTONYMS: (n) incomprehension, ANTONYMS: (n) miserliness, spite,
reversal, metamorphosis, ignorance. nastiness, callousness, cruelty,
amendment. ANTONYMS: (n) fixity, instantaneous: (adj) immediate, unfriendliness, maliciousness,
preservation. prompt, sudden, precipitate, thoughtlessness, sourness, severity,
brevet: (n) sanction, papers, firman, momentary, abrupt, precipitous, disservice.
exequatur, diploma, dispensation, precipitant, swift, momentaneous, melody: (n) air, tune, music, measure,
edict, writ, errand; (v) elevate, quick. ANTONYMS: (adj) gradual, harmony, aria, song, strain, line,
promote. delayed, considered. melodic phrase; (n, v) chant.
comprehension: (n) knowledge, kindness: (n) generosity, clemency, started: (adv) happening, in progress,
inclusion, conception, understanding, compassion, grace, good will, ongoing; (v) stert, leaped.
 Edgar Allan Poe 171

THE BUSINESS MAN

Method is the soul of business.%

--Old Saying

I am a business man. I am a methodical man. Method is the thing, after all.

But there are no people I more heartily despise than your eccentric fools who
prate about method without understanding it; attending strictly to its letter, and
violating its spirit. These fellows are always doing the most out-of-the-way
things in what they call an orderly manner. Now here, I conceive, is a positive
paradox. True method appertains to the ordinary and the obvious alone, and
cannot be applied to the outre. What definite idea can a body attach to such
expressions as “methodical Jack o’ Dandy,” or “a systematical Will o’ the
Wisp”?
My notions upon this head might not have been so clear as they are, but for a
fortunate accident which happened to me when I was a very little boy. A good-
hearted old Irish nurse (whom I shall not forget in my will) took me up one day
by the heels, when I was making more noise than was necessary, and swinging
me round two or knocked my head into a cocked hat against the bedpost. This, I
say, decided my fate, and made my fortune. A bump arose at once on my
sinciput, and turned out to be as pretty an organ of order as one shall see on a

Thesaurus
bump: (n, v) bang, crash, knock, jolt, heartily: (adv) cordially, sincerely, unprofessional, disorderly,
clash, bash, hit, push, jar; (n) blow, enthusiastically, warmly, strongly, unscientific, inconsistent.
bulge. ANTONYMS: (v) glide, earnestly, vigorously, ardently, outre: (adj) bizarre, freakish, freaky,
promote, sail; (n) hollow. soundly, devoutly, eagerly. outlandish, flaky, remarkable, stilted,
despise: (v) disdain, loathe, ANTONYMS: (adv) feebly, bombastic; (adj, v) extravagant; (v)
depreciate, abhor, dislike, detest, languorously. fabulous, egregious.
slight, hate; (n, v) contemn; (n) methodical: (adj) methodic, formal, prate: (n, v) gossip, chatter, prattle,
contempt, deride. ANTONYMS: (v) systematic, regular, organized, tattle; (v) jabber, gab, chat, natter,
respect, love, adore, appreciate, businesslike, neat, precise, exact, clack, palaver, gabble.
cherish, like, praise, accept. correct, meticulous. ANTONYMS: sinciput: (n) os, bone.
expressions: (n) vocabulary, terms, (adj) careless, illogical, chaotic, systematical: (adj) methodical.
language. aimless, thoughtless, haphazard, violating: (adj) illegal.
172 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

summer’s day. Hence that positive appetite for system and regularity which has
made me the distinguished man of business that I am.%
If there is any thing on earth I hate, it is a genius. Your geniuses are all arrant
asses--the greater the genius the greater the ass--and to this rule there is no
exception whatever. Especially, you cannot make a man of business out of a
genius, any more than money out of a Jew, or the best nutmegs out of pine-knots.
The creatures are always going off at a tangent into some fantastic employment,
or ridiculous speculation, entirely at variance with the “fitness of things,” and
having no business whatever to be considered as a business at all. Thus you may
tell these characters immediately by the nature of their occupations. If you ever
perceive a man setting up as a merchant or a manufacturer, or going into the
cotton or tobacco trade, or any of those eccentric pursuits; or getting to be a
drygoods dealer, or soap-boiler, or something of that kind; or pretending to be a
lawyer, or a blacksmith, or a physician--any thing out of the usual way--you
may set him down at once as a genius, and then, according to the rule-of-three,
he’s an ass.
Now I am not in any respect a genius, but a regular business man. My Day-
book and Ledger will evince this in a minute. They are well kept, though I say it
myself; and, in my general habits of accuracy and punctuality, I am not to be
beat by a clock. Moreover, my occupations have been always made to chime in
with the ordinary habitudes of my fellowmen. Not that I feel the least indebted,
upon this score, to my exceedingly weak-minded parents, who, beyond doubt,
would have made an arrant genius of me at last, if my guardian angel had not
come, in good time, to the rescue. In biography the truth is every thing, and in
autobiography it is especially so--yet I scarcely hope to be believed when I state,
however solemnly, that my poor father put me, when I was about fifteen years
of age, into the counting-house of what be termed “a respectable hardware and
commission merchant doing a capital bit of business!” A capital bit of
fiddlestick! However, the consequence of this folly was, that in two or three
days, I had to be sent home to my button-headed family in a high state of fever,
and with a most violent and dangerous pain in the sinciput, all around about my

Thesaurus
arrant: (adj) rank, unmitigated, chime: (n) carillon, melody; (adj) punctuality: (n) accuracy, precision,
thorough, stark, utter, ill, gross, harmonize; (v) go, jingle, clang, peal, nicety, exactitude, truth, fidelity,
infamous, bad, blatant, base. tinkle, buzz, ring, chimb. exactness, promptitude, steadiness;
ANTONYM: (adj) minor. drygoods: (n) haberdashery, soft (adj) rigor, mathematical precision.
autobiography: (n) biography, goods. ANTONYM: (n) tardiness.
memoirs, memoir, life story, life, fiddlestick: (n) bow, violin bow; (adj) pursuits: (n) diversion, duties.
diary, life history, journal, story, fiddlestick end. solemnly: (adv) earnestly, gravely,
history. indebted: (adj) grateful, appreciative, majestically, stately, sternly, staidly,
blacksmith: (n) farrier, horseshoer, thankful, obliged, liable, insolvent, thoughtfully, soberly, formally,
forger, locksmith, metalworker, broke; (prep) beholden, debted; (n) ceremoniously, importantly.
sailmaker, wheelwright, smithy, debtor; (v) owe. ANTONYM: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adv) cheerfully,
smith. ungrateful. flippantly.
 Edgar Allan Poe 173

organ of order. It was nearly a gone case with me then--just touch-and-go for six
weeks--the physicians giving me up and all that sort of thing. But, although I
suffered much, I was a thankful boy in the main. I was saved from being a
“respectable hardware and commission merchant, doing a capital bit of
business,” and I felt grateful to the protuberance which had been the means of
my salvation, as well as to the kindhearted female who had originally put these
means within my reach.%
The most of boys run away from home at ten or twelve years of age, but I
waited till I was sixteen. I don’t know that I should have gone even then, if I had
not happened to hear my old mother talk about setting me up on my own hook
in the grocery way. The grocery way!--only think of that! I resolved to be off
forthwith, and try and establish myself in some decent occupation, without
dancing attendance any longer upon the caprices of these eccentric old people,
and running the risk of being made a genius of in the end. In this project I
succeeded perfectly well at the first effort, and by the time I was fairly eighteen,
found myself doing an extensive and profitable business in the Tailor’s Walking-
Advertisement line.
I was enabled to discharge the onerous duties of this profession, only by that
rigid adherence to system which formed the leading feature of my mind. A
scrupulous method characterized my actions as well as my accounts. In my case
it was method--not money--which made the man: at least all of him that was not
made by the tailor whom I served. At nine, every morning, I called upon that
individual for the clothes of the day. Ten o’clock found me in some fashionable
promenade or other place of public amusement. The precise regularity with
which I turned my handsome person about, so as to bring successively into view
every portion of the suit upon my back, was the admiration of all the knowing
men in the trade. Noon never passed without my bringing home a customer to
the house of my employers, Messrs. Cut & Comeagain. I say this proudly, but
with tears in my eyes--for the firm proved themselves the basest of ingrates. The
little account, about which we quarreled and finally parted, cannot, in any item,
be thought overcharged, by gentlemen really conversant with the nature of the

Thesaurus
grocery: (n) foodstuff, marketplace, arduous, tough, weighty, taxing, meticulous, rigorous, cautious.
grocery store, preserve, supermarket, oppressive, formidable. ANTONYMS: (adj) sloppy,
julep, jam, mart, food market, ANTONYMS: (adj) easy, effortless. unscrupulous, slapdash, relaxed,
confiture, consumer goods. promenade: (n, v) stroll, walk, amble, guilty, deceitful.
kindhearted: (adj) kind, kindly, ramble; (v) march, parade; (n) successively: (adv) in turn, one after
generous, obliging, kind-hearted, esplanade, perambulation, prom, the other, in succession, sequentially,
merciful, good-hearted, gracious, ball, mall. serially, running, in order, gradually,
gentle, humane, charitable. saved: (adj) protected, economized, subsequently, repeatedly, one after
ANTONYMS: (adj) unfeeling, callous, rescued, blessed. another.
cold, hardhearted, rough. scrupulous: (adj) careful, punctilious, tailor: (v) sew, fashion, shape,
onerous: (adj) hard, difficult, exact, conscientious, particular, accommodate, design, cut, adjust, fit;
laborious, heavy, cumbersome, painstaking, accurate, prudent, (n) snip, dressmaker, sartor.
174 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

business. Upon this point, however, I feel a degree of proud satisfaction in

permitting the reader to judge for himself. My bill ran thus:%

Messrs. Cut & Comeagain, Merchant Tailors.

To Peter Proffit, Walking Advertiser, Drs.
July 10 To promenade, as usual and customer
brought home... $00 25
July 11 To do do do 25
July 12 To one lie, second class; damaged black
cloth sold for invisible green 25
July 13 To one lie, first class, extra quality and size;
recommended milled satinet as broadcloth 75
July 20 To purchasing bran new paper shirt collar
or dickey, to set off gray Petersham 02
Aug. 15 To wearing double-padded bobtail frock,
(thermometer 106 in the shade). 25
Aug. 16 Standing on one leg three hours, to show off
new-style strapped pants at 12 1/2 cents
per leg per hour 37½
Aug. 17 To promenade, as usual, and large customer
brought (fat man) 50
Aug. 18 To do do (medium size) 25
Aug. 19 To do do (small man and bad pay). 06

TOTAL [sic] $2 95½

The item chiefly disputed in this bill was the very moderate charge of two
pennies for the dickey. Upon my word of honor, this was not an unreasonable

Thesaurus
bobtail: (n) dock, bob, sheepdog, debatable. knickerbockers, underpants, chinos,
bobtail tractor, bobsleigh, bobsled, frock: (n) dress, gown, clothing, attire, cords, denim, bloomers, flannel, knee
bobfloat, bobber; (adj) bobtailed, robe, kirtle, habit, clothes, coat, pants.
caudated. chemise, caftan. pennies: (n) change.
bran: (adj) farina, sporule, flour, gray: (adj) dull, dim, bleak, gloomy, purchasing: (n) buying, purchase, buy,
paddy, rice, meal; (n) stubble, pale, grizzled, hoary, leaden, old, buy-out, purchases, shopping,
cellulose, roughage, fiber, bren. overcast; (n) grizzle. ANTONYMS: transaction, sale, catalog buying,
broadcloth: (n) fabric. (adj) sunny, cheerful, clear, youthful. ownership.
dickey: (n) backseat, shirtfront, dickie. milled: (adj) pulverized, milt, Millen, strapped: (adj) impecunious, poor,
disputed: (adj) moot, disputable, crushed, powdered, polished, penniless, late, poverty-stricken,
opposed, open to discussion, minced, dressed, beaten, broken up. short of money, impoverished,
uncertain, dubious, doubtful, pants: (n) knickers, trousers, drawers, destitute, insolvent, indigent.
 Edgar Allan Poe 175

price for that dickey. It was one of the cleanest and prettiest little dickeys I ever
saw; and I have good reason to believe that it effected the sale of three
Petershams. The elder partner of the firm, however, would allow me only one
penny of the charge, and took it upon himself to show in what manner four of
the same sized conveniences could be got out of a sheet of foolscap. But it is
needless to say that I stood upon the principle of the thing. Business is business,
and should be done in a business way. There was no system whatever in
swindling me out of a penny--a clear fraud of fifty per cent--no method in any
respect. I left at once the employment of Messrs. Cut & Comeagain, and set up in
the Eye-Sore line by myself--one of the most lucrative, respectable, and
independent of the ordinary occupations.%
My strict integrity, economy, and rigorous business habits, here again came
into play. I found myself driving a flourishing trade, and soon became a marked
man upon ‘Change. The truth is, I never dabbled in flashy matters, but jogged on
in the good old sober routine of the calling--a calling in which I should, no doubt,
have remained to the present hour, but for a little accident which happened to
me in the prosecution of one of the usual business operations of the profession.
Whenever a rich old hunks or prodigal heir or bankrupt corporation gets into
the notion of putting up a palace, there is no such thing in the world as stopping
either of them, and this every intelligent person knows. The fact in question is
indeed the basis of the Eye-Sore trade. As soon, therefore, as a building-project is
fairly afoot by one of these parties, we merchants secure a nice corner of the lot
in contemplation, or a prime little situation just adjoining, or tight in front. This
done, we wait until the palace is half-way up, and then we pay some tasty
architect to run us up an ornamental mud hovel, right against it; or a Down-East
or Dutch Pagoda, or a pig-sty, or an ingenious little bit of fancy work, either
Esquimau, Kickapoo, or Hottentot. Of course we can’t afford to take these
structures down under a bonus of five hundred per cent upon the prime cost of
our lot and plaster. Can we? I ask the question. I ask it of business men. It would
be irrational to suppose that we can. And yet there was a rascally corporation
which asked me to do this very thing--this very thing! I did not reply to their
absurd proposition, of course; but I felt it a duty to go that same night, and lamp-

Thesaurus
afoot: (n) afloat, prevalent; (v) on foot, foolscap: (v) table, vellum, tablet, lickpenny, scrimp.
on the tapis, agoing; (adv) walking, marble, papyrus, parchment, pillar, prodigal: (adj) extravagant,
abroach; (adj) underway, itinerant, slate, paper; (n) cap. improvident, generous, lavish,
current. gets: (n) getting. wasteful, excessive, exuberant,
conveniences: (n) creature comforts, habits: (n) behavior, decorum, liberal, profuse, dissipated; (adj, n)
comforts, convenience, living, pratique. profligate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
support, livelihood, keep, sustenance, hovel: (n) hut, cot, booth, hole, cottage, economical, cautious.
facility, facilities, device. hutch, shanty, bothy, shed, shack, sized: (adj) pasted.
dabbled: (adj) bespattered, croft. ANTONYM: (n) mansion. swindling: (n) cheating, deception,
besplashed, covered, covered hunks: (adj) niggard, screw, trickery, racket, deceit, chicanery,
patchily, spattered, splashed, muckworm, churl, skinflint, imposture, fixing; (adj) dishonest,
splattered, splashy; (v) soggy. curmudgeon, Jew, crib, codger, fraudulent, double-dealing.
176 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

black the whole of their palace. For this the unreasonable villains clapped me
into jail; and the gentlemen of the Eye-Sore trade could not well avoid cutting my
connection when I came out.%
The Assault-and-Battery business, into which I was now forced to adventure
for a livelihood, was somewhat ill-adapted to the delicate nature of my
constitution; but I went to work in it with a good heart, and found my account
here, as heretofore, in those stern habits of methodical accuracy which had been
thumped into me by that delightful old nurse--I would indeed be the basest of
men not to remember her well in my will. By observing, as I say, the strictest
system in all my dealings, and keeping a well-regulated set of books, I was
enabled to get over many serious difficulties, and, in the end, to establish myself
very decently in the profession. The truth is, that few individuals, in any line,
did a snugger little business than I. I will just copy a page or so out of my Day-
Book; and this will save me the necessity of blowing my own trumpet--a
contemptible practice of which no high-minded man will be guilty. Now, the
Day-Book is a thing that don’t lie.

“Jan. 1.—New Year’s Day. Met Snap in the street, groggy. Mem--he’ll do. Met
Gruff shortly afterward, blind drunk. Mem--he’ll answer, too. Entered both
gentlemen in my Ledger, and opened a running account with each.

“Jan. 2.—Saw Snap at the Exchange, and went up and trod on his toe.
Doubled his fist and knocked me down. Good!--got up again. Some trifling
difficulty with Bag, my attorney. I want the damages at a thousand, but he says
that for so simple a knock down we can’t lay them at more than five hundred.
Mem--must get rid of Bag--no system at all.

“Jan. 3.—Went to the theatre, to look for Gruff. Saw him sitting in a side box,
in the second tier, between a fat lady and a lean one. Quizzed the whole party
through an opera-glass, till I saw the fat lady blush and whisper to G. Went

Thesaurus
blush: (n, v) glow, color; (v) redden, groggy: (adj) dizzy, rickety, drunken, ill-adapted: (adj) inapt.
crimson; (n) red, bloom, rosiness, hazy, fuzzy, dazed, foggy, blurry, individuals: (n) people, persons.
ruddiness, redness; (adj) bashful; unsteady; (n) flustered, disguised. livelihood: (n) subsistence, existence,
(adv) blushingly. ANTONYMS: (v) ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, clear. job, maintenance, support, living,
blanch, pale, blench; (n) paleness. heretofore: (adv) formerly, as yet, sustenance, bread, keep, bread and
decently: (adv) becomingly, before, so far, yet, already, until now, butter, career.
decorously, fairly, correctly, seemly, previously, once, hereunto; (adv, n) tier: (n) layer, floor, stratum, grade,
fitly, courteously, justly, hitherto. level, degree; (adj, n) rank, row, line,
appropriately, rightly, right. high-minded: (adj) great, noble, range, file.
ANTONYMS: (adv) rudely, generous, lofty, magnanimous, well-regulated: (adj) methodical,
improperly, disreputably, elevated, exalted, upright, chivalrous, conformable.
inappropriately, immorally. magnificent, honest. went: (v) walked, proceeded.
 Edgar Allan Poe 177

round, then, into the box, and put my nose within reach of his hand. Wouldn’t
pull it--no go. Blew it, and tried again--no go. Sat down then, and winked at the
lean lady, when I had the high satisfaction of finding him lift me up by the nape
of the neck, and fling me over into the pit. Neck dislocated, and right leg
capitally splintered. Went home in high glee, drank a bottle of champagne, and
booked the young man for five thousand. Bag says it’ll do.%

“Feb. 15.—Compromised the case of Mr. Snap. Amount entered in Journal--

fifty cents--which see.

“Feb. 16.—Cast by that ruffian, Gruff, who made me a present of five dollars.
Costs of suit, four dollars and twenty-five cents. Nett profit,--see Journal,-
seventy-five cents.”
Now, here is a clear gain, in a very brief period, of no less than one dollar and
twenty-five cents--this is in the mere cases of Snap and Gruff; and I solemnly
assure the reader that these extracts are taken at random from my Day-Book.
It’s an old saying, and a true one, however, that money is nothing in
comparison with health. I found the exactions of the profession somewhat too
much for my delicate state of body; and, discovering, at last, that I was knocked
all out of shape, so that I didn’t know very well what to make of the matter, and
so that my friends, when they met me in the street, couldn’t tell that I was Peter
Proffit at all, it occurred to me that the best expedient I could adopt was to alter
my line of business. I turned my attention, therefore, to Mud-Dabbling, and
continued it for some years.
The worst of this occupation is, that too many people take a fancy to it, and
the competition is in consequence excessive. Every ignoramus of a fellow who
finds that he hasn’t brains in sufficient quantity to make his way as a walking
advertiser, or an eye-sore prig, or a salt-and-batter man, thinks, of course, that
he’ll answer very well as a dabbler of mud. But there never was entertained a
more erroneous idea than that it requires no brains to mud-dabble. Especially,

Thesaurus
advertiser: (n) booster, adman, expert, professional. misery, boredom.
publicist, publicizer, sponsor, discovering: (adj) observant, oracular. nape: (n) nucha, scruff, occiput, rear,
promoter, advocate, forerunner, drank: (v) absorb. back end, backside, chine.
plugger, tout, touter. fling: (n, v) toss, throw, pitch, slam, nett: (v) clear; (adj) final, last; (n)
capitally: (adv) chiefly, finely, hurl; (v) chuck, shoot, dash, rush, clearer. ANTONYM: (adj) gross.
excellently, foremostly, cardinally, discard; (n) crack. ANTONYM: (v) prig: (v) pilfer, filch, steal, rob, purloin,
mainly, primarily, leadingly, greatly, collect. thieve; (n) nim, snob, old maid,
centrally, splendidly. glee: (n) delight, cheerfulness, mirth, pedant, filcher.
dabbler: (n) dilettante, smatterer, fun, gaiety, hilarity, joy, rejoicing, splintered: (adj) shattered, broken,
sciolist, half scholar, duck, dabbling frolic, jubilation, happiness. pixilated, split, soaked, blind drunk,
duck, dabbler on the stock exchange. ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, gloom, soused, blotto, sozzled, cracked,
ANTONYMS: (n) connoisseur, sorrow, despondency, displeasure, plastered.
178 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

there is nothing to be made in this way without method. I did only a retail
business myself, but my old habits of system carried me swimmingly along. I
selected my street-crossing, in the first place, with great deliberation, and I never
put down a broom in any part of the town but that. I took care, too, to have a
nice little puddle at hand, which I could get at in a minute. By these means I got
to be well known as a man to be trusted; and this is one-half the battle, let me tell
you, in trade. Nobody ever failed to pitch me a copper, and got over my crossing
with a clean pair of pantaloons. And, as my business habits, in this respect, were
sufficiently understood, I never met with any attempt at imposition. I wouldn’t
have put up with it, if I had. Never imposing upon any one myself, I suffered no
one to play the possum with me. The frauds of the banks of course I couldn’t
help. Their suspension put me to ruinous inconvenience. These, however, are not
individuals, but corporations; and corporations, it is very well known, have
neither bodies to be kicked nor souls to be damned.%
I was making money at this business when, in an evil moment, I was induced
to merge it in the Cur-Spattering--a somewhat analogous, but, by no means, so
respectable a profession. My location, to be sure, was an excellent one, being
central, and I had capital blacking and brushes. My little dog, too, was quite fat
and up to all varieties of snuff. He had been in the trade a long time, and, I may
say, understood it. Our general routine was this:--Pompey, having rolled himself
well in the mud, sat upon end at the shop door, until he observed a dandy
approaching in bright boots. He then proceeded to meet him, and gave the
Wellingtons a rub or two with his wool. Then the dandy swore very much, and
looked about for a boot-black. There I was, full in his view, with blacking and
brushes. It was only a minute’s work, and then came a sixpence. This did
moderately well for a time;--in fact, I was not avaricious, but my dog was. I
allowed him a third of the profit, but he was advised to insist upon half. This I
couldn’t stand--so we quarrelled and parted.
I next tried my hand at the Organ-Grinding for a while, and may say that I
made out pretty well. It is a plain, straightforward business, and requires no
particular abilities. You can get a music-mill for a mere song, and to put it in

Thesaurus
avaricious: (adj) greedy, grasping, capital, fine, peachy. ANTONYMS: deleterious, dilapidated, blasting,
acquisitive, avid, miserly, grabby, (adj) terrible, ghastly, awful, inferior. baneful, pernicious; (adj, n)
parsimonious, penurious; (adj, v) possum: (n) opossum, cuscus, koala, subversive. ANTONYMS: (adj)
mercenary, sordid, extortionate. flying squirrel, flying opossum, koala beneficial, fortunate, harmless.
blacking: (n) black-wash , polish, shoe bear, flying phalanger, marsupial, sixpence: (n) bender, coin, teston,
Polish, black wash. native bear, common opossum, testern.
broom: (v) sweep, to sweep, bream, kangaroo bear. swimmingly: (adj, adv) readily; (adj) in
shovel, rake, screen, sieve; (n) brush, puddle: (n, v) plash; (n) pond, lake, triumph, well flying colors; (adv)
Scots heather, Calluna vulgaris, slop, lough, mere, loch, lin; (v) easily, successfully, prosperously,
heath. muddle, make, addle. waterily, favorably, fortunately,
dandy: (n) beau, fop, coxcomb, dude, ruinous: (adj) harmful, baleful, happily, natantly. ANTONYM: (adv)
buck, clipper, cockscomb; (adj) nifty, disastrous, calamitous, injurious, lousy.
 Edgar Allan Poe 179

order, you have but to open the works, and give them three or four smart raps
with a hammer. In improves the tone of the thing, for business purposes, more
than you can imagine. This done, you have only to stroll along, with the mill on
your back, until you see tanbark in the street, and a knocker wrapped up in
buckskin. Then you stop and grind; looking as if you meant to stop and grind till
doomsday. Presently a window opens, and somebody pitches you a sixpence,
with a request to “Hush up and go on,” etc. I am aware that some grinders have
actually afforded to “go on” for this sum; but for my part, I found the necessary
outlay of capital too great to permit of my “going on” under a shilling.%
At this occupation I did a good deal; but, somehow, I was not quite satisfied,
and so finally abandoned it. The truth is, I labored under the disadvantage of
having no monkey--and American streets are so muddy, and a Democratic
rabble is so obstrusive, and so full of demnition mischievous little boys.
I was now out of employment for some months, but at length succeeded, by
dint of great interest, in procuring a situation in the Sham-Post. The duties, here,
are simple, and not altogether unprofitable. For example:--very early in the
morning I had to make up my packet of sham letters. Upon the inside of each of
these I had to scrawl a few lines on any subject which occurred to me as
sufficiently mysterious--signing all the epistles Tom Dobson, or Bobby
Tompkins, or anything in that way. Having folded and sealed all, and stamped
them with sham postmarks--New Orleans, Bengal, Botany Bay, or any other
place a great way off- I set out, forthwith, upon my daily route, as if in a very
great hurry. I always called at the big houses to deliver the letters, and receive
the postage. Nobody hesitates at paying for a letter--especially for a double one--
people are such fools- and it was no trouble to get round a corner before there
was time to open the epistles. The worst of this profession was, that I had to walk
so much and so fast; and so frequently to vary my route. Besides, I had serious
scruples of conscience. I can’t bear to hear innocent individuals abused--and the
way the whole town took to cursing Tom Dobson and Bobby Tompkins was
really awful to hear. I washed my hands of the matter in disgust.

Thesaurus
cursing: (adj) cursed, execrative; (n) apocalypse, evangelists. gang, riffraff.
blasphemy, anathema, swearing, knocker: (n) boob, tit, breast, scrawl: (n, v) scrabble, doodle, scratch;
swear word, malediction, execration, doorknocker, nipple, knock, door- (n) squiggle, cacography, scrape,
denunciation, cursedness; (v) knocker, depreciator, disparager, scratching, mark, dent, chicken feed;
beshrew. detractor, hatemonger. (v) write.
doomsday: (n) Judgment Day, crack of labored: (adj) elaborate, strained, streets: (n) street.
doom, Day of Judgment, day of laborious, heavy, arduous, hard, tanbark: (n) tan, bark.
reckoning, day of judgement, artificial, laboured, awkward, unprofitable: (adj) profitless, fruitless,
domesday, remote future, unnatural, studied. ANTONYM: (adj) futile, inutile, disadvantageous,
millennium, last day, last judgement, easy. unfruitful, barren, idle, vain,
Last Judgment. rabble: (n) crowd, masses, trash, herd, uneconomic, unproductive.
epistles: (n) revelations, gospels, canaille, people, rout, ragtag, horde, ANTONYMS: (adj) fruitful, lucrative.
180 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

My eighth and last speculation has been in the Cat-Growing way. I have
found that a most pleasant and lucrative business, and, really, no trouble at all.
The country, it is well known, has become infested with cats--so much so of late,
that a petition for relief, most numerously and respectably signed, was brought
before the Legislature at its late memorable session. The Assembly, at this epoch,
was unusually well-informed, and, having passed many other wise and
wholesome enactments, it crowned all with the Cat-Act. In its original form, this
law offered a premium for cat-heads (fourpence a-piece), but the Senate
succeeded in amending the main clause, so as to substitute the word “tails” for
“heads.” This amendment was so obviously proper, that the House concurred in
it nem. con.%
As soon as the governor had signed the bill, I invested my whole estate in the
purchase of Toms and Tabbies. At first I could only afford to feed them upon
mice (which are cheap), but they fulfilled the scriptural injunction at so
marvellous a rate, that I at length considered it my best policy to be liberal, and
so indulged them in oysters and turtle. Their tails, at a legislative price, now
bring me in a good income; for I have discovered a way, in which, by means of
Macassar oil, I can force three crops in a year. It delights me to find, too, that the
animals soon get accustomed to the thing, and would rather have the
appendages cut off than otherwise. I consider myself, therefore, a made man, and
am bargaining for a country seat on the Hudson.

Thesaurus
amending: (n) correction. oysters: (n) class Pelecypoda, family religious, schismless, prophetic,
crowned: (adj) laureled, fulfilled, Ostreidae, Lamellibranchia, monotheistic, sound, strick.
browbound, incoronate, successful. Ostreidae, class Lamellibranchia, well-informed: (adj) educated,
delights: (n) delices. Bivalvia, clams, class Bivalvia. conversant, knowing, wise,
infested: (adj) crawling, swarming, respectably: (adv) creditably, decently, intelligent, studious, versed.
polluted, overrun, malodorous, beset, honorably, properly, appropriately, wholesome: (adj) healthy, beneficial,
diseased, contaminated, infected. admirably, commendably, salubrious, healthful, salutary, sound,
numerously: (adv) frequently, decorously, fitly, justly, becomingly. good, nutritious, nourishing, pure,
multiplely, variously, severally, ANTONYMS: (adv) indecently, hale. ANTONYMS: (adj)
sundrily, abundantly, profusely, disreputably, dishonorably. unwholesome, unhealthy, impure,
commonly, infinitely, rifely, scriptural: (adj) evangelical, Catholic, indecent, sordid, warped, tainted,
numberlessly. Christian, faithful, orthodox, decadent, deadly, unsavory.
 Edgar Allan Poe 181

THE LANDSCAPE GARDEN

The garden like a lady fair was cut

That lay as if she slumbered in delight,
And to the open skies her eyes did shut;
The azure fields of heaven were ‘sembled right
In a large round set with flow’rs of light:
The flowers de luce and the round sparks of dew
That hung upon their azure leaves, did show
Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the ev’ning blue.%
--Giles Fletcher

No more remarkable man ever lived than my friend, the young Ellison. He
was remarkable in the entire and continuous profusion of good gifts ever
lavished upon him by fortune. From his cradle to his grave, a gale of the blandest
prosperity bore him along. Nor do I use the word Prosperity in its mere wordly
or external sense. I mean it as synonymous with happiness. The person of whom
I speak, seemed born for the purpose of foreshadowing the wild doctrines of
Turgot, Price, Priestley, and Condorcet--of exemplifying, by individual instance,
what has been deemed the mere chimera of the perfectionists. In the brief
existence of Ellison, I fancy, that I have seen refuted the dogma--that in man’s

Thesaurus
azure: (adj, n) cerulean, blue; (n) exemplifying: (adj) illustrative, spark, shine, blaze, fizz, gleam,
sapphire, blueness, indigo, lazuline, demonstrative. glitter; (v) blink, glare. ANTONYMS:
heaven; (adj) chromatic, bright blue, foreshadowing: (adj) prefigurative, (n) apathy, dullness, lifelessness.
azurn, azureous. adumbrative, prophetic; (n) sparks: (n) fire.
chimera: (n) fantasy, dream, illusion, prefiguration, omen, adumbration, stars: (n) heavenly bodies, fate.
vision, chimaera, maggot, revelation, portent, sign, prediction, synonymous: (adj) equivalent,
imagination, phantom, fancy, harbinger. consignificative, synonymical,
daydream; (adj) Minotaur. gale: (n) blast, blow, tempest, storm, similar, synonymic, same, the same
ANTONYM: (n) truth. squall, hurricane, gust, wind, as, interchangeable, equal,
cradle: (n) cot, birthplace, nursery, thunderstorm, blizzard, fresh gale. corresponding, consignificant.
berth, crib, nest, hammock, bassinet, ANTONYM: (n) breeze. ANTONYMS: (adj) different,
origin; (v) hold, groundwork. sparkle: (n, v) flicker, flash, shimmer, antonymous, dissimilar, opposite.
182 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

physical and spiritual nature, lies some hidden principle, the antagonist of Bliss.
An intimate and anxious examination of his career, has taught me to understand
that, in general, from the violation of a few simple laws of Humanity, arises the
Wretchedness of mankind; that, as a species, we have in our possession the as yet
unwrought elements of Content,--and that even now, in the present blindness
and darkness of all idea on the great question of the Social Condition, it is not
impossible that Man, the individual, under certain unusual and highly fortuitous
conditions, may be happy.%
With opinions such as these was my young friend fully imbued; and thus is it
especially worthy of observation that the uninterrupted enjoyment which
distinguished his life was in great part the result of preconcert. It is, indeed
evident, that with less of the instinctive philosophy which, now and then, stands
so well in the stead of experience, Mr. Ellison would have found himself
precipitated, by the very extraordinary successes of his life, into the common
vortex of Unhappiness which yawns for those of preeminent endowments. But it
is by no means my present object to pen an essay on Happiness. The ideas of my
friend may be summed up in a few words. He admitted but four unvarying
laws, or rather elementary principles, of Bliss. That which he considered chief,
was (strange to say!) the simple and purely physical one of free exercise in the
open air. “The health,” he said, “attainable by other means than this is scarcely
worth the name.” He pointed to the tillers of the earth--the only people who, as a
class, are proverbially more happy than others--and then he instanced the high
ecstasies of the fox-hunter. His second principle was the love of woman. His
third was the contempt of ambition. His fourth was an object of unceasing
pursuit; and he held that, other things being equal, the extent of happiness was
proportioned to the spirituality of this object.
I have said that Ellison was remarkable in the continuous profusion of good
gifts lavished upon him by Fortune. In personal grace and beauty he exceeded all
men. His intellect was of that order to which the attainment of knowledge is less
a labor than a necessity and an intuition. His family was one of the most
illustrious of the empire. His bride was the loveliest and most devoted of

Thesaurus
fortuitous: (adj) contingent, accidental, chief, grand, excellent, palmary, intermittent, sporadic.
chance, adventitious, fortunate, principal; (v) supereminent, supreme. unvarying: (adj) unchanging,
coincidental, lucky, unintentional, ANTONYMS: (adj) undistinguished, invariable, constant, steady, uniform,
haphazard, incidental, odd. worst, inferior. invariant, changeless, consistent,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unlucky, proverbially: (adv) commonly, unvaried, unchanged, equal.
deliberate. famedly, famously, legendarily, ANTONYMS: (adj) irregular,
imbued: (adj) addicted, alive, instinct, notoriously. multiform, varied, dynamic, erratic,
full. unceasing: (adj) ceaseless, incessant, unequal.
preconcert: (v) preestablish; (n) perpetual, continuous, constant, unwrought: (adj) unfashioned,
preconcertion. continual, everlasting, eternal, unformed, unhewn, raw, crude,
preeminent: (adj, v) paramount, lasting, uninterrupted, endless. unpolished, unlabored, bald, bare,
greatest; (adj) distinguished, leading, ANTONYMS: (adj) acute, bleak, uncooked.
 Edgar Allan Poe 183

women. His possessions had been always ample; but, upon the attainment of his
one and twentieth year, it was discovered that one of those extraordinary freaks
of Fate had been played in his behalf which startle the whole social world amid
which they occur, and seldom fail radically to alter the entire moral constitution
of those who are their objects. It appears that about one hundred years prior to
Mr. Ellison’s attainment of his majority, there had died, in a remote province, one
Mr. Seabright Ellison. This gentlemen had amassed a princely fortune, and,
having no very immediate connexions, conceived the whim of suffering his
wealth to accumulate for a century after his decease. Minutely and sagaciously
directing the various modes of investment, he bequeathed the aggregate amount
to the nearest of blood, bearing the name Ellison, who should be alive at the end
of the hundred years. Many futile attempts had been made to set aside this
singular bequest; their ex post facto character rendered them abortive; but the
attention of a jealous government was aroused, and a decree finally obtained,
forbidding all similar accumulations. This act did not prevent young Ellison,
upon his twenty-first birth-day, from entering into possession, as the heir of his
ancestor, Seabright, of a fortune of four hundred and fifty millions of dollars.%
When it had become definitely known that such was the enormous wealth
inherited, there were, of course, many speculations as to the mode of its disposal.
The gigantic magnitude and the immediately available nature of the sum,
dazzled and bewildered all who thought upon the topic. The possessor of any
appreciable amount of money might have been imagined to perform any one of a
thousand things. With riches merely surpassing those of any citizen, it would
have been easy to suppose him engaging to supreme excess in the fashionable
extravagances of his time; or busying himself with political intrigues; or aiming
at ministerial power, or purchasing increase of nobility, or devising gorgeous
architectural piles; or collecting large specimens of Virtu; or playing the
munificent patron of Letters and Art; or endowing and bestowing his name
upon extensive institutions of charity. But, for the inconceivable wealth in the
actual possession of the young heir, these objects and all ordinary objects were
felt to be inadequate. Recourse was had to figures; and figures but sufficed to
confound. It was seen, that even at three per cent, the annual income of the

Thesaurus
amassed: (adj) collected, assembled, amaze, astound, mistake; (adj, v) lavish, free, bounteous, prodigal,
cumulative, aggregate, gathered, confuse, stupefy. ANTONYMS: (v) beneficent, magnanimous, unstinted,
conglomerate, combined, explain, clarify, comfort, lose, unsparing, princely. ANTONYMS:
concentrated, collective, total, distinguish; (n) understanding. (adj) mean, tightfisted, malevolent.
congregate. dazzled: (adj) confused, dazzle, possessor: (n) owner, holder,
bequeathed: (adj) hereditary. bewildered, blind, blinder, proprietor, householder, occupant,
bequest: (n, v) will; (n) endowment, fascinated, unsighted. landowner, landholder, proprietary,
patrimony, estate, inheritance, endowing: (v) endow; (n) somebody, someone, soul.
heirloom, heritage, donation, gift, appropriation. sagaciously: (adv) wisely, astutely,
allowance, bequeathal. freaks: (n) caprices, facetiousness, sapiently, judiciously, politicly,
confound: (v) bewilder, baffle, humor. prudently, cleverly, sharply,
nonplus, perplex, astonish, puzzle, munificent: (adj) liberal, bountiful, perceptively, sagely, discreetly.
184 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

inheritance amounted to no less than thirteen millions and five hundred

thousand dollars; which was one million and one hundred and twenty-five
thousand per month; or thirty-six thousand, nine hundred and eighty-six per
day, or one thousand five hundred and forty-one per hour, or six and twenty
dollars for every minute that flew. Thus the usual track of supposition was
thoroughly broken up. Men knew not what to imagine. There were some who
even conceived that Mr. Ellison would divest himself forthwith of at least two-
thirds of his fortune as of utterly superfluous opulence; enriching whole troops
of his relatives by division of his superabundance.%
I was not surprised, however, to perceive that he had long made up his mind
upon a topic which had occasioned so much of discussion to his friends. Nor was
I greatly astonished at the nature of his decision. In the widest and noblest sense,
he was a poet. He comprehended, moreover, the true character, the august aims,
the supreme majesty and dignity of the poetic sentiment. The proper gratification
of the sentiment he instinctively felt to lie in the creation of novel forms of
Beauty. Some peculiarities, either in his early education, or in the nature of his
intellect, had tinged with what is termed materialism the whole cast of his ethical
speculations; and it was this bias, perhaps, which imperceptibly led him to
perceive that the most advantageous, if not the sole legitimate field for the
exercise of the poetic sentiment, was to be found in the creation of novel moods
of purely physical loveliness. Thus it happened that he became neither musician
nor poet; if we use this latter term in its every--day acceptation. Or it might have
been that he became neither the one nor the other, in pursuance of an idea of his
which I have already mentioned--the idea, that in the contempt of ambition lay
one of the essential principles of happiness on earth. Is it not, indeed, possible
that while a high order of genius is necessarily ambitious, the highest is
invariably above that which is termed ambition? And may it not thus happen
that many far greater than Milton, have contentedly remained “mute and
inglorious?” I believe the world has never yet seen, and that, unless through
some series of accidents goading the noblest order of mind into distasteful
exertion, the world will never behold, that full extent of triumphant execution, in
the richer productions of Art, of which the human nature is absolutely capable.

Thesaurus
acceptation: (n) meaning, sense, (adj) uplifting, educational, inspiring, visibly, audibly, conspicuously,
adoption, purport, significance, elevating, edifying, artistic, perceptibly, heavily, clearly, strongly.
intent, import, approval, assumption, enlightening. opulence: (n) fortune, wealth, luxury,
espousal, reception. goading: (n) encouragement, exuberance, comfort, luxuriousness,
contentedly: (adv) gladly, satisfiedly, exhortation, gad, branch line, prosperity, wealthiness, plenty; (adj,
contently, gratifiedly, pleasedly, prodding, prod, spur, urging, n) riches, affluence. ANTONYMS: (n)
cheerfully, joyfully, smugly, easily, spurring; (adj) provocative. poverty, paucity, shabbiness,
complacently, placidly. imperceptibly: (adv) unnoticeably, austerity.
ANTONYMS: (adv) crossly, gradually, slightly, invisibly, gently, thirteen: (n) long dozen, large integer.
awkwardly, unhappily, quietly, softly, observably, tinged: (adj) plausible, bright, painted,
discontentedly, sadly. indistinctly, scarcely, hardly. fey, touched, specious, colorful,
enriching: (n) enrichment; (v) enrich; ANTONYMS: (adv) obviously, stained, tined, dyed, tinct.
 Edgar Allan Poe 185

Mr. Ellison became neither musician nor poet; although no man lived more
profoundly enamored both of Music and the Muse. Under other circumstances
than those which invested him, it is not impossible that he would have become a
painter. The field of sculpture, although in its nature rigidly poetical, was too
limited in its extent and in its consequences, to have occupied, at any time, much
of his attention. And I have now mentioned all the provinces in which even the
most liberal understanding of the poetic sentiment has declared this sentiment
capable of expatiating. I mean the most liberal public or recognized conception of
the idea involved in the phrase “poetic sentiment.” But Mr. Ellison imagined that
the richest, and altogether the most natural and most suitable province, had been
blindly neglected. No definition had spoken of the Landscape-Gardener, as of
the poet; yet my friend could not fail to perceive that the creation of the
Landscape-Garden offered to the true muse the most magnificent of
opportunities. Here was, indeed, the fairest field for the display of invention, or
imagination, in the endless combining of forms of novel Beauty; the elements
which should enter into combination being, at all times, and by a vast
superiority, the most glorious which the earth could afford. In the multiform of
the tree, and in the multicolor of the flower, he recognized the most direct and
the most energetic efforts of Nature at physical loveliness. And in the direction or
concentration of this effort, or, still more properly, in its adaption to the eyes
which were to behold it upon earth, he perceived that he should be employing
the best means--laboring to the greatest advantage--in the fulfilment of his
destiny as Poet.%
“Its adaptation to the eyes which were to behold it upon earth.” In his
explanation of this phraseology, Mr. Ellison did much towards solving what has
always seemed to me an enigma. I mean the fact (which none but the ignorant
dispute,) that no such combinations of scenery exist in Nature as the painter of
genius has in his power to produce. No such Paradises are to be found in reality
as have glowed upon the canvass of Claude. In the most enchanting of natural
landscapes, there will always be found a defect or an excess--many excesses and
defects. While the component parts may exceed, individually, the highest skill of
the artist, the arrangement of the parts will always be susceptible of

Thesaurus
adaption: (n) adjustment, ANTONYMS: (adj) unhappy, varicoloured, multicolour,
accommodation, change, variation, revolting, repulsive, repellent, foul, variegated, colored, calico, assorted.
amendment, revision, alteration; (adj) everyday, dull, disenchanting, multiform: (adj) different,
graduation. annoying, uninteresting, despicable. multifarious, polymorphous,
canvass: (n, v) campaign, discuss; (n) enigma: (adj, n) mystery, riddle; (n) multigenerous, manifold,
review; (v) beg, examine, scrutinize, puzzle, secret, perplexity, poser, miscellaneous, multiple,
view, agitate, inspect, survey, study. question, problem, closed book, nut polymorphic, multiplex,
ANTONYM: (v) neglect. to crack, logogriph. ANTONYMS: (n) polyschematist, multifold.
enchanting: (adj) captivating, clearness, explanation. muse: (v) meditate, ponder, deliberate,
delightful, fascinating, bewitching, mentioned: (adj) spoken. consider, cogitate, reflect, brood,
lovely, alluring, magical, glamorous, multicolor: (adj) multicolored, motley, ruminate, speculate, think, mull.
adorable; (adj, v) charming, engaging. varicolored, piebald, multicoloured, ANTONYM: (v) wander.
186 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

improvement. In short, no position can be attained, from which an artistical eye,

looking steadily, will not find matter of offence, in what is technically termed the
composition of a natural landscape. And yet how unintelligible is this! In all
other matters we are justly instructed to regard Nature as supreme. With her
details we shrink from competition. Who shall presume to imitate the colors of
the tulip, or to improve the proportions of the lily of the valley? The criticism
which says, of sculpture or of portraiture, that “Nature is to be exalted rather
than imitated,” is in error. No pictorial or sculptural combinations of points of
human loveliness, do more than approach the living and breathing human
beauty as it gladdens our daily path. Byron, who often erred, erred not in saying,
I’ve seen more living beauty, ripe and real,
Than all the nonsense of their stone ideal.%

In landscape alone is the principle of the critic true; and, having felt its truth
here, it is but the headlong spirit of generalization which has induced him to
pronounce it true throughout all the domains of Art. Having, I say, felt its truth
here. For the feeling is no affectation or chimera. The mathematics afford no
more absolute demonstrations, than the sentiment of his Art yields to the artist.
He not only believes, but positively knows, that such and such apparently
arbitrary arrangements of matter, or form, constitute, and alone constitute, the
true Beauty. Yet his reasons have not yet been matured into expression. It
remains for a more profound analysis than the world has yet seen, fully to
investigate and express them. Nevertheless is he confirmed in his instinctive
opinions, by the concurrence of all his compeers. Let a composition be defective,
let an emendation be wrought in its mere arrangement of form; let this
emendation be submitted to every artist in the world; by each will its necessity
be admitted. And even far more than this, in remedy of the defective
composition, each insulated member of the fraternity will suggest the identical
emendation.
I repeat that in landscape arrangements, or collocations alone, is the physical
Nature susceptible of “exaltation” and that, therefore, her susceptibility of

Thesaurus
concurrence: (n) coincidence, accord, matured: (adj) ripe, experienced, tulip: (n) iris, rainbow, cottage tulip,
assent, concord, consent, agreement, developed, old, adult, mellow, candlestick tulip, chameleon, dwarf
approval, compliance, concourse, maturer, ripened, ready, payable, tulip; (adj) lily, asphodel, anemone,
conjunction, confluence. owing. ANTONYMS: (adj) unripe, buttercup, daffodil.
ANTONYMS: (n) disagreement, young. unintelligible: (adj) opaque,
conflict, refusal, rejection. portraiture: (n) depiction, description, inarticulate, unfathomable,
emendation: (n) amendment, delineation, picture, characterization, impenetrable, unaccountable,
correction, betterment, repair, likeness, portrayal, imagery, ambiguous, not clear, obscure,
revision, castigation, reform, representation; (v) genre, high art. indistinct, inconceivable, secret.
rectification, improvement, sculptural: (adj) modeled, sculpted, ANTONYMS: (adj) understandable,
reformation, discipline. resembling sculpture, sculptured, clear, comprehensible, intelligible,
insulated: (adj) cloistered. shapely, graven. obvious.
 Edgar Allan Poe 187

improvement at this one point, was a mystery which, hitherto I had been unable
to solve. It was Mr. Ellison who first suggested the idea that what we regarded as
improvement or exaltation of the natural beauty, was really such, as respected
only the mortal or human point of view; that each alteration or disturbance of the
primitive scenery might possibly effect a blemish in the picture, if we could
suppose this picture viewed at large from some remote point in the heavens. “It
is easily understood,” says Mr. Ellison, “that what might improve a closely
scrutinized detail, might, at the same time, injure a general and more distantly--
observed effect.” He spoke upon this topic with warmth: regarding not so much
its immediate or obvious importance, (which is little,) as the character of the
conclusions to which it might lead, or of the collateral propositions which it
might serve to corroborate or sustain. There might be a class of beings, human
once, but now to humanity invisible, for whose scrutiny and for whose refined
appreciation of the beautiful, more especially than for our own, had been set in
order by God the great landscape-garden of the whole earth.%
In the course of our discussion, my young friend took occasion to quote some
passages from a writer who has been supposed to have well treated this theme.
“There are, properly,” he writes, “but two styles of landscape-gardening, the
natural and the artificial. One seeks to recall the original beauty of the country,
by adapting its means to the surrounding scenery; cultivating trees in harmony
with the hills or plain of the neighboring land; detecting and bringing into
practice those nice relations of size, proportion and color which, hid from the
common observer, are revealed everywhere to the experienced student of nature.
The result of the natural style of gardening, is seen rather in the absence of all
defects and incongruities--in the prevalence of a beautiful harmony and order,
than in the creation of any special wonders or miracles. The artificial style has as
many varieties as there are different tastes to gratify. It has a certain general
relation to the various styles of building. There are the stately avenues and
retirements of Versailles; Italian terraces; and a various mixed old English style,
which bears some relation to the domestic Gothic or English Elizabethan
architecture. Whatever may be said against the abuses of the artificial landscape-

Thesaurus
bears: (n) fissiped, badgers, Carnivora, show, whiten, untwist, denote, apotheosis, worship, praise, rapture,
order Carnivora. depict, represent, blanch, blench. deification, grandeur, adoration; (n,
blemish: (n, v) stain, scar, flaw, blot, corroborate: (v) validate, bear out, v) sublimation; (v) laud.
slur; (n) defect, stigma, fault; (v) verify, establish, authenticate, ANTONYMS: (n) abasement,
deface; (adj, n) imperfection; (adj, v) substantiate, prove, affirm, belittlement, debasement,
disfigure. ANTONYMS: (v) enhance, demonstrate, support, attest. degradation, humiliation, sorrow,
beautify, embellish, improve; (n) ANTONYMS: (v) contradict, reject, derogation, disparagement.
perfection, enhancement. negate, disprove, disclaim, deny, injure: (n, v) damage, harm, impair;
color: (n, v) flush, blush, tint, tinge, undermine, cancel. (v) contuse, disfigure, maim, bruise,
paint, stain; (adj, n, v) colour; (v) cultivating: (adj) educating, taming, blemish, wound, insult; (adj, v) abuse.
redden; (n) guise, complexion; (adj, n) humanizing, calming. ANTONYMS: (v) heal, enable, repair,
tone. ANTONYMS: (v) discolor, pale, exaltation: (n) elation, ecstasy, protect, help.
188 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

gardening, a mixture of pure art in a garden scene, adds to it a great beauty. This
is partly pleasing to the eye, by the show of order and design, and partly moral.
A terrace, with an old moss-covered balustrade, calls up at once to the eye, the
fair forms that have passed there in other days. The slightest exhibition of art is
an evidence of care and human interest.”%
“From what I have already observed,” said Mr. Ellison, “you will understand
that I reject the idea, here expressed, of ‘recalling the original beauty of the
country.’ The original beauty is never so great as that which may be introduced.
Of course, much depends upon the selection of a spot with capabilities. What is
said in respect to the ‘detecting and bringing into practice those nice relations of
size, proportion and color,’ is a mere vagueness of speech, which may mean
much, or little, or nothing, and which guides in no degree. That the true ‘result of
the natural style of gardening is seen rather in the absence of all defects and
incongruities, than in the creation of any special wonders or miracles,’ is a
proposition better suited to the grovelling apprehension of the herd, than to the
fervid dreams of the man of genius. The merit suggested is, at best, negative, and
appertains to that hobbling criticism which, in letters, would elevate Addison
into apotheosis. In truth, while that merit which consists in the mere avoiding
demerit, appeals directly to the understanding, and can thus be foreshadowed in
Rule, the loftier merit, which breathes and flames in invention or creation, can be
apprehended solely in its results. Rule applies but to the excellences of
avoidance--to the virtues which deny or refrain. Beyond these the critical art can
but suggest. We may be instructed to build an Odyssey, but it is in vain that we
are told how to conceive a ‘Tempest,’ an ‘Inferno,’ a ‘Prometheus Bound,’ a
‘Nightingale,’ such as that of Keats, or the ‘Sensitive Plant’ of Shelley. But, the
thing done, the wonder accomplished, and the capacity for apprehension
becomes universal. The sophists of the negative school, who, through inability to
create, have scoffed at creation, are now found the loudest in applause. What, in
its chrysalis condition of principle, affronted their demure reason, never fails, in
its maturity of accomplishment, to extort admiration from their instinct of the
beautiful or of the sublime.

Thesaurus
apotheosis: (n) deification, exaltation, chrysalis: (n) larva, chicken, whelp, boisterous, decadent, exciting,
ideal, paragon, canonization, tadpole, pullet, fry, cub, cocoon, indecorous, brazen.
worship, glorification, embodiment, pupa, chrysalid, nestling. extort: (v) exact, soak, compel, take,
epitome, angel, crackerjack. demerit: (n) defect, fault, deficiency, wring, force, extract, pry; (adj) bleed,
apprehended: (adj) arrested, seized, shortcoming, sin, vice, insufficiency, fleece, overcharge.
understood, under arrest, in custody, imperfection, drawback, weak point; grovelling: (adj) groveling, base,
detained, appreciated, (n, v) break. ANTONYM: (n) merit. abject, menial, vulgar, slavish, servile,
comprehended. demure: (adj) humble, modest, coy, obsequious, low, wormlike,
balustrade: (n) fence, banisters, reserved, prim, bashful, shy, retiring, earthbred.
banister, bannister, barrier, handrail, timid; (adj, v) sober, grave. hobbling: (n) limping; (adj) crippled.
pale, balusters, guardrail, ANTONYMS: (adj) bold, outgoing, slightest: (adj) minimal, first, smallest
circumvallation, ring fence. extroverted, loudmouthed, amount.
 Edgar Allan Poe 189

“Our author’s observations on the artificial style of gardening,” continued

Mr. Ellison, “are less objectionable. ‘A mixture of pure art in a garden scene, adds
to it a great beauty.’ This is just; and the reference to the sense of human interest
is equally so. I repeat that the principle here expressed, is incontrovertible; but
there may be something even beyond it. There may be an object in full keeping
with the principle suggested--an object unattainable by the means ordinarily in
possession of mankind, yet which, if attained, would lend a charm to the
landscape-garden immeasurably surpassing that which a merely human interest
could bestow. The true poet possessed of very unusual pecuniary resources,
might possibly, while retaining the necessary idea of art or interest or culture, so
imbue his designs at once with extent and novelty of Beauty, as to convey the
sentiment of spiritual interference. It will be seen that, in bringing about such
result, he secures all the advantages of interest or design, while relieving his
work of all the harshness and technicality of Art. In the most rugged of
wildernesses--in the most savage of the scenes of pure Nature--there is apparent
the art of a Creator; yet is this art apparent only to reflection; in no respect has it
the obvious force of a feeling. Now, if we imagine this sense of the Almighty
Design to be harmonized in a measurable degree, if we suppose a landscape
whose combined strangeness, vastness, definitiveness, and magnificence, shall
inspire the idea of culture, or care, or superintendence, on the part of
intelligences superior yet akin to humanity--then the sentiment of interest is
preserved, while the Art is made to assume the air of an intermediate or
secondary Nature--a Nature which is not God, nor an emanation of God, but
which still is Nature, in the sense that it is the handiwork of the angels that
hover between man and God.”%
It was in devoting his gigantic wealth to the practical embodiment of a vision
such as this--in the free exercise in the open air, which resulted from personal
direction of his plans--in the continuous and unceasing object which these plans
afford--in the contempt of ambition which it enabled him more to feel than to
affect--and, lastly, it was in the companionship and sympathy of a devoted wife,
that Ellison thought to find, and found, an exemption from the ordinary cares of

Thesaurus
definitiveness: (n) correctness, concordant, identical, coordinated, dubious, weak, arguable, tenuous,
exactness, precision. uniform, synchronized, standardized, disputable, debatable.
emanation: (n) emission, effluvium, in harmony. ANTONYM: (adj) superintendence: (n) oversight,
effusion, effluence, efflux, radiation, heterogeneous. direction, management, inspection,
excretion, exhalation, flow, egress, imbue: (v) infuse, saturate, permeate, control, government, surveillance,
ectoplasm. tinge, steep, dye, fill, impregnate, supervising, care, guidance,
handiwork: (n) handicraft, creation, pervade, instill, inoculate. invigilation.
production, handcraft, product, incontrovertible: (adj, v) indisputable; vastness: (n) enormity, immensity,
handwork, work, produce, design, (adj) undeniable, irrefutable, certain, immenseness, enormousness,
performance; (v) workmanship. indubitable, unquestionable, positive, grandeur, size, hugeness, bigness,
harmonized: (adj) harmonical, demonstrable, conclusive, extent, magnificence, grandness.
consonant, harmonic, harmonious, irrefragable, sure. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYM: (n) closeness.
190 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Humanity, with a far greater amount of positive happiness than ever glowed in
the rapt day-dreams of De Stael.%

Thesaurus
amount: (n, v) number, total; (n) cheerfulness, blessedness, bliss, destructive, neutral, disheartened,
aggregate, sum, measure, price, felicity, contentment. ANTONYMS: uncomplimentary, useless.
volume, extent, degree, figure, (n) sadness, despair, grief, misery, rapt: (adj) engrossed, intent, ecstatic,
quantum. ANTONYM: (n) dissatisfaction, seriousness, dullness, preoccupied, spellbound, captive,
moderation. discontent, dejection, gloominess, enthralled, attentive, fixed,
greater: (adj) larger, more, major, displeasure. enwrapped; (v) engrossed in.
higher, superior, most, great, bigger, positive: (adj, v) absolute, sure; (adj, n) ANTONYMS: (adj) detached,
increased, considerable, not actual; (adj) affirmative, confident, inattentive, uninterested, bored.
inconsiderable. ANTONYMS: (adj) direct, incontrovertible, peremptory,
inferior, smaller, small, lower. plus, explicit, definite. ANTONYMS:
happiness: (n) delight, merriment, (adj) uncertain, derogatory, unsure,
ecstasy, welfare, gladness, luck, pessimistic, sad, downbeat,
 Edgar Allan Poe 191

MAELZEL’S %CHESS-PLAYER

Perhaps no exhibition of the kind has ever elicited so general attention as the
Chess-Player of Maelzel. Wherever seen it has been an object of intense curiosity,
to all persons who think. Yet the question of its modus operandi is still
undetermined. Nothing has been written on this topic which can be considered
as decisive--and accordingly we find every where men of mechanical genius, of
great general acuteness, and discriminative understanding, who make no
scruple in pronouncing the Automaton a pure machine, unconnected with human
agency in its movements, and consequently, beyond all comparison, the most
astonishing of the inventions of mankind. And such it would undoubtedly be,
were they right in their supposition. Assuming this hypothesis, it would be
grossly absurd to compare with the Chess-Player, any similar thing of either
modern or ancient days. Yet there have been many and wonderful automata. In
Brewster’s Letters on Natural Magic, we have an account of the most remarkable.
Among these may be mentioned, as having beyond doubt existed, firstly, the
coach invented by M. Camus for the amusement of Louis XIV when a child. A
table, about four feet square, was introduced, into the room appropriated for the
exhibition. Upon this table was placed a carriage, six inches in length, made of
wood, and drawn by two horses of the same material. One window being down,
a lady was seen on the back seat. A coachman held the reins on the box, and a
footman and page were in their places behind. M. Camus now touched a spring;

Thesaurus
acuteness: (n) acuity, sharpness, coachman: (n) teamster, cabman, illogical, confused, irrelevant,
acumen, discrimination, gravity, charioteer, carter, carman, Jehu, incongruous; (adj, prep) separate,
insight, sensitivity, perspicacity, postboy, drayman, wagoner, separated; (v) unattached.
penetration, keenness, intensity. postilion; (v) whip. ANTONYMS: (adj) attached,
ANTONYMS: (n) faintness, discriminative: (adj, v) characteristic, pertinent, relevant, together.
insignificance, dullness. distinguishing; (adj) discriminating, undetermined: (adj, v) uncertain,
appropriated: (adj) taken, destined, distinctive, accurate, critical, indefinite, vague; (adj) indeterminate,
taken over, confiscate, confiscated, exclusive, judicial; (v) dioristic. unsettled, indecisive, unresolved,
condemned, seized, reserved. elicited: (adj) evoked, elicit. irresolute, accidental, open; (v)
carriage: (n) attitude, conveyance, cab, modus: (n) system. ambiguous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
air, walk, position, mien, shipping; unconnected: (adj) detached, determinate, definite, decided,
(n, v) transport, behavior, port. disjointed, incoherent, unrelated, specific.
192 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

whereupon the coachman smacked his whip, and the horses proceeded in a
natural manner, along the edge of the table, drawing after them the carriage.
Having gone as far as possible in this direction, a sudden turn was made to the
left, and the vehicle was driven at right angles to its former course, and still
closely along the edge of the table. In this way the coach proceeded until it
arrived opposite the chair of the young prince. It then stopped, the page
descended and opened the door, the lady alighted, and presented a petition to
her sovereign. She then re-entered. The page put up the steps, closed the door,
and resumed his station. The coachman whipped his horses, and the carriage
was driven back to its original position.%
The magician of M. Maillardet is also worthy of notice. We copy the
following account of it from the Letters before mentioned of Dr. B., who derived
his information principal from the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia:

One of the most popular pieces of mechanism which we have seen, Is the
Magician constructed by M. Maillardet, for the purpose of answering
certain given questions. A figure, dressed like a magician, appears seated
at the bottom of a wall, holding a wand in one hand, and a book in the
other A number of questions, ready prepared, are inscribed on oval
medallions, and the spectator takes any of these he chooses and to
which he wishes an answer, and having placed it in a drawer ready to
receive it, the drawer shuts with a spring till the answer is returned. The
magician then arises from his seat, bows his head, describes circles with
his wand, and consulting the book as If in deep thought, he lifts it
towards his face. Having thus appeared to ponder over the proposed
question he raises his wand, and striking with it the wall above his head,
two folding doors fly open, and display an appropriate answer to the
question. The doors again close, the magician resumes his original
position, and the drawer opens to return the medallion. There are twenty
of these medallions, all containing different questions, to which the
magician returns the most suitable and striking answers. The medallions

Thesaurus
consulting: (adj) consultative; (n) medallion: (n) laurels, decoration, spectator: (n) eyewitness, observer,
consultation; (v) consult. laurel wreath, locket, pendant, palm, onlooker, witness, audience,
folding: (n) foldaway, plication, ribbon, bay wreath, badge, accolade. beholder, viewer, watcher,
foldable, bend, crease, bending, oval: (adj) elliptical, elliptic, ovate, spectators, looker, ogler.
flexure, pleating, collapsable, oviform, ovoid, oblong, egg-shaped, ANTONYM: (n) player.
collapsible, doubling. rounded, prolate, round; (n) ovule. wand: (n, v) stick, rod; (n) scepter,
inscribed: (adj) etched, incised, ponder: (v) meditate, consider, verge, mace, pole, baton, sceptre,
graven, written, carved, carven. cogitate, deliberate, think, reflect, fasces, rod of empire; (v) staff.
magician: (n) enchanter, conjurer, conceive, mull, mull over; (n, v) whip: (n, v) lash, strap, goad; (v) flog,
illusionist, wizard, conjuror, muse, study. ANTONYMS: (v) flagellate, beat, punish, thrash,
thaumaturge, magicians, performer, decide, wander, ignore. trounce, stir, wallop. ANTONYMS:
magus, necromancer, prestidigitator. shuts: (adj) closed. (v) lose, return.
 Edgar Allan Poe 193

are thin plates of brass, of an elliptical form, exactly resembling each

other. Some of the medallions have a question inscribed on each side,
both of which the magician answered in succession. If the drawer is shut
without a medallion being put into it, the magician rises, consults his
book, shakes his head, and resumes his seat. The folding doors remain
shut, and the drawer is returned empty. If two medallions are put into
the drawer together, an answer is returned only to the lower one. When
the machinery is wound up, the movements continue about an hour,
during which time about fifty questions may be answered. The inventor
stated that the means by which the different medallions acted upon the
machinery, so as to produce the proper answers to the questions which
they contained, were extremely simple.%

The duck of Vaucanson was still more remarkable. It was of the size of life,
and so perfect an imitation of the living animal that all the spectators were
deceived. It executed, says Brewster, all the natural movements and gestures, it
ate and drank with avidity, performed all the quick motions of the head and
throat which are peculiar to the duck, and like it muddled the water which it
drank with its bill. It produced also the sound of quacking in the most natural
manner. In the anatomical structure the artist exhibited the highest skill. Every
bone in the real duck had its representative In the automaton, and its wings were
anatomically exact. Every cavity, apophysis, and curvature was imitated, and
each bone executed its proper movements. When corn was thrown down before
it, the duck stretched out its neck to pick it up, swallowed, and digested it.
But if these machines were ingenious, what shall we think of the calculating
machine of Mr. Babbage? What shall we think of an engine of wood and metal
which can not only compute astronomical and navigation tables to any given
extent, but render the exactitude of its operations mathematically certain
through its power of correcting its possible errors? What shall we think of a
machine which can not only accomplish all this, but actually print off its
elaborate results, when obtained, without the slightest intervention of the

Thesaurus
apophysis: (n) process, appendage, reckon, assess, tally. ANTONYMS: mathematically: (adv) arithmetically,
enation, outgrowth, protuberance, (v) guess, suppose, surmise, estimate. scientifically, punctually,
bump, knob, branch, tooth, elbow. elliptical: (adj) oval, oblong, ellipse, algebraically, algebraicly.
automaton: (n) robot, machine, oviform, ovoid, epigrammatic, muddled: (adj) bewildered,
android, mechanism, automata, quaint, curved, crisp, ovate, round. disorganized, messy, addled,
zombi, zombie, anomaly. exactitude: (n) precision, exactness, disordered, incoherent, bemused,
avidity: (adj, n) greed, greediness; (n) correctness, punctuality, fidelity, unintelligible, chaotic, upset,
eagerness, ardor, covetousness, lust, trueness, truth, veracity, rigor, jumbled. ANTONYMS: (adj)
desire, enthusiasm, rapacity, thoroughness, promptitude. organized, precise, lucid, coherent,
cupidity, avidness. ANTONYMS: (n) vagueness, distinct, clear.
compute: (v) cipher, count, measure, inaccuracy, inexactness. shakes: (n) hangover, jitters,
account, cast, enumerate, gauge, add, imitated: (adj) mimical. nervousness, tension, anxiety.
194 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

intellect of man? It will, perhaps, %be said, in reply, that a machine such as we
have described is altogether above comparison with the Chess-Player of Maelzel.
By no means--it is altogether beneath it--that is to say provided we assume(what
should never for a moment be assumed) that the Chess-Player is a pure machine,
and performs its operations without any immediate human agency. Arithmetical
or algebraical calculations are, from their very nature, fixed and determinate.
Certain data being given, certain results necessarily and inevitably follow. These
results have dependence upon nothing, and are influenced by nothing but the
data originally given. And the question to be solved proceeds, or should proceed,
to its final determination, by a succession of unerring steps liable to no change,
and subject to no modification. This being the case, we can without difficulty
conceive the possibility of so arranging a piece of mechanism, that upon starting
In accordance with the data of the question to be solved, it should continue its
movements regularly, progressively, and undeviatingly towards the required
solution, since these movements, however complex, are never imagined to be
otherwise than finite and determinate. But the case is widely different with the
Chess-Player. With him there is no determinate progression. No one move in
chess necessarily follows upon any one other. From no particular disposition of
the men at one period of a game can we predicate their disposition at a different
period. Let us place the first move in a game of chess, in juxta-position with the
data of an algebraical question, and their great difference will be immediately
perceived. From the latter--from the data--the second step of the question,
dependent thereupon, inevitably follows. It is modelled by the data. It must be
thus and not otherwise. But from the first move in the game of chess no especial
second move follows of necessity. In the algebraical question, as it proceeds
towards solution, the certainty of its operations remains altogether unimpaired.
The second step having been a consequence of the data, the third step is equally a
consequence of the second, the fourth of the third, the fifth of the fourth, and so
on, and not possibly otherwise, to the end. But in proportion to the progress made
in a game of chess, is the uncertainty of each ensuing move. A few moves having
been made, no step is certain. Different spectators of the game would advise
different moves. All is then dependent upon the variable judgment of the

Thesaurus
arithmetical: (adj) statistical, (adj) indeterminate. unvaryingly, unvariedly, uniformly,
mathematical, numerable, calculable, predicate: (n, v) affirm; (v) assert, unfalteringly.
computable, numerical, numeric, allege, declare, connote, found, unerring: (adj) sure, certain, inerrant,
analytic, algebraic. imply, base, ground, establish, inerrable, accurate, exact, faithful,
chess: (n) chess game, chess set, cheat, maintain. perfect, unblemished, constant, right.
shogi, cheater, cheating, brome, thereupon: (adv) hereupon, next, then, ANTONYMS: (adj) erring, imperfect,
bromegrass, bearded darnel, immediately, therefore, therewith, in mistaken, inaccurate, faulty.
checkers, board game. the sequel, close upon, upon which, unimpaired: (adj) unbroken, intact,
determinate: (adj) definitive, whereupon, accordingly. clean, sound, healthy, entire,
conclusive, certain, clear, special, undeviatingly: (adv) straightly, complete, undamaged, uninjured; (v)
decided, final, fixed; (v) absolute, directly, regularly, literally, fixedly, unmarred, unsinged. ANTONYM:
unqualified, express. ANTONYM: unflinchingly, unwaveringly, (adj) impaired.
 Edgar Allan Poe 195

players. Now even granting (what should not be granted) that the movements of
the Automaton Chess-Player were in themselves determinate, they would be
necessarily interrupted and disarranged by the indeterminate will of his
antagonist. There is then no analogy whatever between the operations of the
Chess-Player, and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage, and if we
choose to call the former a pure machine we must be prepared to admit that it is,
beyond all comparison, the most wonderful of the inventions of mankind. Its
original projector, however, Baron Kempelen, had no scruple in declaring it to be
a “very ordinary piece of mechanism--a bagatelle whose effects appeared so
marvellous only from the boldness of the conception, and the fortunate choice of
the methods adopted for promoting the illusion.” But it is needless to dwell upon
this point. It is quite certain that the operations of the Automaton are regulated
by mind, and by nothing else. Indeed this matter is susceptible of a mathematical
demonstration, a priori. The only question then is of the manner in which human
agency is brought to bear. Before entering upon this subject it would be as well to
give a brief history and description of the Chess-Player for the benefit of such of
our readers as may never have had an opportunity of witnessing Mr. Maelzel’s
exhibition.%
The Automaton Chess-Player was invented in 1769, by Baron Kempelen, a
nobleman of Presburg, in Hungary, who afterwards disposed of it, together with
the secret of its operations, to its present possessor. Soon after its completion it
was exhibited in Presburg, Paris, Vienna, and other continental cities. In 1783 and
1784, it was taken to London by Mr. Maelzel. Of late years it has visited the
principal towns in the United States. Wherever seen, the most intense curiosity
was excited by its appearance, and numerous have been the attempts, by men of
all classes, to fathom the mystery of its evolutions. The cut on this page gives a
tolerable representation of the figure as seen by the citizens of Richmond a few
weeks ago. The right arm, however, should lie more at length upon the box, a
chess-board should appear upon it, and the cushion should not be seen while the
pipe is held. Some immaterial alterations have been made in the costume of the
player since it came into the possession of Maelzel--the plume, for example, was
not originally worn.

Thesaurus
bagatelle: (adj) toy, bauble, paper unkempt, tousled, topsy-turvy, bodiless, spiritual, unimportant,
pellet; (n) trifle, nothing, whatsis, mussy. ANTONYM: (adj) neat. extraneous, psychic. ANTONYMS:
whatchamacallit, sundry, sundries, evolutions: (n) evolution. (adj) significant, material, corporeal,
composition, opus. fathom: (n, v) plumb; (v) penetrate, physical, tangible, important.
boldness: (n) prowess, face, daring, discern, bottom, understand, plume: (n) feather, plumage, quill,
valor, nerve, assurance, heroism, comprehend, know, make out, panache, aigrette, crest, feathering;
audaciousness, spirit, cheek, valour. measure; (n) probe, gauge. (v) pride, pluck, dress, preen.
ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, shyness, ANTONYMS: (v) confuse, projector: (n) designer, searchlight,
timidity, meekness, reticence. misunderstand, Miss. schemer, film projector, overhead
disarranged: (adj) disheveled, immaterial: (adj) insignificant, projector, planner, slide projector,
disorderly, untidy, deranged, inconsequential, irrelevant, magic lantern, movie projector,
disturbed, delirious, disordered, disembodied, incorporeal, trivial, optical device; (v) promoter.
196 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

At %the hour appointed for exhibition, a curtain is withdrawn, or folding

doors are thrown open, and the machine rolled to within about twelve feet of the
nearest of the spectators, between whom and it (the machine) a rope is stretched.
A figure is seen habited as a Turk, and seated, with its legs crossed, at a large box
apparently of maple wood, which serves it as a table. The exhibiter will, if
requested, roll the machine to any portion of the room, suffer it to remain
altogether on any designated spot, or even shift its location repeatedly during
the progress of a game. The bottom of the box is elevated considerably above the
floor by means of the castors or brazen rollers on which it moves, a clear view of
the surface immediately beneath the Automaton being thus afforded to the
spectators. The chair on which the figure sits is affixed permanently to the box.
On the top of this latter is a chess-board, also permanently affixed. The right arm
of the Chess-Player is extended at full length before him, at right angles with his
body, and lying, in an apparently careless position, by the side of the board. The
back of the hand is upwards. The board itself is eighteen inches square. The left

Thesaurus
affixed: (adj) additional. designation. dividend, divide; (n) piece, parcel,
careless: (adj) forgetful, inattentive, elevated: (adj) exalted, towering, fragment, component, section; (adj, n)
insouciant, haphazard, cursory, noble, lofty, grand, great, majestic, constituent. ANTONYM: (n) whole.
reckless, lax, unwary, sloppy; (adj, tall, elated, magnanimous; (adj, v) requested: (adj) demanded.
adv) thoughtless; (adj, v) heedless. steep. ANTONYMS: (adj) base, lowly, rollers: (v) riffle, beach comber, white
ANTONYMS: (adj) cautious, prudent, decreased, humble, inferior, lessened, horses, whitecaps, surf; (n) order
meticulous, thoughtful, diligent, low, sunken, undignified, lowered. Coraciiformes, bee eaters, breakers,
attentive, thorough, wary, guarded, maple: (n) box elder, full moon maple, Coraciidae, Coraciiformes, family
methodical, strict. moosewood, hedge maple, great Coraciidae.
designated: (v) appointed, specify; maple, dwarf maple, goosefoot sits: (n) sat.
(adj) assigned, special, destined, maple, field maple. spectators: (n) spectator, gallery,
named, numbered; (adj, v) chosen; (n) portion: (n, v) division, lot, allot, viewer, viewers, attendance.
 Edgar Allan Poe 197

arm of the figure is bent at the elbow, and in the left hand is a pipe. A green
drapery conceals the back of the Turk, and falls partially over the front of both
shoulders. To judge from the external appearance of the box, it is divided into
five compartments--three cupboards of equal dimensions, and two drawers
occupying that portion of the chest lying beneath the cupboards. The foregoing
observations apply to the appearance of the Automaton upon its first
introduction into the presence of the spectators.%
Maelzel now informs the company that he will disclose to their view the
mechanism of the machine. Taking from his pocket a bunch of keys he unlocks
with one of them, door marked ~ in the cut above, and throws the cupboard fully
open to the inspection of all present. Its whole interior is apparently filled with
wheels, pinions, levers, and other machinery, crowded very closely together, so
that the eye can penetrate but a little distance into the mass. Leaving this door
open to its full extent, he goes now round to the back of the box, and raising the
drapery of the figure, opens another door situated precisely in the rear of the one
first opened. Holding a lighted candle at this door, and shifting the position of
the whole machine repeatedly at the same time, a bright light is thrown entirely
through the cupboard, which is now clearly seen to be full, completely full, of
machinery. The spectators being satisfied of this fact, Maelzel closes the back
door, locks it, takes the key from the lock, lets fall the drapery of the figure, and
comes round to the front. The door marked I, it will be remembered, is still open.
The exhibiter now proceeds to open the drawer which lies beneath the cupboards
at the bottom of the box--for although there are apparently two drawers, there is
really only one--the two handles and two key holes being intended merely for
ornament. Having opened this drawer to its full extent, a small cushion, and a
set of chessmen, fixed in a frame work made to support them perpendicularly,
are discovered. Leaving this drawer, as well as cupboard No. 1 open, Maelzel
now unlocks door No. 2, and door No. 3, which are discovered to be folding
doors, opening into one and the same compartment. To the right of this
compartment, however, (that is to say the spectators’ right) a small division, six
inches wide, and filled with machinery, is partitioned off. The main
compartment itself (in speaking of that portion of the box visible upon opening

Thesaurus
compartment: (n) cell, division, cabin, antecedent, prior, past, above, v) garnish, dress. ANTONYM: (v)
cubicle, separation, cubbyhole, booth, preceding, aforegoing, earlier. strip.
cockpit, cab, bay; (v) partition. ANTONYM: (adj) following. partitioned: (adj) divide, enclosed,
cushion: (n, v) pad, buffer; (v) insulate, lighted: (adj) illuminated, lit, light, partitioned off, separate.
soften, protect, bolster, mollify; (n) ablaze, bright, ignited, burn, burning, penetrate: (v) bore, imbue, fathom,
shock absorber, mat, pincushion; (adj, ignite, kindled, lighten. infiltrate, pierce, permeate, cut, filter,
n) wadding. ANTONYMS: (v) harm, locks: (n) hair, tresses, head of hair. interpenetrate, get through, enter.
hurt, injure, exacerbate, expose. occupying: (n) commencement, perpendicularly: (adv) uprightly,
drapery: (n) drape, clothing, dress, employment, moving in, occupation. erectly, straightly, upright,
blind, raiment, costume, toilette, ornament: (n) decoration, adornment, orthogonally, sheerly, precipitously,
furnishings, trim, guise, toilet. embellishment, decor; (v) beautify, normally, plumb; (adv, v) sheer; (adj,
foregoing: (adj) previous, anterior, decorate, deck, embellish, adorn; (n, adv) directly.
198 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

doors 2 and 3, we shall always call it the main compartment) is lined with dark
cloth and contains no machinery whatever beyond two pieces of steel, quadrant-
shaped, and situated one in each of the rear top corners of the compartment. A
small protuberance about eight inches square, and also covered with dark cloth,
lies on the floor of the compartment near the rear corner on the spectators’ left
hand. Leaving doors No. 2 and No. 3 open as well as the drawer, and door No. 1,
the exhibiter now goes round to the back of the main compartment, and,
unlocking another door there, displays clearly all the interior of the main
compartment, by introducing a candle behind it and within it. The whole box
being thus apparently disclosed to the scrutiny of the company, Maelzel, still
leaving the doors and drawer open, rolls the Automaton entirely round, and
exposes the back of the Turk by lifting up the drapery. A door about ten inches
square is thrown open in the loins of the figure, and a smaller one also in the left
thigh. The interior of the figure, as seen through these apertures, appears to be
crowded with machinery. In general, every spectator is now thoroughly satisfied
of having beheld and completely scrutinized, at one and the same time, every
individual portion of the Automaton, and the idea of any person being concealed
in the interior, during so complete an exhibition of that interior, if ever
entertained, is immediately dismissed as preposterous in the extreme.%
M. Maelzel, having rolled the machine back into its original position, now
informs the company that the Automaton will play a game of chess with any one
disposed to encounter him. This challenge being accepted, a small table is
prepared for the antagonist, and placed close by the rope, but on the spectators’
side of it, and so situated as not to prevent the company from obtaining a full
view of the Automaton. From a drawer in this table is taken a set of chess-men,
and Maelzel arranges them generally, but not always, with his own hands, on the
chess board, which consists merely of the usual number of squares painted upon
the table. The antagonist having taken his seat, the exhibiter approaches the
drawer of the box, and takes therefrom the cushion, which, after removing the
pipe from the hand of the Automaton, he places under its left arm as a support.
Then taking also from the drawer the Automaton’s set of chess-men, he arranges
them upon the chessboard before the figure. He now proceeds to close the doors

Thesaurus
chessboard: (n) checkers. detailed. ridiculous, laughable, derisory,
concealed: (adj) covert, clandestine, disposed: (adj) prone, apt, ready, monstrous, inconsistent; (adj, v)
blind, occult, secret, mysterious, subject, prepared, liable, game, extravagant. ANTONYMS: (adj)
obscure, buried, invisible, secreted, inclined, fain, likely, minded. sensible, reasonable, impressive,
surreptitious. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) ailing, plausible.
unconcealed, available, overt, open, indisposed, unlikely, disinclined, therefrom: (adv) therefore, thereof,
divulged, Shown, revealed, reluctant, impervious. hence; (adj) redundance, strictly,
disclosed, uncovered, noticeable, exposes: (adj) exposed. exact, expected, likeness, deportment,
mainstream. loins: (n) waist, body part, haunch, coincidence, accurate.
disclosed: (adj) exposed, open, lends, pubic region, area, pubes. thigh: (n) portion, limb, second joint,
unconcealed, out of the closet, naked, preposterous: (adj) absurd, irrational, femur, hip, serving, drumstick, crus,
manifest, discovered, ascertained, ludicrous, nonsensical, foolish, helping, flank.
 Edgar Allan Poe 199

and to lock them--leaving the bunch of keys in door No. 1. He also closes the
drawer, and, finally, winds up the machine, by applying a key to an aperture in
the left end (the spectators’ left) of the box. The game now commences--the
Automaton taking the first move. The duration of the contest is usually limited to
half an hour, but if it be not finished at the expiration of this period, and the
antagonist still contend that he can beat the Automaton, M. Maelzel has seldom
any objection to continue it. Not to weary the company, is the ostensible, and no
doubt the real object of the limitation. It Wits of course be understood that when
a move is made at his own table, by the antagonist, the corresponding move is
made at the box of the Automaton, by Maelzel himself, who then acts as the
representative of the antagonist. On the other hand, when the Turk moves, the
corresponding move is made at the table of the antagonist, also by M. Maelzel,
who then acts as the representative of the Automaton. In this manner it is
necessary that the exhibiter should often pass from one table to the other. He also
frequently goes in rear of the figure to remove the chess-men which it has taken,
and which it deposits, when taken, on the box to the left (to its own left) of the
board. When the Automaton hesitates in relation to its move, the exhibiter is
occasionally seen to place himself very near its right side, and to lay his hand,
now and then, in a careless manner upon the box. He has also a peculiar shuffle
with his feet, calculated to induce suspicion of collusion with the machine in
minds which are more cunning than sagacious. These peculiarities are, no doubt,
mere mannerisms of M. Maelzel, or, if he is aware of them at all, he puts them in
practice with a view of exciting in the spectators a false idea of the pure
mechanism in the Automaton.%
The Turk plays with his left hand. All the movements of the arm are at right
angles. In this manner, the hand (which is gloved and bent in a natural way,)
being brought directly above the piece to be moved, descends finally upon it, the
fingers receiving it, in most cases, without difficulty. Occasionally, however,
when the piece is not precisely in its proper situation, the Automaton fails in his
attempt at seizing it. When this occurs, no second effort is made, but the arm
continues its movement in the direction originally intended, precisely as if the
piece were in the fingers. Having thus designated the spot whither the move

Thesaurus
collusion: (n) plot, intrigue, craftiness, craft, cleverness. manifest, outward, pretended,
complicity, cahoot, agreement, ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, honest, unreal, supposed, colorable.
agreed simulation, circumvention, stupid, unimaginative, gullible, ANTONYMS: (adj) real, actual,
deceit, trick, cabal, conspiracy. ingenuous, straightforward, candid, genuine.
contend: (v) wrestle, compete, conflict, sincere; (n) frankness, shuffle: (v) mingle, blend, hobble,
combat, argue, war, clash, altercate, straightforwardness. muddle, drag, scuff, equivocate,
struggle, contest; (n, v) allege. expiration: (n) ending, end, prevaricate, ruffle, mix; (n, v)
ANTONYMS: (v) retreat, harmonize, conclusion, finish, close, exhalation, shamble. ANTONYMS: (v) remain,
abandon, deny, cede, agree, termination, exit, death, lapse, expiry. tidy, leave.
surrender, desert. ANTONYM: (n) beginning. whither: (adv) hither, thither,
cunning: (adj) crafty, canny, adroit, ostensible: (adj) seeming, alleged, whereunto, whereto, for.
wily, sly, shrewd, tricky, artful; (n) specious, superficial, nominal,
200 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

should have been made, the arm returns to its cushion, and Maelzel performs the
evolution which the Automaton pointed out. At every movement of the figure
machinery is heard in motion. During the progress of the game, the figure now
and then rolls its eyes, as if surveying the board, moves its head, and pronounces
the word echec (check) when necessary. If a false move be made by his
antagonist, he raps briskly on the box with the fingers of his right hand, shakes
his head roughly, and replacing the piece falsely moved, in its former situation,
assumes the next move himself. Upon beating the game, he waves his head with
an air of triumph, looks round complacently upon the spectators, and drawing
his left arm farther back than usual, suffers his fingers alone to rest upon the
cushion. In general, the Turk is victorious--once or twice he has been beaten. The
game being ended, Maelzel will again if desired, exhibit the mechanism of the
box, in the same manner as before. The machine is then rolled back, and a curtain
hides it from the view of the company.%
There have been many attempts at solving the mystery of the Automaton.
The most general opinion in relation to it, an opinion too not unfrequently
adopted by men who should have known better, was, as we have before said,
that no immediate human agency was employed--in other words, that the
machine was purely a machine and nothing else. Many, however maintained
that the exhibiter himself regulated the movements of the figure by mechanical
means operating through the feet of the box. Others again, spoke confidently of a
magnet. Of the first of these opinions we shall say nothing at present more than
we have already said. In relation to the second it is only necessary to repeat what
we have before stated, that the machine is rolled about on castors, and will, at the
request of a spectator, be moved to and fro to any portion of the room, even
during the progress of a game. The supposition of the magnet is also untenable--
for if a magnet were the agent, any other magnet in the pocket of a spectator
would disarrange the entire mechanism. The exhibiter, however, will suffer the
most powerful loadstone to remain even upon the box during the whole of the
exhibition.

Thesaurus
briskly: (adv) busily, energetically, drapery, blind, screen, mantle, mask, honestly, truthfully, faithfully,
vigorously, quickly, freshly, actively, shade, pall, shroud; (v) hide. authentically, correctly, naturally,
sharply, rapidly, vividly, brightly, disarrange: (v) derange, clutter, rightly.
merrily. ANTONYMS: (adv) disorganize, muss, muddle, disorder, loadstone: (n) magnet, magnetite,
seriously, laboriously, civilly, ruffle, perturb, shuffle, rumple, loadstar.
pleasantly, languorously. disturb. ANTONYMS: (v) arrange, magnet: (n) lodestone, magnetic,
complacently: (adv) contently, order, tidy. seduction, siderite, prestige,
conceitedly, self-satisfiedly, falsely: (adv) incorrectly, fraudulently, permanent magnet, magnetic force,
graciously, arrogantly, satisfiedly, deceptively, dishonestly, wrongly, temptation, magnets, loadstone,
contentedly, virtuously, erroneously, misleadingly, magnetism.
sanctimoniously. deceitfully, unfaithfully, spuriously, unfrequently: (adv) not much, not
curtain: (n, v) cover; (n) barrier, fictitiously. ANTONYMS: (adv) often, unoften, rarely.
 Edgar Allan Poe 201

The first attempt at a written explanation of the secret, at least the first
attempt of which we ourselves have any knowledge, was made in a large
pamphlet printed at Paris in 1785. The author’s hypothesis amounted to this--
that a dwarf actuated the machine. This dwarf he supposed to conceal himself
during the opening of the box by thrusting his legs into two hollow cylinders,
which were represented to be (but which are not) among the machinery in the
cupboard No. 1, while his body was out of the box entirely, and covered by the
drapery of the Turk. When the doors were shut, the dwarf was enabled to bring
his body within the box--the noise produced by some portion of the machinery
allowing him to do so unheard, and also to close the door by which he entered.
The interior of the automaton being then exhibited, and no person discovered,
the spectators, says the author of this pamphlet, are satisfied that no one is
within any portion of the machine. This whole hypothesis was too obviously
absurd to require comment, or refutation, and accordingly we find that it
attracted very little attention.%
In 1789 a book was published at Dresden by M. I. F. Freyhere in which
another endeavor was made to unravel the mystery. Mr. Freyhere’s book was a
pretty large one, and copiously illustrated by colored engravings. His
supposition was that “a well-taught boy very thin and tall of his age (sufficiently
so that he could be concealed in a drawer almost immediately under the chess-
board”) played the game of chess and effected all the evolutions of the
Automaton. This idea, although even more silly than that of the Parisian author,
met with a better reception, and was in some measure believed to be the true
solution of the wonder, until the inventor put an end to the discussion by
suffering a close examination of the top of the box.
These bizarre attempts at explanation were followed by others equally
bizarre. Of late years however, an anonymous writer, by a course of reasoning
exceedingly unphilosophical, has contrived to blunder upon a plausible
solution--although we cannot consider it altogether the true one. His Essay was
first published in a Baltimore weekly paper, was illustrated by cuts, and was
entitled “An attempt to analyze the Automaton Chess-Player of M. Maelzel.”

Thesaurus
analyze: (n, v) scrutinize; (v) review, accomplish, achieve; (n) achievement. rebuttal, refutal, contradiction,
assay, consider, study, check, copiously: (adv) profusely, lavishly, negation, answer, refusal, defense,
canvass, break down, investigate, richly, plentifully, plenteously, falsification, defence. ANTONYM:
anatomize, analyse. ANTONYMS: (v) generously, exuberantly, liberally, (n) agreement.
assemble, overlook, unite, integrate, affluently, prolifically, bountifully. unheard: (adj) aspirated, atonic, deaf,
ignore, construct, compound, ANTONYMS: (adv) meagerly, thinly, indistinct, involving surds, nonvocal,
combine, compose, neglect. scantily. radical, sharp, silent, surd, irrational.
attempts: (adj) trying. inventor: (n) architect, artificer, unravel: (v) disentangle, solve, undo,
blunder: (n, v) mistake, stumble, slip, discoverer, founder, originator, decipher, explain, resolve, ravel,
botch; (adj, n) fault; (n) error, gaffe, deviser, prime mover, author, unpick, untangle, uncoil; (adj, v)
trip; (v) fail, fumble; (adj, n, v) miss. builder, contriver, designer. extricate. ANTONYMS: (v) fasten,
ANTONYMS: (v) succeed, correct, refutation: (n) confutation, denial, ravel, entangle, tangle.
202 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

This Essay we %suppose to have been the original of the pamphlet to which Sir
David Brewster alludes in his letters on Natural Magic, and which he has no
hesitation in declaring a thorough and satisfactory explanation. The results of the
analysis are undoubtedly, in the main, just; but we can only account for
Brewster’s pronouncing the Essay a thorough and satisfactory explanation, by
supposing him to have bestowed upon it a very cursory and inattentive perusal.
In the compendium of the Essay, made use of in the Letters on Natural Magic, it
is quite impossible to arrive at any distinct conclusion in regard to the adequacy
or inadequacy of the analysis, on account of the gross misarrangement and
deficiency of the letters of reference employed. The same fault is to be found in
the ‘`Attempt &c.,” as we originally saw it. The solution consists in a series of
minute explanations, (accompanied by wood-cuts, the whole occupying many
pages) in which the object is to show the possibility of so shifting the partitions of
the box, as to allow a human being, concealed in the interior, to move portions of
his body from one part of the box to another, during the exhibition of the
mechanism--thus eluding the scrutiny of the spectators. There can be no doubt,
as we have before observed, and as we will presently endeavor to show, that the
principle, or rather the result, of this solution is the true one. Some person is
concealed in the box during the whole time of exhibiting the interior. We object,
however, to the whole verbose description of the manner in which the partitions
are shifted, to accommodate the movements of the person concealed. We object
to it as a mere theory assumed in the first place, and to which circumstances are
afterwards made to adapt themselves. It was not, and could not have been,
arrived at by any inductive reasoning. In whatever way the shifting is managed,
it is of course concealed at every step from observation. To show that certain
movements might possibly be effected in a certain way, is very far from showing
that they are actually so effected. There may be an infinity of other methods by
which the same results may be obtained. The probability of the one assumed
proving the correct one is then as unity to infinity. But, in reality, this particular
point, the shifting of the partitions, is of no consequence whatever. It was
altogether unnecessary to devote seven or eight pages for the purpose of proving
what no one in his senses would deny--viz: that the wonderful mechanical

Thesaurus
bestowed: (adj) presented, conferred, exhibiting: (n) advertising; (adj) preliminary, introductory.
awarded, accurate. exhibitory, ostensive. infinity: (n) infinite, immensity,
compendium: (n) abridgement, inattentive: (adj) negligent, neglectful, infiniteness, infinitude,
compend, digest, synopsis, manual, forgetful, reckless, careless, unaware, boundlessness, immutability, glory,
epitome, anthology, outline, regardless, inconsiderate, mindless, greatness, holiness, forever,
abbreviation, brief, resume. inadvertent; (adj, v) remiss. perpetuity. ANTONYM: (n)
cursory: (adj) careless, passing, ANTONYMS: (adj) attentive, alert, limitedness.
fleeting, perfunctory, ephemeral, observant, carefree, cautious, supposing: (adv) admitting,
superficial, slapdash, facile, conscientious, considerate, diligent, conditionally, in case; (n)
evanescent, sketchy, shallow. prudent. supposition, conjecture, thought,
ANTONYMS: (adj) complete, inductive: (adj) causative, epagogic, theory, assumption; (conj) although,
comprehensive, meticulous, long. inductional, preparatory, what if; (v) suppose.
 Edgar Allan Poe 203

genius of Baron Kempelen could invent the necessary means for shutting a door
or slipping aside a pannel, with a human agent too at his service in actual
contact with the pannel or the door, and the whole operations carried on, as the
author of the Essay himself shows, and as we shall attempt to show more fully
hereafter, entirely out of reach of the observation of the spectators.%
In attempting ourselves an explanation of the Automaton, we will, in the first
place, endeavor to show how its operations are effected, and afterwards
describe, as briefly as possible, the nature of the observations from which we have
deduced our result.
It will be necessary for a proper understanding of the subject, that we repeat
here in a few words, the routine adopted by the exhibiter in disclosing the
interior of the box--a routine from which he never deviates in any material
particular. In the first place he opens the door No. 1. Leaving this open, he goes
round to the rear of the box, and opens a door precisely at the back of door No. 1.
To this back door he holds a lighted candle. He then closes the back door, locks it,
and, coming round to the front, opens the drawer to its full extent. This done, he
opens the doors No. 2 and No. 3, (the folding doors) and displays the interior of
the main compartment. Leaving open the main compartment, the drawer, and
the front door of cupboard No. 1, he now goes to the rear again, and throws open
the back door of the main compartment. In shutting up the box no particular
order is observed, except that the folding doors are always closed before the
drawer.
Now, let us suppose that when the machine is first rolled into the presence of
the spectators, a man is already within it. His body is situated behind the dense
machinery in cupboard No. T. (the rear portion of which machinery is so
contrived as to slip en masse, from the main compartment to the cupboard No. 1,
as occasion may require,) and his legs lie at full length in the main compartment.
When Maelzel opens the door No. 1, the man within is not in any danger of
discovery, for the keenest eve cannot penetrate more than about two inches into
the darkness within. But the case is otherwise when the back door of the
cupboard No. 1, is opened. A bright light then pervades the cupboard, and the

Thesaurus
candle: (n) candela, light, taper, drawer: (n) draftsman, drawers, till, invent: (v) devise, form, create,
bougie, CD, candlepower, lamp, wax designer, box car, cartoonist, excogitate, concoct, imagine,
light, Standard candle; (v) examine, commode, engraver, chest, case, contrive; (n, v) forge, fabricate,
illuminate. locker. design, coin.
carried: (adj) conveyed, imported. effected: (adj) completed, complete, pannel: (n) pillion, saddle.
contrived: (adj) affected, unnatural, finished, fulfilled, done, realized, shutting: (n) closing, conclusion, end,
false, forced, labored, spurious, conventional, constituted, closure, ending, finish, mop up,
feigned, unreal, strained, built, established. culmination, closedown; (adj)
artificially formal. ANTONYM: (adj) hereafter: (adv) thereafter, from now confining, claudent. ANTONYM: (n)
sincere. on, hence, henceforth, hereinafter, opening.
disclosing: (n) confession, afterwards; (n) afterlife, futurity, time slipping: (n) skidding, slippage; (adj)
communication. to come, great beyond, future life. slithering, gliding, down, labent.
204 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

body %of the man would be discovered if it were there. But it is not. The putting
the key in the lock of the back door was a signal on hearing which the person
concealed brought his body forward to an angle as acute as possible--throwing it
altogether, or nearly so, into the main compartment. This, however, is a painful
position, and cannot be long maintained. Accordingly we find that Maelzel closes
the back door. This being done, there is no reason why the body of the man may
not resume its former situation--for the cupboard is again so dark as to defy
scrutiny. The drawer is now opened, and the legs of the person within drop
down behind it in the space it formerly occupied. There is, consequently, now no
longer any part of the man in the main compartment--his body being behind the
machinery in cupboard No. 1, and his legs in the space occupied by the drawer.
The exhibiter, therefore, finds himself at liberty to display the main
compartment. This he does--opening both its back and front doors--and no
person Is discovered. The spectators are now satisfied that the whole of the box is
exposed to view--and exposed too, all portions of it at one and the same time. But
of course this is not the case. They neither see the space behind the drawer, nor
the interior of cupboard No. 1 --the front door of which latter the exhibiter
virtually shuts in shutting its back door. Maelzel, having now rolled the machine
around, lifted up the drapery of the Turk, opened the doors in his back and
thigh, and shown his trunk to be full of machinery, brings the whole back into its
original position, and closes the doors. The man within is now at liberty to move
about. He gets up into the body of the Turk just so high as to bring his eyes
above the level of the chess-board. It is very probable that he seats himself upon
the little square block or protuberance which is seen in a corner of the main
compartment when the doors are open. In this position he sees the chess-board
through the bosom of the Turk which is of gauze. Bringing his right arm across
his breast he actuates the little machinery necessary to guide the left arm and the
fingers of the figure. This machinery is situated just beneath the left shoulder of
the Turk, and is consequently easily reached by the right hand of the man
concealed, if we suppose his right arm brought across the breast. The motions of
the head and eyes, and of the right arm of the figure, as well as the sound echec
are produced by other mechanism in the interior, and actuated at will by the man

Thesaurus
breast: (n) boob, udder, tit, titty, chest, probable: (adj) likely, plausible, scrutiny: (n) examination, review,
knocker, mammilla, bust, pap, heart; possible, potential, presumable, inspection, search, investigation,
(n, v) front. feasible, hopeful, convincing, check, inquiry, research, analysis,
defy: (n, v) dare; (v) brave, resist, believable, to be expected, specious. study, surveillance. ANTONYM: (n)
ignore, confront, revolt, oppose, ANTONYMS: (adj) improbable, glance.
withstand, disobey, contradict; (n) implausible, unbelievable. situated: (adj) set, situate, placed,
defiance. ANTONYMS: (v) obey, resume: (v) restart, regain, summarize, sited, fixed, laid, contextualized,
acquiesce, surrender, yield, comply, continue, revert, adopt, recapitulate; hardened, dictated; (v) locate; (prep)
accept. (n, v) outline; (n) digest, synopsis, circumstanced.
gauze: (n) film, curtain, blind, summary. ANTONYMS: (v) trunk: (n) stem, boot, torso, bole, body,
bandage, mask, mantle, muslin, abandon, suspend, die, discontinue, stalk, snout, proboscis, stock, tree
screen, gauze bandage, shutter, daze. expand. trunk, box.
 Edgar Allan Poe 205

within. The whole of this mechanism--that is to say all the mechanism essential
to the machine--is most probably contained within the little cupboard (of about
six inches in breadth) partitioned off at the right (the spectators’ right) of the
main compartment.%
In this analysis of the operations of the Automaton, we have purposely
avoided any allusion to the manner in which the partitions are shifted, and it
will now be readily comprehended that this point is a matter of no importance,
since, by mechanism within the ability of any common carpenter, it might be
effected in an infinity of different ways, and since we have shown that, however
performed, it is performed out of the view of the spectators. Our result is
founded upon the following observations taken during frequent visits to the
exhibition of Maelzel.

1. The moves of the Turk are not made at regular intervals of time, but
accommodate themselves to the moves of the antagonist--although this
point (of regularity) so important in all kinds of mechanical contrivance,
might have been readily brought about by limiting the time allowed for
the moves of the antagonist. For example, if this limit were three
minutes, the moves of the Automaton might be made at any given
intervals longer than three minutes. The fact then of irregularity, when
regularity might have been so easily attained, goes to prove that
regularity is unimportant to the action of the Automaton--in other
words, that the Automaton is not a pure machine.

2. When the Automaton is about to move a piece, a distinct motion is

observable just beneath the left shoulder, and which motion agitates in a
slight degree, the drapery covering the front of the left shoulder. This
motion invariably precedes, by about two seconds, the movement of the
arm itself--and the arm never, in any instance, moves without this
preparatory motion in the shoulder. Now let the antagonist move a
piece, and let the corresponding move be made by Maelzel, as usual,
upon the board of the Automaton. Then let the antagonist narrowly
Thesaurus
allusion: (n) innuendo, reference, cue, apparatus. apparent, appreciable, visible,
suggestion, mention, intimation, irregularity: (n) abnormality, anomaly, evident, noteworthy, notable,
pointer, insinuation, implication, eccentricity, inequality, deviation, detectable, remarkable.
indication, clue. aberration, constipation, exception, ANTONYMS: (adj) hidden,
breadth: (n) width, spread, amplitude, unevenness, variation; (adj, n) imperceptible, invisible.
wideness, size, length, latitude, deformity. ANTONYMS: (n) regularity: (n) constancy, evenness,
extent, area, broadness, stretch. symmetry, normality, regularity, punctuality, orderliness, uniformity,
ANTONYMS: (n) length, longitude, dependability, equality, frequency, steadiness, method, accuracy,
emptiness, thinness. evenness, consistency, predictability, discipline, system, exactness.
contrivance: (n) device, appliance, smoothness. ANTONYMS: (n) lateness,
gadget, artifice, plot, dodge, resource, observable: (adj, adv) noticeable, asymmetry, irregularity, disorder,
plan, contraption, machine, perceptible; (adj) discernible, variability, variety, abnormality.
206 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

watch the Automaton, until he detect the preparatory motion in the

shoulder. Immediately upon detecting this motion, and before the arm
itself begins to move, let him withdraw his piece, as if perceiving an
error in his manoeuvre. It will then be seen that the movement of the
arm, which, in all other cases, immediately succeeds the motion in the
shoulder, is withheld--is not made--although Maelzel has not yet
performed, on the board of the Automaton, any move corresponding to
the withdrawal of the antagonist. In this case, that the Automaton was
about to move is evident--and that he did not move, was an effect plainly
produced by the withdrawal of the antagonist, and without any
intervention of Maelzel.%

This fact fully proves, ~--that the intervention of Maelzel, in performing

the moves of the antagonist on the board of the Automaton, is not
essential to the movements of the Automaton, 2--that its movements are
regulated by mind--by some person who sees the board of the antagonist,
3--that its movements are not regulated by the mind of Maelzel, whose
back was turned towards the antagonist at the withdrawal of his move.

3. The Automaton does not invariably win the game. Were the machine a
pure machine this would not be the case--it would always win. The
principle being discovered by which a machine can be made to play a
game of chess, an extension of the same principle would enable it to win
a game--a farther extension would enable it to win all games--that is, to
beat any possible game of an antagonist. A little consideration will
convince any one that the difficulty of making a machine beat all games,
Is not in the least degree greater, as regards the principle of the
operations necessary, than that of making it beat a single game. If then
we regard the Chess-Player as a machine, we must suppose, (what is
highly improbable,) that its inventor preferred leaving it incomplete to
perfecting it-- a supposition rendered still more absurd, when we reflect
that the leaving it incomplete would afford an argument against the

Thesaurus
detecting: (n) spotting, investigation, (v) direct, guide, steer, go. preparation, prior. ANTONYM: (adj)
catching, detective work, sleuthing, perfecting: (n) development, final.
police investigation, hearing; (adj) reiteration. regards: (v) regard, esteem, respect,
observant. performing: (n) impersonation, consideration, honor, motive; (adj)
incomplete: (adj) faulty, deficient, byplay, enactment, hamming, abord, devoir; (n) greeting, relation,
inadequate, imperfect, short, lacking, business, implementation, executing, duty.
unfinished, half, insufficient, sketchy; performance, activity; (v) perform, regulated: (adj) ordered, arranged,
(adj, adv) halfway. ANTONYMS: (adj) execute. consistent, lawful, temperate, not
finished, whole, entire, preparatory: (adj, v) preparative; (adj) haphazard, organized; (adv) in time,
comprehensive, boundless, adequate. introductory, preceding, in harmony, keeping pace, keeping
manoeuvre: (n) device, gambit, propaedeutic, prefatory, initial, up.
artifice, ruse, stratagem, ploy, tactic; precedent, opening, antecedent; (n)
 Edgar Allan Poe 207

possibility of its being a pure machine--the very argument we now

adduce.%

4. When the situation of the game is difficult or complex, we never perceive

the Turk either shake his head or roll his eyes. It is only when his next
move is obvious, or when the game is so circumstanced that to a man in
the Automaton’s place there would be no necessity for reflection. Now
these peculiar movements of the head and eves are movements
customary with persons engaged in meditation, and the ingenious
Baron Kempelen would have adapted these movements (were the
machine a pure machine) to occasions proper for their display--that is, to
occasions of complexity. But the reverse is seen to be the case, and this
reverse applies precisely to our supposition of a man in the interior.
When engaged in meditation about the game he has no time to think of
setting in motion the mechanism of the Automaton by which are moved
the head and the eyes. When the game, however, is obvious, he has time
to look about hirn, and, accordingly, we see the head shake and the eyes
roll.

5. When the machine is rolled round to allow the spectators an examination

of the back of the Turk, and when his drapery is lifted up and the doors
in the trunk and thigh thrown open, the interior of the trunk is seen to be
crowded with machinery. In scrutinizing this machinery while the
Automaton was in motion, that is to say while the whole machine was
moving on the castors, it appeared to us that certain portions of the
mechanism changed their shape and position in a degree too great to be
accounted for by the simple laws of perspective; and subsequent
examinations convinced us that these undue alterations were
attributable to mirrors in the interior of the trunk. The introduction of
mirrors among the machinery could not have been intended to influence,
in any degree, the machinery itself. Their operation, whatever that
operation should prove to be, must necessarily have reference to the eve

Thesaurus
attributable: (adj) predicable, extraordinary, rare. reflexion. ANTONYM: (n)
referable, owing, imputable, ingenious: (adj) adroit, artful, clever, distraction.
derivable, accusable, affirmable. cunning, deft, expert, creative, scrutinizing: (adj) exploring
circumstanced: (adj) conditioned. imaginative, cute, acute, able. thoroughly, inquisitive, searching,
customary: (adj, n) accustomed, usual, ANTONYMS: (adj) impulsive, naive, penetrating.
habitual; (adj) conventional, ordinary, unoriginal, inept. undue: (adj) excessive, immoderate,
commonplace, traditional, average, lifted: (adj) raised, elevated, lift, lofty, unreasonable, unwarranted,
wonted, regular, standard. upraised, steep. inordinate, extravagant, exorbitant,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, meditation: (n, v) contemplation, extreme, unfair, improper,
abnormal, exceptional, study; (n) consideration, reflection, unjustified. ANTONYMS: (adj)
unconventional, offbeat, irregular, deliberation, thought, introspection, reasonable, due, appropriate,
innovative, different, unfamiliar, musing, rumination, conception, sensible, justified, just, fair.
208 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

of the spectator. We at once concluded that these mirrors were so placed

to multiply to the vision some few pieces of machinery within the trunk
so as to give it the appearance of being crowded with mechanism. Now
the direct inference from this is that the machine is not a pure machine.
For if it were, the inventor, so far from wishing its mechanism to appear
complex, and using deception for the purpose of giving it this
appearance, would have been especially desirous of convincing those
who witnessed his exhibition, of the simplicity of the means by which
results so wonderful were brought about.%

6. The external appearance, and, especially, the deportment of the Turk,

are, when we consider them as imitations of life, but very indifferent
imitations. The countenance evinces no ingenuity, and is surpassed, in its
resemblance to the human face, by the very commonest of wax-works.
The eyes roll unnaturally in the head, without any corresponding
motions of the lids or brows. The arm, particularly, performs its
operations in an exceedingly stiff, awkward, jerking, and rectangular
manner. Now, all this is the result either of inability in Maelzel to do
better, or of intentional neglect--accidental neglect being out of the
question, when we consider that the whole time of the ingenious
proprietor is occupied in the improvement of his machines. Most
assuredly we must not refer the unlife-like appearances to inability--for
all the rest of Maelzel’s automata are evidence of his full ability to copy
the motions and peculiarities of life with the most wonderful exactitude.
The rope-dancers, for example, are inimitable. When the clown laughs,
his lips, his eyes, his eye-brows, and eyelids--indeed, all the features of
his countenance--are imbued with their appropriate expressions. In both
him and his companion, every gesture is so entirely easy, and free from
the semblance of artificiality, that, were it not for the diminutiveness of
their size, and the fact of their being passed from one spectator to
another previous to their exhibition on the rope, it would be difficult to
convince any assemblage of persons that these wooden automata were

Thesaurus
artificiality: (n) unnaturalness, assuredly: (adv) certainly, confidently, diminutiveness: (n) smallness,
artificialness, theatricality, positively, securely, indeed, minuteness, petiteness, tininess,
dishonesty, pretension, pretense, definitely, undoubtedly, admittedly, weeness.
pretence, insincerity, safely, insuredly, decidedly. jerking: (adj) arrhythmic,
disingenuousness; (adj) artificial, brows: (n) brow. arrhythmical, jerky, unsteady; (n)
subtlety. clown: (n) fool, joker, jester, boor, movement, jolt, dork, jar.
assemblage: (n) meeting, collection, harlequin, joke, comedian, rustic, unnaturally: (adv) falsely, unusually,
congregation, set, multitude, crew, comic, acrobat; (v) antic. contrivedly, affectedly,
confluence, gathering, gang, deportment: (n, v) bearing, demeanor, extraordinarily, monstrously,
convention, convocation. conduct, carriage; (n) manner, manneredly, by artificial means,
ANTONYMS: (v) dispersal, attitude, demeanour, behaviour, abnormally, peculiarly, cruelly.
scattering. comportment, dealing, air. ANTONYM: (adv) normally.
 Edgar Allan Poe 209

not living creatures. We cannot, therefore, doubt Mr. Maelzel’s ability,

and we must necessarily suppose that he intentionally suffered his Chess
Player to remain the same artificial and unnatural figure which Baron
Kempelen (no doubt also through design) originally made it. What this
design was it is not difficult to conceive. Were the Automaton life-like in
its motions, the spectator would be more apt to attribute its operations to
their true cause, (that is, to human agency within) than he is now, when
the awkward and rectangular manoeuvres convey the idea of pure and
unaided mechanism.%

7. When, a short time previous to the commencement of the game, the

Automaton is wound up by the exhibiter as usual, an ear in any degree
accustomed to the sounds produced in winding up a system of
machinery, will not fail to discover, instantaneously, that the axis turned
by the key in the box of the Chess-Player, cannot possibly be connected
with either a weight, a spring, or any system of machinery whatever. The
inference here is the same as in our last observation. The winding up is
inessential to the operations of the Automaton, and is performed with
the design of exciting in the spectators the false idea of mechanism.

8. When the question is demanded explicitly of Maelzel-- “Is the

Automaton a pure machine or not?” his reply is invariably the same--”I
will say nothing about it.” Now the notoriety of the Automaton, and the
great curiosity it has every where excited, are owing more especially to
the prevalent opinion that it is a pure machine, than to any other
circumstance. Of course, then, it is the interest of the proprietor to
represent it as a pure machine. And what more obvious, and more
effectual method could there be of impressing the spectators with this
desired idea, than a positive and explicit declaration to that effect? On
the other hand, what more obvious and effectual method could there be
of exciting a disbelief in the Automaton’s being a pure machine, than by
withholding such explicit declaration? For, people will naturally reason

Thesaurus
inessential: (adj) unnecessary, fame, infamy, disrepute, note, wave.
unessential, petty, immaterial, notability, prominence, flagrancy, unaided: (adj) naked, unassisted,
dispensable, superfluous, peripheral, distinction; (adj, n) renown. defenseless, nude, bare, independent,
redundant, needless, expendable; (n) ANTONYM: (n) obscurity. unaccompanied, open; (adj, adv)
entity. ANTONYMS: (adj) essential; owing: (adj) due, unpaid, unsettled, alone, on your own; (adv) single-
(n) necessity. outstanding, overdue, owed, payable, handed. ANTONYM: (adv) jointly.
instantaneously: (adv) directly, undischarged, indebted, fulfilling withholding: (n) detention,
instantly, at once, forthwith, obligation, lawful. ANTONYM: (adj) reservation, withholding tax,
suddenly, promptly, abruptly, settled. confinement, custody, deduction,
momentarily, outright, right away, in rectangular: (adj) orthogonal, oblong, deprivation, estrangement, holding,
a flash. ANTONYM: (adv) eventually. square, rectangled, rectangle, keeping, maintenance. ANTONYM:
notoriety: (n) publicity, reputation, multilateral, angular; (n) rectangular (n) release.
210 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

thus,--It is Maelzel’s interest to represent this thing a pure machine--he

refuses to do so, directly, in words, although he does not scruple, and is
evidently anxious to do so, indirectly by actions--were it actually what
he wishes to represent it by actions, he would gladly avail himself of the
more direct testimony of words--the inference is, that a consciousness of
its not being a pure machine, is the reason of his silence--his actions
cannot implicate him in a falsehood--his words may.%

9. When, in exhibiting the interior of the box, Maelzel has thrown open the
door No. 1, and also the door immediately behind it, he holds a lighted
candle at the back door (as mentioned above) and moves the entire
machine to and fro with a view of convincing the company that the
cupboard No. 1 is entirely filled with machinery. When the machine is
thus moved about, it will be apparent to any careful observer, that
whereas that portion of the machinery near the front door No. 1, is
perfectly steady and unwavering, the portion farther within fluctuates,
in a very slight degree, with the movements of the machine. This
circumstance first aroused in us the suspicion that the more remote
portion of the machinery was so arranged as to be easily slipped, en
masse, from its position when occasion should require it. This occasion
we have already stated to occur when the man concealed within brings
his body into an erect position upon the closing of the back door.
10. Sir David Brewster states the figure of the Turk to be of the size of life--
but in fact it is far above the ordinary size. Nothing is more easy than to
err in our notions of magnitude. The body of the Automaton is generally
insulated, and, having no means of immediately comparing it with any
human form, we suffer ourselves to consider it as of ordinary
dimensions. This mistake may, however, be corrected by observing the
Chess-Player when, as is sometimes the case, the exhibiter approaches it.
Mr. Maelzel, to be sure, is not very tall, but upon drawing near the
machine, his head will be found at least eighteen inches below the head

Thesaurus
avail: (n, v) advantage, assist, aid, gladly: (adv, v) happily; (adv) gleefully, inference: (n) corollary, implication,
profit, benefit, help; (adj, n) service; contentedly, cheerfully, fain, joyfully, illation, conclusion, assumption,
(n) good, assistance, utility; (v) do. jovially, cheerily, delightedly, judgment, surmise, derivation,
ANTONYMS: (v) useless, hurt, gladsomely, readily. ANTONYMS: analogy, guess, result. ANTONYM:
hinder, harm; (n) inappropriateness. (adv) reluctantly, unwillingly, sadly, (n) fact.
circumstance: (n) affair, incident, resentfully, miserably. unwavering: (adj) steadfast, firm,
matter, event, occasion, chance, having: (n) estate, possession, constant, unfaltering, resolute, fixed,
accident, opportunity, adventure, acceptance, enjoyment. unshakable, unswerving, sure; (adj, n)
casualty, fact. implicate: (v) embroil, involve, entail, loyal, faithful. ANTONYMS: (adj)
corrected: (adj) amended, reformed, tangle, include, accuse, compromise, wavering, inconsistent, varying,
purified, educated, altered, involvement, enmesh, concern, unreliable, uncertain, temporary,
chastened, disciplined. complicate. compliant, erratic, hesitant.
 Edgar Allan Poe 211

of the Turk, although the latter, it will be remembered, is in a sitting

position.%

11. The box behind which the Automaton is placed, is precisely three feet six
inches long, two feet four inches deep, and two feet six inches high.
These dimensions are fully sufficient for the accommodation of a man
very much above the common size--and the main compartment alone is
capable of holding any ordinary man in the position we have mentioned
as assumed by the person concealed. As these are facts, which any one
who doubts them may prove by actual calculation, we deem it
unnecessary to dwell upon them. We will only suggest that, although
the top of the box is apparently a board of about three inches in
thickness, the spectator may satisfy himself by stooping and looking up
at it when the main compartment is open, that it is in reality very thin.
The height of the drawer also will be misconceived by those who
examine it in a cursory manner. There is a space of about three inches
between the top of the drawer as seen from the exterior, and the bottom
of the cupboard--a space which must be included in the height of the
drawer. These contrivances to make the room within the box appear less
than it actually is, are referrible to a design on the part of the inventor, to
impress the company again with a false idea, viz. that no human being
can be accommodated within the box.

12. The interior of the main compartment is lined throughout with cloth.
This cloth we suppose to have a twofold object. A portion of it may
form, when tightly stretched, the only partitions which there is anv
necessity for removing during the changes of the man’s position, viz: the
partition between the rear of the main compartment and the rear of the
cupboard No. 1, and the partition between the main compartment, and
the space behind the drawer when open. If we imagine this to be the
case, the difficulty of shifting the partitions vanishes at once, if indeed
any such difficulty could be supposed under any circumstances to exist.

Thesaurus
deem: (v) believe, assume, consider, outer, outdoor. ANTONYMS: (adj, n) changeable, fickle, changing, varying,
count, hold, think, feel, view, interior, inside; (adj) inner, internal, unsettled, movable, fitful; (n) change,
suppose, regard, imagine. intrinsic, middle, deep. movement. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (v) disregard, doubt. impress: (n, v) mark, print, stamp; (v) smooth, consistent.
doubts: (adj) doubting. move, affect, inscribe, instill, touch, stooping: (adj) hunched, crooked,
dwell: (adj, v) inhabit; (v) reside, bide, emboss, inculcate; (n) impression. asymmetrical, not erect, not straight,
live, stay, lodge, delay, occupy, partition: (n) wall, bulkhead, divider, corrupt; (n) patronage.
continue, be, settle. ANTONYM: (v) distribution, separation, screen; (n, v) twofold: (adj) dual, duplicate, twin,
wander. part, split; (v) divide, apportion, deal. doubled, threefold, treble, duplex,
exterior: (adj, n) outside, surface, ANTONYMS: (v) join, reveal; (n) duple; (adv) two times, as much
outward; (n) appearance, skin, front; union. again, twice.
(adj) external, superficial, outlying, shifting: (adj) moving, variable,
212 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

The second object of the cloth is to deaden and render indistinct all
sounds occasioned by the movements of the person within.%

13. The antagonist (as we have before observed) is not suffered to play at the
board of the Automaton, but is seated at some distance from the
machine. The reason which, most probably, would be assigned for this
circumstance, if the question were demanded, is, that were the
antagonist otherwise situated, his person would intervene between the
machine and the spectators, and preclude the latter from a distinct view.
But this difficulty might be easily obviated, either by elevating the seats
of the company, or by turning the end of the box towards them during
the game. The true cause of the restriction is, perhaps, very different.
Were the antagonist seated in contact with the box, the secret would be
liable to discovery, by his detecting, with the aid of a quick car, the
breathings of the man concealed.

14. Although M. Maelzel, in disclosing the interior of the machine,

sometimes slightly deviates from the routine which we have pointed out,
yet reeler in any instance does he so deviate from it as to interfere with
our solution. For example, he has been known to open, first of all, the
drawer--but he never opens the main compartment without first closing
the back door of cupboard No. 1--he never opens the main compartment
without first pulling out the drawer--he never shuts the drawer without
first shutting the main compartment--he never opens the back door of
cupboard No. 1 while the main compartment is open--and the game of
chess is never commenced until the whole machine is closed. Now if it
were observed that never, in any single instance, did M. Maelzel differ
from the routine we have pointed out as necessary to our solution, it
would be one of the strongest possible arguments in corroboration of it--
but the argument becomes infinitely strengthened if we duly consider
the circumstance that he does occasionally deviate from the routine but
never does so deviate as to falsify the solution.

Thesaurus
corroboration: (n) evidence, demanded: (adj) urgent, popular, ANTONYM: (adv) finitely.
certification, testimony, proof, requisitory. preclude: (v) forbid, obviate, avert,
support, ratification, verification, falsify: (v) garble, adulterate, hinder, forestall, bar, debar, foreclose,
approval, authentication, confirm, misrepresent, counterfeit, prevent, anticipate, obstruct.
corroborate. manipulate, fake, forge, juggle, ANTONYM: (v) encourage.
deaden: (n, v) dampen, blunt, benumb, fudge, distort, cook. ANTONYM: (v) reeler: (n) staggerer, totterer.
stun, obtund; (adj, n, v) damp; (v) right. render: (v) interpret, explain, give,
muffle, mute, cushion; (adj, v) quell; infinitely: (adv) greatly, vastly, offer, furnish, pay, construe, return,
(adj) allay. ANTONYMS: (v) immensely, immeasurably, provide, impart, translate.
accentuate, amplify, enliven, boundlessly, enormously, strengthened: (adj) consolidated,
heighten, strengthen, build, unboundedly, hugely, ceaselessly, sinewed, made firm, comfortable,
invigorate, increase. unendingly; (adj, adv) incalculably. built, strong, equipped.
 Edgar Allan Poe 213

15. There are six candles on the board of the Automaton during exhibition.
The question naturally arises--”Why are so many employed, when a
single candle, or, at farthest, two, would have been amply sufficient to
afford the spectators a clear view of the board, in a room otherwise so
well lit up as the exhibition room always is--when, moreover, if we
suppose the machine a pure machine, there can be no necessity for so
much light, or indeed any light at all, to enable it to perform its
operations--and when, especially, only a single candle is placed upon the
table of the antagonist?” The first and most obvious inference is, that so
strong a light is requisite to enable the man within to see through the
transparent material (probably fine gauze) of which the breast of the
Turk is composed. But when we consider the arrangement of the
candles, another reason immediately presents itself. There are six lights
(as we have said before) in all. Three of these are on each side of the
figure. Those most remote from the spectators are the longest--those in
the middle are about two inches shorter--and those nearest the company
about two inches shorter still--and the candles on one side differ in
height from the candles respectively opposite on the other, by a ratio
different from two inches--that is to say, the longest candle on one side is
about three inches shorter than the longest candle on the other, and so
on. Thus it will be seen that no two of the candles are of the same height,
and thus also the difficulty of ascertaining the material of the breast of the
figure (against which the light is especially directed) is greatly
augmented by the dazzling effect of the complicated crossings of the
rays--crossings which are brought about by placing the centres of
radiation all upon different levels.%

16. While the Chess-Player was in possession of Baron Kempelen, it was

more than once observed, first, that an Italian in the suite of the Baron
was never visible during the playing of a game at chess by the Turk, and,
secondly, that the Italian being taken seriously ill, the exhibition was

Thesaurus
amply: (adj, adv) abundantly, imperturbable, temperate, level, gradual, abysmal, humdrum, dark.
sufficiently; (adv) fully, well, lavishly, impassive, unflappable. longest: (adj) best, lengest, fastest, top,
plentifully, richly, generously, ANTONYMS: (adj) distressed, record, best ever, greatest.
enough, adequately, capaciously. trembling, nervous, excited, tense, shorter: (adj) smaller, inferior.
ANTONYMS: (adv) meagerly, ruffled, jumpy, intemperate, transparent: (adj) diaphanous,
inadequately, illiberally, sparingly, discomposed, upset, worried. obvious, plain, limpid, sheer, filmy,
poorly. dazzling: (adj) brilliant, blinding, gauzy, pellucid; (adj, n) lucid,
augmented: (adj) amplified, enlarged, splendid, glaring, vivid, stunning, luminous, bright. ANTONYMS: (adj)
greater than before, inflated, plus, dazzlingly, striking, sparkling, solid, unclear, cloudy, thick, vague,
more. fulgent, resplendent. ANTONYMS: subtle, questionable, hidden, robust,
composed: (adj) calm, dispassionate, (adj) dim, ugly, uninspired, heavy, furtive.
cool, peaceable, pacific, staid, unremarkable, unexceptional,
214 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

suspended until his recovery. This Italian professed a total ignorance of

the game of chess, although all others of the suite played well. Similar
observations have been made since the Automaton has been purchased
by Maelzel. There is a man, Schlumber0er, who attends him wherever he
goes, but who has no ostensible occupation other than that of assisting
in the packing and unpacking of the automata. This man is about the
medium size, and has a remarkable stoop in the shoulders. Whether he
professes to play chess or not, we are not informed. It is quite certain,
however, that he is never to be seen during the exhibition of the Chess-
Player, although frequently visible just before and just after the
exhibition. Moreover, some years ago Maelzel visited Richmond with his
automata, and exhibited them, we believe, in the house now occupied
by M. Bossieux as a Dancing Academy. Schlumberger was suddenly
taken ill, and during his illness there was no exhibition of the Chess-
Player. These facts are well known to many of our citizens. The reason
assigned for the suspension of the Chess-Player’s performances, was not
the illness of Schlumberger. The inferences from all this we leave, without
farther comment, to the reader.%

17. The Turk plays with his left arm. A circumstance so remarkable cannot
be whatever. beyond a accidental. Brewster takes no notice of it
whatever beyond a mere statement, we believe, that such is the fact. The
early writers of treatises on the Automaton, seem not to have observed
the matter at all, and have no reference to it. The author of the pamphlet
alluded to by Brewster, mentions it, but acknowledges his inability to
account for it. Yet it is obviously from such prominent discrepancies or
incongruities as this that deductions are to be made (if made at all)
which shall lead us to the truth.

The circumstance of the Automaton’s playing with his left hand cannot have
connexion with the operations of the machine, considered merely as such. Any
mechanical arrangement which would cause the figure to move, in any given

Thesaurus
accidental: (adj) casual, unintentional, supporting, support, secondary, backpacking.
adventitious, unintended, incidental, supplementary, assistant; (n) helping. professed: (adj) alleged, declared,
chance, random, unforeseen, ANTONYM: (adj) main. apparent, avowed, pretended,
unexpected, contingent, haphazard. connexion: (n) conjunction, connector, seeming, supposed, affected, feigned,
ANTONYMS: (adj) deliberate, connective, connection, association, so-called, purported.
designed, intended, planned, bond, concatenation, join, linkage, purchased: (adj) boughten, not
premeditated. link, junction. homemade; (prep) bribed.
assigned: (adj) designated, allotted, exhibited: (adj) ostensible, avowed, stoop: (v) crouch, bend, deign,
specified, destined, designate, apparent, declared. condescend, descend, squat, couch,
allocated, definite. packing: (n) boxing, package, gasket, cringe, lean, lower oneself; (n) porch.
assisting: (adj) aiding, auxiliary, bundling, fill, pad, pack, ANTONYM: (v) straighten.
subsidiary, suffragan, adjuvant, envelopment, wadding, wrap, whether: (pron) where.
 Edgar Allan Poe 215

manner, the left arm--could, if reversed, cause it to move, in the same manner,
the right. But these principles cannot be extended to the human organization,
wherein there is a marked and radical difference in the construction, and, at all
events, in the powers, of the right and left arms. Reflecting upon this latter fact,
we naturally refer the incongruity noticeable in the Chess-Player to this
peculiarity in the human organization. If so, we must imagine some reversion--for
the Chess-Player plays precisely as a man would not. These ideas, once
entertained, are sufficient of themselves, to suggest the notion of a man in the
interior. A few more imperceptible steps lead us, finally, to the result. The
Automaton plays with his left arm, because under no other circumstances could
the man within play with his right--a desideratum of course. Let us, for example,
imagine the Automaton to play with his right arm. To reach the machinery
which moves the arm, and which we have before explained to lie just beneath the
shoulder, it would be necessary for the man within either to use his right arm in
an exceedingly painful and awkward position, (viz. brought up close to his body
and tightly compressed between his body and the side of the Automaton,) or else
to use his left arm brought across his breast. In neither case could he act with the
requisite ease or precision. On the contrary, the Automaton playing, as it actually
does, with the left arm, all difficulties vanish. The right arm of the man within is
brought across his breast, and his right fingers act, without any constraint, upon
tile machinery in the shoulder of the figure.%
We do not believe that any reasonable objections can be urged against this
solution of the Automaton Chess-Player.

Thesaurus
compressed: (adj) flat, condensed, overwhelming, clear, visible, distinction, particularity, oddness,
dense, concentrated, compacted, perceptible, heavy, noticeable, eccentricity, distinctiveness,
tight, pointed, packed, concise, close, definite, considerable, conspicuous, abnormality, characteristic, attribute,
brief. strong. difference, individuality.
desideratum: (n) need, requirement, incongruity: (n) disharmony, ANTONYM: (n) similarity.
necessity, aim; (v) porism, problem, contradiction, disagreement, vanish: (n, v) disappear; (adj, v) fade;
query, question. incongruence, disparity, discrepancy, (v) disperse, pass, go, die, dissipate,
imperceptible: (adj) invisible, discord, unconformity, evaporate, depart, flee, melt away.
intangible, insensible, faint, disproportion, absurdity, paradox. ANTONYMS: (v) come, arrive, wax,
evanescent, inaudible, negligible, ANTONYMS: (n) congruity, stay.
indiscernible, unseen, unnoticeable, normality, agreement. wherein: (adv) in what, in which,
gentle. ANTONYMS: (adj) obvious, peculiarity: (n) idiosyncrasy, where.
 Edgar Allan Poe 217

THE POWER OF WORDS

OINOS. Pardon, Agathos, the weakness of a spirit new-fledged with

immortality!
AGATHOS. You have spoken nothing, my Oinos, for which pardon is to be
demanded. Not even here is knowledge thing of intuition. For wisdom, ask of
the angels freely, that it may be given!
OINOS. But in this existence, I dreamed that I should be at once cognizant of
all things, and thus at once be happy in being cognizant of all.%
AGATHOS. Ah, not in knowledge is happiness, but in the acquisition of
knowledge! In for ever knowing, we are for ever blessed; but to know all were
the curse of a fiend.
OINOS. But does not The Most High know all?
AGATHOS. That (since he is The Most Happy) must be still the one thing
unknown even to Him.
OINOS. But, since we grow hourly in knowledge, must not at last all things
be known?
AGATHOS. Look down into the abysmal distances!--attempt to force the
gaze down the multitudinous vistas of the stars, as we sweep slowly through
them thus--and thus--and thus! Even the spiritual vision, is it not at all points

Thesaurus
abysmal: (adj) abyssal, appalling, ANTONYMS: (adj) unwitting, intuition: (n) insight, feeling,
unfathomable, terrible, dreadful, ignorant, incognizant, oblivious, presentiment, suspicion,
immeasurable, profound, awful, uninformed. premonition, notion, instinct, sense,
horrible, unending, frightful. fiend: (n) monster, devil, fanatic, vision, bosom, thought.
ANTONYMS: (adj) exceptional, brute, deuce, incubus, goblin, ogre, ANTONYMS: (n) intellect, certainty.
fathomable, finite, limited, enthusiast, daemon, addict. multitudinous: (adj) innumerable,
measurable, wonderful, great, ANTONYM: (n) angel. infinite, manifold, multiple,
superb. immortality: (n) sempiternity, numberless, myriad, many,
cognizant: (adj) mindful, conscious, perpetuity, athanasia, glory, aye, numerous, thick, populous,
sensible, knowing, knowledgeable, fame, everness, immortal, innumerous.
familiar, cognisant, perceptive, permanency, deathlessness, undying.
witting, conversant, acquainted. ANTONYM: (n) mortality.
218 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

arrested by the continuous golden walls of the universe?--the walls of the

myriads of the shining bodies that mere number has appeared to blend into
unity?
OINOS. I clearly perceive that the infinity of matter is no dream.%
AGATHOS. There are no dreams in Aidenn--but it is here whispered that, of
this infinity of matter, the sole purpose is to afford infinite springs, at which the
soul may allay the thirst to know, which is for ever unquenchable within it--
since to quench it, would be to extinguish the soul’s self. Question me then, my
Oinos, freely and without fear. Come! we will leave to the left the loud harmony
of the Pleiades, and swoop outward from the throne into the starry meadows
beyond Orion, where, for pansies and violets, and heart’s--ease, are the beds of
the triplicate and triple--tinted suns.
OINOS. And now, Agathos, as we proceed, instruct me!--speak to me in the
earth’s familiar tones. I understand not what you hinted to me, just now, of the
modes or of the method of what, during mortality, we were accustomed to call
Creation. Do you mean to say that the Creator is not God?
AGATHOS. I mean to say that the Deity does not create.
OINOS. Explain.
AGATHOS. In the beginning only, he created. The seeming creatures which
are now, throughout the universe, so perpetually springing into being, can only
be considered as the mediate or indirect, not as the direct or immediate results of
the Divine creative power.
OINOS. Among men, my Agathos, this idea would be considered heretical in
the extreme.
AGATHOS. Among angels, my Oinos, it is seen to be simply true.
OINOS. I can comprehend you thus far--that certain operations of what we
term Nature, or the natural laws, will, under certain conditions, give rise to that
which has all the appearance of creation. Shortly before the final overthrow of
the earth, there were, I well remember, many very successful experiments in

Thesaurus
allay: (n, v) ease; (adj, v) still, quell, lay, inflame, sustain, protect. showy, gleaming, bright, lustrous,
appease, quiet; (v) abate, mitigate, mediate: (v) intervene, intercede, shiny, lucid, stellar, fulgent.
moderate, quench, alleviate. interfere, intermediate, referee, ANTONYMS: (adj) starless, dull.
ANTONYMS: (v) arouse, excite, arrange, interpose, moderate, swoop: (v) pounce, raid, descend,
heighten, intensify, magnify, reconcile, negotiate; (adj) middle. clutch, wrench; (n) descent, slide,
provoke, stir, exacerbate, aggravate. ANTONYM: (v) provoke. dive; (n, v) sweep, stoop, plunge.
experiments: (n) data. quench: (adj, v) extinguish, allay, unquenchable: (adj) quenchless,
extinguish: (v) destroy, exterminate, slake; (v) appease, quash, put out, inextinguishable, voracious,
eradicate, douse, annihilate, destroy, assuage, annihilate, calm, impregnable, unconquerable,
consume, wipe out, end, suppress, chill. ANTONYMS: (v) stimulate, resistless, irresistible, invincible,
quash; (adj, v) allay. ANTONYMS: (v) light. indomitable, dominating, proof
ignite, build, create, encourage, starry: (adj) sidereal, starlike, radiant, against.
 Edgar Allan Poe 219

what some philosophers were weak enough to denominate the creation of

animalculae.%
AGATHOS. The cases of which you speak were, in fact, instances of the
secondary creation--and of the only species of creation which has ever been,
since the first word spoke into existence the first law.
OINOS. Are not the starry worlds that, from the abyss of nonentity, burst
hourly forth into the heavens--are not these stars, Agathos, the immediate
handiwork of the King?
AGATHOS. Let me endeavor, my Oinos, to lead you, step by step, to the
conception I intend. You are well aware that, as no thought can perish, so no act
is without infinite result. We moved our hands, for example, when we were
dwellers on the earth, and, in so doing, gave vibration to the atmosphere which
engirdled it. This vibration was indefinitely extended, till it gave impulse to
every particle of the earth’s air, which thenceforward, and for ever, was actuated
by the one movement of the hand. This fact the mathematicians of our globe well
knew. They made the special effects, indeed, wrought in the fluid by special
impulses, the subject of exact calculation--so that it became easy to determine in
what precise period an impulse of given extent would engirdle the orb, and
impress (for ever) every atom of the atmosphere circumambient. Retrograding,
they found no difficulty, from a given effect, under given conditions, in
determining the value of the original impulse. Now the mathematicians who saw
that the results of any given impulse were absolutely endless--and who saw that
a portion of these results were accurately traceable through the agency of
algebraic analysis--who saw, too, the facility of the retrogradation--these men
saw, at the same time, that this species of analysis itself, had within itself a
capacity for indefinite progress--that there were no bounds conceivable to its
advancement and applicability, except within the intellect of him who advanced
or applied it. But at this point our mathematicians paused.
OINOS. And why, Agathos, should they have proceeded?
AGATHOS. Because there were some considerations of deep interest beyond.
It was deducible from what they knew, that to a being of infinite understanding-

Thesaurus
abyss: (n) gorge, ravine, chasm, gulf, following; (adj) deductive, perish: (v) expire, pass away, decease,
deep, purgatory, depth, hell, gap, consequential, consectary, logical, go, fade, decay, depart, fall, pass,
Gehenna, pit. ANTONYMS: (n) deductible, dogmatic, demonstrable, ruin, annihilate. ANTONYMS: (v)
junction, juncture. consequent. survive, live, appear.
applicability: (n) pertinency, fitness, denominate: (v) designate, entitle, traceable: (adj) trackable, attributable,
relevance, adequacy, suitability, nominate, style, christen, denote, derivable; (adv) noticeable.
eligibility, appropriateness; (adj) title, dub; (n, v) name, appoint; (n) vibration: (n) tremor, shudder, quiver,
aptitude, propriety, compatibility, term. beat, pulse, oscillation, shiver,
commensurability. nonentity: (n) nobody, cipher, pulsation, trembling, undulation,
circumambient: (adj) circumfluent, nothing, naught, cypher, nil, movement. ANTONYM: (n) stillness.
ambient, surrounding. nonexistence, aught, zero, wrought: (adj) shaped, done, worked,
deducible: (adj, v) inferential, jackanapes, lightweight. worked up, formed.
220 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

-one to whom the perfection of the algebraic analysis lay unfolded--there could
be no difficulty in tracing every impulse given the air--and the ether through the
air--to the remotest consequences at any even infinitely remote epoch of time. It
is indeed demonstrable that every such impulse given the air, must, in the end,
impress every individual thing that exists within the universe;--and the being of
infinite understanding--the being whom we have imagined--might trace the
remote undulations of the impulse--trace them upward and onward in their
influences upon all particles of an matter--upward and onward for ever in their
modifications of old forms--or, in other words, in their creation of new--until he
found them reflected--unimpressive at last--back from the throne of the
Godhead. And not only could such a thing do this, but at any epoch, should a
given result be afforded him--should one of these numberless comets, for
example, be presented to his inspection--he could have no difficulty in
determining, by the analytic retrogradation, to what original impulse it was due.
This power of retrogradation in its absolute fulness and perfection--this faculty
of referring at all epochs, all effects to all causes--is of course the prerogative of
the Deity alone--but in every variety of degree, short of the absolute perfection, is
the power itself exercised by the whole host of the Angelic intelligences.%
OINOS. But you speak merely of impulses upon the air.
AGATHOS. In speaking of the air, I referred only to the earth; but the general
proposition has reference to impulses upon the ether--which, since it pervades,
and alone pervades all space, is thus the great medium of creation.
OINOS. Then all motion, of whatever nature, creates?
AGATHOS. It must: but a true philosophy has long taught that the source of
all motion is thought--and the source of all thought is-
OINOS. God.
AGATHOS. I have spoken to you, Oinos, as to a child of the fair Earth which
lately perished--of impulses upon the atmosphere of the Earth.
OINOS. You did.

Thesaurus
analytic: (adj) logical, calculable, undetectable, imperceptible. onward: (adv) ahead, forwards, before,
computable, docimastic, numerable, ether: (adj) air, elastic fluid, anaesthetic forth, onwards, along, in advance,
statistical, clinical, methodical, agent, steam, flatus, fume, reek, frontward, forrader; (adv, prep) on;
psychic, questioning; (adv) vapor; (n) divinyl ether, firmament, (adj) progressive. ANTONYM: (adv)
analytically. ANTONYMS: (adj) vinyl ether. backward.
synthetic, illogical. fulness: (n) fullness, entirety, retrogradation: (n) retrogression,
demonstrable: (adj) obvious, visible, completeness, totality. regression, antecedence, fall back, go
attestable, verifiable, irrefutable, numberless: (adj) countless, in reverse, decline, backward
evincible, noticeable, apparent, innumerable, multitudinous, infinite, development, lapse, precedence.
evident, certain; (v) demonstrative. incalculable, endless, uncounted, tracing: (n) trace, copy, design, model,
ANTONYMS: (adj) doubtful, unnumbered, innumerous, legion, chase, drafting, action of tracing,
distorted, undemonstrable, vague, untold. ANTONYM: (adj) few. blueprint, cast, draftsmanship, ghost.
 Edgar Allan Poe 221

AGATHOS. And while I thus spoke, did there not cross your mind some
thought of the physical power of words? Is not every word an impulse on the
air?
OINOS. But why, Agathos, do you weep--and why, oh why do your wings
droop as we hover above this fair star--which is the greenest and yet most
terrible of all we have encountered in our flight? Its brilliant flowers look like a
fairy dream--but its fierce volcanoes like the passions of a turbulent heart.%
AGATHOS. They are!--they are! This wild star--it is now three centuries
since, with clasped hands, and with streaming eyes, at the feet of my beloved--I
spoke it--with a few passionate sentences--into birth. Its brilliant flowers are the
dearest of all unfulfilled dreams, and its raging volcanoes are the passions of the
most turbulent and unhallowed of hearts.

Thesaurus
dearest: (n) dear, darling, love, honey, motivation, momentum, incentive. peaceful, untroubled, manageable,
lover, sweetheart, loved one, baby; ANTONYMS: (n) aversion, moderate, obedient, settled, still,
(adj) precious, intimate, sweet. disincentive, disinclination. relaxed, orderly, mild.
droop: (adj, v) decline; (v) dangle, wilt, raging: (adj) hot, angry, fierce, irate, unfulfilled: (adj) wanting,
hang, flag, sink, slump, loll, collapse; wild, infuriated, enraged, vehement, unsuccessful, unsatisfied, unrealized,
(n, v) sag, pine. ANTONYMS: (v) rise, heated; (adj, n) mad, rabid. unrealised, unhappy, dissatisfied,
bloom. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, mild, displeased, discontented.
hover: (v) fly, hang, float, poise, contained. unhallowed: (adj) ungodly, impious,
vacillate, flutter, brood, drift, glide, turbulent: (adj, n) tempestuous, rough, profane, demonic, unsanctified,
waver; (adj) boggle. stormy, boisterous, rude; (adj) diabolic, sinful, wicked, infernal,
impulse: (n) pulse, urge, impulsion, furious, disorderly, violent, wild, impure, unchaste. ANTONYM: (adj)
force, motive, whim, drive, goad, noisy, riotous. ANTONYMS: (adj) holy.
 Edgar Allan Poe 223

THE COLLOQUY OF MONOS AND UNA

Μελλουτα ταυτα.%
(These things are in the future.)
--Sophocles, Antig.

UNA. “Born again?”

MONOS. Yes, fairest and best beloved Una, “born again.” These were the
words upon whose mystical meaning I had so long pondered, rejecting the
explanations of the priesthood, until Death himself resolved for me the secret.
UNA. Death!
MONOS. How strangely, sweet Una, you echo my words! I observe, too, a
vacillation in your step--a joyous inquietude in your eyes. You are confused and
oppressed by the majestic novelty of the Life Eternal. Yes, it was of Death I
spoke. And here how singularly sounds that word which of old was wont to
bring terror to all hearts--throwing a mildew upon all pleasures!
UNA. Ah, Death, the spectre which sate at all feasts! How often, Monos, did
we lose ourselves in speculations upon its nature! How mysteriously did it act as
a check to human bliss--saying unto it “thus far, and no farther!” That earnest
mutual love, my own Monos, which burned within our bosoms how vainly did
we flatter ourselves, feeling happy in its first up-springing, that our happiness
Thesaurus
inquietude: (n) anxiety, disturbance, become moldy. irresolution, hesitancy, fluctuation,
unrest, perturbation, disquiet, priesthood: (n) ministry, apostleship, doubt, indecisiveness, instability,
restlessness, uneasiness, edginess, clericals, profession, the desk, the indetermination, oscillation,
trepidation; (n, v) discomfort, cloth, church government, clerical, uncertainty, vibration. ANTONYMS:
vexation of spirit. community, hierarch, presbytery. (n) decisiveness, insistence,
joyous: (adj) happy, gleeful, elated, sate: (v) fill, satisfy, glut, satiate, pall, resolution, determination.
jolly, glad, gay, jovial, merry, festive, saturate, gorge, take, surfeit, content, vainly: (adv) uselessly, futilely,
cheerful, jocund. ANTONYMS: (adj) replete. fruitlessly, conceitedly, in vain,
despairing, joyless, miserable. spectre: (n) phantasm, shadow, shade, worthlessly, abortively, bootlessly,
mildew: (n, v) mold, rust, decay, cast; phantom, apparition, ghost, spook, arrogantly, unproductively; (adj, adv)
(n) fungus, blight, mushroom, wraith, revenant, terror, eidolon. foolishly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
helminth, moulding; (v) must, vacillation: (n) indecision, fruitfully, successfully, effectively.
224 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

would strengthen with its strength! Alas! as it grew, so grew in our hearts the
dread of that evil hour which was hurrying to separate us forever! Thus, in time,
it became painful to love. Hate would have been mercy then.%
MONOS. Speak not here of these griefs, dear Una--mine, mine, forever now!
UNA. But the memory of past sorrow--is it not present joy? I have much to
say yet of the things which have been. Above all, I burn to know the incidents of
your own passage through the dark Valley and Shadow.
MONOS. And when did the radiant Una ask anything of her Monos in vain?
I will be minute in relating all--but at what point shall the weird narrative begin?
UNA. At what point?
MONOS. You have said.
UNA. Monos, I comprehend you. In Death we have both learned the
propensity of man to define the indefinable. I will not say, then, commence with
the moment of life’s cessation--but commence with that sad, sad instant when,
the fever having abandoned you, you sank into a breathless and motionless
torpor, and I pressed down your pallid eyelids with the passionate fingers of
love.
MONOS. One word first, my Una, in regard to man’s general condition at
this epoch. You will remember that one or two of the wise among our
forefathers--wise in fact, although not in the world’s esteem--had ventured to
doubt the propriety of the term “improvement,” as applied to the progress of our
civilization. There were periods in each of the five or six centuries immediately
preceding our dissolution, when arose some vigorous intellect, boldly
contending for those principles whose truth appears now, to our
disenfranchised reason, so utterly obvious--principles which should have taught
our race to submit to the guidance of the natural laws, rather than attempt their
control. At long intervals some masterminds appeared, looking upon each
advance in practical science as a retro-gradation in the true utility. Occasionally
the poetic intellect--that intellect which we now feel to have been the most
exalted of all--since those truths which to us were of the most enduring

Thesaurus
contending: (adj) contentious, lowly, minor, ridiculed, base. periods: (n) period.
conflicting, competitive, competing, indefinable: (adj) ineffable, radiant: (adj, v) bright, glittering,
competitory, combatant, challenging, unspeakable, vague, indeterminate, lustrous, beamy, glorious; (adj)
factious, militant, warlike, fighting. undefinable, inexpressible, elusive, beaming, luminous, effulgent, lucid,
disenfranchised: (adj) powerless, indefinite, undefined, nondescript, glowing, beautiful. ANTONYMS:
voteless. ANTONYM: (adj) equivocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) gloomy, dark, pale, unhappy.
enfranchised. concrete, precise. torpor: (n) lethargy, lassitude, stupor,
exalted: (adj) elevated, eminent, noble, pallid: (adj) ghastly, wan, bloodless, languor, indolence, sluggishness,
high, August, elated, dignified, great, lurid, cadaverous, sickly, ashen, listlessness, torpidity, torpidness;
sublime, grand, big. ANTONYMS: white, pasty, livid, watery. (adj, n) inactivity, inertia.
(adj) belittled, condemned, criticized, ANTONYMS: (adj) healthy, rosy, ANTONYMS: (n) energy, vigor,
debased, humble, humiliated, low, vivid. activity.
 Edgar Allan Poe 225

importance could only be reached by that analogy which speaks in proof tones to
the imagination alone and to the unaided reason bears no weight--occasionally
did this poetic intellect proceed a step farther in the evolving of the vague idea of
the philosophic, and find in the mystic parable that tells of the tree of knowledge,
and of its forbidden fruit, death-producing, a distinct intimation that knowledge
was not meet for man in the infant condition of his soul. And these men--the
poets--living and perishing amid the scorn of the “utilitarians”--of rough
pedants, who arrogated to themselves a title which could have been properly
applied only to the scorned--these men, the poets, pondered piningly, yet not
unwisely, upon the ancient days when our wants were not more simple than our
enjoyments were keen--days when mirth was a word unknown, so solemnly
deep-toned was happiness--holy, august and blissful days, when blue rivers ran
undammed, between hills unhewn, into far forest solitudes, primæval, odorous,
and unexplored.%
Yet these noble exceptions from the general misrule served but to strengthen
it by opposition. Alas! we had fallen upon the most evil of all our evil days. The
great “movement”--that was the cant term--went on: a diseased commotion,
moral and physical. Art--the Arts--arose supreme, and, once enthroned, cast
chains upon the intellect which had elevated them to power. Man, because he
could not but acknowledge the majesty of Nature, fell into childish exultation at
his acquired and still-increasing dominion over her elements. Even while he
stalked a God in his own fancy, an infantine imbecility came over him. As
might be supposed from the origin of his disorder, he grew infected with system,
and with abstraction. He enwrapped himself in generalities. Among other odd
ideas, that of universal equality gained ground; and in the face of analogy and of
God--in despite of the loud warning voice of the laws of gradation so visibly
pervading all things in Earth an Heaven--wild attempts at an omni-prevalent
Democracy were made. Yet this evil sprang necessarily from the leading evil,
Knowledge. Man could not both know and succumb. Meantime huge smoking
cities arose, innumerable. Green leaves shrank before the hot breath of furnaces.
The fair face of Nature was deformed as with the ravages of some loathsome
disease. And methinks, sweet Una, even our slumbering sense of the forced and

Thesaurus
arrogated: (adj) reserved, assumed. imbecility: (n) folly, foolishness, crumbly, starving, inclement; (n)
enwrapped: (adj) absorbed, engrossed, idiocy, fatuity, weakness, stupidity, decay.
cloaked, captive, clothed, deeply feeblemindedness, lunacy; (adj, n) piningly: (adv) droopingly,
moved, draped, enclosed, debility, feebleness; (adj) infirmity. languishingly, longingly.
enraptured, intent, rapt. infantine: (adj) babyish, childish, primval: (adj) primal, primeval,
exultation: (n) jubilation, joy, delight, puerile, infant, babish, immature. primordial, original, ancient,
ecstasy, elation, rejoicing, revelling, methinks: (adv) meseems. immemorial, early, primitive,
transport, joyousness, bliss, glee. misrule: (n) chaos, disorder, anarchy, primary, native, key.
ANTONYMS: (n) depression, riot, maladministration, disturbance, unhewn: (adj) unwrought, unlabored,
desolation, misery, sorrow. confusion, misfeasance, misdirection, unpolished, rude, rough, shapen,
generalities: (n) general points, government; (v) dead letter. unblown, unboiled, unconcocted,
general terms, generalia. perishing: (adj) chilly, cold and damp, uncooked, unfashioned.
226 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

of the far-fetched might have arrested us here. But now it appears that we had
worked out our own destruction in the perversion of our taste, or rather in the
blind neglect of its culture in the schools. For, in truth, it was at this crisis that
taste alone--that faculty which, holding a middle position between the pure
intellect and the moral sense, could never safely have been disregarded--it was
now that taste alone could have led us gently back to Beauty, to Nature, and to
Life. But alas for the pure contemplative spirit and majestic intuition of Plato!
Alas for the which he justly regarded as an all-sufficient education for the soul!
Alas for him and for it!--since both were most desperately needed when both
were most entirely forgotten or despised.%
Pascal, a philosopher whom we both love, has said, how truly!--“que tout
notre raisonnement se rèduit à céder au sentiment;” and it is not impossible that
the sentiment of the natural, had time permitted it, would have regained its old
ascendancy over the harsh mathematical reason of the schools. But this thing was
not to be. Prematurely induced by intemperance of knowledge the old age of the
world drew on. This the mass of mankind saw not, or, living lustily although
unhappily, affected not to see. But, for myself, the Earth’s records had taught me
to look for widest ruin as the price of highest civilization. I had imbibed a
prescience of our Fate from comparison of China the simple and enduring, with
Assyria the architect, with Egypt the astrologer, with Nubia, more crafty than
either, the turbulent mother of all Arts. In history of these regions I met with a
ray from the Future. The individual artificialities of the three latter were local
diseases of the Earth, and in their individual overthrows we had seen local
remedies applied; but for the infected world at large I could anticipate no
regeneration save in death. That man, as a race, should not become extinct, I saw
that he must be “born again.”
And now it was, fairest and dearest, that we wrapped our spirits, daily, in
dreams. Now it was that, in twilight, we discoursed of the days to come, when
the Art-scarred surface of the Earth, having undergone that purification which
alone could efface its rectangular obscenities, should clothe itself anew in the
verdure and the mountain-slopes and the smiling waters of Paradise, and be

Thesaurus
astrologer: (n) forecaster, predictor, drunkenness, indulgence, misuse, casuistry, vice, buggery; (adj)
prognosticator, stargazer, Chaldean, debauchery, crapulence, drinking, declension, hardening, backsliding.
psychic, starmonger, Babylonian, drink, immoderateness, prescience: (n) forecast, precognition,
seer, oracle, medium. overindulgence, intemperateness, anticipation, prevision,
clothe: (v) dress, cover, garb, apparel, insobriety. ANTONYM: (n) foreknowledge, forethought, vision,
clad, vest, arrange, deck, invest, temperance. presentiment, prediction, hunch,
wrap; (n, v) attire. ANTONYMS: (v) lustily: (adv) stoutly, energetically, insight.
reveal, strip, uncover. robustly, powerfully, vigorously, regions: (n) area, region, parts.
efface: (v) cancel, erase, obliterate, mightily, halely, strappingly, verdure: (adj, n) greenness; (n)
destroy, expunge, wipe out, potently, sturdily, heartily. greenery, foliage, verdancy, viridity,
suppress, sponge, blot out, blur, raze. perversion: (n) misrepresentation, green, leafage, flora, freshness,
intemperance: (n) dissipation, falsification, corruption, depravity, strength, vegetable kingdom.
 Edgar Allan Poe 227

rendered at length a fit dwelling-place for man:--for man the Death purged--for
man to whose now exalted intellect there should be poison in knowledge no
more--for the redeemed, regenerated, blissful, and now immortal, but still for the
material, man.%
UNA. Well do I remember these conversations, dear Monos; but the epoch of
the fiery overthrow was not so near at hand as we believed, and as the
corruption you indicate did surely warrant us in believing. Men lived; and died
individually. You yourself sickened, and passed into the grave; and thither your
constant Una speedily followed you. And though the century which has since
elapsed, and whose conclusion brings us thus together once more, tortured our
slumbering senses with no impatience of duration, yet, my Monos, it was a
century still.
MONOS. Say, rather, a point in the vague infinity. Unquestionably, it was in
the Earth’s dotage that I died. Wearied at heart with anxieties which had their
origin in the general turmoil and decay, I succumbed to the fierce fever. After
some few days of pain, and many of dreamy delirium replete with ecstasy, the
manifestations of which you mistook for pain, while I longed but was impotent
to undeceive you--after some days there came upon me, as you have said, a
breathless and motionless torpor; and this was termed Death by those who stood
around me.
Words are vague things. My condition did not deprive me of sentience. It
appeared to me not greatly dissimilar to the extreme quiescence of him, who,
having slumbered long and profoundly, lying motionless and fully prostrate in a
midsummer noon, begins to steal slowly back into consciousness, through the
mere sufficiency of his sleep, and without being awakened by external
disturbances.
I breathed no longer. The pulses were still. The heart had ceased to beat.
Volition had not departed, but was powerless. The senses were unusually active,
although eccentrically so--assuming often each other’s functions at random. The
taste and the smell were inextricably confounded, and became one sentiment,
abnormal and intense. The rose-water with which your tenderness had

Thesaurus
dotage: (adj, n) fatuity; (n) senility, inaction, ease, inactivity, rest, ampleness, adequateness, fullness,
second childhood, old age, age, quiescency, estivation, hibernation, capacity, competence, satisfaction,
decrepitude, imbecility, feebleness, calmness. affluence; (adj, n) plenty, abundance.
insanity, years; (adj) second regenerated: (adj) elected, justified, undeceive: (v) unbeguile, unbefool,
childishness. ANTONYM: (n) unearthly, renewed, sanctified, disabuse, inform.
adolescence. converted, consecrated, inspired, volition: (n, v) will, testament; (n)
eccentrically: (adv) queerly, unusually, new. choice, option, selection,
oddly, outlandishly, irregularly, sentience: (n) sense, sensation, determination, conation, preference,
bizarrely, whimsically, wackily, awareness, sensibility, sensitivity, velleity, free will; (v) purpose.
quirkily, strangely, originally. sentiency, modality, sensory faculty, wearied: (adj) jaded, tired, spent,
ANTONYM: (adv) sensibly. consciousness, sensitiveness, faculty. fatigued, weary, prostrate, limp,
quiescence: (n) still, calm, abeyance, sufficiency: (n) enough, fill, haggard, shattered, worn, fatigate.
228 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

moistened%my lips to the last, affected me with sweet fancies of flowers--

fantastic flowers, far more lovely than any of the old Earth, but whose prototypes
we have here blooming around us. The eyelids, transparent and bloodless,
offered no complete impediment to vision. As volition was in abeyance, the balls
could not roll in their sockets but all objects within the range of the visual
hemisphere were seen with more or less distinctness; the rays which fell upon
the external retina, or into the corner of the eye, producing a more vivid effect
than those which struck the front or interior surface. Yet, in the former instance,
this effect was so far anomalous that I appreciated it only as sound--sound sweet
or discordant as the matters presenting themselves at my side were light or dark
in shade--curved or angular in outline. The hearing, at the same time, although
excited in degree, was not irregular in action--estimating real sounds with an
extravagance of precision, not less than of sensibility. Touch had undergone a
modification more peculiar. Its impressions were tardily received, but
pertinaciously retained, and resulted always in the highest physical pleasure.
Thus the pressure of your sweet fingers upon my eyelids, at first only recognised
through vision, at length, long after their removal, filled my whole being with a
sensual delight immeasurable. I say with a sensual delight. All my perceptions
were purely sensual. The materials furnished the passive brain by the senses
were not in the least degree wrought into shape by the deceased understanding.
Of pain there was some little; of pleasure there was much; but of moral pain or
pleasure none at all. Thus your wild sobs floated into my ear with all their
mournful cadences, and were appreciated in their every variation of sad tone;
but they were soft musical sounds and no more; they conveyed to the extinct
reason no intimation of the sorrows which gave them birth; while the large and
constant tears which fell upon my face, telling the bystanders of a heart which
broke, thrilled every fibre of my frame with ecstasy alone. And this was in truth
the Death of which these bystanders spoke reverently, in low whispers--you,
sweet Una, gaspingly, with loud cries.

Thesaurus
abeyance: (n) inaction, waiting, ANTONYM: (n) indistinctness. retina: (n) cornea, iris, pupil,
interruption, suspense, cessation, gaspingly: (adv) breathlessly, membrane.
pause, reprieve, intermission, windedly, puffingly, pursily. reverently: (adv) reverentially, piously,
stoppage, inactiveness; (v) immeasurable: (adj) endless, immense, religiously, devoutly, deferentially,
interregnum. ANTONYMS: (n) infinite, huge, enormous, illimitable, worshipfully, solemnly, godly,
action, activity, continuance, unmeasurable, incalculable, courteously, politely, obsequiously.
continuation, prolongation, revival. inestimable, innumerable, ANTONYM: (adv) irreverently.
distinctness: (n) clearness, sharpness, interminable. ANTONYMS: (adj) tardily: (adv) belatedly, late, dilatorily,
definition, otherness, perspicuity, limited, minute, finite, shallow, lately, slackly, sluggishly, recently,
discreteness, articulate sound, slight, negligible, tiny, few, minor, backwardly, behindhandly; (adv, v)
separation, uncloudedness, small. slow, easy. ANTONYMS: (adv)
dissimilarity; (adj) conspicuousness. presenting: (adj) featuring. quickly, punctually.
 Edgar Allan Poe 229

They attired me for the coffin--three or four dark figures which flitted busily
to and fro. As these crossed the direct line of my vision they affected me as
forms; but upon passing to my side their images impressed me with the idea of
shrieks, groans, and other dismal expressions of terror, of horror, or of wo. You
alone, habited in a white robe, passed in all directions musically about me.%
The day waned; and, as its light faded away, I became possessed by a vague
uneasiness--an anxiety such as the sleeper feels when sad real sounds fall
continuously within his ear--low distant bell-tones, solemn, at long but equal
intervals, and mingling with melancholy dreams. Night arrived; and with its
shadows a heavy discomfort. It oppressed my limbs with the oppression of some
dull weight, and was palpable. There was also a moaning sound, not unlike the
distant reverberation of surf, but more continuous, which, beginning with the
first twilight, had grown in strength with the darkness. Suddenly lights were
brought into the room, and this reverberation became forthwith interrupted into
frequent unequal bursts of the same sound, but less dreary and less distinct. The
ponderous oppression was in a great measure relieved; and, issuing from the
flame of each lamp, (for there were many,) there flowed unbrokenly into my
ears a strain of melodious monotone. And when now, dear Una, approaching the
bed upon which I lay outstretched, you sat gently by my side, breathing odor
from your sweet lips, and pressing them upon my brow, there arose tremulously
within my bosom, and mingling with the merely physical sensations which
circumstances had called forth, a something akin to sentiment itself--a feeling
that, half appreciating, half responded to your earnest love and sorrow; but this
feeling took no root in the pulseless heart, and seemed indeed rather a shadow
than a reality, and faded quickly away, first into extreme quiescence, and then
into a purely sensual pleasure as before.
And now, from the wreck and the chaos of the usual senses, there appeared
to have arisen within me a sixth, all perfect. In its exercise I found a wild delight-
-yet a delight still physical, inasmuch as the understanding had in it no part.
Motion in the animal frame had fully ceased. No muscle quivered; no nerve
thrilled; no artery throbbed. But there seemed to have sprung up in the brain,

Thesaurus
inasmuch: (adv) gradually, pro tanto, pulseless: (adj) inanimate, dead, noctambulist, baggage car,
so, since, as, that, because, inasmuch breathless, nonliving, dyspnoeic, slumberer, dreamer, Pullman car,
as, seeing that, for. dyspnoeal, dyspneic, dyspneal, freight car, parlor car, express car.
mingling: (adj) blending, merging, breathtaking, appearing dead. tremulously: (adv) fearfully,
confluent, blended; (n) mixture, reverberation: (n) echo, rebound, shiveringly, tremblingly, shakingly,
mixing, commixtion, interchange, noise, peal, replication, reaction, quiveringly, quaveringly, fidgetily,
exchange, commixture; (adv) recoil, boom, reflectivity; (n, v) vibratingly.
minglingly. reflection; (v) reflexion. ANTONYM: unbrokenly: (adv) undividedly,
monotone: (adj) humdrum, (n) silence. continually, completely, wholely,
monotonic, monotonous, toneless, sixth: (n) common fraction, interval, unceasingly, continuously, solidly,
pedestrian; (n) drone, droning, musical interval, simple fraction. intactly, incessantly, endlessly,
bourdon, laggard, intonation, lagger. sleeper: (n) railroad tie, crosstie, tie, entirely.
230 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

that of which no words could convey to the merely human intelligence even an
indistinct conception. Let me term it a mental pendulous pulsation. It was the
moral embodiment of man’s abstract idea of Time. By the absolute equalization
of this movement--or of such as this--had the cycles of the firmamental orbs
themselves, been adjusted. By its aid I measured the irregularities of the clock
upon the mantel, and of the watches of the attendants. Their tickings came
sonorously to my ears. The slightest deviations from the true proportion--and
these deviations were omni-prævalent--affected me just as violations of abstract
truth were wont, on earth, to affect the moral sense. Although no two of the time-
pieces in the chamber struck the individual seconds accurately together, yet I had
no difficulty in holding steadily in mind the tones, and the respective momentary
errors of each. And this--this keen, perfect, self-existing sentiment of duration--
this sentiment existing (as man could not possibly have conceived it to exist)
independently of any succession of events--this idea--this sixth sense,
upspringing from the ashes of the rest, was the first obvious and certain step of
the intemporal soul upon the threshold of the temporal Eternity.%
It was midnight; and you still sat by my side. All others had departed from
the chamber of Death. They had deposited me in the coffin. The lamps burned
flickeringly; for this I knew by the tremulousness of the monotonous strains.
But, suddenly these strains diminished in distinctness and in volume. Finally
they ceased. The perfume in my nostrils died away. Forms affected my vision no
longer. The oppression of the Darkness uplifted itself from my bosom. A dull
shock like that of electricity pervaded my frame, and was followed by total loss
of the idea of contact. All of what man has termed sense was merged in the sole
consciousness of entity, and in the one abiding sentiment of duration. The mortal
body had been at length stricken with the hand of the deadly Decay.
Yet had not all of sentience departed; for the consciousness and the sentiment
remaining supplied some of its functions by a lethargic intuition. I appreciated
the direful change now in operation upon the flesh, and, as the dreamer is
sometimes aware of the bodily presence of one who leans over him, so, sweet
Una, I still dully felt that you sat by my side. So, too, when the noon of the

Thesaurus
direful: (adj) horrible, awful, terrific, effort, demolishing, deed, leveling. pendulous: (adj) drooping, hanging,
awesome, gruesome, shocking, flickeringly: (adv) flickering, fitfully. cernuous, droopy, nodding, flagging,
fearsome, terrible, horrendous, lethargic: (adj, v) drowsy, dozy; (adj) swinging, pensile, flabby, wavering,
dreadful, fearful. ANTONYMS: (adj) languid, indolent, comatose, dull, unstable.
wonderful, fortuitous, favorable. sleepy, torpid, slow, listless, lazy. pulsation: (n) pulse, beat, pounding,
dreamer: (n) romancer, visionary, ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, playful, impulse, heartbeat, throb, tremor,
daydreamer, woolgatherer, seer, lively, agitated, vigorous, awake, pulsing, palpitation, throbbing,
sleeper, slumberer, illusionist, enthusiastic, industrious, spirited. beating.
logician, philosopher, escapist. mantel: (n) mantelpiece, mantlepiece, sonorously: (adv) richly, rotundly,
equalization: (n) equation, feat, chimneypiece, lintel, mantelshelf, loudly, vibrantly, roundly,
exploit, balancing, levelling, mantle piece, mantleshelf, shelf, harmoniously, soundingly, vocally,
retaliation, measure for measure, drapery, drape, curtain. fully, clearly.
 Edgar Allan Poe 231

second day came, I was not unconscious of those movements which displaced
you from my side, which confined me within the coffin, which deposited me
within the hearse, which bore me to the grave, which lowered me within it,
which heaped heavily the mould upon me, and which thus left me, in blackness
and corruption, to my sad and solemn slumbers with the worm.%

And here, in the prison-house which has few secrets to disclose, there rolled
away days and weeks and months; and the soul watched narrowly each second
as it flew, and, without effort, took record of its flight--without effort and
without object.
A year passed. The consciousness of being had grown hourly more indistinct,
and that of mere locality had, in great measure, usurped its position. The idea of
entity was becoming merged in that of place. The narrow space immediately
surrounding what had been the body, was now growing to be the body itself. At
length, as often happens to the sleeper (by sleep and its world alone is Death
imaged)--at length, as sometimes happened on Earth to the deep slumberer,
when some flitting light half startled him into awaking, yet left him half
enveloped in dreams--so to me, in the strict embrace of the Shadow came that
light which alone might have had power to startle--the light of enduring Love.
Men toiled at the grave in which I lay darkling. They upthrew the damp earth.
Upon my mouldering bones there descended the coffin of Una.
And now again all was void. That nebulous light had been extinguished.
That feeble thrill had vibrated itself into quiescence. Many lustra had
supervened. Dust had returned to dust. The worm had food no more. The sense
of being had at length utterly departed, and there reigned in its stead--instead of
all things--dominant and perpetual--the autocrats Place and Time. For that which
was not--for that which had no form--for that which had no thought--for that
which had no sentience--for that which was soulless, yet of which matter formed
no portion--for all this nothingness, yet for all this immortality, the grave was
still a home, and the corrosive hours, co-mates.

Thesaurus
blackness: (n) black, darkness, sable, heaped: (adj) dense, cumulative, definite.
gloom, nigritude, night, inkiness, concentrated, collective, coacervate, secrets: (n) secrecy.
dark, murk, murkiness, obscurity. thick. slumberer: (n) noctambulist, dreamer,
corrosive: (adj) acid, erosive, acrid, hearse: (n) catafalque, coffin, entomb, dormouse, crosstie, human,
biting, sarcastic, destructive, vitriolic, urn, shell, sarcophagus, pall, cinerary individual, marmot, railroad tie,
acerbic, bitter, stringent, acrimonious. urn, auto, car, automobile. sleeper goby, sleeping car,
ANTONYMS: (adj) supporting, mouldering: (adj) moldering, sleepwalker.
fortifying, gentle. becoming rotten, rotten, rotting. soulless: (adj) inanimate, exanimate,
darkling: (adj) darksome, gloomy. nebulous: (adj) hazy, indistinct, dark, callous, impassive, flat, spiritless,
flitting: (adj) fleeting, fugitive, muddy, indefinite, vague, nebulose, passionless, lifeless, inert, dull, cold.
momentary, transient, ephemeral; (v) dim, murky, formless, shapeless. ANTONYMS: (adj) exciting, soulful.
migration. ANTONYMS: (adj) defined, precise,
 Edgar Allan Poe 233

THE CONVERSATION OF EIROS AND

CHARMION

I will bring fire to thee.%

--Euripides, Andromache

EIROS. WHY do you call me Eiros?

CHARMION. So henceforward will you always be called. You must forget
too, my earthly name, and speak to me as Charmion.
EIROS. This is indeed no dream!
CHARMION. Dreams are with us no more;--but of these mysteries anon. I
rejoice to see you looking life-like and rational. The film of the shadow has
already passed from off your eyes. Be of heart and fear nothing. Your allotted
days of stupor have expired and, to-morrow, I will myself induct you into the
full joys and wonders of your novel existence.
EIROS. True--I feel no stupor--none at all. The wild sickness and the terrible
darkness have left me, and I hear no longer that mad, rushing, horrible sound,
like the “voice of many waters.” Yet my senses are bewildered, Charmion, with
the keenness of their perception of the new.

Thesaurus
allotted: (adj) agreed, chosen, fixed, sublunary. ANTONYMS: (adj) faintness, dislike, patience,
selected. spiritual, divine, ethereal, immortal, reluctance.
bewildered: (adj) bemused, confused, impossible, improbable, rushing: (adv) rushingly; (n) haste,
confounded, perplexed, befuddled, inconceivable, celestial. hurry, hurrying, running, hastening,
puzzled, dumbfounded, taken aback, induct: (v) inaugurate, initiate, invest, flush, movement; (adj) flowing,
addled, disoriented; (adj, v) lost. swear in, introduce, seat, instate, headlong, moving.
ANTONYMS: (adj) unimpressed, consecrate, call, crown, enlist. stupor: (n) lethargy, stupefaction,
clear, oriented, precise, keenness: (n) ardor, eagerness, coma, shock, insensibility,
understanding, alert. enthusiasm, acumen, sharpness, zeal, unconsciousness, trance,
earthly: (adj, n) terrestrial; (adj) carnal, acuity, quickness, diligence, fervor; sluggishness, torpor, haze,
worldly, conceivable, human, geotic, (n, v) edge. ANTONYMS: (n) grogginess. ANTONYMS: (n)
secular, terrene, temporal, telluric, unwillingness, dullness, indifference, alertness, awareness, wakefulness.
234 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

CHARMION. A few days will remove all this;--but I fully understand you,
and feel for you. It is now ten earthly years since I underwent what you
undergo--yet the remembrance of it hangs by me still. You have now suffered all
of pain, however, which you will suffer in Aidenn.%
EIROS. In Aidenn?
CHARMION. In Aidenn.
EIROS. Oh God!--pity me, Charmion!--I am overburthened with the majesty
of all things--of the unknown now known--of the speculative Future merged in
the august and certain Present.
CHARMION. Grapple not now with such thoughts. To-morrow we will
speak of this. Your mind wavers, and its agitation will find relief in the exercise
of simple memories. Look not around, nor forward--but back. I am burning with
anxiety to hear the details of that stupendous event which threw you among us.
Tell me of it. Let us converse of familiar things, in the old familiar language of
the world which has so fearfully perished.
EIROS. Most fearfully, fearfully!--this is indeed no dream.
CHARMION. Dreams are no more. Was I much mourned, my Eiros?
EIROS. Mourned, Charmion?--oh deeply. To that last hour of all, there hung
a cloud of intense gloom and devout sorrow over your household.
CHARMION. And that last hour--speak of it. Remember that, beyond the
naked fact of the catastrophe itself, I know nothing. When, coming out from
among mankind, I passed into Night through the Grave--at that period, if I
remember aright, the calamity which overwhelmed you was utterly
unanticipated. But, indeed, I knew little of the speculative philosophy of the day.
EIROS. The individual calamity was as you say entirely unanticipated; but
analogous misfortunes had been long a subject of discussion with astronomers. I
need scarce tell you, my friend, that, even when you left us, men had agreed to
understand those passages in the most holy writings which speak of the final
destruction of all things by fire, as having reference to the orb of the earth alone.
But in regard to the immediate agency of the ruin, speculation had been at fault

Thesaurus
fearfully: (adv) timidly, timorously, misfortunes: (n) misfortune. tremendous, fantastic, mighty,
awfully, apprehensively, perished: (adj) decayed, emperished, mammoth, miraculous, enormous.
horrendously, hideously, anxiously, rotting, annihilated, fallen, lost, ANTONYM: (adj) abysmal.
appallingly, terribly; (adj, adv) moldy, nonexistent, putrefied, dead, unanticipated: (adj) unforeseen,
shockingly, dreadfully. ANTONYMS: decomposed. sudden, surprising, amazing,
(adv) bravely, calmly, confidently, remembrance: (n, v) recollection, startling, shocking, serendipitous;
wonderfully, rationally, mind; (n) commemoration, memorial, (adj, adv) out of the blue; (v) unhoped
unconcernedly. recall, relic, monument, keepsake, for, unlooked for; (adj, v)
grapple: (n, v) grip, clasp, tackle, reminiscence, recognition; (adj, n) unpredicted.
grasp; (v) fight, contend, grab, memento. underwent: (v) endure, tolerate.
struggle; (adj, n, v) lock; (adj, n) hook; stupendous: (adj, v) prodigious; (adj) writings: (n) papers, Hagiographa,
(n) grappling. huge, terrific, marvellous, immense, Ketubim.
 Edgar Allan Poe 235

from that epoch in astronomical knowledge in which the comets were divested
of the terrors of flame. The very moderate density of these bodies had been well
established. They had been observed to pass among the satellites of Jupiter,
without bringing about any sensible alteration either in the masses or in the
orbits of these secondary planets. We had long regarded the wanderers as
vapory creations of inconceivable tenuity, and as altogether incapable of doing
injury to our substantial globe, even in the event of contact. But contact was not
in any degree dreaded; for the elements of all the comets were accurately known.
That among them we should look for the agency of the threatened fiery
destruction had been for many years considered an inadmissible idea. But
wonders and wild fancies had been, of late days, strangely rife among mankind;
and, although it was only with a few of the ignorant that actual apprehension
prevailed, upon the announcement by astronomers of a new comet, yet this
announcement was generally received with I know not what of agitation and
mistrust.%
The elements of the strange orb were immediately calculated, and it was at
once conceded by all observers, that its path, at perihelion, would bring it into
very close proximity with the earth. There were two or three astronomers, of
secondary note, who resolutely maintained that a contact was inevitable. I cannot
very well express to you the effect of this intelligence upon the people. For a few
short days they would not believe an assertion which their intellect so long
employed among worldly considerations could not in any manner grasp. But the
truth of a vitally important fact soon makes its way into the understanding of
even the most stolid. Finally, all men saw that astronomical knowledge lied not,
and they awaited the comet. Its approach was not, at first, seemingly rapid; nor
was its appearance of very unusual character. It was of a dull red, and had little
perceptible train. For seven or eight days we saw no material increase in its
apparent diameter, and but a partial alteration in its color. Meantime, the
ordinary affairs of men were discarded and all interests absorbed in a growing
discussion, instituted by the philosophic, in respect to the cometary nature. Even
the grossly ignorant aroused their sluggish capacities to such considerations. The
learned now gave their intellect--their soul--to no such points as the allaying of

Thesaurus
allaying: (adj) sedative; (n) allayment. detectable, manifest, observable. regnant, abundant. ANTONYMS:
divested: (adj) bereft, destitute, naked. ANTONYMS: (adj) intangible, (adj) scarce, limited, rare, sparse.
inadmissible: (adj) ineligible, unclear, inaudible, inconspicuous, vapory: (adj) ethereal, foggy.
improper, unqualified, inappropriate, obscure, undetectable, invisible. worldly: (adj, adv) earthly; (adj)
inconvenient, unfit, impermissible, philosophic: (v) platonic, staid, stayed, mundane, secular, terrestrial,
unbearable, inadequate, undesirable; stoical; (adj) thoughtful, rational, temporal, carnal, sophisticated, lay,
(v) illtimed. ANTONYMS: (adj) patient, learned, ideologic, profane; (adv) mundanely,
admissible, allowable. ideological. ANTONYM: (adj) temporally. ANTONYMS: (adj)
lied: (n) song, hymn. nonphilosophical. spiritual, naive, cloistered, religious,
perceptible: (adj) conspicuous, rife: (adj) prevailing, current, rampant, unsophisticated, unworldly,
appreciable, evident, discernible, plentiful, predominant, epidemic, unrefined, otherworldly, low,
obvious, visible, palpable, apparent, copious, numerous, common, heavenly, immaterial.
236 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

fear, or to the sustenance of loved theory. They sought--they panted for right
views. They groaned for perfected knowledge. Truth arose in the purity of her
strength and exceeding majesty, and the wise bowed down and adored.%
That material injury to our globe or to its inhabitants would result from the
apprehended contact, was an opinion which hourly lost ground among the wise;
and the wise were now freely permitted to rule the reason and the fancy of the
crowd. It was demonstrated, that the density of the comet’s nucleus was far less
than that of our rarest gas; and the harmless passage of a similar visitor among
the satellites of Jupiter was a point strongly insisted upon, and which served
greatly to allay terror. Theologists with an earnestness fear-enkindled, dwelt
upon the biblical prophecies, and expounded them to the people with a
directness and simplicity of which no previous instance had been known. That
the final destruction of the earth must be brought about by the agency of fire,
was urged with a spirit that enforced every where conviction; and that the
comets were of no fiery nature (as all men now knew) was a truth which relieved
all, in a great measure, from the apprehension of the great calamity foretold. It is
noticeable that the popular prejudices and vulgar errors in regard to pestilences
and wars--errors which were wont to prevail upon every appearance of a comet--
were now altogether unknown. As if by some sudden convulsive exertion,
reason had at once hurled superstition from her throne. The feeblest intellect
had derived vigor from excessive interest.
What minor evils might arise from the contact were points of elaborate
question. The learned spoke of slight geological disturbances, of probable
alterations in climate, and consequently in vegetation, of possible magnetic and
electric influences. Many held that no visible or perceptible effect would in any
manner be produced. While such discussions were going on, their subject
gradually approached, growing larger in apparent diameter, and of a more
brilliant lustre. Mankind grew paler as it came. All human operations were
suspended.
There was an epoch in the course of the general sentiment when the comet
had attained, at length, a size surpassing that of any previously recorded

Thesaurus
biblical: (adj) prophetic, sacred. intentness. ANTONYMS: (n) fulfilled, done, formed; (v)
directness: (n) candor, frankness, slackness, lightness, carelessness, completed, consummated, excessive.
plainness, honesty, immediacy, frivolousness, cheerfulness, superstition: (n) superstitious, taboo,
straightforwardness, forthrightness, insincerity, flippancy. religion, old wives' tale, superstitious
openness, freedom, ingenuousness, feeblest: (adj) least. notion, lore, folklore, fanaticism,
outspokenness. ANTONYMS: (n) foretold: (adj) foreseen; (v) annunciate. fallacy, belief, magic. ANTONYMS:
vagueness, obliqueness, lustre: (n) brilliance, gloss, brilliancy, (n) science, truth.
circuitousness, reticence, delicacy, grandeur, splendour, effulgence, sustenance: (n) living, food,
caution, dishonesty. splendor, shininess, shine, sheen, maintenance, subsistence, fare,
earnestness: (n) seriousness, sincerity, brightness. sustentation, provisions,
gravity, fervor, devotion, graveness, perfected: (adj) consummate, nourishment, nutriment, aliment,
staidness, honesty; (adj, n) ardor, zeal, elaborate, mellow, mature, ripe, livelihood. ANTONYM: (n) extras.
 Edgar Allan Poe 237

visitation. The people now, dismissing any lingering hope that the astronomers
were wrong, experienced all the certainty of evil. The chimerical aspect of their
terror was gone. The hearts of the stoutest of our race beat violently within their
bosoms. A very few days sufficed, however, to merge even such feelings in
sentiments more unendurable We could no longer apply to the strange orb any
accustomedthoughts. Its historical attributes had disappeared. It oppressed us
with a hideous novelty of emotion. We saw it not as an astronomical
phenomenon in the heavens, but as an incubus upon our hearts, and a shadow
upon our brains. It had taken, with inconceivable rapidity, the character of a
gigantic mantle of rare flame, extending from horizon to horizon.%
Yet a day, and men breathed with greater freedom. It was clear that we were
already within the influence of the comet; yet we lived. We even felt an unusual
elasticity of frame and vivacity of mind. The exceeding tenuity of the object of
our dread was apparent; for all heavenly objects were plainly visible through it.
Meantime, our vegetation had perceptibly altered; and we gained faith, from
this predicted circumstance, in the foresight of the wise. A wild luxuriance of
foliage, utterly unknown before, burst out upon every vegetable thing.
Yet another day--and the evil was not altogether upon us. It was now evident
that its nucleus would first reach us. A wild change had come over all men; and
the first sense of pain was the wild signal for general lamentation and horror.
This first sense of pain lay in a rigorous constriction of the breast and lungs, and
an insufferable dryness of the skin. It could not be denied that our atmosphere
was radically affected; the conformation of this atmosphere and the possible
modifications to which it might be subjected, were now the topics of discussion.
The result of investigation sent an electric thrill of the intensest terror through the
universal heart of man.
It had been long known that the air which encircled us was a compound of
oxygen and nitrogen gases, in the proportion of twenty- one measures of oxygen,
and seventy-nine of nitrogen in every one hundred of the atmosphere. Oxygen,
which was the principle of combustion, and the vehicle of heat, was absolutely
necessary to the support of animal life, and was the most powerful and energetic

Thesaurus
chimerical: (adj) imaginary, fanciful, cry, crying, wail, moan, condolence. inaudibly, invisibly.
fantastic, romantic, delusive, ANTONYM: (n) celebration. unendurable: (adj) intolerable,
visionary, unreal, fictitious, utopian, luxuriance: (n) exuberance, insufferable, insupportable,
chimeral, insubstantial. copiousness, abundance, lushness, excruciating, impossible,
constriction: (n) contraction, choke, affluence, wealth, luxury, excess, unsupportable, uneasy, teasing,
bottleneck, compress, pressure, luxuriancy, rampancy; (adj) passionate, not patient, intolerant.
retraction, impediment, reduction, fecundity. ANTONYM: (adj) bearable.
strain, traction, shrinkage. perceptibly: (adv) discernibly, vivacity: (adj, n) life, liveliness; (n)
ANTONYMS: (n) opening, width, apparently, appreciably, manifestly, energy, vitality, enthusiasm, dash,
freedom. clearly, sensibly, markedly, spirit, vigor, happiness, sparkle,
lamentation: (n) dirge, grief, conspicuously, recognizably, really, effervescence. ANTONYMS: (n)
mourning, plaint, regret, complaint, patently. ANTONYMS: (adv) apathy, dullness, sluggishness.
238 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

agent in nature. Nitrogen, on the contrary, was incapable of supporting either

animal life or flame. An unnatural excess of oxygen would result, it had been
ascertained in just such an elevation of the animal spirits as we had latterly
experienced. It was the pursuit, the extension of the idea, which had engendered
awe. What would be the result of a total extraction of the nitrogen? A
combustion irresistible, all-devouring, omni-prevalent, immediate;--the entire
fulfilment, in all their minute and terrible details, of the fiery and horror-
inspiring denunciations of the prophecies of the Holy Book.%
Why need I paint, Charmion, the now disenchained frenzy of mankind? That
tenuity in the comet which had previously inspired us with hope, was now the
source of the bitterness of despair. In its impalpable gaseous character we clearly
perceived the consummation of Fate. Meantime a day again passed--bearing
away with it the last shadow of Hope. We gasped in the rapid modification of
the air. The red blood bounded tumultuously through its strict channels. A
furious delirium possessed all men; and, with arms rigidly outstretched towards
the threatening heavens, they trembled and shrieked aloud. But the nucleus of
the destroyer was now upon us;--even here in Aidenn, I shudder while I speak.
Let me be brief--brief as the ruin that overwhelmed. For a moment there was a
wild lurid light alone, visiting and penetrating all things. Then--let us bow down
Charmion, before the excessive majesty of the great God!--then, there came a
shouting and pervading sound, as if from the mouth itself of HIM; while the
whole incumbent mass of ether in which we existed, burst at once into a species
of intense flame, for whose surpassing brilliancy and all-fervid heat even the
angels in the high Heaven of pure knowledge have no name. Thus ended all.

Thesaurus
channels: (n) canals, course, form, destroyer: (n) wrecker, ruiner, afterward. ANTONYM: (adv)
routine, conduct, process, method. destructor, warship, annihilator, initially.
consummation: (n) accomplishment, saboteur, extirpator, anarchist, lurid: (adj) ghastly, grisly, gruesome,
completion, fulfillment, fruition, assassin, bad person, butcher. loud, frightful, sharp, shocking,
performance, execution, climax, ANTONYM: (n) creator. gaudy, sensational, hideous, horrific.
attainment, perfection, end, gaseous: (adj) volatile, airy, gasiform, ANTONYMS: (adj) subtle, muted,
realization. aerial, gassy, vaporous, tenuous, bland, dull, modest.
delirium: (n) craze, insanity, mania, evaporable, flatulent, invisible, tumultuously: (adv) turbulently,
disturbance, fever, ecstasy, ethereal. ANTONYM: (adj) solid. tempestuously, violently,
derangement; (adj, n) fury; (adj) furor, latterly: (adv) lately, lastly, late, uproariously, boisterously,
rage, distraction. ANTONYMS: (n) subsequently, finally, of late, newly, tumultuarily, noisily, furiously,
indifference, dejection. ultimately, secondly, freshly, loudly, agitatedly; (adj, adv) madly.
 Edgar Allan Poe 239

SHADOW—A PARABLE

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow.%

--Psalm of David

Ye who read are still among the living; but I who write shall have long since
gone my way into the region of shadows. For indeed strange things shall
happen, and secret things be known, and many centuries shall pass away, ere
these memorials be seen of men. And, when seen, there will be some to
disbelieve, and some to doubt, and yet a few who will find much to ponder
upon in the characters here graven with a stylus of iron.
The year had been a year of terror, and of feelings more intense than terror
for which there is no name upon the earth. For many prodigies and signs had
taken place, and far and wide, over sea and land, the black wings of the
Pestilence were spread abroad. To those, nevertheless, cunning in the stars, it
was not unknown that the heavens wore an aspect of ill; and to me, the Greek
Oinos, among others, it was evident that now had arrived the alternation of that
seven hundred and ninety-fourth year when, at the entrance of Aries, the planet
Jupiter is conjoined with the red ring of the terrible Saturnus. The peculiar spirit
of the skies, if I mistake not greatly, made itself manifest, not only in the physical
orb of the earth, but in the souls, imaginations, and meditations of mankind.

Thesaurus
alternation: (n) interchange, variation, suspected. ANTONYMS: (v) believe, ambiguous; (adv) absent.
variety, alteration, vicissitude, trust, accept. memorials: (n) memoir.
alternateness, alternate, turnover, graven: (adj) carved, engraved, etched, ponder: (v) meditate, consider,
transition, transformation, sculptured, sculptile, sculpted, cogitate, deliberate, think, reflect,
alternativeness. inscribed, carven. conceive, mull, mull over; (n, v)
conjoined: (adj) concomitant, conjunct, manifest: (adj) evident, distinct, muse, study. ANTONYMS: (v)
associated, concurrent, united, conspicuous, clear, patent, plain; (v) decide, wander, ignore.
inseparable, coincident, attending, display, demonstrate, exhibit, stylus: (v) phonograph needle; (n)
associate, accompanying, adjunct. evidence; (n, v) declare. manner, panache, mode, fashion,
disbelieve: (v) distrust, doubt, ANTONYMS: (v) hide; (adj) hidden, expressive style, elan, dash, flair,
mistrust, suspect, question, disgrace, obscure, secret, inconspicuous, device.
deny, wonder, reject; (adj) lack faith, veiled, furtive, avoidable,
240 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV

Over %some flasks of the red Chian wine, within the walls of a noble hall, in a
dim city called Ptolemais, we sat, at night, a company of seven. And to our
chamber there was no entrance save by a lofty door of brass: and the door was
fashioned by the artisan Corinnos, and, being of rare workmanship, was
fastened from within. Black draperies, likewise, in the gloomy room, shut out
from our view the moon, the lurid stars, and the peopleless streets--but the
boding and the memory of Evil they would not be so excluded. There were
things around us and about of which I can render no distinct account--things
material and spiritual--heaviness in the atmosphere--a sense of suffocation--
anxiety--and, above all, that terrible state of existence which the nervous
experience when the senses are keenly living and awake, and meanwhile the
powers of thought lie dormant. A dead weight hung upon us. It hung upon our
limbs--upon the household furniture--upon the goblets from which we drank;
and all things were depressed, and borne down thereby--all things save only the
flames of the seven lamps which illumined our revel. Uprearing themselves in
tall slender lines of light, they thus remained burning all pallid and motionless;
and in the mirror which their lustre formed upon the round table of ebony at
which we sat, each of us there assembled beheld the pallor of his own
countenance, and the unquiet glare in the downcast eyes of his companions. Yet
we laughed and were merry in our proper way--which was hysterical; and sang
the songs of Anacreon--which are madness; and drank deeply--although the
purple wine reminded us of blood. For there was yet another tenant of our
chamber in the person of young Zoilus. Dead, and at full length he lay,
enshrouded; the genius and the demon of the scene. Alas! he bore no portion in
our mirth, save that his countenance, distorted with the plague, and his eyes, in
which Death had but half extinguished the fire of the pestilence, seemed to take
such interest in our merriment as the dead may haply take in the merriment of
those who are to die. But although I, Oinos, felt that the eyes of the departed
were upon me, still I forced myself not to perceive the bitterness of their
expression, and gazing down steadily into the depths of the ebony mirror, sang
with a loud and sonorous voice the songs of the son of Teios. But gradually my
songs they ceased, and their echoes, rolling afar off among the sable draperies of

Thesaurus
boding: (n) presentiment, fortuitously, mayhap, perchance, sable: (adj) black, dark, dusky, sombre,
premonition, foreboding, portent, incidentally, perhaps, peradventure. murky, mournful; (n) ebony, fur,
augury, forewarning, hunch, merriment: (n) fun, amusement, blackness, marten, pitch black.
apprehensiveness, apprehension. cheerfulness, hilarity, glee, jollity, sonorous: (adj) rotund, resonant, clear,
ebony: (adj, n) sable; (adj) black, dark, frolic, gaiety, happiness, festivity; rich, resounding, harmonious, round,
jet, soot, raven, smut, sloe; (n) jet (adj, n) mirth. ANTONYMS: (n) full, ringing, vibrant, sonant.
black, coal black, wood. misery, gloom, seriousness, ANTONYMS: (adj) shrill, thin.
fashioned: (adj) formed, featured, despondency, boredom. unquiet: (adj) restless, anxious,
fictitious, intentional, bent, wrought. pestilence: (n) pest, epidemic, blight, nervous, turbulent, unsettled,
gazing: (adj) fixed. disease, curse, infectious disease, disturbed, fussy, tumultuous; (v)
haply: (adv) accidentally, by accident, contagion, infection, virus; (adj) movable, saltatory, shifting.
maybe, by luck, casually, murrain, pox. ANTONYM: (adj) quiet.
 Edgar Allan Poe 241

the chamber, became weak, and undistinguishable, and %so faded away. And lo!
from among those sable draperies where the sounds of the song departed, there
came forth a dark and undefined shadow--a shadow such as the moon, when
low in heaven, might fashion from the figure of a man: but it was the shadow
neither of man nor of God, nor of any familiar thing. And quivering awhile
among the draperies of the room, it at length rested in full view upon the surface
of the door of brass. But the shadow was vague, and formless, and indefinite,
and was the shadow neither of man nor of God--neither God of Greece, nor God
of Chaldaea, nor any Egyptian God. And the shadow rested upon the brazen
doorway, and under the arch of the entablature of the door, and moved not, nor
spoke any word, but there became stationary and remained. And the door
whereupon the shadow rested was, if I remember aright, over against the feet of
the young Zoilus enshrouded. But we, the seven there assembled, having seen
the shadow as it came out from among the draperies, dared not steadily behold
it, but cast down our eyes, and gazed continually into the depths of the mirror of
ebony. And at length I, Oinos, speaking some low words, demanded of the
shadow its dwelling and its appellation. And the shadow answered, “I am
SHADOW, and my dwelling is near to the Catacombs of Ptolemais, and hard by
those dim plains of Helusion which border upon the foul Charonian canal.” And
then did we, the seven, start from our seats in horror, and stand trembling, and
shuddering, and aghast, for the tones in the voice of the shadow were not the
tones of any one being, but of a multitude of beings, and, varying in their
cadences from syllable to syllable fell duskly upon our ears in the well-
remembered and familiar accents of many thousand departed friends.

Thesaurus
aghast: (adj) dismayed, appalled, entablature: (n) cornice, architrave, sweat, tremor; (adj) rough, shaky,
horrified, frightened, scared, capital, coping stone, structure, jumpy, quaking, shivery, bumpy.
terrified, confounded, astonished; (n) epistyle, entablement, construction, ANTONYM: (adj) smooth.
agape; (v) all agog, breathless. zoophorus, sconce, pediment. undefined: (adj) indeterminate,
ANTONYMS: (adj) undisturbed, formless: (adj) shapeless, unformed, indistinct, obscure, shadowy,
unperturbed, unsurprised. indistinct, unstructured, unbodied, uncertain, vague, unspecified,
appellation: (n) designation, nebulous, vague, indistinguishable, ambiguous, unlimited, inexact,
denomination, title, name, nickname, soft, fuzzy, rude. ANTONYMS: (adj) neutral. ANTONYMS: (adj) defined,
epithet, moniker, term, appellative, organized, clear, distinct. exact, constrained.
cognomen, degree. rested: (adj) comfortable. undistinguishable: (adj) exactly alike,
duskly: (adv) gloomily, duskily, shuddering: (adj, n) quivering, identical, undistinguished.
melancholy. shaking; (adv) shudderingly; (n) cold ANTONYM: (adj) distinguishable.
 Edgar Allan Poe 243

GLOSSARY
aback: (adv) aft, astern, backward, anomalous, perverted, irregular, irksome, tedious, repellent,
abaft, backwards, short, sternmost, atypical, monstrous. ANTONYMS: uninteresting
unawares, suddenly; (adj) back (adj) typical, usual, Standard, abstracted: (adj) absentminded,
abandonment: (n) resignation, unexceptional, straight, regular, separate, absent-minded, abstract,
renunciation, desertion, neglect, average, ordinary, natural, distrait, inattentive, pensive,
withdrawal, surrender, exposure, customary, conventional preoccupied, remote, lost, vacant.
forsaking, relinquishment, rejection, abnormally: (adv) unusually, ANTONYM: (adj) alert
leaving. ANTONYMS: (n) attention, extraordinarily, strangely, abstraction: (n) abstract, reverie,
accomplishment, arrival, acceptance atypically, oddly, peculiarly, engrossment, extraction,
abashed: (adj, v) discomfited; (adj) anomalously, uncommonly, withdrawal, removal, deduction,
mortified, sheepish, embarrassed, aberrantly, curiously, eccentrically. abbreviation, preoccupancy,
ashamed, confused, humiliated, ANTONYMS: (adv) normally, theorisation, theorization.
afraid, shamefaced, confounded; (v) ordinarily ANTONYMS: (n) attentiveness,
dashed. ANTONYMS: (adj) proud, abominable: (adj, v) odious, foul; inclusion, alertness, concentration,
undaunted, reassured, pleased, (adj) abhorrent, detestable, dreadful, fact
heartened, emboldened, cool, awful, execrable, terrible, loathsome, absurdity: (n) absurdness, nonsense,
confident, composed, relaxed, cursed, wicked. ANTONYMS: (adj) silliness, nonsensicality,
unabashed nice, lovable, admirable, alluring, meaninglessness, illogicality,
abating: (n) dwindling, lessening, appealing, commendable, laudable, stupidity, folly, fatuity, idiocy,
point; (adj) decreasing, waning, delightful, desirable, enjoyable, preposterousness. ANTONYMS: (n)
diminishing, declining, likable logic, reasonableness, worthiness,
deteriorating, fading, flagging, aboriginal: (adj) original, early, solemnity, sensibleness
comforting autochthonous, first, primaeval, abundance: (adj) plenty; (n)
abbe: (n) cure, father, abbot primal, primary, primeval, plenitude, store, richness, profusion,
abeyance: (n) inaction, waiting, primordial; (n) abo, aborigine. amplitude, exuberance, affluence,
interruption, suspense, cessation, ANTONYMS: (adj) nonnative, treasure, enough; (adj, n) riches.
pause, reprieve, intermission, foreign, alien, newcomer, immigrant ANTONYMS: (n) scarcity, shortage,
stoppage, inactiveness; (v) abortive: (adj) fruitless, useless, insufficiency, lack, aridity,
interregnum. ANTONYMS: (n) futile, unsuccessful, vain, ineffective, scarceness, paucity, emptiness,
action, activity, continuance, disastrous, idle, rudimental, fruitlessness, bareness
continuation, prolongation, revival embryonic, premature. abysmal: (adj) abyssal, appalling,
abide: (v) endure, bide, undergo, ANTONYMS: (adj) successful, unfathomable, terrible, dreadful,
tolerate, take, suffer, stomach, bear, complete, productive, fruitful, immeasurable, profound, awful,
brook; (adj, v) stay, dwell. efficient, effectual, consummated, horrible, unending, frightful.
ANTONYMS: (v) check, depart, effective ANTONYMS: (adj) exceptional,
disallow, disapprove, disbelieve, abrupt: (adj) sudden, brusque, sharp, fathomable, finite, limited,
journey, dodge, leave, migrate, precipitous, steep, instantaneous, measurable, wonderful, great,
move, pass unexpected, swift, instant, hasty; (n) superb
abiding: (adj) immortal, stable, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) gentle, abyss: (n) gorge, ravine, chasm, gulf,
constant, everlasting, lasting, gradual, rambling, gracious, deep, purgatory, depth, hell, gap,
enduring, perpetual, eternal, courteous, polite, anticipated, kind, Gehenna, pit. ANTONYMS: (n)
perennial, continuing, imperishable. calm, protracted, deliberate junction, juncture
ANTONYMS: (adj) ephemeral, absorbing: (adj) fascinating, accentuation: (n) stress, emphasis,
fleeting, impermanent, temporary, engrossing, charming, enthralling, inflection, emphasizing, prosody,
passing, mortal, erratic, inconstant gripping, captivating, riveting, accenting, stressing, intonation, beat,
abnormal: (adj) aberrant, uncommon, absorbent, attractive, readable; (adj, accent mark
unusual, odd, unnatural, strange, v) exciting. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, acceptation: (n) meaning, sense,
 244 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
adoption, purport, significance, dissipate, lessen, scatter, shuck, understanding, intellect, wisdom,
intent, import, approval, shed, decrease acuteness, astuteness,
assumption, espousal, reception accurse: (v) damn, imprecate, forbid, discrimination, cleverness,
accidental: (adj) casual, execrate, curse discernment, judgment.
unintentional, adventitious, accursed: (adj) execrable, abominable, ANTONYMS: (n) stupidity, naivete,
unintended, incidental, chance, detestable, accurst, hateful, damned, ineptness, inability, ignorance,
random, unforeseen, unexpected, damnable, maledict, blasted; (v) denseness, dullness, foolishness
contingent, haphazard. atrocious, stranded acuteness: (n) acuity, sharpness,
ANTONYMS: (adj) deliberate, accuse: (v) charge, incriminate, acumen, discrimination, gravity,
designed, intended, planned, arraign, denounce, defame, insight, sensitivity, perspicacity,
premeditated criminate, indict, fault, betray, penetration, keenness, intensity.
accidentally: (adv) incidentally, condemn, inculpate. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (n) faintness,
casually, fortuitously, by chance, (v) absolve, exculpate, exonerate, insignificance, dullness
coincidentally, adventitiously, praise, support, clear adage: (n) aphorism, proverb, saying,
unintentionally, contingently, accusing: (adj) accusative, accusive, byword, dictum, maxim, saw,
haphazardly, occasionally, inculpatory, inculpative, locution, truism, expression, motto
inadvertently. ANTONYMS: (adv) criminative, criminatory, critical, adaptation: (n) adjustment,
deliberately, knowingly, purposely, denunciatory; (adj, n) reproving; (n) acclimatization, alteration, version,
unfortunately, correctly reproachful; (v) accuse reworking, acclimation, fitness,
accommodated: (adj) meet accustomed: (adj, n) habitual; (adj) modification, conversion, adaption,
accomplice: (n) abettor, accessary, familiar, normal, wonted, usual, immunization. ANTONYMS: (n)
partner, companion, partaker, natural, everyday, ordinary, defiance, denial, disagreement,
confederate, accessory after the fact, habituated, common, traditional. preservation
abetter, friend; (adj, n) associate, ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual, green, adaption: (n) adjustment,
coadjutor. ANTONYMS: (n) unseasoned, unconventional, accommodation, change, variation,
adversary, enemy, opponent, untrained, abnormal, amendment, revision, alteration;
observer uncharacteristic, exceptional (adj) graduation
accomplish: (v) perform, reach, do, acknowledgement: (n) addison: (v) absorb
compass, perfect, attain, make, acknowledgment, admission, adduce: (v) quote, advance, allege,
fulfill, realize, execute, carry out. recognition, acceptance, approve, submit, prove, propose, mention,
ANTONYMS: (v) abandon, neglect, thanks, confession, approval, offer, present, refer, abduce
choke, blow, lose concession, acknowledge, credit adept: (adj, n) expert; (adj) skillful,
accomplished: (adj) proficient, able, acknowledging: (n) agreement; (adj) able, accomplished, experienced,
skillful, gifted, finished, responsive, affirmative capable, smart, clever, adroit; (n)
experienced, completed, adept, fine, acquaintance: (n) connection, friend, virtuoso, whiz. ANTONYMS: (adj)
versed, competent. ANTONYMS: acquaintanceship, mate, awareness, incompetent, inept, awkward,
(adj) unfinished, amateur, associate, buddy, friendship, bumbling, fumbling, unskilled
untrained, unskilled, unseasoned, intercourse, companion; (n, v) adequacy: (adj, n) efficiency, efficacy;
unable, inexpert, green, clumsy, bad, knowledge. ANTONYMS: (n) (n) adequateness, satisfactoriness,
mediocre ignorance, inexperience, congruity, fitness, enough,
accomplishing: (n) doing; (adj) unfamiliarity, animosity, enemy competence, suitability, properness,
effectual acquaintances: (n) associates withal. ANTONYMS: (n)
accomplishment: (n) attainment, acquainted: (adj) knowledgeable, inadequacy, deficiency,
completion, exploit, performance, informed, aware, cognizant, inadequateness
deed, skill, fulfillment, feat, action, conversant, hand and glove, adherence: (n) observance, loyalty,
act, acquisition. ANTONYMS: (n) intimate, thick; (adv) abreast; (v) coherence, cohesion, commitment,
abandonment, washout, flop, inform, acquaint tenacity, constancy, fidelity,
debacle, defeat acquiescence: (n) compliance, devotion, attachment, faithfulness.
accordance: (n) harmony, agreement, consent, resignation, permission, ANTONYMS: (n) disloyalty,
conformity, unison, concordance, sanction, approval, accord, disobedience
coincidence, accordancy, admission, agreement, submission, conformity; adieu: (int, n) farewell; (n) vale,
fitness, consensus, concent (n, v) assent. ANTONYMS: (n) valediction, goodbye, leave, cheerio,
according: (adj) pursuant, consonant, disagreement, insubordination, adios, bye, so long, parting; (int) bon
equal, agreeable, harmonious, rebellion, defiance, rejection voyage. ANTONYM: (n) greeting
conformable, consistent, acrimonious: (adj) bitter, sour, sharp, adjective: (adj) adjectival, procedural;
corresponding, respondent; (adv) virulent, sarcastic, biting, caustic, (adv) adjectively; (n) qualifier,
correspondingly, accordingly acerbic, acid, severe; (adj, v) modifier, adverb, pronoun,
accumulate: (v) pile, gather, collect, pungent. ANTONYMS: (adj) sweet, addendum
amass, heap, hoard, compile, kindly, civil, peaceable, harmonious, adjoining: (adj) contiguous,
assemble, lay up, accrue, cumulate. cordial, amicable neighbor, near, abutting, touching,
ANTONYMS: (v) distribute, actuated: (adj) motivated, actuate conterminous, neighboring,
dwindle, spend, lose, waste, acumen: (n) perception, insight, immediate, next, vicinal; (adj, v)
 Edgar Allan Poe 245
close. ANTONYMS: (adj) separate, profitable. ANTONYMS: (adj) affinity: (n) analogy, alliance,
divided, detached, apart, far useless, disadvantageous, propinquity, rapport, bond, relation,
adjusted: (adj) altered, set, arranged, detrimental, unhelpful, unfortunate, relationship, kindred, semblance,
accustomed, correct, fitted, right, inauspicious, worthless, unpleasant penchant, similarity. ANTONYMS:
tuned, secure, familiarised, advent: (n) coming, arrival, (n) repulsion, dissimilarity,
familiarized. ANTONYM: (adj) apparition, appearance, approach, difference, consanguinity, aversion,
maladjusted entrance, emergence, Second hatred, horror
adjusting: (v) adjust; (n) adjusting Coming, reaching, season, affirm: (v) prove, assert, declare,
operation Christmas. ANTONYMS: (n) protest, avow, maintain, approve,
admirable: (adj) fine, outstanding, departure, end, exit, disappearance accept, assure, profess, promise.
beautiful, great, commendable, adventures: (n) experiences, fortunes, ANTONYMS: (v) negate, veto,
lovely, good, creditable, confessions, journal, life, biography, nullify, refute, repress
praiseworthy, worthy, grand. autobiography, personal narrative affirmative: (adj) positive,
ANTONYMS: (adj) appalling, poor, advertise: (v) promote, publicize, affirmatory, assertive, ratifying,
unworthy, despicable, contemptible, broadcast, push, impart, plug, concurring; (adv) yes; (n)
detestable, dishonorable, rotten, notice, promulgate, ballyhoo, bill, affirmation, avowal, assenting; (adj,
unimpressive, loathsome, low publish. ANTONYM: (v) hide v) predicatory, declaratory.
admirably: (adv) superbly, perfectly, advertiser: (n) booster, adman, ANTONYMS: (adj) dissenting; (n)
excellently, admirable, publicist, publicizer, sponsor, no
marvellously, heroically, bravely, promoter, advocate, forerunner, affixed: (adj) additional
brilliantly, nicely, creditably, ably. plugger, tout, touter afflatus: (n) revelation, eluvium,
ANTONYMS: (adv) badly, advisable: (adj) eligible, desirable, efflation, flatus, draught, wind
inadequately, dishonorably, advantageous, suitable, sound, afflicted: (adj) miserable, distressed,
execrably, incompetently, poorly prudent, acceptable, sensible, fitting, stricken, pitiful, sorrowful, ill,
admire: (v) revere, look up to, idolize, convenient, appropriate. woeful, dejected, sorry; (v) afflict,
appreciate, adore, wonder, praise, ANTONYMS: (adj) inappropriate, displeased
worship, admiring, esteem, honor. unwise, imprudent, improper, affront: (n, v) insult, abuse, outrage,
ANTONYMS: (v) despise, loathe, worthless slight, snub; (v) face, offend; (n)
scorn, hate, condemn, abhor, aeronaut: (n) airman, balloonist, disgrace, slur, offense, mortification.
disrespect, detest, disregard, pilot, aerial navigator, aerostation, ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise; (v)
disapprove, deprecate Icarus, flyer, ballooner, aviatrix, please, placate, mollify, gratify,
admitting: (adj) suscipient; (adv) flier, aviatress flatter, assuage, appease, adulate; (n)
conditionally; (n) acknowledgment, afar: (adv) off, away, far away, pleasantry, appeasement
receipt, credence; (conj) although distantly, beyond, Afar off, in the affronted: (adj) insulted, hurt,
adoration: (n) admiration, adulation, distance, by far, apart; (adj) slighted, embarrassed, angry,
cult, appreciation, reverence, outlying, far. ANTONYMS: (adv) ashamed, horrified, humiliated,
glorification, idolization, homage, close, nearby, near; (prep) within piqued, annoyed. ANTONYM: (adj)
praise; (adj, n) devotion, passion. affability: (n) geniality, courtesy, unconcerned
ANTONYMS: (n) hatred, cordiality, amiability, affableness, afloat: (adj) buoyant, floating,
detestation, despising, politeness, friendliness, amenity, current, in circulation, directionless,
disparagement, revulsion, repulsion, sociability, kindness, amiableness. undirected, rudderless; (adv) adrift,
disgust, disdain ANTONYMS: (n) unfriendliness, aboard; (v) afoot; (n) on foot
adored: (adj) loved, respected, frostiness, incivility, remoteness, afoot: (n) afloat, prevalent; (v) on
precious, idolized, idolised, reserve, rudeness foot, on the tapis, agoing; (adv)
acclaimed, blessed, favorite, dearly affectation: (n) pretension, feint, walking, abroach; (adj) underway,
loved, beloved, venerated pose, display, airs, affectedness, itinerant, current
adroitness: (n) cleverness, ability, ostentation, show, pretense, aforesaid: (adj) aforenamed, said,
skill, deftness, facility, nimbleness, mannerism, sham. ANTONYMS: (n) foregoing, above-mentioned, same,
skillfulness, knack, finesse, art; (n, v) artlessness, honesty, modesty preceding, former, foresaid
address. ANTONYMS: (n) affectedly: (adv) pretentiously, afterward: (adv, conj) then, after that;
uselessness, inaccuracy pompously, insincerely, stiltedly, (adv) thereafter, afterwards, later,
advancement: (n, v) advance; (n) unnaturally, theatrically, feignedly, subsequently, later on, next, soon;
promotion, furtherance, upgrade, snobbishly, contrivedly, (adj) following; (n) future.
growth, development, cultivation, pedantically, pedanticly. ANTONYMS: (adv) now,
progression, improvement, ANTONYMS: (adv) modestly, previously, before
progress, elevation. ANTONYMS: naturally aghast: (adj) dismayed, appalled,
(n) reverse, downgrade, retreat, affectionateness: (n) tenderness, horrified, frightened, scared,
demotion feeling, emotionality, emotionalism, terrified, confounded, astonished;
advantageous: (adj) expedient, fondness, heart, lovingness, (n) agape; (v) all agog, breathless.
useful, auspicious, helpful, gainful, protectiveness, regard, respect, ANTONYMS: (adj) undisturbed,
serviceable, convenient, lucky, warmth unperturbed, unsurprised
worthwhile, beneficial; (adj, v) affections: (n) bosom agitated: (adj) upset, excited,
 246 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
nervous, restive, tumultuous, alienate; (adj, n) unknown; (v) changing, alterant
distressed, tense, jumpy, estrange. ANTONYMS: (adj) alternately: (adv) alternatively, by
overwrought, anxious, alarmed. familiar, akin, ordinary; (adj, n) turns, in turn, secondarily,
ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, lethargic, native; (n) citizen, local reciprocally, mutually, off-and-on,
tranquil, relaxed, assured, cool, still alight: (v) light, land, perch, rather, anthemwise, secondly; (adj,
agitation: (n) disturbance, dismount, get down, settle, get off, adv) on and off
excitement, tumult, stirring, descend; (adj) ablaze, burning, alternation: (n) interchange,
convulsion, stir, commotion, blazing. ANTONYM: (v) mount variation, variety, alteration,
emotion, unrest, shake, turmoil. allay: (n, v) ease; (adj, v) still, quell, vicissitude, alternateness, alternate,
ANTONYMS: (n) serenity, calm, lay, appease, quiet; (v) abate, turnover, transition, transformation,
equanimity, rest, peace, deterrent mitigate, moderate, quench, alternativeness
agreeable: (adj) accordant, nice, alleviate. ANTONYMS: (v) arouse, altitude: (n) height, Alt, high, level,
sweet, consistent, suitable, amusing, excite, heighten, intensify, magnify, distance, pitch, tallness, stature,
enjoyable, affable; (adj, v) pleasant, provoke, stir, exacerbate, aggravate eminence, El, length. ANTONYMS:
desirable; (adj, n) acceptable. allaying: (adj) sedative; (n) allayment (n) depth, abyss, pit
ANTONYMS: (adj) disagreeable, allegorically: (adv) metaphorically, amassed: (adj) collected, assembled,
discordant, unpleasant, nasty, symbolically, parabolicly, cumulative, aggregate, gathered,
unwilling, resistant, aggressive, parabolically, emblematically, conglomerate, combined,
repugnant, averse, stubborn, allusively, anagogically. concentrated, collective, total,
unacceptable ANTONYM: (adv) literally congregate
agreeing: (adj) concurring, alleviation: (n) remission, abatement, amazed: (adj) astounded, astonished,
concordant, assentient, accordant, relaxation, easement, solace, stunned, dumbfounded,
suitable, harmonious, in accord, in assuagement, mitigation, palliation, flabbergasted, shocked, staggered,
agreement; (n) assenting; (v) agree, reprieve, comfort, easing bewildered, surprised,
accept. ANTONYM: (adj) conflicting alley: (n) track, road, passage, lane, thunderstruck, aghast
aided: (adj) power, favored alleyway, aisle, path, runway, amazement: (n) admiration, wonder,
airs: (n, v) pretension; (n) affectation, pathway, street, back street surprise, consternation,
pride, pose, pretensions, attitude; allotted: (adj) agreed, chosen, fixed, stupefaction, stupor, wonderment,
(adj, n) arrogance; (v) precisianism, selected feeling, alarm, jolt; (v) amaze.
euphuism, purism, pedantry. allude: (v) advert, refer, hint, glance, ANTONYMS: (n) preparation,
ANTONYMS: (n) humility, intimate, suggest, touch, bring up, indifference, expectation, coolness,
personality, realness, truthfulness, mean, notice, pertain cool, composure, calmness,
honesty allusion: (n) innuendo, reference, contempt, belief
akin: (adj) near, like, allied, cue, suggestion, mention, amending: (n) correction
equivalent, alike, similar, analogous, intimation, pointer, insinuation, amenity: (n) courtesy, agreeableness,
parallel, cognate, kindred, implication, indication, clue convenience, facility, refinement,
corresponding. ANTONYMS: (adj) almighty: (adj) omnipotent, affability, geniality, sweetness,
unconnected, alien, disconnected, powerful, potent, great, supreme; pleasantness, amiability, civility.
dissimilar, different (adj, n) divine; (n) lord, Jehovah, ANTONYMS: (n) unpleasantness,
alarmed: (adj) afraid, scared, deity, God, godhead. ANTONYMS: disagreeableness, discomfort,
frightened, apprehensive, horrified, (adj) ineffectual, insignificant, lay, nastiness, rudeness
anxious, uneasy, agitated, shocked, powerless, lowly amiable: (adj) friendly, genial,
terrified, concerned. ANTONYM: aloft: (adj, adv) overhead; (adv) up, agreeable, benign, complaisant,
(adj) carefree on high, over, aloof, upwards, sweet, cordial, pleasant, likable,
alas: (adv) unluckily, regrettably, uphill, above ground; (prep) upon; nice, lovely. ANTONYMS: (adj)
sadly, unhappily, sorry to say; (n) (adj) eminent, lofty disagreeable, argumentative,
oh; (int) lackaday. ANTONYM: alpha: (n) origin, beginning, initial, aggressive, antisocial, unkind,
(adv) luckily dawn, genesis; (adj) important hateful, mean, quarrelsome, rude,
albany: (n) Breadalbane, capital of alteration: (n) adjustment, change, surly, cold
new York revision, shift, changeover, amicable: (adj) affable, kind, amiable,
alchemy: (n) pseudoscience, alchymy, conversion, modification, variation, cordial, gracious, genial, familiar,
interpersonal chemistry, alchemist, reversal, metamorphosis, peaceful, peaceable, congenial,
alchemistic, magic, sorcery, amendment. ANTONYMS: (n) amical. ANTONYMS: (adj) hostile,
alchemistry fixity, preservation unfriendly, unpleasant, aggressive,
algebraic: (adj) statistical, altercation: (n, v) quarrel, squabble; nasty, standoffish, disagreeable,
mathematical, arithmetical, (n) affray, scrap, fight, hassle, inaccessible
numerable, computable, calculable, disagreement, fracas, strife, ample: (adj) abundant, big, broad,
analytic, geometric, numerical, controversy, contest. ANTONYMS: copious, large, plentiful, heavy,
arithmetic (n) union, harmony, concord, liberal, roomy, affluent,
alien: (n) foreigner, outsider; (adj) agreement, unity, consensus considerable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
strange, extrinsic, remote, exotic, altering: (n) castration, fixing, small, meager, insufficient, scarce,
extraneous, unfamiliar; (n, v) interchange, neutering; (adj) sparse, scant, cramped, narrow,
 Edgar Allan Poe 247
partial, sketchy, slender lily, rose; (n) sea anemone, annoyance. ANTONYMS: (adj)
amply: (adj, adv) abundantly, anemony, thimbleweed pleasing, delightful, pleasant,
sufficiently; (adv) fully, well, anew: (adv) again, newly, lately, charming, satisfying, welcome,
lavishly, plentifully, richly, recently, over again, once more, convenient
generously, enough, adequately, once again, new; (adj) only anomalous: (adj) abnormal, irregular,
capaciously. ANTONYMS: (adv) yesterday, the other day, just now deviant, atypical, aberrant, eccentric,
meagerly, inadequately, illiberally, angelic: (adj) cherubic, heavenly, exceptional, peculiar, anomalistic,
sparingly, poorly seraphic, virtuous, celestial, unusual, unnatural. ANTONYMS:
amuse: (v) please, beguile, absorb, beautiful, angelical, divine, good, (adj) usual, regular, typical,
entertain, enjoy, disport, distract, holy, saintly. ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary
delight, occupy, recreate, rejoice. devilish, demonic, dark, wicked anomaly: (n) aberration,
ANTONYMS: (v) bore, dull, tire, angler: (n) monkfish, allmouth, anomalousness, deviation,
annoy, anger, cloy, depress, weary, plotter, schemer, fisher, fisherman, abnormity, aberrant, peculiarity,
disappoint troller, angler fish, piscator, irregularity, exception, deflection,
amused: (adj) amusing, smiling, anglerfish, angelfish informality, anachronism.
tickled pink, pleased, diverted angular: (adj) bony, skinny, spare, ANTONYM: (n) normality
amusing: (adj) humorous, fun, lean, gaunt, angulate, angled, Unit anon: (adv) directly, immediately,
pleasant, entertaining, risible, of angular velocity, Angular early, readily, soon, instantly, again,
comical, diverting, enjoyable, advance of an eccentric , scrawny, forthwith, promptly, shortly, rath
laughable, agreeable, pleasing. gangling. ANTONYMS: (adj) beefy, antagonist: (n) opponent, adversary,
ANTONYMS: (adj) tragic, boring, weighted, thick, straight, plump, enemy, foe, rival, match, opposition,
unpleasant, unfunny, tiring, grim, fleshy, flat, fat opposer, assailant, opposite,
depressing, sad, annoying, heavy, animated: (adj) alive, lively, animate, competitor. ANTONYMS: (n)
serious perky, spirited, sprightly, brisk, supporter, advocate, colleague,
analogous: (adj) similar, analog, cheerful, quick, vivacious, airy. synergist, ally, defender
analogical, akin, parallel, like, ANTONYMS: (adj) lethargic, dull, anticipate: (v) expect, foretell, think,
equivalent, corresponding, blank, lifeless, spiritless, stiff, forecast, forestall, calculate,
comparable, cognate, analogue. unanimated, bored, impassive, estimate, predict, prevent, presume,
ANTONYMS: (adj) dissimilar, unexciting, dead guess. ANTONYM: (v) doubt
different, heterologous, disparate, animation: (adj, n) life, vivacity; (n) antimony: (n) metal, tartar emetic,
disagreeing, homologous, opposite, liveliness, vitality, activity, spirit, stibium
unalike exhilaration, dash, energy, antipathy: (n) animosity, aversion,
analytic: (adj) logical, calculable, buoyancy; (adj) alacrity. abomination, abhorrence, dislike,
computable, docimastic, numerable, ANTONYMS: (n) lethargy, hatred, distaste, enmity, odium,
statistical, clinical, methodical, lifelessness, inertness, inertia, repugnance, repulsion.
psychic, questioning; (adv) sluggishness, boredom ANTONYMS: (n) love, attraction,
analytically. ANTONYMS: (adj) animosity: (n) hatred, enmity, anger, liking, like, leaning, regard, appeal,
synthetic, illogical malice, rancor, resentment, venom, appreciation, admiration, affection,
analyze: (n, v) scrutinize; (v) review, bad blood, antagonism, spite, friendliness
assay, consider, study, check, abhorrence. ANTONYMS: (n) antiquarian: (adj) antique, ancient.
canvass, break down, investigate, companionship, affection, love, ANTONYMS: (adj) young, modern,
anatomize, analyse. ANTONYMS: friendship, harmony, goodwill, new
(v) assemble, overlook, unite, cooperation antiquated: (adj) old, aged,
integrate, ignore, construct, ankle: (n) knuckle, kimbo, crane, antediluvian, archaic, obsolete,
compound, combine, compose, fluke, crutch, crotch, zigzag, groin, musty, old-fashioned, outdated,
neglect sickle, scythe, malleolus dowdy, outmoded, antique.
analyzing: (n) study annals: (n) history, record, account, ANTONYMS: (adj) new,
anatomical: (n) locution, expression, records, register, story, roll, contemporary, fresh, modernistic,
saying, anatomical reference; (adj) almanac, diary, legend, yearbook recent, current
organic, analytic, corporal, corporeal annihilated: (adj) exterminated, lost, antiquities: (n) antique
ancestor: (n) forerunner, forefather, uncreated, wiped out, annihilate; (v) antiquity: (n) ancientness, ancientry,
parent, father, precursor, perished past, relic, status quo, artefact,
antecedent, forebear, forbear, annoyed: (adj) irritated, vexed, irate, artifact, oldness, old age, hoariness;
prototype, ancestry, ascendant. aggravated, angered, cross, (adj, n) age. ANTONYMS: (n) today,
ANTONYMS: (n) descendant, disgruntled, exasperated, infuriated, newness, modernity
successor, offspring, progeny displeased, resentful. ANTONYMS: antony: (n) Mark Antony, Marcus
anecdote: (n) tale, account, yarn, (adj) pleased, unprovoked, smiling, Antonius, Anthony, Antonius, mark
narrative, story, fable, relation, ana, patient, unconcerned, contented Anthony
fiction, trait, gossip annoying: (adj) galling, vexatious, anxiously: (adv) uneasily, restlessly,
anemone: (adj) geranium, aggravating, vexing, worrying, carefully, worriedly, fearfully,
ranunculus, asphodel, awkward, trying, bothersome, nervously, concernedly, solicitously,
rhododendron, buttercup, daffodil, disagreeable; (adj, v) irritating; (n) timidly, keenly, enthusiastically.
 248 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
ANTONYMS: (adv) calmly, denomination, title, name, record, chronicles, collection,
confidently, merrily, indifferently, nickname, epithet, moniker, term, compendium, deposit, repository,
fearlessly, nonchalantly, patiently, appellative, cognomen, degree depository, file, roll
unconcernedly appertaining: (adj) appertinent archway: (n) arcade, entry,
anyhow: (adv) somehow, at any rate, applause: (n, v) acclaim, praise; (n) entranceway, entryway, entree,
in any case, whatever, in any event, admiration, approval, eulogy, doorway, entrance
regardless, however, though, compliment, plaudit, ardent: (adj, n) enthusiastic, glowing;
besides, nonetheless, one way or commendation, clapping, clap, (adj, v) burning, fervent,
another ovation. ANTONYMS: (n) impassioned; (adj) keen, vehement,
apathy: (n) indifference, inactivity, disapproval, Boos, booing, eager, warm, acute, fervid.
lassitude, inertia, lethargy, passivity, denigration, hisses, hissing, ANTONYMS: (adj) apathetic, cool,
supineness, passiveness, rejection, condemnation, criticism, unenthusiastic, traitorous, mild,
lukewarmness, emotionlessness, jeering frigid, dispassionate, cold, disloyal,
impassivity. ANTONYMS: (n) applicability: (n) pertinency, fitness, impassive, calm
keenness, energy, interest, relevance, adequacy, suitability, ardor: (adj, n) eagerness, zeal; (n)
inquisitiveness, vitality, drive, eligibility, appropriateness; (adj) fervor, fervency, fire, flame, passion,
eagerness, concern, involvement, aptitude, propriety, compatibility, enthusiasm, ardency, heat, avidity.
enjoyment, desire commensurability ANTONYMS: (n) apathy, coolness,
aperture: (n) breach, slit, puncture, appreciable: (adj, adv, v) perceptible, coldness, hatred
opening, gap, cleft, perforation, noticeable; (adj) considerable, arduous: (adj) laborious, difficult,
loophole, mouth, hiatus, outlet. respectable, conspicuous, palpable, strenuous, onerous, heavy, uphill,
ANTONYM: (n) closure discernible, apparent, manifest; (adj, severe, painful, trying, tough,
apex: (n) top, peak, vertex, crown, adv) observable; (v) measurable. troublesome. ANTONYMS: (adj)
acme, apices, extremity, height, ANTONYMS: (adj) insignificant, facile, simple, painless, refreshing,
summit, pinnacle, point. inconsiderable, negligible, relaxing, insignificant, light,
ANTONYMS: (n) base, nadir, unnoticed undemanding
trough, bottom, abyss, depth apprehended: (adj) arrested, seized, aria: (n) air, tune, melody, song,
apicius: (adj) gastronome, belly God, understood, under arrest, in strain, apparent character, arietta,
cormorant, glutton, hog custody, detained, appreciated, ariette, hymn, action
apollo: (adj) Aphrodite, Hyperion, comprehended aries: (n) ram, Aries the ram, sign of
narcissus, peri, houri; (n) aurora, apprehension: (n) alarm, the zodiac
Terpsichore, Euterpe, Phoebus comprehension, dread, misgiving, aright: (adv) correctly, right, well,
Apollo, Orpheus, orb of day understanding, capture, foreboding, true, not Amis, satisfactorily,
apologies: (n) regret arrest, trepidation; (n, v) doubt, favorably, justly, exactly, rightly,
apologize: (n) palliate, extenuate, appreciation. ANTONYMS: (n) properly
apology, gloze; (n, v) excuse; (v) release, confidence, calmness, arisen: (adj) risen
apologise, beg pardon, give tranquility, freeing, aristocracy: (n) gentry, nobility,
satisfaction, justify, plead; (adj) misunderstanding, peace, relief, peerage, gentility, aristarchy, elite,
sorry. ANTONYM: (v) defy bravery, calm, equanimity landed gentry, upper crust, great
apology: (n, v) excuse; (n) amends, approbatory: (adj) favorable, folks, nobles, patricians.
regret, defense, justification, reason, complimentary, laudatory, ANTONYMS: (n) people, plebeians,
explanation, vindication, alibi, commendatory, approving, plausive rabble, riffraff
acknowledgment; (v) apologize. appropriated: (adj) taken, destined, aristotelian: (adj, n) Aristotelean; (n)
ANTONYMS: (n) blame, taken over, confiscate, confiscated, itinerant, disciple; (v) eristical, eristic
reprehension, accusation, condemned, seized, reserved arithmetical: (adj) statistical,
shamelessness, epitome arabian: (n) Arab, Saracen, Beduin, mathematical, numerable,
apophysis: (n) process, appendage, Bedouin; (adj) arabesque calculable, computable, numerical,
enation, outgrowth, protuberance, arabic: (n) Arab, Arabic script numeric, analytic, algebraic
bump, knob, branch, tooth, elbow arch: (n, v) curve, bow, bend; (n) arouse: (v) wake, stir, agitate, excite,
apothecary: (n) druggist, pharmacy, dome, curvature, acute; (adj) wily, awaken, stimulate, anger, kindle,
chemist, caregiver, dispensing shrewd, sly; (v) vault; (adj, n, v) provoke, raise; (n, v) rouse.
chemist, medical attendant, round. ANTONYMS: (adj) smallest, ANTONYMS: (v) calm, dampen,
pothecary, potecary, pill pusher, petty, modest, minor, frank, least, stifle, sedate, quiet, pacify, bore,
pharmacopolist, pharmacologist lesser, inferior, forthright, guileless, allay, lull, quench, suppress
apotheosis: (n) deification, exaltation, humble aroused: (adj) ablaze, aflame,
ideal, paragon, canonization, arched: (adj, v) bowed, arcuate; (adj) passionate, hot, agitated, inflamed,
worship, glorification, embodiment, bent, vaulted, convex, arciform, susceptible, tense, fascinated,
epitome, angel, crackerjack arced, domed, hooked, hunched, emotional, elated
apparel: (n, v) garb, attire, garment, crooked arousing: (adj, n) stirring; (adj)
array, vesture; (n) clothing, finery, architectural: (adj) architecture, moving, stimulating, affecting,
costume, clothes; (v) adorn, clothe constructional animating, hopeful, pitiful,
appellation: (n) designation, archives: (n) records, chancery, poignant; (n) awakening, start,
 Edgar Allan Poe 249
beginning ashes: (n) dust, cinders, remains, astonish: (adj, v) astound; (adj, n, v)
arranging: (n) arrange, arrangements, cinder, clay, earth, embers, clinker; surprise; (adj) astonishing,
disposition, composing, (adj) scoriae, mother, precipitate surprised; (v) flabbergast, daze,
composition, order, position, set, assemblage: (n) meeting, collection, confound, dazzle, stun, alarm,
orchestration, organization, congregation, set, multitude, crew, nonplus. ANTONYMS: (v) expect,
agreement confluence, gathering, gang, bore
arrant: (adj) rank, unmitigated, convention, convocation. astonished: (adj) astonish,
thorough, stark, utter, ill, gross, ANTONYMS: (v) dispersal, dumbfounded, flabbergasted,
infamous, bad, blatant, base. scattering stunned, aghast, bewildered,
ANTONYM: (adj) minor assent: (n) acceptance, acquiescence, astounded, taken aback,
arresting: (adj) arrestingly, striking, approval, agreement, compliance, thunderstruck, astonied; (v) amaze
impressive, interesting, admission, approbation; (v) accede, astonishing: (adj) amazing,
conspicuous, sensational, accord, agree; (adj, v) acquiesce. wonderful, stupendous, prodigious,
magnificent, absorbing, arrest, ANTONYMS: (v) resist, disagree, strange, surprising, astounding,
exciting, magnetic. ANTONYMS: disapprove, reject, refuse; (n) incredible, breathtaking; (v)
(adj) unimpressive, uninteresting, disagreement, refusal, resistance astonish; (adj, n) marvelous.
unremarkable assert: (v) allege, affirm, say, claim, ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary,
arrogated: (adj) reserved, assumed declare, swear, show, avow, aver, humdrum, boring, mundane, dull,
artery: (n) aorta, corridor, road, maintain, argue. ANTONYMS: (v) expected, predictable, usual,
tendon, thoroughfare, celiac axis, reject, controvert, repress, refute comforting
Pipe-stem arteries, arteria, aisle, asserting: (v) affirm; (adj) astonishment: (n) admiration,
arteriola, arteriole declaratory, declarative, evidentiary; wonder, wonderment, surprise,
articulation: (n, v) juncture, hinge; (n) (n) assertion marvel, stupefaction, confusion,
enunciation, junction, accent, assertion: (n) statement, argument, consternation, awe, alarm, startle.
diction, delivery, utterance, claim, avowal, contention, charge, ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, belief,
pronunciation, speech, link. testimony, profession, allegation, contempt
ANTONYMS: (n) mumble, murmur accusation, position. ANTONYMS: astounded: (adj) amazed, stunned,
artificiality: (n) unnaturalness, (n) denial, disavowal, uncertainty flabbergasted, bewildered,
artificialness, theatricality, assiduously: (adv) diligently, dumbfounded, surprised, staggered,
dishonesty, pretension, pretense, industriously, busily, sedulously, astonied, dazed, astound, aghast
pretence, insincerity, carefully, attentively, studiously, astounding: (adj) amazing,
disingenuousness; (adj) artificial, constantly, untiringly, thoroughly, miraculous, wonderful, incredible,
subtlety scrupulously. ANTONYMS: (adv) tremendous, spectacular,
artisan: (n) craftsman, artist, carelessly, inconsistently, hastily sensational, breathtaking, awesome,
operative, machinist, journeyman, assign: (v) allot, delegate, consign, staggering, prodigious.
worker, workman, Wright, ascribe, appoint, place, allocate, ANTONYMS: (adj) unremarkable,
carpenter, tradesman; (adj) appropriate; (n, v) allow, apply, comforting, predictable, boring,
mechanic give. ANTONYMS: (v) relieve, insignificant
ascend: (n, v) mount; (v) arise, scale, discharge, discredit, divest, refuse, astrologer: (n) forecaster, predictor,
uprise, climb, go up, come up, take prognosticator, stargazer, Chaldean,
increase, elevate; (n) ascending, assignable: (adj) negotiable, psychic, starmonger, Babylonian,
ascent. ANTONYMS: (v) descend, alienable, conveyable, allocatable, seer, oracle, medium
drop, decline, fall, lower, set, sink movable, referable, exchangeable, astronomer: (n) stargazer, physicist,
ascendancy: (n) ascendance, transferrable, ascribable, convertible Galilean, Ptolemaic, Celsius,
supremacy, control, influence, assistants: (n) cabinet cosmologist, uranologist, muller,
power, mastery, rule, dominion, assisting: (adj) aiding, auxiliary, hall, Herschel, astrophysicist
domination, advantage, authority. subsidiary, suffragan, adjuvant, astronomical: (adj) vast, celestial,
ANTONYMS: (n) weakness, supporting, support, secondary, astrophysical, great, uranic,
subordination supplementary, assistant; (n) enormous, large, galactic, universal,
ascending: (adj) uphill, rising, helping. ANTONYM: (adj) main elevated, excessive
assurgent, climbing, ascendent; (n) associates: (n) staff, membership, astute: (adj) shrewd, artful, bright,
ascension, ascent, rise, advance, circle, entourage, intimates, people sharp, quick, cunning, crafty,
movement; (v) go up assuredly: (adv) certainly, sagacious, wily, clever; (adj, v)
ascertain: (v) determine, find out, confidently, positively, securely, canny. ANTONYMS: (adj) naive,
learn, discover, check, tell, control, indeed, definitely, undoubtedly, stupid, slow, dumb, dim, idiotic,
find, ensure, detect; (adj, v) admittedly, safely, insuredly, retarded, unintelligent, foolish,
establish. ANTONYM: (v) disprove decidedly obtuse, indiscriminate
ascertained: (adj) discovered, astern: (adv) aft, after, aback, behind, asylum: (n) shelter, sanctuary, haven,
determined; (v) absolute, sternmost, rearwards; (adj, adv) retreat, home, madhouse, insane
recognized, received, noted, backward; (adj) back, rear. asylum, institution, cover, harbor,
notorious, decisive, unmistakable, ANTONYM: (adv) forward protection
unequivocal, positive asteroids: (n) stars, heavenly bodies atom: (n) grain, speck, molecule,
 250 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
particle, mite, bit, mote, monad, prep) garmented stinginess; (adj, n) greediness; (adj)
crumb, corpuscle, iota attorney: (n) advocate, counsel, extortion. ANTONYMS: (n)
atrocious: (adj) monstrous, awful, counselor, agent, legal philanthropy, benevolence, charity
heinous, abominable, wicked, representative, barrister, counsellor, avaricious: (adj) greedy, grasping,
dreadful, frightful, terrible, bad, solicitor, factor, prosecutor, acquisitive, avid, miserly, grabby,
horrible; (adj, n) outrageous. ambulance chaser parsimonious, penurious; (adj, v)
ANTONYMS: (adj) humane, attributable: (adj) predicable, mercenary, sordid, extortionate
benevolent, drivable, elegant, referable, owing, imputable, avenging: (adj) justificatory,
virtuous, good, passable, fine, kind, derivable, accusable, affirmable vindictive, vengeful, rigorous,
admirable, tasteful attribute: (adj, n) quality, property; ruthless, retributive, retributory; (n)
atrocities: (n) murder, killing, (n, v) assign; (n) feature, emblem, revenge, vengeance, eye for an eye,
slaughter, violence, carnage characteristic, peculiarity, mark; (v) reprisal
attach: (v) append, adhere, add, affix, credit, impute, accredit aversion: (n) antipathy, distaste,
bind, link, associate, assign, nail, audacious: (adj) brash, arrogant, abhorrence, disinclination, dislike,
apply, annex. ANTONYMS: (v) barefaced, bold, daring, impudent, grudge, aversation, nausea, enmity,
undo, separate, unfasten, intrepid, brave, shameless, revulsion; (n, v) disgust.
disconnect, free, deflect, dissociate, enterprising, insolent. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (n) attraction, love,
loosen, quit, take, unscrew (adj) modest, timid, cautious, polite, inclination, predilection, desire,
attachment: (n) appendix, addition, reserved, meek, humble, fearful, fondness, goodwill
accessory, adherence, regard, link, discreet, respectful avidity: (adj, n) greed, greediness; (n)
bond, fitting, devotion, liking, audacity: (n) nerve, audaciousness, eagerness, ardor, covetousness, lust,
connection. ANTONYMS: (n) effrontery, arrogance, temerity, desire, enthusiasm, rapacity,
aversion, estrangement, repulsion, cheek, impertinence, insolence, cupidity, avidness
separation, dislike courage; (n, v) impudence; (adj, n) awaited: (adj) expected, appointed,
attain: (v) make, reach, achieve, presumption. ANTONYMS: (n) scheduled, forthcoming, prospective
acquire, gain, strike, catch, arrive at, cowardice, propriety, decorum, awakened: (adj) excited, aroused,
find, obtain, come to. ANTONYMS: circumspection, courtesy, fear, awakens, awoke, interested
(v) lose, fail, abandon, surrender, respect, spinelessness, reticence awaking: (n) waking, awakening
differ augmented: (adj) amplified, enlarged, awhile: (adj) in transitu, en passant;
attainable: (adj) possible, obtainable, greater than before, inflated, plus, (adv) briefly
gettable, available, feasible, more awoke: (adj) awakened
approachable, accessible, viable, auricula: (n) pouch, primula, pocket, axiom: (n) maxim, adage, apothegm,
doable, realistic, open. primrose, auricular appendage, principle, proposition, truism,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unattainable, auricular appendix saying, saw, proverb, truth, motto.
unachievable, impossible auspices: (n) auspice, aegis, ANTONYMS: (n) foolishness,
attained: (adj) attains, attaint, patronage, forecast, backing, paradox, absurdity
reached, complete, earned, fulfilled security, sponsorship, guidance, axiomatic: (adj) obvious, axiomatical,
attainment: (adj, n) acquirement; (n, means, custody, agency aphoristic, self-evident, gnomic,
v) acquisition; (n) achievement, autobiography: (n) biography, postulational, understood, taken for
gain, accession, completion, memoirs, memoir, life story, life, granted, proverbial, apothegmatic,
fulfillment, success, performance, diary, life history, journal, story, fundamental. ANTONYMS: (adj)
scholarship, realization. history questionable, misunderstood,
ANTONYM: (n) loss autocrat: (n) monarch, dictator, dubious
attendant: (n) companion, follower, tyrant, czar, oppressor, azure: (adj, n) cerulean, blue; (n)
assistant, escort, subordinate, authoritarian, sovereign, totalitarian, sapphire, blueness, indigo, lazuline,
employee, guide, varlet; (adj) oligarch, bully, Caesar heaven; (adj) chromatic, bright blue,
accompanying, concomitant, autograph: (n, v) signature, mark; (v) azurn, azureous
incidental. ANTONYMS: (n) endorse, subscribe, sign, baboon: (n) chacma, mandrill,
superior, boss; (adj) absent, monograph; (n) manuscript, Bavian, family Cercopithecidae,
unrelated, significant autography, name, handwriting, babion, Cercopithecidae, oaf; (adj)
attendants: (n) entourage, followers, writing harridan, toad, specter, scarecrow
retinue, tendance, persons present, automaton: (n) robot, machine, baboons: (n) Papio, genus Papio
suite android, mechanism, automata, backward: (adj, adv) late,
attentively: (adv) carefully, zombi, zombie, anomaly behindhand; (adj) tardy, retarded,
mindfully, watchfully, observantly, avail: (n, v) advantage, assist, aid, reluctant, coy, slow, laggard,
heedfully, vigilantly, cautiously, profit, benefit, help; (adj, n) service; dilatory; (adv) behind, backwardly.
considerately, diligently, alertly, (n) good, assistance, utility; (v) do. ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) ahead;
obligingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) ANTONYMS: (v) useless, hurt, (adv) onward; (adj) quick,
unhelpfully, neglectfully, abruptly, hinder, harm; (n) inappropriateness developing, advanced, confident,
carelessly, hastily, casually avarice: (n) cupidity, covetousness, brilliant, bold
attired: (adj) clad, appareled, clothed, rapacity, avariciousness, avidity, bade: (v) bid, command, bad
garbed, habilimented, robed; (adj, eagerness, voracity, voraciousness, bagatelle: (adj) toy, bauble, paper
 Edgar Allan Poe 251
pellet; (n) trifle, nothing, whatsis, admissible, legitimate, eligible, open benignity: (n) kindliness,
whatchamacallit, sundry, sundries, barrel: (n) vessel, keg, roll, barrels, benignancy, favor, graciousness,
composition, opus barrelful, tun, vase, cask, vat, tenderness, friendliness, amiability,
baggage: (n) bag, bags, trunk, pack, container, hogshead benefaction; (adj, n) kindness,
gear, equipment, stuff, effects, baseless: (adj) groundless, humanity; (adj) beneficence
suitcases, woman, thing unwarranted, ungrounded, benignly: (adv) benignantly, genially,
bagpipes: (n) union pipes gratuitous, idle, unsupported, nicely, graciously, goodly, mildly,
baked: (adj) adust, parched, unfair, wanton, invalid, flimsy, generously, complaisantly,
scorched, baken, heated, driest, undue. ANTONYMS: (adj) founded, benevolently, obligingly, humanely.
tempered, sunbaked, seared, arid, sound, substantial, justified, valid, ANTONYMS: (adv) malevolently,
drier. ANTONYMS: (adj) unbaked, proven cruelly, unkindly
humid bathed: (adj) sweaty bequeathed: (adj) hereditary
balloon: (v) inflate, ball, soar, beast: (n) animal, monster, swine, bequest: (n, v) will; (n) endowment,
distend, bulge, swell, bloat, billow, fiend, creature, scavenger, savage, patrimony, estate, inheritance,
fly, increase; (adj, n) bubble. critter, animate being, barbarian; heirloom, heritage, donation, gift,
ANTONYMS: (v) contract, flatten, (adj) bear. ANTONYM: (n) man allowance, bequeathal
shrink, decrease becomingly: (adj, adv) seemly; (adv) bereavement: (n) mourning, loss,
balm: (n) salve, unguent, incense, decorously, fitly, properly, decently, sorrow, sadness, privation,
perfume, aroma, unction, liniment, fittingly, comely, adequately, deprivation, death, grief,
balsam, arnica, lotion, fragrance. befittingly, rightly, worthily sorrowfulness, decease, demise
ANTONYMS: (n) irritant, nuisance bedchamber: (n) bedroom, bereft: (adj, v) cut off; (adj) destitute,
balustrade: (n) fence, banisters, dormitory, room, sleeping room, devoid, forlorn, void, deprived,
banister, bannister, barrier, handrail, master bedroom, boudoir lovelorn, grieving, deserted,
pale, balusters, guardrail, bedecked: (adj) decked out, insufficient; (v) reft. ANTONYMS:
circumvallation, ring fence decorated, ornate, ornamented (adj) fulfilled, supplied, happy,
bandage: (v) bind, wrap, dress, beefsteak: (v) barbecue, beche de consoled, satisfied
envelop; (adj, n) truss, tie; (n) MER, banana, avocado, atole; (n) berth: (n) bunk, place, bed, position,
swathe, binding, roller, gauze; (adj) steak, porterhouse, beef patty post, office, spot, situation; (n, v)
string. ANTONYM: (v) undress bees: (n) Apoidea, superfamily dock, wharf; (v) moor
banker: (n) cashier, teller, cambist, Apoidea beseech: (v) beg, crave, implore, ask,
investor, moneyman, bank beggarly: (adj) base, mean, shabby, request, adjure, pray, sue, appeal,
employee, capitalist, ditcher, sorry, miserable, poor, humble, solicit, plead. ANTONYMS: (v) give,
goldsmith, usurer, moneyer pitiable, ignoble; (adj, n) scrubby, offer, grant, reject
bankrupt: (v) ruin, break, vile bestow: (v) give, confer, grant,
impoverish, deprive; (adj) broke, beggary: (n) poverty, want, begging, impart, contribute, donate, apply,
destitute, poor, impoverished; (n) penury, pauperism, need, indigence, award; (adj, v) accord, allow,
bankruptcy, failure, insolvency. solicitation, misery, squalor, present. ANTONYMS: (v) deprive,
ANTONYMS: (adj) rich, profiting, destitution refuse, withhold, retrieve, withdraw
flourishing, wealthy; (v) enrich behavior: (n, v) bearing, demeanor; bestowed: (adj) presented, conferred,
barbaric: (adj) boorish, uncivil, (n) carriage, conduct, deportment, awarded, accurate
graceless, churlish, uncouth, act, behaviour, manner, character, betrothed: (adj) affianced, intended,
uncivilized, savage, barbarous, wild, action, morality bespoken, busy, occupied,
gross, inhuman. ANTONYMS: (adj) beheld: (adj) visual contracted, attached, bargained for;
refined, civilized, cultured, polished behold: (v) see, view, contemplate, (n) fiance, fiancee; (v) engage
barbarous: (adj) barbaric, savage, regard, perceive, observe, look, bevy: (n) band, horde, cluster, party,
gothic, brutal, heathen, truculent, consider, discern, descry, watch. gang, bunch, group, flock, array,
rude, fell, ferocious, fierce, ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, disregard, crew; (adj, n) swarm. ANTONYM:
uncivilized. ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, ignore, overlook (n) individual
cultured, civilized, sophisticated, belfry: (n) apse, room, bell tower, bewildered: (adj) bemused, confused,
refined, humane head, pinnacle, belltower confounded, perplexed, befuddled,
bargaining: (n) haggle, chaffer, belial: (n) Asmodeus, Ahriman, titan, puzzled, dumbfounded, taken
negotiation, business, parley, Moloch, the Devil, Lucifer, Shedim, aback, addled, disoriented; (adj, v)
negotiations, deal, dealing, traffic, Mephistopheles lost. ANTONYMS: (adj)
talks, haggling beloved: (adj, n) dear, darling, unimpressed, clear, oriented,
baron: (n) king, magnate, earl, lord, favorite, pet; (adj) precious, loved, precise, understanding, alert
tycoon, businessman, thane, cherished; (n) love, dearest, honey, bewitched: (adj) enchanted,
nobleman, top executive, man of sweetheart. ANTONYMS: (adj) fascinated, infatuated, magical,
means; (v) man detested, despised, disliked ensorcelled, doomed, captive, rapt,
barred: (adj) prohibited, forbidden, bending: (n) bow, bend, deflection, enamored, obsessed. ANTONYM:
barricaded, barry, banned, illicit, deflexion, refraction, flexure, crook; (adj) disgusted
streaked; (v) striated, areolar, (adj) flexible, supple, winding, bewitching: (adj, v) charming,
veined; (n) Bart. ANTONYMS: (adj) pliant. ANTONYM: (adj) stiff fascinating, captivating, engaging;
 252 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
(adj) attractive, seductive, lovely, improve; (n) perfection, unpleasant, down, dreadful
winning, entrancing, enthralling; (v) enhancement bloated: (adj) swollen, inflated,
bewitch blend: (n, v) mix; (v) amalgamate, distended, turgid, proud,
biblical: (adj) prophetic, sacred combine, merge, fuse, commingle, supercilious, haughty, puffed,
bidding: (n) behest, order, dictate, incorporate, admix; (n) amalgam, pompous, tumescent, tumid
charge, bid, request, call, dictation, admixture, composite. bloodless: (adj) white, livid, dead,
direction, fiat; (adj) imperative ANTONYMS: (n, v) divide; (v) pale, pasty, wan, exsanguine,
bigoted: (adj) fanatic, opinionated, disharmonize, unmix, steady; (n) blanched, anaemic, ghastly, watery.
narrow, fanatical, hidebound, bigot, separation ANTONYMS: (adj) robust,
insular, zealot, arbitrary, dogmatic, blende: (n) sphalerite, false galena, sanguine, rosy, bloody, florid,
biased. ANTONYMS: (adj) blind, blend, mineral caring, lively
broadminded, tolerant, bless: (v) consecrate, celebrate, blooming: (adj) rosy, thriving,
unprejudiced, humanitarian, liberal, sanctify, anoint, eulogize, sign, flourishing, healthy, prosperous,
moderate, fair praise, keep, grant, glorify; (n) ruddy, booming, blossoming,
binary: (adj) twin, double, canicular, blessing. ANTONYMS: (v) curse, cherry, verdant, green.
numeric; (n) Algol, Antares, binary condemn, disapprove, damn, ANTONYMS: (adj) arid, pale
star, Aldebaran, double star, disallow, deny blunder: (n, v) mistake, stumble, slip,
Procyon, Rigel blessed: (adj) happy, holy, cursed, botch; (adj, n) fault; (n) error, gaffe,
biography: (n) history, life story, life, sacred, damned, hallowed, blasted, trip; (v) fail, fumble; (adj, n, v) miss.
life history, memoirs, memoir, story, fortunate, saintly, lucky, divine. ANTONYMS: (v) succeed, correct,
hagiography, animation, ANTONYMS: (adj) unlucky, accomplish, achieve; (n)
biographies, resume condemned, damned, disapproved, achievement
biped: (adj, n) bipedal, human; (n) unhappy, unholy, secular blunt: (adj, v) dull, deaden; (adj)
creature, brute, fauna, animate blessings: (n) blessing, godsend bluff, plain, direct, forthright, frank,
being, beast blinded: (adj) blindfolded, blinder, candid, outspoken, round, abrupt.
bitten: (adj) stung, rabid, annoyed; blindly, reckless, unsighted, ANTONYMS: (v) hone, sharpen,
(v) smitten blindfold, dizzy point, accentuate, needle; (adj)
bitterness: (n) acerbity, animosity, blindfold: (adv) blindly; (v) mystify, devious, pointed, thoughtful, polite,
gall, malice, resentment, enmity, hoodwink, muffle; (adj) reckless, guarded, gentle
acridity, acidity, bitter, rancor, blindfolded, blinded, unsighted; (n) blush: (n, v) glow, color; (v) redden,
sharpness. ANTONYMS: (n) joy, blinder crimson; (n) red, bloom, rosiness,
happiness, harmony, kindness, blindly: (adv) darkly, dimly, ruddiness, redness; (adj) bashful;
blandness, friendliness, goodwill, blindfoldly, purblindly, obscurely, (adv) blushingly. ANTONYMS: (v)
idealism, affection heedlessly, unreasoningly, blanch, pale, blench; (n) paleness
blab: (v) tattle, chatter, tell on, mouth, blindfold, unsightedly, blushing: (adj) rosy, coy, blushful,
clack, talk, prattle, gabble, reveal, inconsiderately, ignorantly. flushed, red, shy, bashful,
gossip, twaddle ANTONYMS: (adv) sensibly, overmodest, ruddy; (adv)
blacking: (n) black-wash , polish, carefully, considerately, purposely blushingly, ablush. ANTONYM:
shoe Polish, black wash blindness: (n) cecity, sightlessness, (adj) pale
blackness: (n) black, darkness, sable, ablepsy, ignorance, prestriction, bluster: (v) brag, gasconade, swash,
gloom, nigritude, night, inkiness, excecation, cataract, fog, anopia; bully; (n, v) swagger, roar, storm,
dark, murk, murkiness, obscurity (adj, n) darkness; (adj) anopsy clatter; (n) boasting, bravado; (adj, v)
blacksmith: (n) farrier, horseshoer, blink: (v) twinkle, flicker, blench, vapor. ANTONYMS: (n) mildness,
forger, locksmith, metalworker, shirk, nictate, shine; (n, v) flash; (n) reticence, timidity
sailmaker, wheelwright, smithy, blinking, instant, winking, glimmer. boarding: (n) embarkation,
smith ANTONYM: (v) attend embarkment, boards, construction,
blackwood: (n) blacktree, wood, tree, blinking: (adj) flickering, bally, departure, going, leaving, escalade,
rosewood, logwood, lightwood, blooming; (adj, n) winking; (n) structure, lodging, board fence.
black mangrove, blackwood tree shimmer, blink, wink, twinkling, ANTONYM: (n) debarkation
blarney: (v) wheedle, coax, flatter, nictation, blink of an eye, nictitation bobtail: (n) dock, bob, sheepdog,
cajole, palaver, inveigle, persuade; bliss: (n) happiness, joy, ecstasy, bobtail tractor, bobsleigh, bobsled,
(n) flattery, adulation, coaxing, pleasure, paradise, blessedness, bobfloat, bobber; (adj) bobtailed,
sweet talk felicity, elation, beatitude, heaven, caudated
blaze: (n, v) flash, glare, flame, mark, blessing. ANTONYMS: (n) misery, bodily: (adj) material, corporeal,
scintillation; (n) fire, light, burning, sorrow, agony, grief, anguish, corporal, animal, carnal, somatic,
inflammation, sheen; (adj, v) burn sadness, suffering, gloom, hell, real, personal, sensual; (adv)
bled: (v) bleed; (n) bulla dissatisfaction altogether, fleshly. ANTONYMS:
blemish: (n, v) stain, scar, flaw, blot, blissful: (adj) happy, heavenly, (adj) mental, spiritual, soulful,
slur; (n) defect, stigma, fault; (v) merry, joyful, delighted, glad, intellectual; (adv) mentally
deface; (adj, n) imperfection; (adj, v) cheerful, delightful, ecstatic, elated, boding: (n) presentiment,
disfigure. ANTONYMS: (v) blest. ANTONYMS: (adj) unhappy, premonition, foreboding, portent,
enhance, beautify, embellish, grieving, sad, sorrowful, depressed, augury, forewarning, hunch,
 Edgar Allan Poe 253
apprehensiveness, apprehension bout: (n, v) round; (n) attack, spell, second lieutenant, skipper, officer,
boisterous: (adj, n) rough; (adj) turn, competition, fight, battle, captain, centurion, Colonel, first
furious, loud, noisy, fierce, raucous, fighting, effort, game, fit lieutenant
wild, rude, vociferous; (adj, v) bowed: (adj) arched, curved, inclined, brilliancy: (n, v) brightness; (n)
tempestuous, rampant. crooked, arciform, arching, arced, brilliance, lustre, luster, splendor,
ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained, bandy, arcuate, twisted, bended. glitter, glory, radiance, splendour;
orderly, calm, dignified, silent, ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, (adj, n) gorgeousness; (v) gloss
tranquil, gentle, placid concave, plucked brilliantly: (adv) brightly,
boldly: (adj, adv) courageously, bowing: (n) obeisance, playing, glitteringly, gloriously, superbly,
valiantly, heroically; (adv) gesticulation, capitulation, radiantly, shiningly, resplendently,
fearlessly, daringly, bravely, genuflection, scraping, submission; splendidly, magnificently,
intrepidly, impudently, audaciously, (adj) bowed, bent, fawning, dazzlingly, vividly. ANTONYMS:
shamelessly, brashly. ANTONYMS: submissive (adv) incompetently, terribly,
(adv) discreetly, modestly, bracelets: (n) trinkets, jewels, poorly, dimly, badly, abysmally
nervously, hesitantly, shyly, necklaces, charms, costume jewelry, brisk: (adj) bracing, agile, alive,
fearfully, meekly, submissively, ornaments bright, lively, acute, alert, energetic,
secretly, respectfully, diffidently bran: (adj) farina, sporule, flour, sprightly; (adj, v) quick, smart.
boldness: (n) prowess, face, daring, paddy, rice, meal; (n) stubble, ANTONYMS: (adj) soporific,
valor, nerve, assurance, heroism, cellulose, roughage, fiber, bren sluggish, hesitant, tedious,
audaciousness, spirit, cheek, valour. branded: (adj) identified, known, temperate, inactive, civil, torpid,
ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice, proprietary, recognized slack, serious, lethargic
shyness, timidity, meekness, braying: (adj) raucous, loud, harsh, briskly: (adv) busily, energetically,
reticence shrill, discordant, clamorous, vigorously, quickly, freshly,
bolted: (adj) barred, Bolten, secured, vociferous actively, sharply, rapidly, vividly,
firm, barricaded, blockaded, bolted brazen: (adj) audacious, impudent, brightly, merrily. ANTONYMS:
attachment, fast, fastened, latched, brassy, insolent, bold, brash, (adv) seriously, laboriously, civilly,
tight impertinent, blatant, flagrant, pleasantly, languorously
bombshell: (n) shock, surprise, forward, saucy. ANTONYMS: (adj) broach: (v) bring up, mention, raise,
entertainer, shell, disclosure, shy, abashed, prudish, reserved, suggest, tap, open; (n, v) propose,
thunderclap, win, bolt, bolt from the quiet, discreet, respectful, ashamed, utter; (n) advance, drift, propound.
blue, blow, bolt of lightning veiled, modest ANTONYMS: (v) close, suppress
bonne: (n) ayah, nurse, biddy breadth: (n) width, spread, broadcloth: (n) fabric
bordered: (adj) fringed, edged, amplitude, wideness, size, length, broadway: (n) show business
delimited, surrounded latitude, extent, area, broadness, brocade: (n) brocatelle, cloth, fabric,
borrows: (v) borrow; (n) lends stretch. ANTONYMS: (n) length, fringe, galloon, lace, trapping,
bosom: (n) heart, interior, boob, longitude, emptiness, thinness edging, embroidery
thorax, chest, bust, tit; (n, v) breathed: (adj) unvoiced, inaudible, broom: (v) sweep, to sweep, bream,
embrace; (v) cherish, hug; (adj) breathing, aphonic shovel, rake, screen, sieve; (n) brush,
intimate. ANTONYMS: (n) outside, breathless: (adj, adv) out of breath; Scots heather, Calluna vulgaris,
exteriority (adj) panting, inanimate, heath
boston: (n) capital of Massachusetts, breathtaking, winded, choking, brougham: (n) rig, sedan, coach,
hub of the universe puffing; (v) all agog, aghast; (adj, n) landau, equipage, carriage,
botanical: (adj) vegetative, vegetal, eager; (n) in hysterics. ANTONYMS: barouche, break, curricle, mail
plant, vegetation, phytological (adj) dull, expected, boring phaeton, phaeton
botany: (n) life science, biological breeched: (adj) clad, clothed, brow: (n) peak, brink, brows, height,
science, biology, mycology, pantalooned summit, forehead, eyebrow, edge,
pomology, vegetable kingdom, breeches: (n) knickers, inexpressibles, crown, brim, border. ANTONYM:
paleobotany; (adj) acyclic, cyclic knickerbockers, brogues, short, (n) trough
boudoir: (n) bedchamber, bedroom, smalls, overalls, small clothes, pants, brows: (n) brow
master bedroom trousers, pantaloons brushed: (adj) napped, fleecy
bounded: (adj) restricted, limited, breve: (n) diacritic, minim, quaver, brutus: (n) Marcus Junius Brutus
delimited, encircled, enclosed, semibreve buckskin: (n) mount, doeskin, fleece,
confined, leap, spring, bordered, brevet: (n) sanction, papers, firman, buffalo hide, rawhide, elephant
circumscribed, constrained. exequatur, diploma, dispensation, hide, skin, pelt, fur
ANTONYMS: (adj) unbounded, edict, writ, errand; (v) elevate, buffoonery: (n) farce, harlequinade,
unconfined, unlimited, free promote fooling, joke, prank, clowning,
bounds: (n) boundary, border, limit, brewing: (v) preparing, forthcoming, foolery, indulgence, folly, fun,
bound, margin, borderline, end, culinary art, brooding; (n) humor
bourn, Bourne, brink, edge. production; (adj) impending, bugaboo: (n) bugbear, hobgoblin,
ANTONYMS: (n) center, middle destined, imminent boogeyman, booger, spectre,
bourdon: (adv) terzetto; (n) drone brigadier: (n) brigadier-general, headache, vexation, monster,
pipe, drone major, staff officer, sublieutenant, scarecrow, specter; (adj) bug bear
 254 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
bullock: (n) ox, steer, kine, cows, levies, trainee, plebe, staff officer, canteen: (n) dining hall, buffet,
oxen, cattle second lieutenant, officer, soldier, commissary, flask, mobile canteen,
bulwarks: (n) breakwater, barrier midshipman bottle, estaminet, posada, recreation
bump: (n, v) bang, crash, knock, jolt, calamitous: (adj) fatal, evil, wretched, room, shop, store
clash, bash, hit, push, jar; (n) blow, fateful, deplorable, unfortunate, sad, canvass: (n, v) campaign, discuss; (n)
bulge. ANTONYMS: (v) glide, black, dreadful, cataclysmic; (adj, v) review; (v) beg, examine, scrutinize,
promote, sail; (n) hollow ruinous. ANTONYMS: (adj) view, agitate, inspect, survey, study.
bundle: (n, v) pack, cluster, clump, wonderful, beneficial, blessed, ANTONYM: (v) neglect
wad; (n) sheaf, pile, batch, stack, comforting, favorable caoutchouc: (n) rubber, gum elastic,
package, group, heap. ANTONYMS: calamity: (n) disaster, adversity, whalebone, natural rubber, arctic,
(v) scatter, separate, disperse, divide affliction, misfortune, plague, latex, baleen, Indian rubber, ebonite,
burgher: (n) burgess, citizen, catastrophe, tragedy, blow, bale, vulcanite
cockney, oppidan, townsman, distress; (n, v) trouble. capitally: (adv) chiefly, finely,
commoner, cit, Anthony burgess ANTONYMS: (n) blessing, boon, excellently, foremostly, cardinally,
busily: (adv) actively, occupiedly, luck, joy, opportunity mainly, primarily, leadingly,
briskly, industriously, engagedly, calcedony: (n) chalcedony, greatly, centrally, splendidly
energetically, assiduously, lively, bloodstone, agate, sard, sardine, capitals: (n) brevier, caps, pica
officiously, fussily, meddlesomely. sardius, cornelian, heliotrope, onyx, boldface
ANTONYM: (adv) inactively carnelian, chrysoprase capon: (n) chicken, volaille, stot,
bust: (adj) broke; (n, v) arrest, tear, calculating: (adj) scheming, sly, poulet, steer, gelding, ox, rooster,
capture, raid; (adj, v) bankrupt; (v) shrewd, crafty, calculative, wily, fowl, hen, pullet
break, burst; (n) flop, thorax, heart. wary, discreet, devious; (n) capsize: (v) upset, invert, reverse,
ANTONYMS: (adj) solvent; (v) calculation; (adj, v) wise. topple, overturn, turn over, flip
mend, fix, exonerate, aid, help, free, ANTONYMS: (adj) uncalculating, over, keel, subvert; (adj) shipwreck,
repair unassuming, reckless, artless, rash, swamp. ANTONYM: (v) upright
bustle: (adj, n, v) hurry; (n, v) flurry, guileless, candid, unconscious captivated: (adj) spellbound,
ado, fuss, hustle; (adj, n) stir, calf: (n) calves, calfskin, sura, foal, charmed, enchanted, absorbed,
movement; (n) bother, commotion, shorthorn, pup, kitten, colt, leather, enthralled, engrossed, rapt,
disorder; (adj, v) hasten. kid, box calf enamored, delighted, beguiled,
ANTONYMS: (n) inactivity, caligula: (n) Gaius Caesar, Gaius infatuated. ANTONYMS: (adj)
stillness, idleness; (v) laziness, calmly: (adv) stilly, tranquilly, coolly, unenthusiastic, bored
relaxation serenely, placidly, sedately, carcass: (n) body, frame, corpse,
buts: (adv) however smoothly, peacefully, easily, cadaver, framework, shell, carrion,
butt: (v) bunt, abut; (n) extremity, undisturbedly, steadily. remains, dead body, skeleton, bomb
stump, grip, stub, rump, cask, rear, ANTONYMS: (adv) anxiously, careless: (adj) forgetful, inattentive,
tail; (n, v) edge hysterically, nervously, agitatedly, insouciant, haphazard, cursory,
buttresses: (n) ramparts, defenses uncontrollably, histrionically, reckless, lax, unwary, sloppy; (adj,
buzz: (n, v) rumor, call, ring, hiss, restlessly, frantically, irritably, adv) thoughtless; (adj, v) heedless.
drone, gossip, purr, whisper, emotionally, tensely ANTONYMS: (adj) cautious,
murmur; (n) report, hearsay. cambric: (n) calico, cambric-muslin, prudent, meticulous, thoughtful,
ANTONYM: (n) bore cashmere, fabric, textile, material, diligent, attentive, thorough, wary,
byron: (n) Lord Byron, George cloth, linen guarded, methodical, strict
Gordon Byron canaille: (n) rout, horde, canell , cargo: (n) burden, freight, wares,
cabalistical: (adj) cab-alistic, canal, rabble, chaff goods, merchandise, payload,
cabalistic candelabra: (n) candlestick, shipment, weight, lading, haul; (adj,
cabbage: (v) filch, swipe, prig, crib, chandelier, sconce, electrolier, n) load
nim, purloin, bag; (n) kale, Cole, branched candlestick, gaselier carpenter: (n) woodman, woodsman,
kail, dough candidly: (adv) openly, ingenuously, woodworker, Joseph; (v) build
caboose: (n) camboose, kitchen, van, sincerely, outspokenly, honestly, cart: (n) car, carriage, handcart,
jail, cookhouse, cabin car, cabin, forthrightly, straightforwardly, barrow, applecart, wagon; (v) haul,
cuddy plainly, bluntly, directly; (adj, adv) drag, bear, take, transfer
cadaverous: (adj) gaunt, wan, freely. ANTONYMS: (adv) cartel: (n) syndicate, ring, combine,
ghastly, thin, haggard, deathly, pale, deceitfully, hesitantly, dishonestly, compromise, organization, group,
ashen, dead, skeletal, bony. untruthfully, guardedly, mob, agreement, consortium,
ANTONYMS: (adj) rosy, ruddy, ambiguously, shyly defiance, team
flushed, glowing, lifelike, lively, candle: (n) candela, light, taper, carve: (v) cut up, cut, mold, incise,
plump bougie, CD, candlepower, lamp, shape, inscribe, engrave, whittle,
cadaverously: (adv) gauntly, ghastly, wax light, Standard candle; (v) slash, hew; (n) carving
haggardly, wanly, skeletally, examine, illuminate carved: (adj) cut, incised, sculptured;
pallidly, palely, ashenly, pinchedly, cant: (n) jargon, lingo, slang, (v) graven, engraved, stamped,
drawnly, spectrally vernacular, argot; (n, v) bank, tilt, fixed, imprinted. ANTONYM: (adj)
cadet: (n) boy, recruit, cadee, raw bias, incline; (adj, n) bevel; (v) list uncarved
 Edgar Allan Poe 255
carving: (n) sculpture, carve, cut, cent: (adj) picayune, mill, pistareen; cheval: (n) chevaux
statue, engraving, art, image, figure, (n) subunit, rupee, red cent, centime chickens: (n) Galliformes, order
etching, woodcut, bust cervantes: (n) Miguel de Cervantes, Galliformes
casting: (n) cast, hurl, pouring, Cervantes Saavedra chiefly: (adv) principally, primarily,
molding, teeming, block, Malleable chagrin: (n) mortification, vexation, above all, especially, headly, mostly,
castings, fling, to throw something a annoyance, shame, disappointment, largely, primely, predominantly;
long distance, flinging, pelt letdown, humiliation; (n, v) disquiet, (adj, adv) mainly, particularly.
catastrophe: (n) disaster, adversity, gangrene; (v) disappoint, mortify. ANTONYM: (adv) partially
tragedy, cataclysm, misfortune, bale, ANTONYMS: (v) please, delight; (n) childish: (adj) childlike, naive,
denouement, misery, misadventure, pride, satisfaction babyish, immature, simple, puerile,
woe, finale. ANTONYMS: (n) joy, chagrined: (adj) ashamed, mortified, infantile, juvenile, silly, frivolous,
miracle, wonder, success hurt, annoyed, vexed, afflicted, young. ANTONYMS: (adj) sensible,
catechism: (n) interrogation, creed, displeased, discomposed, sorry; (v) old, wise, adult, jaded
education, question, test; (v) horrified, cut up chilly: (adj, adv) unfriendly; (adv)
challenge chanting: (n) cantillation, vocalizing, coolly, frigidly; (adj) cool, bleak,
caterwauling: (n) caterwaul, noise, sing, singing, intonation algid, freezing, frozen, icy, frosty;
want of harmony, dissonance; (adj) chaotic: (adj) messy, hectic, (adj, n) cold. ANTONYMS: (adj) hot,
harsh disorganized, confused, wild, tropical, responsive, mild,
cauliflowers: (n) genus brassica turbulent, untidy, disordered, welcoming, friendly, balmy, torrid
caustic: (adj, v) acrid, sharp, severe; haphazard, cluttered; (adj, adv) chime: (n) carillon, melody; (adj)
(adj) bitter, acrimonious, corrosive, topsy-turvy. ANTONYMS: (adj) harmonize; (v) go, jingle, clang, peal,
sarcastic, acerbic; (v) acute; (adj, n, orderly, organized, calm, systematic, tinkle, buzz, ring, chimb
v) pungent; (adj, n) trenchant. harmonized, ordered, tidy, sensible, chimera: (n) fantasy, dream, illusion,
ANTONYMS: (adj) gentle, kind, peaceful, mellow vision, chimaera, maggot,
soothing, smooth, nice, sweet, calm, chapeau: (n) hat, lid, bonnet, bowler, imagination, phantom, fancy,
complimentary, constructive busby, bearskin, chapewe, opera daydream; (adj) Minotaur.
cautiously: (adv) guardedly, hat, headdress, headgear, ANTONYM: (n) truth
prudently, warily, circumspectly, deerstalker chimerical: (adj) imaginary, fanciful,
charily, discreetly, vigilantly, characterized: (adj) affected, formed, fantastic, romantic, delusive,
timidly, attentively, watchfully, molded, cast visionary, unreal, fictitious, utopian,
sparingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) charitable: (adj) kind, clement, chimeral, insubstantial
openly, irresponsibly, imprudently, gentle, benevolent, liberal, bountiful, chimney: (n) fireplace, smokestack,
bravely, recklessly, incautiously, philanthropic, generous, humane, shaft, flue, hearth, vent, lamp
thoughtlessly, wastefully, tactlessly, kindly, lenient. ANTONYMS: (adj) chimney, chimneys, nostril, throat,
rashly, liberally uncharitable, mean, nasty, weasand
cavalier: (adj) overbearing, arrogant, tightfisted, inhumane, selfish, chimpanzees: (n) pan, Pongidae,
haughty, offhand, supercilious, miserly, hard, cruel, commercial, genus pan
domineering, bumptious, cheap chisel: (v) cut, cheat, shape, beguile,
adventurous, flippant; (n) escort, charleston: (v) dance screw, engrave, beat, victimize,
equestrian. ANTONYMS: (adj) chateau: (n) mansion, palace, villa, sculpture, cozen; (n) burin
humble, conscientious, obliging, hall, place, rotunda, winery, rus in chiseled: (adj) distinct, rigid
careful, polite, considerate urbe, vineyard, wine grower, lodge chivalrous: (adj) gallant, brave,
cavity: (n) antrum, cave, hole, pocket, chatty: (adj) gabby, garrulous, knightly, courteous, courageous,
hollow, void, pit, chamber, caries, loquacious, familiar, informal, gentlemanly, sublime,
depression, hollowness. communicative, gossipy, voluble, magnanimous, polite, thoughtful,
ANTONYMS: (n) hump, lump talky, conversable, expansive. considerate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ceaseless: (adj) eternal, ANTONYMS: (adj) taciturn, quiet, rude, fearful, brutish, afraid,
uninterrupted, constant, perpetual, formal, silent, laconic, reticent, dishonorable, cowardly, barbaric,
everlasting, endless, continuous, restrained, reserved boorish
unremitting, continual, unending, cheer: (v) animate, applaud, amuse, chivalry: (n) gallantry, knighthood,
nonstop. ANTONYMS: (adj) hearten, inspire, lighten; (n, v) generosity, courtesy, knight service,
intermittent, temporary, sporadic, comfort, delight, cry; (adj, v) courtliness, knight errantry,
completed, restricted, limited, embolden; (n) consolation. principle, valiance; (adj, n) heroism;
fleeting, finished, concluded, ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, boo, (adj) prowess. ANTONYMS: (n)
ending, inconstant uncheerfulness, hiss, pessimism, impoliteness, dishonor, discourtesy,
celebrity: (n) fame, notable, raspberry; (v) depress, discourage, cowardice
luminary, star, distinction, notoriety, dissuade, complain, jeer choked: (adj) clogged, smothered,
notability, personality, bigwig, chess: (n) chess game, chess set, congested, annoyed, high-strung,
magnate, glory. ANTONYMS: (n) cheat, shogi, cheater, cheating, strained, neurotic, tense, angry,
obscurity, oblivion, unknown, brome, bromegrass, bearded darnel, anxious, insecure
infamy checkers, board game choking: (n) strangulation, throttling,
cellars: (n) cellar chessboard: (n) checkers slugging, asphyxiation; (adj)
 256 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
suffocative, suffocating, smothering, struggle, surmount, ramp, climber postboy, drayman, wagoner,
breathless, clogging, bitter, blinding clamorously: (adv) noisily, loudly, postilion; (v) whip
chopped: (adj) shredded, sliced obstreperously, vociferously, cock: (n) rooster, chicken, spigot,
christendom: (n) apostleship, church, blatantly, importunately, urgently, Peter, prick, cockerel, tool, stopcock,
hierarch, priesthood, Christianism, uproariously, raucously, shaft; (n, v) stack; (v) ruffle.
church government, ministry, turbulently, tumultuously ANTONYM: (v) uncock
prelacy clapper: (n) tongue, organ, striker, cocked: (adj) erect, upright, vertical
chrysalis: (n) larva, chicken, whelp, spit, clack valve, bell, applauder, cognizant: (adj) mindful, conscious,
tadpole, pullet, fry, cub, cocoon, clapper type tool box, claw, sensible, knowing, knowledgeable,
pupa, chrysalid, nestling footboards, footboard familiar, cognisant, perceptive,
cicero: (n) orator, rhetorician, solon, classifying: (n) sorting, classing, witting, conversant, acquainted.
speechmaker, statesman, pica, categorization, assortment, ANTONYMS: (adj) unwitting,
Marcus Tullius Cicero; (v) classification, identification ignorant, incognizant, oblivious,
Demosthenes clatter: (n, v) rattle, jingle, bang, uninformed
cigar: (n) cheroot, cigars, smoke, clank, clang, roll, clink; (v) clash, cognoscenti: (n) connoisseur, esthete,
cigarette, corona, panatela, chatter; (n) noise, racket. elite, authority, aesthete, pundit
panetella, segar, cigarillo ANTONYM: (n) quiet coincide: (v) agree, concur, accede,
circumambient: (adj) circumfluent, clattering: (n) crash; (adj) clattery correspond, conform, consort,
ambient, surrounding claws: (v) tentacle, tenaculum, accept, square, consent; (adj, v)
circumference: (n) circuit, border, unguis, hook, fangs, teeth; (n) meet; (n) coincidence. ANTONYMS:
perimeter, boundary, periphery, clutches, jaws (v) diverge, disagree, contradict,
outline, brim, compass, circle, edge, clearness: (n) clarity, brightness, clash, deviate, conflict
rim. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, distinctness, perspicuity, lucidity, coincident: (adj) concurrent,
inside, interior, center explicitness, sharpness, simplicity, simultaneous, consistent,
circumstance: (n) affair, incident, purity, limpidity, intelligibility. coincidental, identical, congruent,
matter, event, occasion, chance, ANTONYMS: (n) ambiguity, accordant, concomitant, coexisting,
accident, opportunity, adventure, opacity, dirtiness, vagueness, at the same time, corresponding.
casualty, fact unclearness, obscureness, ANTONYM: (adj) inconsistent
circumstanced: (adj) conditioned indistinctness, clutter, haziness, coleridge: (n) Samuel Taylor
circumstantial: (adj) particular, mustiness Coleridge
detailed, incidental, thorough, clenched: (adj) tight, clinched collateral: (n) warranty, guarantee,
presumptive, precise, coincidental, climax: (n, v) peak, crown; (n) top, mortgage, guaranty, security,
elaborate, exact, special, specific. zenith, culmination, acme, height, pledge, bond; (adj) secondary,
ANTONYM: (adj) concrete summit, pinnacle, meridian; (adj, n) indirect, oblique, subsidiary.
civility: (n) politeness, courtesy, orgasm. ANTONYMS: (v) dip, drop, ANTONYMS: (adj) primary, chief,
comity, attention, propriety, delve; (n) low, nadir, bathos, fundamental, principal, lineal
affability, amenity, cultivation, anticlimax, comedown, base, trough, collation: (n) snack, nosh,
complaisance, courteousness, prelude refreshment, checking, bite, meal,
civilization. ANTONYMS: (n) clime: (n) land, territory, region, banquet, verification; (v) refection,
rudeness, incivility, coarseness meridian, zone, soil, sky, latitude junket, picnic
civilization: (n) culture, civilisation, clocks: (n) alfilaria, alfileria, colloquy: (n) talk, conference,
enlightenment, humanity, storksbill, pin clover, redstem conversation, dialog, chat, dialogue,
education, customs, town, mores; (n, storksbill, pin grass, filaria, filaree collocution, verbal intercourse,
v) cultivation; (adj) civility, civilized. closet: (n) cupboard, cubicle, cell, meeting, parley, interview
ANTONYMS: (n) barbarity, latrine, bathroom, wardrobe, water collusion: (n) plot, intrigue,
savagery, wilderness, wildness, closet; (adj) clandestine, complicity, cahoot, agreement,
uncouthness confidential, secret, private. agreed simulation, circumvention,
civilize: (v) civilise, educate, ANTONYM: (adj) open deceit, trick, cabal, conspiracy
improve, train, refine, foster, tame, clothe: (v) dress, cover, garb, apparel, cologne: (n) Koln, eau de Cologne,
enlighten, domesticate, humanize; clad, vest, arrange, deck, invest, scent, fragrance, essence, eau de
(adj) polish wrap; (n, v) attire. ANTONYMS: (v) toilette, Cologne water
clad: (adj) dressed, attired, clothed, reveal, strip, uncover color: (n, v) flush, blush, tint, tinge,
coated, garbed; (n) cladding; (prep) clown: (n) fool, joker, jester, boor, paint, stain; (adj, n, v) colour; (v)
gowned; (v) costume, shod, dress, harlequin, joke, comedian, rustic, redden; (n) guise, complexion; (adj,
attire. ANTONYMS: (adj) comic, acrobat; (v) antic n) tone. ANTONYMS: (v) discolor,
undressed, unclothed clutch: (n, v) clasp, grip, clench, pale, show, whiten, untwist, denote,
claimant: (n) candidate, applicant, grasp, hold, clinch, gripe; (v) grab, depict, represent, blanch, blench
pretender, aspirant, plaintiff, grapple, embrace; (adj, v) catch. colored: (adj) chromatic, black,
complainant, suitor, claimer, ANTONYMS: (n) loose; (v) release, tinged, tinted, colorful, dyed,
prosecutor, postulant, competitor unfasten coloured, partial, dark, bleached,
clamber: (v) scramble, crawl, scale, coachman: (n) teamster, cabman, biased. ANTONYMS: (adj) truthful,
ascend, mount, shinny, shin, charioteer, carter, carman, Jehu, white, uncolored, unbiased, pale,
 Edgar Allan Poe 257
objective, honest, genuine, real sympathy, condolence, ruth, mercy, graciously, arrogantly, satisfiedly,
colorless: (adj) achromatic, neutral, commiserate, bowels, consolation, contentedly, virtuously,
drab, dull, monotonous, wan, tame, fellow feeling, acknowledgement sanctimoniously
pallid, bloodless, white, colourless. commodious: (adj) capacious, wide, compose: (v) build, compile, write,
ANTONYMS: (adj) rosy, interesting, roomy, spacious, comfortable, weave; (adj, v) appease, tranquilize,
rich, vivid, brilliant, vibrant, voluminous, extensive, useful, large; allay, lull; (n, v) calm, constitute,
stimulating, lively, glamorous, (adj, v) convenient, easy. settle. ANTONYMS: (v) destroy,
exciting, distinctive ANTONYMS: (adj) small, ruin, unsettle, annihilate,
colors: (n) flag, colours, paints, uncomfortable, tight, discompose, demolish, disturb,
banner, color, colour, ensign, incommodious, confined, squeezed fluster
pigment, tint, dye, paint commodities: (n) goods, composedly: (adv) serenely, calmly,
colossal: (adj) huge, gargantuan, merchandise, products, good, quietly, placidly, coolly, sedately,
prodigious, Brobdingnagian, vast, commodity, property, cargo, wares, steadily, soberly, unperturbedly,
enormous, great, mammoth, chattels; (adj) ware, cautious staidly, relaxedly. ANTONYM:
immense, massive, monstrous. commotion: (n) tumult, ado, (adv) nervously
ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny, small, disturbance, turmoil, stir, din, composing: (v) compose, comprise,
insignificant, minute, compact, flurry, fuss, bedlam, tempest; (n, v) constitute; (adj, v) component; (n)
microscopic, miniature, slight agitation. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, composition, arranging,
combining: (n) combination, order, calm, serenity, calmness, arrangement, placement, makeup,
combine, fusion, consolidation, stillness, quiet, tranquility, inactivity constitution, manufacturing
compounding, admixture, communicative: (adj) communicable, composite: (n) amalgam, mix, blend,
incorporation, association, chatty, communicatory, expansive, admixture, combination, concoction,
conjugation; (adj) polysynthetic, expressive, clear, frank, fluent, alloy, medley; (adj, n, v) compound;
combined companionable, conversational, (adj) aggregate, mixed.
combustion: (n) fire, burning, burn, open. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) unmixed,
blaze, firing, lighting, kindling, uninformative, reserved, reticent, uncombined, separated, segregated,
incineration, ignition, conflagration, closed, taciturn, impassive, unblended
arson restrained, inarticulate composure: (n) calmness, serenity,
comet: (n) Ariel, iris, Dendrocometes, companions: (n) circle, entourage, poise, calm, equanimity, temper,
celestial body people aplomb, tranquillity, peace,
commanding: (adj) imperative, companionship: (n) company, temperament, disposition.
imperious, peremptory, bossy, society, fellowship, camaraderie, ANTONYMS: (n) panic,
imposing, ascendant, compelling, partnership, friendship, fraternity, discomposure, anger, nervousness,
magnificent; (adj, n) grand, amity, coexistence, brotherhood, perturbation, anxiety, agitation,
impressive; (adv) commandingly. communion. ANTONYMS: (n) turbulence, awkwardness
ANTONYMS: (adj) inferior, animosity, enmity, solitude comprehend: (v) grasp, catch, see,
unassertive, indecisive, compartment: (n) cell, division, cabin, comprise, appreciate, feel, sense,
unimpressive, insignificant, cubicle, separation, cubbyhole, apperceive, read; (adj, v)
subservient booth, cockpit, cab, bay; (v) partition understand; (n, v) embrace.
commence: (v) begin, start, open, compassion: (adj, n) clemency, ANTONYMS: (v) mistake,
initiate, embark, institute, introduce, kindness; (n) mercy, charity, misapprehend, exclude,
launch, arise, inaugurate, enter. sympathy, commiseration, remorse, misunderstand, misconceive
ANTONYMS: (v) finish, stop, tenderness, forgiveness, feeling, comprehended: (adj) understood,
terminate, complete, remain, grace. ANTONYMS: (n) apprehended
relinquish indifference, disregard, unconcern, comprehension: (n) knowledge,
commenced: (v) began, Gan; (adj) severity, nastiness, harshness, inclusion, conception,
initiate, present incomprehension, malevolence, understanding, intelligence, grasp,
commencement: (n) opening, start, coldness, roughness, inhumanity wit, capacity, familiarity,
origin, birth, kickoff, inauguration, compendious: (adj) concise, discernment, uptake. ANTONYMS:
inception, onset, outset, origination, summary, brief, compact, synoptic, (n) incomprehension, ignorance
source. ANTONYMS: (n) middle, curt, laconic, short, terse, compressed: (adj) flat, condensed,
termination, finishing, finish, comprehensive, summarized. dense, concentrated, compacted,
ending, conclusion, culmination ANTONYMS: (adj) unabridged, tight, pointed, packed, concise,
commendable: (adj, n) praiseworthy; expanded, lengthened close, brief
(adj) admirable, creditable, good, compendium: (n) abridgement, compute: (v) cipher, count, measure,
worthy, deserving, meritorious, compend, digest, synopsis, manual, account, cast, enumerate, gauge,
applaudable; (adv) praiseworthily, epitome, anthology, outline, add, reckon, assess, tally.
laudably, admirably. ANTONYMS: abbreviation, brief, resume ANTONYMS: (v) guess, suppose,
(adj) unworthy, despicable, compensated: (adj) remunerated, surmise, estimate
contemptible, disgraceful, rotten, salaried, stipendiary, compensable conceal: (v) hide, disguise, bury,
lamentable, poor complacently: (adv) contently, screen, cloak, smother, shield,
commiseration: (n) pity, compassion, conceitedly, self-satisfiedly, suppress, mask, obscure; (n, v) veil.
 258 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
ANTONYMS: (v) reveal, show, conflict, refusal, rejection explain, clarify, comfort, lose,
expose, divulge, clarify, uncover, confederacy: (n) coalition, distinguish; (n) understanding
disclose, tell, admit, spotlight, flaunt confederation, federation, confounded: (adj) bemused,
concealed: (adj) covert, clandestine, association, union, conspiracy, accursed, execrable, baffled, cursed,
blind, occult, secret, mysterious, cabal, combination, league, merger, befuddled, confused, puzzled,
obscure, buried, invisible, secreted, faction. ANTONYM: (n) divergence aghast, perplexed; (adj, v) abashed
surreptitious. ANTONYMS: (adj) confer: (v) give, accord, award, confronting: (n) braving, facing,
unconcealed, available, overt, open, afford, grant, discuss, converse, tackling, opposition, grappling,
divulged, Shown, revealed, consult, show; (n, v) talk; (adj, v) coping with; (adj) opposed
disclosed, uncovered, noticeable, present. ANTONYMS: (v) confutation: (n) disproof,
mainstream withdraw, deny, dishonor, retrieve, contradiction, refutation,
conceded: (adj) approved, accepted, take falsification, confutement, negation,
agreed confess: (adj, v) own, allow, admit, denial, reproof, chiding, conviction;
conceivable: (adj) imaginable, avow; (v) concede, profess, (v) pick apart an argument
thinkable, believable, recognize, divulge, disclose, reveal, confute: (v) refute, rebut, explode,
comprehensible, likely, earthly, receive. ANTONYMS: (v) suppress, controvert, confound, convict,
potential, credible, plausible, hide, dispute, conceal, repress, invalidate, deny, overcome, defeat;
cogitable, reasonable. ANTONYMS: harbor (adj) falsify. ANTONYMS: (v) prove,
(adj) unthinkable, difficult, confessed: (adj) known affirm, confirm, verify, accept
implausible, impossible, confessions: (n) confession, life, congenial: (adj, v) concordant,
unimaginable journal, fortunes, personal narrative, consonant, accordant; (adj)
conceive: (v) think, imagine, memoir, experiences, biography compatible, affable, kindred, genial,
comprehend, design, apprehend, confidently: (adv) hopefully, surely, kind, pleasant, pleasing, delightful.
realize, discover, cogitate, securely, assuredly, intrepidly, ANTONYMS: (adj) uncongenial,
appreciate, invent, catch. boldly, courageously, certainly, unfriendly, disagreeable, hostile,
ANTONYMS: (v) destroy, doubt, sanguinely, bravely, definitely. incompatible, despicable,
misunderstand, question, ruin ANTONYMS: (adv) powerlessly, abominable, unsavory, reserved
conceived: (adj) formed weakly, hesitantly, anxiously, conic: (adj) conical, conelike, tapered,
concerted: (adj) joint, united, uncertainly, timidly, despairingly, hyperbolic; (n) ellipse, hyperbola,
cooperative, unanimous, concurrent, tentatively, pessimistically, parabola
accordant, joined, collective, irresolutely, awkwardly conjoined: (adj) concomitant,
undivided, accommodative, acting confine: (n, v) bound, border, limit; conjunct, associated, concurrent,
together. ANTONYMS: (adj) (v) bind, restrain, circumscribe, tie, united, inseparable, coincident,
individual, uncoordinated, weak, incarcerate, hold; (n) boundary, attending, associate, accompanying,
disorganized, disordered, solitary bounds. ANTONYMS: (v) release, adjunct
concerto: (n) cavatina, concert, free, liberate, broaden conjunction: (n) coincidence,
overture, variations, piece of music, confinement: (n, v) childbirth, concurrence, association, coalition,
fantasia, masterpiece, cadenza, delivery; (n) detention, custody, alliance, cohesion, anastomosis,
pastorale, classical music, roulade restraint, internment, prison, labor, concomitance, confluence,
concise: (adj) brief, compendious, containment, incarceration, arrest. amalgamation; (v) joinder.
terse, curt, short, succinct, laconic, ANTONYMS: (n) release, death, ANTONYMS: (n) detachment,
pithy, summary, condensed; (v) liberation disconnection, division, separation
close. ANTONYMS: (adj) wordy, confining: (adj) restricting, limiting, connexion: (n) conjunction,
lengthy, long, rambling, prolix, narrow, confined, oppressive, connector, connective, connection,
confused, redundant, expansive, stringent, constrictive, restrictive, association, bond, concatenation,
convoluted closemouthed; (v) confine; (n) join, linkage, link, junction
concluding: (adj) last, terminal, contraction connivance: (n) complicity, tacit
ultimate, closing, definitive, conflagration: (n) blaze, inferno, consent, acquiescence, conspiracy,
conclusive, latest; (n) ending, dying, flame, wildfire, combustion, plot, connivency, commendation,
finishing, reasoning. ANTONYMS: holocaust, burning, bonfire, involvement, approval,
(adj) opening, former, first empyrosis, flagration; (n, v) responsibility, secret approval
concord: (n) agreement, accordance, deflagration connoisseur: (n) critic, authority,
unity, harmony, union, unison, conformation: (n) shape, compliance, specialist, expert, cognoscenti,
alliance, tune; (n, v) concert, peace; constitution, configuration, savant, scholar, gourmet, arbiter,
(v) agree. ANTONYMS: (n) discord, accordance, composition, build, epicurean; (v) judge. ANTONYMS:
conflict, war, disunity, disarray; (v) accord, cast, line, formation. (n) dabbler, tyro
disagree ANTONYMS: (n) disobedience, conscientiously: (adv) carefully,
concurrence: (n) coincidence, accord, noncompliance thoroughly, painstakingly,
assent, concord, consent, agreement, confound: (v) bewilder, baffle, faithfully, religiously, meticulously,
approval, compliance, concourse, nonplus, perplex, astonish, puzzle, dutifully, assiduously, closely,
conjunction, confluence. amaze, astound, mistake; (adj, v) diligently, industriously.
ANTONYMS: (n) disagreement, confuse, stupefy. ANTONYMS: (v) ANTONYMS: (adv) irresponsibly,
 Edgar Allan Poe 259
hastily absolute, profound, matchless, discord, assertion, controversy,
consecutive: (adj) sequential, masterful. ANTONYMS: (adj) allegation, arguing, difference.
uninterrupted, serial, straight, inadequate, mediocre, incomplete, ANTONYMS: (n) affection,
continuous, continual, sequent, deficient, amateurish, untrained, kindness, friendship, friendliness,
following, seriate, subsequent, abysmal, inept; (v) start, initiate, agreement, accord, cooperation,
connected. ANTONYMS: (adj) begin denial
random, irregular, interrupted, consummated: (adj) perfected, done, contiguous: (adj) adjoining, close,
intermittent, discontinuous, fulfilled; (v) completed, crowned conterminous, abutting, near,
alternate consummation: (n) accomplishment, nearby, immediate, bordering upon,
considerate: (adj, n) thoughtful, completion, fulfillment, fruition, bordering, touching, connected.
benevolent, nice, gentle, performance, execution, climax, ANTONYMS: (adj) remote,
sympathetic, humane; (adj) attainment, perfection, end, removed, separated, apart
magnanimous, kind, polite, delicate, realization continual: (adj, adv) constant; (adj)
discreet. ANTONYMS: (adj) contemplation: (n) consideration, ceaseless, incessant, endless,
uncaring, thoughtless, tactless, reflection, thought, attention, continuous, frequent, everlasting,
inconsiderate, selfish, rude, unkind, cogitation, musing, introspection, uninterrupted, perpetual,
unforgiving, offhand, disrespectful, speculation, animus, deliberation; unrelenting, perennial.
unsympathetic (n, v) study ANTONYMS: (adj) sporadic,
consolatory: (adj) consoling, contemplative: (adj, v) reflective, temporary, occasional, finite,
soothing, cheering pensive, wistful, meditative, inconstant, infrequent, ending,
consoling: (adj) consolatory, introspective; (adj) broody, ceasing, halting, rare, acute
cheering, encouraging, grateful, brooding, speculative, ruminative, contour: (n) contour line, outline,
reassuring, soothing, calming; (n) musing; (v) museful. ANTONYMS: form, profile, shape, line,
encouragement. ANTONYM: (adj) (adj) shallow, vacuous, blank, configuration, silhouette, curve,
upsetting thoughtless, disregarding, circuit, edge. ANTONYM: (n) core
conspicuous: (adj) apparent, blatant, unreflective, satisfied contradistinction: (n) distinction,
visible, manifest, obvious, marked, contemptible: (adj) abject, mean, opposition, differentiation,
glaring, blazing, flagrant, famous; base, pitiful, little, worthless, antithesis, variation, antagonism
(adj, v) salient. ANTONYMS: (adj) unworthy, miserable, ignoble, contrary: (adj, n) contradictory,
unobtrusive, unremarkable, abominable, shameful. reverse; (adj) adverse, conflicting,
unnoticeable, concealed, hidden, ANTONYMS: (adj) estimable, unfavorable, perverse, cross,
indistinct, invisible, secret, admired, deserving, worthy, disobedient, alien, different,
unimportant, unseen, doubtful honorable, respectable, respectful, obstinate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
constitutionally: (adv) legally, noble, generous, commendable, similar, harmonious, helpful,
organically, naturally, innately, good obliging, compatible, complaisant,
lawfully, inbornly, inherently, contend: (v) wrestle, compete, concordant, parallel, agreeable,
integrally, intrinsically, essentially, conflict, combat, argue, war, clash, cooperative, favorable
constituently altercate, struggle, contest; (n, v) contretemps: (n) adversity, casualty,
constraint: (n) compulsion, force, allege. ANTONYMS: (v) retreat, misfortune, check, hitch, encounter,
restraint, confinement, obligation, harmonize, abandon, deny, cede, screw loose, skirmish, mischance,
restriction, duress, enforcement, agree, surrender, desert rub, mishap
pressure, limitation; (adj, n) reserve. contended: (adj) controversial contrivance: (n) device, appliance,
ANTONYMS: (n) freedom, contending: (adj) contentious, gadget, artifice, plot, dodge,
boldness, liberation, option, conflicting, competitive, competing, resource, plan, contraption,
openness, persuasion competitory, combatant, machine, apparatus
constriction: (n) contraction, choke, challenging, factious, militant, contrive: (v) plan, invent, design,
bottleneck, compress, pressure, warlike, fighting concoct, devise, cast, concert,
retraction, impediment, reduction, contented: (adj) content, happy, excogitate, frame, formulate; (n, v)
strain, traction, shrinkage. comfortable, quiet, cheerful, smug, manage. ANTONYMS: (v)
ANTONYMS: (n) opening, width, complacent, satisfied, easy, proud, demolish, destroy, ruin, waste,
freedom delighted. ANTONYMS: (adj) wreck, fail
constructiveness: (n) usefulness discontented, unhappy, depressed, contrived: (adj) affected, unnatural,
consulting: (adj) consultative; (n) unsatisfied, sad, anxious false, forced, labored, spurious,
consultation; (v) consult contentedly: (adv) gladly, satisfiedly, feigned, unreal, strained, built,
consuming: (adj) blazing, contently, gratifiedly, pleasedly, artificially formal. ANTONYM: (adj)
overwhelming, burning, absorbing, cheerfully, joyfully, smugly, easily, sincere
corrosive; (v) grating, searching, complacently, placidly. conveniences: (n) creature comforts,
grinding, racking; (n) consumption, ANTONYMS: (adv) crossly, comforts, convenience, living,
wasting awkwardly, unhappily, support, livelihood, keep,
consummate: (adj, v) perfect; (n, v) discontentedly, sadly sustenance, facility, facilities, device
conclude, crown; (v) accomplish, contention: (n) competition, battle, conveniently: (adv) easily,
achieve, execute; (adj) accomplished, conflict, argumentation, argument, opportunely, expediently, usefully,
 260 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
fitly, properly, practically, timely, bill and coo, blow hot and cold, certification, testimony, proof,
helpfully, commodiously; (adv, v) straddle support, ratification, verification,
advantageously. ANTONYMS: coquettish: (adj) flirtatious, coy, approval, authentication, confirm,
(adv) awkwardly, clumsily kittenish, charming, coquet, arch, corroborate
conversant: (adj) proficient, knowing, fickle corrosive: (adj) acid, erosive, acrid,
informed, familiar, versed, learned, cord: (n) band, bond, tie, twine, tape, biting, sarcastic, destructive,
cognizant, conscious, erudite, whipcord, thread, yarn, lace, rope, vitriolic, acerbic, bitter, stringent,
experienced, skilled. ANTONYMS: leash acrimonious. ANTONYMS: (adj)
(adj) unfamiliar, oblivious, cordage: (n) rope, quantity, measure, supporting, fortifying, gentle
inexperienced quantum, ropes, cord fabric, costume: (n) clothing, clothes,
conversational: (adj) chatty, amount, twine apparel, garb, suit, outfit, uniform,
conversable, communicative, cordially: (adv) warmly, genially, garments, drapery; (n, v) dress; (v)
companionable, informal, garrulous, kindly, sincerely, heartfeltly, clothe
sociable, voluble, clubbable, ardently, friendly, jovially, couch: (n) bed, sofa, settee, divan;
talkative, interlocutory. earnestly, affectionately, (adj, v) lie; (v) express, put, frame,
ANTONYMS: (adj) taciturn, written, harmoniously. ANTONYMS: (adv) lower, repose; (adj) recline
reticent disagreeably, frostily countenance: (n) aspect, expression,
converse: (n, v) chat, discourse, cordova: (n) Cordoba, Francisco brow, complexion; (n, v) face,
argue; (v) confer, confabulate, speak; Fernandez Cordoba sanction, support, favor; (v) allow,
(n) conversation, colloquy, contrast; cork: (n, v) plug; (n) bung, stopper, tolerate, uphold. ANTONYMS: (v)
(adj, n) opposite; (adj) counter. phellem, bobber, bob, bobfloat; (v) reject, oppose, discourage,
ANTONYMS: (adj, n) equal; (adj) cap, stop, close; (adj) cobweb disapprove, prohibit
similar, complementary; (n) corked: (adj) bad countenanced: (adj) aided
similarity cornwallis: (n) breakdown, Charles counterfeit: (adj, n, v) sham; (n, v)
conversible: (adj) companionable, Cornwallis, first marquess copy, duplicate; (adj, v) mock,
communicative, accessible, social Cornwallis falsify; (adj) false, artificial,
conveyed: (v) borne, sent corpse: (n) carcass, body, carcase, assumed; (adj, n) imitation; (v)
conveying: (n) conveyance, delivery, dead person, stiff, dead body, forge, ape. ANTONYMS: (adj)
conveyancing, conveyance of title, remains, corse, clay, dry bones; (adj) genuine, real, authentic, true, actual;
transference, transmission, convey, lich (n) original
transmit, assigning, transfer, corpulent: (adj, adv) portly; (adj) counterpart: (n) twin, duplicate,
delegation stout, obese, overweight, fleshy, companion, complement, double,
convulsion: (adj, n, v) spasm; (n) fit, plump, lusty, tubby, chubby, beefy, equivalent, parallel, copy, mate,
paroxysm, commotion, attack, bulky. ANTONYMS: (adj) slight, pendant, replica. ANTONYM: (n)
clonus, shake, seizure, upheaval, bony, underweight, slender, opposite
cramp; (adj, n) disturbance. anorexic, thin, slim coupled: (adj) conjugate, linked,
ANTONYM: (n) peace corrected: (adj) amended, reformed, united, double, joined, associated,
convulsions: (n) convulsion, spasm, purified, educated, altered, conjugated, attached, fixed, twin,
epilepsy, eclampsia, mirth chastened, disciplined paired. ANTONYM: (adj) unrelated
convulsive: (adj) spastic, galvanic, correcting: (n) amendment, covert: (adj) clandestine, hidden,
fitful, paroxysmal, violent, choreic, correction, rectification, adjustment, concealed, secret, underground,
unsteady, hysterical; (v) unquiet, compensation, reading undercover; (n) cover, blind, refuge,
restless, saltatory corrective: (n) correct, remedy, concealment, covering.
cooler: (n) beverage, freezer, antidote, device, reclamation; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) open,
drinkable, potable, drink, air palliative, remedial, penal, aboveboard, unconcealed, public,
conditioner, penitentiary, choky, castigatory, amendatory, healing. blatant
prison, chokey, clink ANTONYMS: (adj) damaging, crackling: (adj, n) crisp; (adj)
coolly: (adv) quietly, composedly, harmful, hurtful, injurious snapping, crepitant, cheerful, brittle,
coldly, collectedly, nonchalantly, correspond: (adj, n, v) agree; (v) noisy; (n) crepitation, decrepitation,
placidly, serenely, chilly, steadily, accord, coincide, conform, suit, crackleware, crackle China,
frostily, frigidly. ANTONYMS: consort, match, parallel, fit, answer, bohemian crackle
(adv) nervously, anxiously, harmonize. ANTONYMS: (v) cradle: (n) cot, birthplace, nursery,
agitatedly, expressively, disagree, conflict, contradict, berth, crib, nest, hammock, bassinet,
boisterously, enthusiastically disaccord, clash, jar origin; (v) hold, groundwork
copiously: (adv) profusely, lavishly, corroborate: (v) validate, bear out, crafty: (adj) cunning, adroit, sly,
richly, plentifully, plenteously, verify, establish, authenticate, astute, artful, wily, clever, tricky,
generously, exuberantly, liberally, substantiate, prove, affirm, shifty, designing, scheming.
affluently, prolifically, bountifully. demonstrate, support, attest. ANTONYMS: (adj) naive, open,
ANTONYMS: (adv) meagerly, ANTONYMS: (v) contradict, reject, honest, guileless, artless,
thinly, scantily negate, disprove, disclaim, deny, straightforward, trustworthy,
coquet: (v) dally, coquette, toy, trifle, undermine, cancel ingenuous, blatant, straight
vamp, philander, romance, chat up, corroboration: (n) evidence, crammed: (adj) packed, full,
 Edgar Allan Poe 261
overcrowded, chock-full, stuffed, mercilessly, pitilessly, heartlessly, curse: (n, v) blight, plague; (n)
jammed, brimming, congested, roughly, unkindly; (adj, adv) anathema, blasphemy, malediction,
overflowing, saturated, teeming bitterly. ANTONYMS: (adv) kindly, denunciation; (adj, v) beshrew; (v)
cravat: (n) neckerchief, neckcloth, mercifully, sympathetically, tamely, swear, ban, damn, vituperate.
stock, ascot, collar, handkerchief, peacefully, humanely, ANTONYMS: (n) blessing,
scarf, neckwear, necktie, ruff compassionately, sensitively, benediction, making; (v)
crawling: (adj, n) creeping; (n) creep, respectfully, innocently, genially communicate
itch; (adj) slow, teeming, thick, cruelty: (n) brutality, cruelness, cursed: (adj) damned, doomed,
swarming, reptant, populous, oppression, barbarity, ferociousness, execrable, cussed, wretched,
packed, moving tyranny, violence, atrocity, ferocity, unlucky, accursed, blamed, blasted,
creator: (n) author, originator, mercilessness, harshness. confounded; (v) accurst.
producer, maker, inventor, artist, ANTONYMS: (n) compassion, ANTONYMS: (adj) commendable,
founder, builder, manufacturer, gentleness, friendliness, humanity, honorable, nice, sweet, kine
initiator, God. ANTONYM: (n) benevolence, sensitivity, liberty, cursing: (adj) cursed, execrative; (n)
destructor decency blasphemy, anathema, swearing,
credential: (n) diploma, certification, crushed: (adj) beaten, subdued, low, swear word, malediction,
credentials, authority, warrant, conquered, flattened, dispirited, execration, denunciation,
doquet, docket, documentation, compressed, overwhelmed, cursedness; (v) beshrew
papers, voucher, birth certificate shattered; (v) victimized; (n) cursory: (adj) careless, passing,
creeping: (n) creep, crawl, crushing. ANTONYMS: (adj) fleeting, perfunctory, ephemeral,
locomotion, spreading; (v) lentor; victorious, euphoric superficial, slapdash, facile,
(adj) reptile, slow, reptant, cryptograph: (n) code, cryptogram, evanescent, sketchy, shallow.
reptatory, serpiginous, moving cipher, cypher, writing, device, ANTONYMS: (adj) complete,
cresset: (n) torch cryptographer, cryptography, secret comprehensive, meticulous, long
crimson: (adj, n) carmine, ruby, code, coding, secret writing curt: (adj) concise, brief, abrupt, short,
scarlet, maroon; (v) blush, flush, cubical: (adj) cubelike, cuboid, brusque, crisp, terse, laconic, rude,
redden; (adj) bloody, ruddy, cherry; cubiform, cuboidal churlish, crusty. ANTONYMS: (adj)
(n) deep red cucumber: (n) cuke, gherkin, polite, friendly, courteous, gracious,
crisp: (adj) short, terse, fresh, crispy, vegetable, veggie, melon, cucumber civil, lengthy, rambling, voluble,
sharp, crunchy, brisk; (adj, v) vine, cucumbers, dollar caring, loquacious, convoluted
wrinkle; (v) crease, crinkle; (n) chip. culprit: (adj, n) convict; (n) curtail: (adj, v) abridge, shorten; (v)
ANTONYMS: (adj) soggy, soft, delinquent, accused, malefactor, condense, clip, abate, crop, curb, cut
limp, wilted, rumpled, stale, perpetrator, transgressor, prisoner, back, cut short, diminish, trim.
slovenly, sloppy, wordy, long, sinner, offender; (adj) guilty, felon ANTONYMS: (v) lengthen, increase,
lengthy cultivated: (adj) cultured, refined, expand, prolong, maximize,
croak: (v) buy the farm, mutter, tame, educated, sophisticated, promote, encourage, accelerate
murmur, complain, conk, maunder, elegant, urbane, polished, curvature: (n) bend, arch, bow, crook,
growl, perish, expire, decease; (n) accomplished, civil, polite. arc, shape, curvity, twist, curliness,
croaking ANTONYMS: (adj) wild, untamed, incurvation, winding
crooked: (adj) bent, corrupt, uncouth, coarse, graceless cushion: (n, v) pad, buffer; (v)
dishonest, curved, unfair, deformed; cultivating: (adj) educating, taming, insulate, soften, protect, bolster,
(adj, n, v) awry; (adj, v) irregular, humanizing, calming mollify; (n) shock absorber, mat,
askew, wry, indirect. ANTONYMS: cunning: (adj) crafty, canny, adroit, pincushion; (adj, n) wadding.
(adj) straight, honest, principled, wily, sly, shrewd, tricky, artful; (n) ANTONYMS: (v) harm, hurt, injure,
even, aboveboard, lawful, level, craftiness, craft, cleverness. exacerbate, expose
moral, flat, aligned, honorable ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, honest, customary: (adj, n) accustomed,
crotchet: (n, v) caprice; (n) quirk, stupid, unimaginative, gullible, usual, habitual; (adj) conventional,
kink, crank, hook, fad, whim, ingenuous, straightforward, candid, ordinary, commonplace, traditional,
quirkiness, queerness, quarter note, sincere; (n) frankness, average, wonted, regular, standard.
oddity straightforwardness ANTONYMS: (adj) unusual,
crow: (n, v) brag, cry, snigger; (v) cured: (adj) recovered, corned, aged, abnormal, exceptional,
exult, triumph, cackle, chuckle, talk mellow, whole, better, pickle cured, unconventional, offbeat, irregular,
big; (n) gasconade, crowing; (adj) salted, vulcanised, well, vulcanized innovative, different, unfamiliar,
raven curling: (adj) curled, curly, moving, extraordinary, rare
crowing: (adj, n) bragging; (adj) curled up; (adv) curlingly; (n) cutter: (n) carver, knife, clipper,
boastful, braggart, big, braggy; (n) croquet, pallone, polo, tipcat, golf, cutting tool, pinnace, cutting off
brag, jactitation, gasconade, crows, curling edge table, foist, yawl, diner; (adj)
Corvus, bravado curly: (adj) crinkly, kinky, curled, billhook, cleaver
crowned: (adj) laureled, fulfilled, crimped, frizzed, permed, curved; cyanite: (n) kyanite, disthene
browbound, incoronate, successful (adv) wavily, kinkily, curledly, cycles: (n) biological rhythm,
cruelly: (adv) harshly, ferociously, curlingly. ANTONYMS: (adj) biological clock
fiercely, viciously, inhumanly, unbent, uncoiled, flat cynic: (adj, n) skeptic; (n) doubter,
 262 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
critic, misanthrope, detractor, yogi, daybreak: (adj, n) break of day; (n) defunct, asleep, passed away,
sanyasi, doubting Thomas, sunrise, prime, morning, light, passed on, extinct, lifeless, late.
frondeur, man hater; (adj) cynical. dawning, cockcrow, dayspring, ANTONYMS: (adj) living, awake,
ANTONYMS: (n) supporter, aurora, sunup, daylight. animated
optimist ANTONYMS: (n) sunset, sundown, deceive: (v) cheat, circumvent,
cypher: (n, v) cipher; (v) compute, darkness, eventide, nightfall bamboozle, pretend, hoax, fool,
code, calculate, figure; (n) daytime: (n) day, afternoon, period, cozen, trick, beguile; (n, v) dupe; (n)
cryptograph, nil, nought, null, eve, daylight hours, Clarence fraud. ANTONYMS: (v) guide,
nonentity, nothing Shepard day Jr, Clarence day, light, inform, undeceive, protect
dabbled: (adj) bespattered, eventide, evening. ANTONYM: (n) deceived: (adj) mistaken, misguided
besplashed, covered, covered night decently: (adv) becomingly,
patchily, spattered, splashed, dazzled: (adj) confused, dazzle, decorously, fairly, correctly, seemly,
splattered, splashy; (v) soggy bewildered, blind, blinder, fitly, courteously, justly,
dabbler: (n) dilettante, smatterer, fascinated, unsighted appropriately, rightly, right.
sciolist, half scholar, duck, dabbling dazzling: (adj) brilliant, blinding, ANTONYMS: (adv) rudely,
duck, dabbler on the stock splendid, glaring, vivid, stunning, improperly, disreputably,
exchange. ANTONYMS: (n) dazzlingly, striking, sparkling, inappropriately, immorally
connoisseur, expert, professional fulgent, resplendent. ANTONYMS: deception: (n, v) cheat; (n) illusion,
dagger: (n) bodkin, sword, blade, (adj) dim, ugly, uninspired, trick, pretense, delusion, betrayal,
obelisk, knife, stiletto, dirk, cutlass, unremarkable, unexceptional, fake, flam, bluff, gammon, cheating.
grapheme, saber, skean gradual, abysmal, humdrum, dark ANTONYMS: (n) honesty,
dainty: (adj, v) nice; (adj, n, v) deaden: (n, v) dampen, blunt, candidness, sincerity, openness,
delicacy; (adj) fastidious, savory, benumb, stun, obtund; (adj, n, v) correction, integrity, genuine,
tasteful, squeamish, particular, damp; (v) muffle, mute, cushion; truthfulness
mincing, refined; (adj, n) tidbit; (n) (adj, v) quell; (adj) allay. decidedly: (adv) clearly, positively,
luxury. ANTONYMS: (adj) coarse, ANTONYMS: (v) accentuate, definitely, absolutely, emphatically,
vulgar, rough, inelegant, harsh, amplify, enliven, heighten, decisively, resolutely, firmly,
gross, awkward, accepting, heavy, strengthen, build, invigorate, markedly, surely, determinedly.
careless, thick increase ANTONYMS: (adv) uncertainly,
damned: (adj) accursed, doomed, deadened: (adj) dead, numb, equivocally, slightly, vaguely
blasted, condemned, damn, cussed, numbed, without sensation, duller, declaring: (adj) affirming, predicant
wretched, infernal, hateful, unfeeling, under, frozen, insensible, declining: (adj) deteriorating,
goddamned; (adv) damnably. insensitive, knocked out decreasing, waning, falling, down,
ANTONYM: (adj) saved deadly: (adj, adv) deathly; (adj) decadent, fading, lessening,
dandy: (n) beau, fop, coxcomb, dude, baneful, lethal, fatal, destructive, diminishing, sloping; (n) decrease.
buck, clipper, cockscomb; (adj) nifty, mortal, pernicious, virulent, toxic; ANTONYMS: (adj) thriving,
capital, fine, peachy. ANTONYMS: (adv) lifelessly, lethally. burgeoning, growing
(adj) terrible, ghastly, awful, inferior ANTONYMS: (adj) interesting, decree: (n, v) command, award, rule,
dangerously: (adv) hazardously, uplifting, readable, mild, healthy, act, will, dictate; (v) decide, enact,
precariously, unsafely, riskily, healthful, benign, innocuous, ordain; (n) edict, decision
seriously, insecurely, harmfully, exciting deduce: (v) infer, assume, derive,
parlously, severely, fatally; (adj, dearest: (n) dear, darling, love, guess, deduct, conclude, construe,
adv) gravely. ANTONYMS: (adv) honey, lover, sweetheart, loved one, understand, reason, take, surmise.
safely, securely, carefully, slightly baby; (adj) precious, intimate, sweet ANTONYMS: (v) misinterpret,
dank: (adj) damp, wet, moist, humid, decanter: (n) carafe, jar, flask, jug, misunderstand, speculate, confuse
sticky, soggy, sultry, muggy, juicy, flagon, amphora, cag, drum, firkin, deducible: (adj, v) inferential,
rheumy, musty. ANTONYMS: (adj) cask, butt following; (adj) deductive,
arid, parched, bright decay: (adj, n, v) decline; (v) consequential, consectary, logical,
darkling: (adj) darksome, gloomy decompose, crumble, corrupt; (n, v) deductible, dogmatic, demonstrable,
darkly: (adv) murkily, dimly, blight, ebb, rust, collapse; (n) consequent
obscurely, duskily, somberly, decomposition, corruption, deductive: (adj) rational, illative,
shadily, mistily, secretly, dismally, disintegration. ANTONYMS: (v) inferential, reasoning, dogmatic,
heavily, overcastly. ANTONYM: flourish, grow, thrive, strengthen, scientific
(adv) openly ripen, develop; (n) vigor, deed: (n) accomplishment, act, feat,
dart: (n, v) dash, run, flit; (v) bound, development behavior, action, exploit, covenant,
flash, shoot, rush, race, gallop; (adj, decease: (v) go, die, perish, pass, pass doing, document, title, fact.
n) arrow, rocket. ANTONYMS: (v) away, exit, expire; (n) demise, ANTONYM: (n) failure
plod, trudge, slog, linger, dawdle, passing, departure, expiration. deem: (v) believe, assume, consider,
dally, delay, amble; (n) tonic ANTONYMS: (n) nascency; (v) count, hold, think, feel, view,
dashed: (v) ashamed, cut up, sunk; survive suppose, regard, imagine.
(adj) broken, done for, dejected, deceased: (adj, n) departed; (n) dead ANTONYMS: (v) disregard, doubt
discouraged, dotted person, cadaver, decedent; (adj) deepest: (adj) inmost, center, cordial,
 Edgar Allan Poe 263
earnest, genuine, hearty, warm, godship, idol, immortal, goddess, unreal, imaginary, fictitious,
sincere, innermost. ANTONYM: Jupiter; (adj, n) divinity, the Deity, delusory, vain, illusory.
(adj) outermost theology. ANTONYMS: (n) human, ANTONYMS: (adj) truthful, real,
defect: (adj, n) blemish, imperfection, mortal, person honest, genuine, actual, authentic
infirmity; (n) flaw, blot, delectable: (adj) luscious, tasty, demeanor: (n, v) bearing, conduct; (n)
shortcoming, weakness, deficiency, scrumptious, dainty, savory, carriage, air, deportment, attitude,
scar, failing, dearth. ANTONYMS: charming, appetizing, palatable, manner, behaviour, guise, mien,
(n) strength, merit, faultlessness, delightful, lovely; (adj, v) sweet. port
excellence, capability, enhancement, ANTONYMS: (adj) nauseating, demerit: (n) defect, fault, deficiency,
perfection; (v) uphold, remain, join, offensive, sickening, tasteless, shortcoming, sin, vice, insufficiency,
embrace unpleasant, disagreeable, imperfection, drawback, weak point;
defective: (adj) bad, faulty, imperfect, disgusting, unappealing, detestable (n, v) break. ANTONYM: (n) merit
broken, lacking, incomplete, deliberation: (n) cogitation, counsel, demolished: (adj) destroyed, baneful,
unsound, vicious, inaccurate, rotten, debate, caution, thought, decayed, ruinous, razed, lost,
wanting. ANTONYMS: (adj) sound, advisement, attention, dismantled
flawless, unbroken, adequate, intact, contemplation, consultation; (adj, n) demolition: (n) demolishment, ruin,
capable, dependable, fine calculation, circumspection. destruction, devastation,
deferring: (n) deferral ANTONYMS: (n) thoughtlessness, obliteration, eradication, ruination,
deficiency: (adj, n) defect, blemish, carelessness, impetuosity, disintegration, ravage, rack,
imperfection; (n) dearth, lack, distraction, rashness wrecking. ANTONYMS: (n)
failing, deficit, shortcoming, delicacies: (n) food, delices, cates, construction, creation, restoration,
inadequacy, absence; (n, v) want. regalia building
ANTONYMS: (n) excess, perfection, delicacy: (adj, n) weakness, fragility, demon: (n) ghost, fiend, incubus,
provision, enough, adequacy, tidbit; (n) finesse, daintiness, monster, daemon, ogre, daimon,
supply, strength, virtue, surplus, delicate, elegance, sensitivity, goblin, deuce, genie, elf.
gain, glut luxury, treat, airiness. ANTONYMS: ANTONYM: (n) saint
deficient: (adj) wanting, inadequate, (n) sturdiness, toughness, durability, demonstrable: (adj) obvious, visible,
scanty, imperfect, short, scarce, less, frankness, inelegance, ruggedness, attestable, verifiable, irrefutable,
lacking, low, meager, insufficient. vulgarity, tactlessness, insensitivity, evincible, noticeable, apparent,
ANTONYMS: (adj) sufficient, inaccuracy, clumsiness evident, certain; (v) demonstrative.
perfect, ample, flawless, enough, deliciously: (adv) delightfully, nicely, ANTONYMS: (adj) doubtful,
excessive, complete, present, sound, scrumptiously, tastily, goodly, distorted, undemonstrable, vague,
strong, confident sweetly, delicately, toothsomely, undetectable, imperceptible
defining: (v) define; (adj) important, appetizingly, daintily, juicily demonstrably: (adv) provably,
major, essential, dioristic, crucial; (n) delightfully: (adv) pleasantly, clearly, blatantly, boldly,
shaping enchantingly, exquisitely, gladly, deliberately, incontrovertibly,
definiteness: (n) certainty, charmingly, finely, sweetly, measurably, noticeably, obviously,
conclusiveness, accuracy, exactness, deliciously, beautifully, merrily; visibly. ANTONYM: (adv) secretly
finality, decisiveness, definition, (adv, v) happily. ANTONYMS: demonstrating: (v) demonstrative;
predictability, intelligibility, (adv) unattractively, horribly, (adj) representative, representing,
resolution, expressness. disagreeably demonstrable
ANTONYM: (n) uncertainty delights: (n) delices demure: (adj) humble, modest, coy,
definitiveness: (n) correctness, delirium: (n) craze, insanity, mania, reserved, prim, bashful, shy,
exactness, precision disturbance, fever, ecstasy, retiring, timid; (adj, v) sober, grave.
deformed: (adj) distorted, misshapen, derangement; (adj, n) fury; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) bold, outgoing,
bent, malformed, ugly, crippled, furor, rage, distraction. extroverted, loudmouthed,
contorted, warped, shapeless, ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, boisterous, decadent, exciting,
twisted, deform. ANTONYMS: (adj) dejection indecorous, brazen
beautiful, flawless, unflawed, deliverance: (n) salvation, rescue, denominate: (v) designate, entitle,
perfect, straight release, freedom, escape, nominate, style, christen, denote,
deformity: (n) malformation, emancipation, delivery, relief, title, dub; (n, v) name, appoint; (n)
disfigurement, defect, blemish, liberation, liberty, salvage. term
disfiguration, defacement, disability, ANTONYMS: (n) downfall, denouement: (n) catastrophe, end,
abnormality, distortion, clubfoot; suppression close, conclusion, consummation,
(adj, n) irregularity deliverer: (n) saviour, deliveryman, ending, finish, result, issue, upshot,
defy: (n, v) dare; (v) brave, resist, redeemer, rescuer, bailor, Christ, outcome. ANTONYM: (n) start
ignore, confront, revolt, oppose, individual, human, somebody, densely: (adv) solidly, heavily,
withstand, disobey, contradict; (n) person, helper slowly, obtusely, compactly, firmly,
defiance. ANTONYMS: (v) obey, delphinus: (n) Leucorhamphus, dully, dumbly, closely, tightly,
acquiesce, surrender, yield, comply, genus Delphinus stupidly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
accept delusive: (adj) deceptive, false, loosely, sparsely, brightly
deity: (n) God, godhead, godhood, misleading, fallacious, untrue, denying: (v) deny; (adv) denyingly;
 264 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
(adj) opposed, recusative, unselfish, downward. ANTONYM: (adj) hated, abject, disparaged, mean,
abnegative upward attaching disgrace, unpopular,
depart: (v) go, deviate, decease, descriptive: (adj) narrative, unloved, reviled, opprobrious
diverge, start, stray, wander, leave, representative, illustrative, graphic, despotic: (adj) arbitrary, dictatorial,
die, vary, part. ANTONYMS: (v) expositive, epic, illuminating, tyrannical, authoritarian, absolute,
stay, arrive, enter, come, abide, detailed, suggestive, vivid, imperious, oppressive, autocratical,
conform, continue, remain, appear, figurative. ANTONYMS: (adj) domineering, overbearing,
converge, return prescriptive, confusing, diachronic, tyrannous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
departed: (adj) dead, bygone, late, vague, straightforward democratic, liberal
former, bypast, defunct, past, left; deserved: (v) merited, richly despotism: (n) tyranny, dictatorship,
(adj, v) gone, extinct; (n) decedent. deserved; (adj) appropriate, due, autocracy, monocracy, oppression,
ANTONYMS: (adj) remaining, alive fitting, just, earned, suitable, authoritarianism, autarchy, cruelty,
depending: (adv) dependingly; (v) rightful, adequate, required Stalinism, domination; (adj) violence
depend; (adj) suspensory, pendent, deshabille: (n) dishabille, status, dessert: (n) sweet, afters, pudding,
subject to, pendulous condition ambrosia, blancmange, compote,
depict: (v) describe, draw, sketch, desideratum: (n) need, requirement, confectionery, confection; (v) bait,
illustrate, demonstrate, portray, necessity, aim; (v) porism, problem, bever, dejeuner
paint, express, explain, depicture, query, question destiny: (n) fate, chance, fortune,
limn. ANTONYMS: (v) distort, designedly: (adj, adv) advisedly, kismet, luck, lot, destination,
confuse knowingly; (adv) purposely, portion, weird, life; (n, v) doom.
deportment: (n, v) bearing, intentionally, premeditatedly, ANTONYMS: (n) chance, design
demeanor, conduct, carriage; (n) wilfully, willfully, on purpose, destroyer: (n) wrecker, ruiner,
manner, attitude, demeanour, studiedly, by design; (adj) wittingly. destructor, warship, annihilator,
behaviour, comportment, dealing, ANTONYMS: (adv) innocently, saboteur, extirpator, anarchist,
air unconsciously, unwittingly, assassin, bad person, butcher.
deprive: (v) divest, bereave, despoil, impulsively ANTONYM: (n) creator
denude, deny, rob, dispossess, desirous: (adj) wistful, avid, detaching: (adj) peeling, disengaging,
dismantle, starve; (adj, v) abridge, ambitious, greedy, longing, eager, shedding; (n) division
curtail. ANTONYMS: (v) provide, hungry, covetous, envious, agog; detained: (adj) seized, locked up,
present, offer, indulge, give, endow, (adj, v) willing. ANTONYMS: (adj) jailed, intransitive, tardy, inside,
appropriate, supply, add undesirous, reluctant, undesiring, caged, captive, behind bars; (n) in
deputed: (prep) delegated; (adj) unconcerned prison, under arrest
delegate desolate: (adj, v) desert, forlorn; (adj) detecting: (n) spotting, investigation,
deranged: (adj) demented, bare, barren, alone, bleak, deserted, catching, detective work, sleuthing,
disordered, crazed, maddened, cheerless, disconsolate; (v) police investigation, hearing; (adj)
unbalanced, insane, lunatic, mad, devastate, destroy. ANTONYMS: observant
confused, disturbed, acephalous. (adj) cheerful, inhabited, happy, detection: (n) revelation,
ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, balanced, sheltered, mobbed, overcrowded, demodulation, detecting,
lucid, rational, stable ecstatic, hopeful; (v) create, uncovering, unearthing, disclosure,
derision: (n) contempt, mockery, construct, build spotting, spying, sense, recognition,
scorn, banter, jeering, disdain, scoff, despairing: (adj) hopeless, desperate, catching. ANTONYM: (n)
insult, irony, sport, gibe. despondent, forlorn, desolate, concealment
ANTONYMS: (n) applause, esteem, dejected, pessimistic, sad, determinate: (adj) definitive,
admiration, praise, approval brokenhearted, miserable, conclusive, certain, clear, special,
derivation: (n) ancestry, origin, birth, inconsolable. ANTONYMS: (adj) decided, final, fixed; (v) absolute,
extraction, source, cause, lineage, hopeful, optimistic, rosy, happy, unqualified, express. ANTONYM:
derivative, foundation, descent, confident, cheerful (adj) indeterminate
etymology. ANTONYMS: (n) result, desperation: (adj, n) despair, fury, detestable: (adj) hateful, abhorrent,
outgrowth rage; (n) recklessness, foolhardiness, damnable, odious, offensive,
derivative: (n) derivation, offshoot, desperateness, burst, confusion, despicable, execrable, horrible,
differential, curvature, derivative trouble, misery; (adj) raving. infamous; (adj, v) cursed; (adj, adv)
instrument, differential coefficient, ANTONYMS: (n) optimism, atrocious. ANTONYMS: (adj)
figuring, extension; (adj) derived, confidence, hopefulness, hope, admirable, adorable, sweet,
unoriginal, copied. ANTONYMS: happiness, caution, prudence, loveable, lovable, likable, delightful,
(adj, n) original; (adj) primary, new, calmness cherished, honorable, desirable, nice
inventive, unborrowed, imaginative; despise: (v) disdain, loathe, deviate: (v) stray, vary, deflect,
(n) invention depreciate, abhor, dislike, detest, diverge, swerve, digress, warp, turn,
descended: (v) extraught slight, hate; (n, v) contemn; (n) wander, shift; (adj, n) deviant.
descending: (v) descend; (adj) contempt, deride. ANTONYMS: (v) ANTONYMS: (v) keep, converge,
downhill, down, descendent, respect, love, adore, appreciate, agree
decreasing, dropping, falling, cherish, like, praise, accept devilish: (adj, v) diabolic, satanic,
sloping, degressive, occasive; (adv) despised: (adj) scorned, despicable, infernal, mephistophelian,
 Edgar Allan Poe 265
demoniacal; (adj) demonic, wicked, diddle: (v) cheat, do, fool, gull, cut, washy, tame. ANTONYMS:
diabolical, terrific; (v) Stygian; (adv) swindle, trick, con, cozen, dally, (adj) straight, concentrated,
devilishly. ANTONYMS: (adj) jockey, mulct undiluted, thickened, strengthened,
cherubic, godlike, good, saintly, diddled: (adj) misspent enriched, thick
virtuous diddling: (n) hoax diminished: (adj) abated, weakened,
devils: (n) unclean spirits diffusion: (n) dispersion, prevalence, lessened, atrophied, belittled,
devising: (n) cartography, devisal, distribution, spread, dispersal, attenuate, reduced, lower,
mapmaking, making; (adj) proliferation, permeation, attenuated, cut, short
cartographical, original, spreading, dissipation, expansion, diminutive: (adj) minute, Lilliputian,
cartographic propagation. ANTONYMS: (n) small, petite, tiny, bantam, baby,
devote: (n, v) apply, destine, give, concentration, conciseness exiguous, short, miniature, midget.
assign, vow; (v) consecrate, diffusive: (adj) diffuse, copious, ANTONYMS: (adj) big, huge,
dedicate, commit, appropriate, allot; diffusing, diffusible, bushy, gigantic, large, giant, tall
(n) devotion. ANTONYMS: (v) abundant, ample, ample justice, diminutiveness: (n) smallness,
withhold, refuse bulky, capacious, centrifugal minuteness, petiteness, tininess,
devoured: (adj) eaten up digest: (n) resume, compilation, weeness
devout: (adj) pious, devoted, saintly, epitome, compendium, dine: (v) feed, lunch, breakfast,
heartfelt, holy, dear, devotional, condensation, collection; (v) dining, meal, give, have supper,
hearty, earnest; (adj, v) pure; (adj, n) stomach, absorb, summarize, take tea, grub, consume, entertain.
godly. ANTONYMS: (adj) apprehend; (adj) brook. ANTONYM: (v) abstain
irreligious, agnostic, impious, ANTONYMS: (v) misinterpret, dint: (v) indent; (n) indentation,
irreverent, unbelieving, undevout, lengthen, expand, enlarge, elaborate, blow, strength, percussion, agency,
unholy, atheistic, secular, misunderstand, avoid, succumb, hollow, depression, might,
uncommitted misapprehend, detail, reject impression; (adj) delve
dexterity: (n) agility, cleverness, digested: (adj) mature, digestible diogenes: (adj) troglodyte, solitaire,
ability, aptitude, skill, deftness, digging: (n) excavation, excavating, ruralist, santon, Timon of Athens;
expertise; (adj, n) art, cunning; (n, v) digs, dug, excavate, take, locality, (n) cynic, Timon, misanthropist,
adroitness, address. ANTONYMS: mining, barb, creating by removal, misanthrope, man hater, egotist
(n) clumsiness, awkwardness, attack reception dipped: (adj) immersed, unfit,
ineptitude, inability, uselessness, dignified: (adj) exalted, majestic, swaybacked, lordotic, curved in,
inexperience, ineptness, inaccuracy noble, grand, lofty, respectable, swayback
dexterous: (adj) adept, deft, skillful, solemn, distinguished, lordly, high; directing: (adj) guiding, directive,
expert, clever, able, agile, cunning, (adj, v) great. ANTONYMS: (adj) administrative, determinative,
handy, neat; (adj, v) crafty. undignified, foolish, dishonorable, directional, sovereign, commanding,
ANTONYMS: (adj) inept, awkward, boisterous, unceremonious, controlling; (n) administration,
uncoordinated, incompetent, useless unseemly, vulgar, poor, lowly, conducting, conservation
dexterously: (adv) adroitly, skillfully, modest, base directness: (n) candor, frankness,
expertly, craftily, skilfully, dignitary: (n) notable, celebrity, big plainness, honesty, immediacy,
dextrously, handily, cleverly, shot, dignity, officer, grandee, very straightforwardness, forthrightness,
proficiently, aptly; (adj, adv) readily. important person, public figure, openness, freedom, ingenuousness,
ANTONYMS: (adv) ineptly, personage, person, panjandrum outspokenness. ANTONYMS: (n)
incompetently, awkwardly dilapidated: (adj, v) bedraggled, vagueness, obliqueness,
diabolical: (adj) diabolic, demoniac, frayed; (adj) decayed, decrepit, circuitousness, reticence, delicacy,
demonic, infernal, hellish, unholy, derelict, shabby, worn out, rickety, caution, dishonesty
fiendish, wicked, satanic, atrocious, broken, ragged, damaged. direful: (adj) horrible, awful, terrific,
evil ANTONYMS: (adj) pristine, elegant, awesome, gruesome, shocking,
diagonally: (adv) obliquely, trim, tidy, thriving, sound, solid, fearsome, terrible, horrendous,
slantingly, crossways, transversely, intact, sturdy, habitable dreadful, fearful. ANTONYMS: (adj)
slopingly, aslantly, biasly, slantedly, dilate: (adj, v) enlarge, expatiate; (v) wonderful, fortuitous, favorable
slantways, cornerwise, bias. distend, amplify, heave, inflate, disagreeable: (adj) nasty, offensive,
ANTONYM: (adv) square broaden, develop, extend, increase, uncomfortable, distasteful,
dial: (n) face, disc, control, selector, magnify. ANTONYMS: (v) contract, cantankerous, cross, ungrateful,
gnomon, pendulum, hourglass, constrict, shrink, lessen, reduce abhorrent, horrible, bad, painful.
clock, gauge; (v) telephone, operate diligent: (adj) busy, active, assiduous, ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant,
dickey: (n) backseat, shirtfront, dickie painstaking, careful, earnest, friendly, amiable, inoffensive,
dictated: (adj) set, hard-and-fast, studious, attentive, laborious, acceptable, desirable, easygoing,
compulsive; (n) contumely, industrious, zealous. ANTONYMS: happy, pleasing, sweet, nice
blameworthy, abuse (adj) careless, negligent, dilatory, disagreement: (n) discrepancy,
didactic: (adj) didactical, tutorial, idle, inactive, languid, slack, dispute, conflict, contention,
preceptive, moralistic, enlightening, sluggish, lethargic, weary, indolent variance, scrap, argument,
academic, edifying, informative, diluted: (adj) thin, watery, weak, difference of opinion, dissension; (n,
moralizing, pedantic, sentimental insipid, tasteless, bland, sparse, rare, v) discord; (adj, n) dissidence.
 266 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
ANTONYMS: (n) accord, harmony, suppress humiliating, base, reproachful
consistency, compatibility, treaty, disclosed: (adj) exposed, open, discriminative: (adj, v) characteristic,
sameness, pact, consent, concord, unconcealed, out of the closet, distinguishing; (adj) discriminating,
acceptance, unity naked, manifest, discovered, distinctive, accurate, critical,
disappearance: (n) vanishing, loss, ascertained, detailed exclusive, judicial; (v) dioristic
going, fade, evaporation, disclosing: (n) confession, discursive: (adj, v) excursive,
disappearing, departure, passing, communication discursory; (adj) diffuse, desultory,
death, receding, ending. discomfited: (adj) uncomfortable, ill dianoetic, indirect, discoursive,
ANTONYMS: (n) recurrence, at ease, disappointed, embarrassed, digressive; (v) ambulatory, monadic,
appearing, arrival, renaissance, frustrated, thwarted, self-conscious, vagrant
revitalization, show, emergence, mortified, humiliated, unsuccessful; disdain: (n, v) despise, contemn,
survival (adj, n) defeated slight, ridicule; (n) contempt,
disarrange: (v) derange, clutter, discomfort: (n) uneasiness, derision, arrogance, haughtiness,
disorganize, muss, muddle, annoyance, unease, anxiety, distress, pride; (v) scoff, disparage.
disorder, ruffle, perturb, shuffle, displeasure, agitation, hurt, malaise, ANTONYMS: (n) humility,
rumple, disturb. ANTONYMS: (v) suffering, restlessness. admiration, reverence, worship,
arrange, order, tidy ANTONYMS: (n, v) ease, comfort; approval, regard; (v) approve,
disarranged: (adj) disheveled, (n) enjoyment, pleasure, calmness, admire, praise, accept, participate
disorderly, untidy, deranged, calm; (v) relieve, alleviate diseased: (adj) bad, ailing, sickly,
disturbed, delirious, disordered, disconcerted: (adj) confused, unsound, sick, ill, unhealthy,
unkempt, tousled, topsy-turvy, confounded, bewildered, blank, pathological, infected,
mussy. ANTONYM: (adj) neat embarrassed, disturbed, troubled, unwholesome, infirm. ANTONYMS:
disbelief: (n) discredit, incredulity, worried, ashamed, (adj) well, fit
doubt, distrust, agnosticism, discombobulated, bemused. disenfranchised: (adj) powerless,
atheism, misgiving, mistrust, ANTONYMS: (adj) composed, voteless. ANTONYM: (adj)
uncertainty, suspicion, wonder. soothed, unabashed, relaxed enfranchised
ANTONYMS: (n) trust, credulity, disconsolate: (adj) inconsolable, blue, disengaged: (adj) vacant,
faith, understanding, certainty cheerless, melancholy, dejected, unemployed, disentangled, free,
disbelieve: (v) distrust, doubt, depressed, sad, miserable, dark, freed, untrammelled, devoid,
mistrust, suspect, question, disgrace, crestfallen, gloomy. ANTONYMS: unreserved, detached, liberated,
deny, wonder, reject; (adj) lack faith, (adj) happy, joyous, euphoric, loosened
suspected. ANTONYMS: (v) believe, consolable, enthusiastic disgust: (n) antipathy, aversion,
trust, accept discord: (n, v) conflict, clash; (n) abhorrence, abomination,
discarded: (adj) waste, junked, scrap, disagreement, variance, division, detestation, dislike, repugnance; (n,
unwanted, unnecessary, useless, difference, dissension, dissonance, v) shock, distaste; (v) nauseate,
throwaway, surplus, superfluous, strife, split, contention. displease. ANTONYMS: (n, v)
unused, obsolete ANTONYMS: (n) agreement, delight; (n) love, attraction, liking,
discern: (v) differentiate, see, harmony, unity, accord, adoration; (v) attract, allure, charm,
comprehend, detect, distinguish, concordance, consent, silence, entice, please
make out, perceive, find, note; (n, v) concord; (v) match disgusting: (adj) abominable,
descry; (adj, v) recognize. discordant: (adj) conflicting, loathsome, odious, nasty, execrable,
ANTONYMS: (v) Miss, neglect, dissonant, jarring, raucous, distasteful, disgustful, offensive,
disregard, observe, overlook incompatible, discrepant, foul, disagreeable, obscene.
discernment: (n, v) appreciation, inconsistent, disharmonious, harsh, ANTONYMS: (adj) attractive,
sense, apprehension; (n) hoarse, incongruous. ANTONYMS: appealing, delightful, tasty,
comprehension, discretion, taste, (adj) musical, melodic, compatible, pleasing, edible, charming,
understanding, insight, pleasant, cooperating, accordant, appetizing, laudable, lovable, nice
discrimination, perception, agreeable, agreeing, soft dished: (adj) hollow, curved in,
recognition. ANTONYMS: (n) discouraged: (adj) despondent, dipped; (v) stultified, befooled.
ignorance, tastelessness, downhearted, downcast, ANTONYM: (adj) convex
uncouthness, clumsiness demoralized, dejected, dispirited, dislocated: (adj) disordered,
disciples: (n) congregation disheartened, frustrated, crestfallen, dislocate, disorderly, disconnected,
disclaim: (v) deny, renounce, abjure, pessimistic, depressed. separated, topsy-turvy, confused,
disavow, disown, abdicate, gainsay, ANTONYMS: (adj) uplifted, detached
waive, repudiate, disaffirm, heartened, cheered, inspired, dismal: (adj) cheerless, dejected,
abnegate. ANTONYMS: (v) cheerful, encouraged, hopeful, dreary, gloomy, desolate,
acknowledge, admit, accept happy, calm, positive, enthusiastic disconsolate, depressing,
disclose: (v) declare, betray, reveal, discovering: (adj) observant, oracular melancholy, black, dim, dull.
detect, divulge, discover, convey, discreditable: (adj, n) disgraceful; ANTONYMS: (adj) bright, happy,
announce, air; (n, v) impart; (adj, v) (adj) dishonorable, shameful, lively, uplifting, sunny, pleasant,
confess. ANTONYMS: (v) secrete, dishonourable, scandalous, light, cheery, strong, soulful,
withhold, hide, cover, deny, fold, reprehensible, outrageous, ignoble, wonderful
 Edgar Allan Poe 267
dismay: (adj, n, v) appall; (v) depress, disputant evidently, expressly, obviously,
dishearten, discourage, horrify; (n) disrepute: (n) dishonor, disgrace, markedly, definitely, precisely,
consternation, discouragement; (n, discredit, shame, reproach, manifestly, separately, decidedly.
v) daunt, affright; (adj, n) terror, contempt, disfavor, notoriety, ANTONYMS: (adv) inaudibly,
dread. ANTONYMS: (n, v) delight; dishonour, infamy, disesteem. faintly, vaguely, silently,
(v) stimulate, assure, ensure, ANTONYMS: (n) repute, reputation, imperceptibly, poorly
encourage, elate; (n) spirit, worthiness, respect distinctness: (n) clearness, sharpness,
satisfaction, mettle, resolution, dissatisfaction: (n) displeasure, definition, otherness, perspicuity,
assurance disappointment, dislike, discreteness, articulate sound,
dismiss: (v) cashier, disband, cast, disaffection, discontent, distaste, separation, uncloudedness,
discard, brush aside, can, bounce, disquiet, disapproval, regret, dissimilarity; (adj) conspicuousness.
cast off, cease, dispatch; (n, v) drop. discontentment, discontentedness. ANTONYM: (n) indistinctness
ANTONYMS: (v) employ, welcome, ANTONYMS: (n) contentment, distorted: (adj) deformed, contorted,
signal, remember, recall, mobilize, approval, gratification, enjoyment, twisted, misshapen, perverted, wry,
maintain, keep, hold, engage, idealism, optimism bent, misrepresented, malformed,
contract dissection: (n) analysis, anatomy, distort; (adj, adv) awry.
dismissing: (v) dismiss; (n) acquittal, autopsy, breakdown, cut, ANTONYMS: (adj) unchanged,
denial, dimission decomposition, resolution, cutting, distinct, balanced, perfect
disordered: (adj) chaotic, upset, sick, examination, calculation, section distressed: (adj) worried, distraught,
disorganized, broken, incoherent, dissimilar: (adj) different, disparate, anxious, sad, disturbed, downcast,
deranged, messy, disjointed, diverse, heterogeneous, unlike, hurt, distracted, wretched, shocked,
disconnected, ill. ANTONYMS: (adj) divergent, distinct, not like, not troubled. ANTONYMS: (adj)
neat, ordered, organized, arranged, similar, unequal, separate. composed, content, euphoric,
quiet, regulated, systematic, ANTONYMS: (adj) similar, like, happy, comforted, glad, joyful,
systematized, straightforward, tidy alike, equal, matched, same, collected, unconcerned, unaffected
dispense: (v) allot, deal, administer, uniform, indistinct distressing: (adj) sorrowful,
assign, deal out, apportion, dole out, dissipated: (adj, v) fast; (adj) deplorable, pitiful, painful, bad,
give, issue, diffuse, furnish. dissolute, immoral, abandoned, depressing, disturbing, sore,
ANTONYMS: (v) prohibit, receive, profligate, prodigal, gay, rakish, lamentable, hurtful, worrying.
withhold degenerate, squandered, licentious. ANTONYMS: (adj) reassuring,
displaced: (adj) disjointed, homeless, ANTONYMS: (adj) upright, moral heartwarming, pleasing,
gone, extendant, disordered, dissolute: (adj, v) dissipated, fast, unemotional, soothing, comforting,
deranged wanton; (adj) abandoned, depraved, comfortable, cheerful, appealing,
displaying: (n) advertising licentious, immoral, corrupt, happy
displeasing: (adj) distasteful, profligate, degenerate; (adj, n) disturbance: (n, v) commotion,
offensive, disagreeable, obnoxious, libertine. ANTONYMS: (adj) moral, brawl; (n) disorder, turmoil, upset,
objectionable, unacceptable, upright, chaste, restrained, good, derangement, dislocation,
annoying, unwelcome, contrary; resolute, virtuous, pure, cautious, disruption, tumult, din; (adj, n, v)
(adv) displeasingly; (v) unpleasing. righteous, innocent trouble. ANTONYMS: (n) stillness,
ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, dissolution: (n) breakup, peace, satisfaction, serenity, respect,
agreeable decomposition, cancellation, accord
dispose: (n, v) incline, order, abolition, analysis, dismissal, disturbances: (n) turbulence, strife,
influence; (v) adjust, predispose, dissipation, death, annulment, conflict
position, place, lead, tend; (n) bias, demise, dissociation. ANTONYMS: disturbing: (adj) disquieting,
array. ANTONYMS: (v) disturb, (n) inauguration, parsimony, alarming, disconcerting, worrying,
disqualify, displace, disorder, decency bothersome, worrisome, upsetting,
disincline, disarrange distasteful: (adj, v) disagreeable; (adj) unsettling, troubling, troublesome,
disposed: (adj) prone, apt, ready, offensive, unwelcome, ugly, distressful. ANTONYMS: (adj)
subject, prepared, liable, game, revolting, undesirable, soothing, comforting, pleasing,
inclined, fain, likely, minded. objectionable, disgustful, foul, nasty; pleasant
ANTONYMS: (adj) ailing, (v) unpalatable. ANTONYMS: (adj) divers: (adj, v) sundry, various,
indisposed, unlikely, disinclined, pleasant, tasteful, attractive, separate; (adj) several, many,
reluctant, impervious appealing, savory, pleasing, diverse, miscellaneous, not a few,
disposition: (n) attitude, character, desirable, appetizing, tasty, nice, varied; (v) diversified; (n) diver
disposal, tendency, predisposition, noble diverted: (adj) abstracted,
inclination, propensity, bias, distempered: (adj) sick, diseased, entertained, pleased, inattentive,
arrangement, direction, aptitude disordered sidetracked, unfocused, preoccupied
disputed: (adj) moot, disputable, distended: (adj) inflated, bloated, divest: (v) bereave, dispossess,
opposed, open to discussion, turgid, puffed, bombastic, distent, dismantle, denude, despoil, strip,
uncertain, dubious, doubtful, expanded, enlarged; (adj, v) puffy; disrobe, free, relieve, discharge,
debatable (v) blowzy, bigswoln unclothe. ANTONYMS: (v) invest,
disputing: (adj) opposed; (v) distinctly: (adv) clearly, particularly, clothe, cover, dress, provide,
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bequeath, harbor, add (adj) inattentive, indifferent, daydreamer, woolgatherer, seer,
divested: (adj) bereft, destitute, neglectful, uncaring, disapproving, sleeper, slumberer, illusionist,
naked cold logician, philosopher, escapist
dizzy: (adj) giddy, silly, faint, doubled: (adj) twofold, multiple, dreamy: (adj) faraway, romantic,
frivolous, light, vertiginous, doubles, folded, repeated, dual, impractical, somnolent, visionary,
brainsick, featherbrained, flighty, bivalent, reduplicate sleepy, pensive, moony, idealistic,
muzzy; (v) daze. ANTONYMS: (adj) doubly: (adv) twice, twofold, two drowsy; (v) balmy. ANTONYMS:
alert, balanced, intelligent, poised, times, in two ways, dualistically (adj) cynical, vigorous, pragmatic,
rational, steady, sober, serious downcast: (adj) depressed, dejected, practical, awake, alert, ordinary,
dobson: (n) larva, hellgrammiate, dispirited, blue, desolate, prosaic
Corydalus cornutus, dobson fly, disconsolate, gloomy, low, sad, dreary: (adj) depressing, drab, dull,
dobson ozone spectrophotometer, downhearted, discouraged. cheerless, drear, miserable, gloomy,
dobsonfly, dobson unit ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, dark, dismal, stuffy, disconsolate.
doings: (n) conduct, behavior, vivacious, cheery, elated, joyous, up, ANTONYMS: (adj) interesting,
behaviour, deportment, demeanour, positive cheerful, sunny, brilliant, lively,
proceeding, episode, traffic; (v) act, downright: (adj, n) absolute; (adj, v) light, exciting, clear, cheery,
deed, job sheer, clear; (adj) dead, blunt, pleasant, exotic
dolce: (adv) soft, dulcet candid, plain; (adv) absolutely, droll: (adj) comical, humorous,
doll: (n) baby, chick, figurine, girl, thoroughly, wholly, decidedly. funny, laughable, burlesque,
dolly, dummy, marionette, toy, ANTONYMS: (adj) semi, limited, ludicrous, ridiculous; (adj, n) comic,
blockhead-board, bird, dame incomplete, questionable, slight; witty; (n) buffoon, clown.
dominion: (n) authority, control, (adv) hardly ANTONYMS: (adj) dramatic, dull,
domain, command, reign, rule, dozing: (adj) drowsy, dozy, nodding, grave, tragic, solemn
sway, power, kingdom, mastery, napping, asleep, sleepy, tired drollery: (n) buffoonery, whim,
supremacy. ANTONYM: (n) drab: (adj) dreary, gloomy, dingy, waggery, joke, sport, wit, clowning,
subjugation cheerless, somber, boring, dowdy, jocularity, tomfoolery, frolic, humor
donkey: (n) ass, idiot, fool, moke, dark, colorless, dull, depressing. dromedary: (n) camel, llama,
dicky, simpleton, jackass, dizzard, ANTONYMS: (adj) colorful, vivid, elephant, dromedary tractor
domestic ass, donkeys, hinny brilliant, chic, flashy, interesting, droop: (adj, v) decline; (v) dangle,
doom: (n, v) sentence, destine, fate; cheerful, distinctive, smart, strong wilt, hang, flag, sink, slump, loll,
(v) condemn, convict, damn; (n) dram: (n) drachma, nip, ankus, spot, collapse; (n, v) sag, pine.
destiny, day of reckoning, chance, dynamic random access memory, ANTONYMS: (v) rise, bloom
luck, lot. ANTONYMS: (n) plan; (v) snifter, blast, apothecaries' weight; drooping: (adj) flabby, pendulous,
absolve (n, v) potion; (v) drench, swill limp, flaccid, cernuous, flagging,
doomed: (adj, v) destined, fated, drapery: (n) drape, clothing, dress, languid, floppy, lax, tired; (n) droop.
undone; (adj) condemned, cursed, blind, raiment, costume, toilette, ANTONYMS: (adj) taut, firm
unlucky, unfortunate, inevitable, furnishings, trim, guise, toilet dross: (n) trash, rubbish, scoria,
predetermined, ruined; (n) lost. drawers: (n) knickers, pants, tights, refuse, slag, waste, impurity, dregs,
ANTONYMS: (adj) auspicious, shorts, bloomers, briefs, underwear, garbage, offal, cinder
delivered, hopeful, redeemed, breeches, underpants, drown: (v) drench, submerge,
revived, saved, successful underdrawers, trousers overwhelm, choke, engulf, flood,
doomsday: (n) Judgment Day, crack dread: (n, v) apprehension, fear, swamp, inundate, suffocate,
of doom, Day of Judgment, day of panic; (n) anxiety, awe, asphyxiate; (adj, n, v) sink.
reckoning, day of judgement, consternation, alarm, trepidation, ANTONYMS: (v) float, swim,
domesday, remote future, dismay, foreboding, terror. amplify, dry
millennium, last day, last ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasing, drowned: (adj) prostrate, sunken; (v)
judgement, Last Judgment welcomed, pleasant; (v) welcome, drenched, drent
dormant: (adj) inactive, torpid, inert, want; (n) reassurance, fearlessness, drowsy: (adj, n) sleepy; (adj) lazy,
smoldering, suspended, inoperative, confidence, security, ease, calm comatose, somnolent, slow,
potential, sluggish, quiescent, latent, dreaded: (adj) awful, terrible, lethargic, sluggish, dull, indolent,
quiet. ANTONYMS: (adj) overt, cowardly, causing horror, dire, soporific, listless. ANTONYMS:
extinct, dynamic, alive, awake direful, desperate, dreadful, fearful, (adj) energetic, awake, lively,
dotage: (adj, n) fatuity; (n) senility, fearsome; (v) drad vigorous, vivacious, refreshed
second childhood, old age, age, dreadfully: (adj, adv) frightfully, drugged: (adj) stoned, drowsy,
decrepitude, imbecility, feebleness, shockingly; (adv) fearfully, narcotised, comatose, drunk, high,
insanity, years; (adj) second appallingly, hideously, chloroformed, narcotized, stupefied.
childishness. ANTONYM: (n) horrendously, horribly, atrociously, ANTONYMS: (adj) clean, straight
adolescence ghastly, tremendously, horridly. drunken: (adj) boozy, sottish,
doting: (adj) fond, loving, ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, intoxicated, tipsy, tight, bibulous,
affectionate, devoted, delirious, wonderfully, happily, hardly, groggy, intemperate, blotto, canned,
caring, amorous, wandering, silly, superbly, well pissed
lovesome; (v) dote. ANTONYMS: dreamer: (n) romancer, visionary, drygoods: (n) haberdashery, soft
 Edgar Allan Poe 269
goods spiritedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) eccentrically: (adv) queerly,
dryly: (adv) coldly, sternly, sourly, lifelessly, wearily, lethargically, unusually, oddly, outlandishly,
sarcastically, laconically, huskily. languorously, passively irregularly, bizarrely, whimsically,
ANTONYMS: (adv) interestingly, dyspeptic: (adj) atrabilious, irritable, wackily, quirkily, strangely,
warmly liverish, ill-natured, biliary; (n) originally. ANTONYM: (adv)
dryness: (n) drought, aridity, sufferer, diseased person sensibly
dehydration, aridness, thirst, earnest: (adj, v) devout; (adj) eager, eccentricity: (n) abnormality,
desiccation, barrenness, monotony, solemn, heartfelt, diligent, studious, idiosyncrasy, oddness, peculiarity,
status, drying, insensibility. sincere, intense, ardent, staid; (n) anomaly, crankiness, irregularity,
ANTONYMS: (n) damp, humidity, guarantee. ANTONYMS: (adj) quirk, strangeness, weirdness,
wetness, moisture, succulence, flippant, halfhearted, uncertain, curiousness. ANTONYMS: (n)
exaggeration, juiciness insincere, unimportant, nonchalant, usualness, normalcy,
duchess: (n) princess, queen, lady, lethargic, apathetic, unenthusiastic, conventionality, concentricity,
czarina, begum, margravine, indifferent, frivolous conformity
noblewoman, peeress, marchioness, earnestly: (adj, adv) seriously; (adv) ecstasy: (n) delight, rapture, joy, bliss,
sultana, infanta eagerly, intently, zealously, delirium, happiness, trance,
dudgeon: (n) resentment, huff, pique, solemnly, ardently, fervently, enthusiasm, exaltation, elation; (n, v)
umbrage, spleen bitterness, heartily, gravely, warmly, transport. ANTONYMS: (n)
virulence, gall, rancor; (adj) dumps, passionately. ANTONYMS: (adv) desolation, gloom,
mumps, scowl indifferently, insincerely, downheartedness, melancholy,
duel: (v) combat, duello, contest, unconcernedly, jokingly depression, dejection, anguish,
buck, repel, resist; (n, v) fight, tilt; earnestness: (n) seriousness, sadness, despair, agony, bore
(n) affaire d'honneur, monomachy, sincerity, gravity, fervor, devotion, ecstatic: (adj) delighted, excited,
prize fight graveness, staidness, honesty; (adj, rhapsodic, rapt, exultant, blissful,
duellist: (n) dueler, dueller, n) ardor, zeal, intentness. joyful, elated, happy, transported;
adversary, antagonist ANTONYMS: (n) slackness, (n, v) thrilling. ANTONYMS: (adj)
dully: (adv) slowly, sluggishly, lightness, carelessness, depressed, down, unhappy,
stupidly, tediously, drearily, frivolousness, cheerfulness, dejected, desolate, despairing,
heavily, tamely, boringly, insincerity, flippancy miserable, troubled, sad, calm
monotonously, tiresomely, bluntly. earrings: (n) charms, bracelets, rings, edit: (n) editing; (v) compile, cut,
ANTONYMS: (adv) animatedly, ornaments, necklaces, jewels, revise, redact, alter, arrange,
luminously, brightly, brilliantly jewelry, costume jewelry, trinkets contract, correct, compose, adapt.
dumpy: (adj) chunky, short, pudgy, earthly: (adj, n) terrestrial; (adj) ANTONYMS: (v) write, expand,
squatty, stumpy, stocky, stubby, carnal, worldly, conceivable, augment
podgy, tubby, thickset, thick. human, geotic, secular, terrene, edited: (adj) shortened, abridged,
ANTONYMS: (adj) tall, slender temporal, telluric, sublunary. emended, formatted
durability: (n) continuity, ANTONYMS: (adj) spiritual, divine, editing: (n) redaction, edition, copy
durableness, longevity, stamina, ethereal, immortal, impossible, editing, deletion, cutting, cut,
firmness, persistence, stability, improbable, inconceivable, celestial compiling, layout, compilation, edit,
hardiness, permanence, toughness, earthquake: (n) tremor, shock, quake, electronic editing. ANTONYM: (n)
endurance. ANTONYMS: (n) temblor, cataclysm, upheaval, freedom
weakness, flimsiness seaquake, avalanche; (adj) editorial: (n) column, leader, leading
duskly: (adv) gloomily, duskily, thunderstorm, volcano, seismic article, comment, commentary,
melancholy eastward: (adj) eastbound, eastern; critique, exposition, feature, agony
dwarf: (adj, n) midget, miniature; (n) (adv) eastwards column, piece of writing, newspaper
gnome, fairy, brownie, manikin, eats: (n) grub, chuck, food, meat, column
pygmy; (v) overshadow; (adj) little, meal, diet, nurture, eat, dinner, efface: (v) cancel, erase, obliterate,
runt, baby. ANTONYMS: (adj) large, board, feed destroy, expunge, wipe out,
big, huge; (v) maximize eaves: (n) arch, balcony, cupola, suppress, sponge, blot out, blur,
dwell: (adj, v) inhabit; (v) reside, dome, penthouse, eave, overhang, raze
bide, live, stay, lodge, delay, occupy, attic, loft, projection, roof space effected: (adj) completed, complete,
continue, be, settle. ANTONYM: (v) ebony: (adj, n) sable; (adj) black, finished, fulfilled, done, realized,
wander dark, jet, soot, raven, smut, sloe; (n) conventional, constituted,
dwelling: (n) domicile, home, jet black, coal black, wood established
residence, house, place, eccentric: (adj, n) odd; (adj) wacky, effecting: (n) accomplishment,
accommodation, address, building, bizarre, abnormal, crazy, strange, implementation, completing,
lodge, habitation; (adj, n) dwell outlandish, anomalous, cranky, finishing, fulfillment, carrying out;
dwelt: (v) dwell, inhabit erratic; (n) character. ANTONYMS: (adj) effectual
dynamically: (adv) forcefully, (adj) normal, ordinary, effectual: (adj, n) efficient,
aggressively, vivaciously, strongly, conventional, usual, concentric, efficacious, able; (adj) forceful,
drivingly, vitally, powerfully, common, sane, dull, orthodox; (n) telling, authoritative, operative,
strenuously, actively, keenly, conformer, traditionalist potent, adequate, impressive,
 270 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
powerful. ANTONYMS: (adj) elemental, introductory, essential, rectification, improvement,
ineffectual, incapable, weak, main, original. ANTONYMS: (adj) reformation, discipline
impotent, ineffective, unproductive, secondary, complex, hard, emeritus: (adj, v) venerable; (adj)
unsuccessful, useless complicated, difficult, final reverenced
effectually: (adv) efficaciously, elevate: (v) advance, lift, hoist, erect, emitting: (n) emission; (adj) flowing,
effectively, validly, adequately, exalt, boost, rear, cheer, promote, mittent, emissive
potently, tellingly, strongly, dignify, uphold. ANTONYMS: (v) emphatically: (adv) decidedly,
decisively; (adj) nicely, fully, head demote, drop, downgrade, depress, definitely, positively, categorically,
and shoulders. ANTONYM: (adv) decrease, reduce flatly, distinctly, absolutely,
ineffectually elevated: (adj) exalted, towering, explicitly, forcefully, firmly,
effrontery: (n) audacity, brass, noble, lofty, grand, great, majestic, expressly
presumption, face, boldness, tall, elated, magnanimous; (adj, v) enamored: (adj) loving, smitten,
insolence, nerve, impertinence, steep. ANTONYMS: (adj) base, crazy, taken with, dotty, amorous,
impudence, rudeness, assurance. lowly, decreased, humble, inferior, besotted, captivated, hooked, mad,
ANTONYMS: (n) timidity, lessened, low, sunken, undignified, enamoured. ANTONYMS: (adj)
deference, courtesy lowered sickened, repelled
egregious: (adj) rank, glaring, elevating: (adj) inspiring, enchanted: (adj) bewitched,
flagrant, crying, infamous, exhilarating delighted, charmed, fascinated, rapt,
outrageous, peculiar, absurd, elevation: (n) height, highness, spellbound, blissful, happy,
eccentric; (v) extravagant; (adj, v) exaltation, ascent, climb, hill, enamored, possessed; (v) entranced.
preposterous. ANTONYMS: (adj) aggrandizement, raise, El, Alt, ANTONYMS: (adj) disenchanted,
petty, slight, trivial, measly, little, stature. ANTONYMS: (n) unhappy
minor degradation, descent, levelness, enchanting: (adj) captivating,
egress: (n) exit, egression, outlet, depression, downgrading, delightful, fascinating, bewitching,
door, emergence, departure, demotion, drop, depth lovely, alluring, magical, glamorous,
emersion, emission, way out, elicited: (adj) evoked, elicit adorable; (adj, v) charming,
dissilience; (v) emerge. elliptical: (adj) oval, oblong, ellipse, engaging. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) entry, ingress oviform, ovoid, epigrammatic, unhappy, revolting, repulsive,
eighty-six: (v) rid, veto, lack, quaint, curved, crisp, ovate, round repellent, foul, everyday, dull,
disqualify, get rid of, drop, reject, eloquence: (n) style, fluency, oratory, disenchanting, annoying,
divest, dispose of, eradicate rhetoric, articulateness, expression, uninteresting, despicable
elapsed: (adj) gone, forgotten, lapsed, volubility, persuasiveness, encircled: (adj) enclosed, bounded,
back, beyond, onwards, over and articulacy, facundity, way with circinate, circular, decorated,
done words. ANTONYM: (n) delimited, ringed, wreathed,
elasticity: (n) spring, tone, buoyancy, inarticulateness bordered, annulated, annular
suppleness, springiness, flexibility, eluding: (n) chemise, case, cutting, enclosure: (n) appendage, annex,
resiliency, resilience, pliability, slip, berth; (adj) intangible cage, appendix, addendum, barrier,
tonicity; (adj) elastic force. emanation: (n) emission, effluvium, enclosing, pen, yard, hedge,
ANTONYMS: (n) stiffness, effusion, effluence, efflux, radiation, addition
inflexibility, rigidity excretion, exhalation, flow, egress, encumbered: (adj) burdened,
elated: (adj) joyful, delighted, ectoplasm burdensome, weighed down, heavy,
jubilant, exultant, gleeful, happy, embalmed: (adj) inebriated deep, clayey, cloggy. ANTONYM:
triumphant, overjoyed, proud, embittered: (adj) bitter, disillusioned, (adj) unencumbered
ecstatic; (n) buoyant. ANTONYMS: sour, indignant, disappointed, encyclopaedia: (n) cyclopaedia,
(adj) dejected, disappointed, sad, crestfallen, dissatisfied, frustrated, cyclopedia, book of knowledge,
unhappy, miserable, down, disenchanted; (v) resent. book of facts
depressed, despairing, blue, ANTONYM: (adj) idealistic endeavor: (n, v) struggle, try, strain;
sorrowful, desolate emblem: (n) flag, type, device, (n) effort, trial, essay, shot,
elector: (n) voter, constituent, allegory, character, crest, sign, enterprise, work; (v) strive, aim.
archduke, doge, floater, electant, badge, figure, ensign, symbol ANTONYMS: (n, v) neglect
citizen embodiment: (n) shape, epitome, endeavoring: (n) effort; (adj) aspiring
electro: (n) electrotype incarnation, avatar, amalgamation, endeavors: (n) activities, deeds,
elegance: (adj, n) daintiness; (n) union, unification, incorporation, events, Comings and Goings,
refinement, beauty, chic, grace, coalescence, cast; (adj) integration undertakings, accomplishments,
style, flair, courtliness, courtesy, embolden: (adj, n, v) encourage; (v) happenings
polish, panache. ANTONYMS: (n) hearten, animate, comfort, inspire, endowed: (adj) gifted, clever, cute,
awkwardness, ugliness, inelegance, enhearten, nerve, strengthen; (n) felicitous, competent, blessed,
bareness, roughness, scruffiness, buoy up, assure; (adj, n) reassure artistic, brilliant, ingenious, talented,
untidiness, rudeness, vulgarity, embraced: (adj) popular qualitied
tackiness, tastelessness emendation: (n) amendment, endowing: (v) endow; (n)
elementary: (adj) simple, primary, correction, betterment, repair, appropriation
fundamental, primitive, basal, easy, revision, castigation, reform, endowments: (n) beneficence,
 Edgar Allan Poe 271
accomplishments, advantage uninformed, confounded, confused, enslaved, gripped; (adv) on cloud
endure: (adj, n, v) continue, support; ignorant, perplexed, wild, nine; (v) overjoyed
(n, v) bear, suffer, stand, be; (v) reactionary, traditional; (n) enveloped: (adj) convoluted,
accept, undergo, allow, stay, uninitiate enclosed, cover, bounded,
tolerate. ANTONYMS: (v) perish, enlisting: (n) accomplishment, Byzantine, clothed, involved, misty,
die, break, fall, discontinue, achievement, recruitment swallowed, vestured, emotionally
crumble, end, enjoy, resign, quit, enmity: (n, v) animosity; (n) involved
collapse antagonism, animus, hostility, enviable: (adj) invidious,
enduring: (adj) durable, abiding, aggression, rancor, ill will, advantageous, envious, happy,
lasting, permanent, continuing, antipathy, hatred, war, dislike. pleasing, attractive. ANTONYMS:
constant, hardy, immortal, eternal, ANTONYMS: (n) friendship, (adj) unwelcomed, undesirable,
stable; (adv) enduringly. friendliness, affinity, love, kindness, undesired, unpleasant
ANTONYMS: (adj) impatient, affection, adoration, amity, envy: (v) begrudge, want; (n)
transient, fleeting, mortal, modern, cooperation, goodwill enviousness, desire, heartburning,
insubstantial, inconstant, fickle, ennui: (n) fatigue, tedium, weariness, resentment, envies, heartburn,
erratic, unstable melancholy, monotony, tediousness, jealousy, hatred; (adj) jealous.
energetic: (adj) animated, brisk, busy, dissatisfaction, listlessness, apathy; ANTONYM: (n) generosity
driving, dynamic, powerful, strong, (v) bore, pall. ANTONYMS: (n) enwrapped: (adj) absorbed,
effective, agile, emphatic, forcible. variation, liveliness, enthusiasm, engrossed, cloaked, captive, clothed,
ANTONYMS: (adj) sluggish, lazy, energy, interest deeply moved, draped, enclosed,
weary, languid, inactive, exhausted, enraged: (adj) angered, furious, enraptured, intent, rapt
indolent, apathetic, dull, indifferent, infuriated, irate, mad, livid, epistle: (n) letter, note,
listless incensed, exasperated, raging, communication, message,
enforced: (adj) required, obligatory, irritated, boiling correspondence, post card, favor,
compulsory, applied, compelled, enriching: (n) enrichment; (v) enrich; missive, writing, memo, dispatch
binding, essential, requisite, (adj) uplifting, educational, epistles: (n) revelations, gospels,
necessary, mandatory, legal. inspiring, elevating, edifying, apocalypse, evangelists
ANTONYMS: (adj) optional, artistic, enlightening epithet: (n) name, cognomen,
unenforced, voluntary ensconced: (v) imbedded, situate, appellation, denomination,
engaging: (adj, v) charming, inviting, posited nickname, moniker, sobriquet, title,
prepossessing; (adj) attractive, ensemble: (n) chorus, outfit, group, picture, byname, byword
interesting, lovable, delightful, totality, company, whole, collection, epoch: (n) era, date, period, day,
appealing, pleasant, captivating; band, corps de ballet, dress; (adj, n) season, time, term, cycle, crisis, date
(adv) engagingly. ANTONYMS: entirety. ANTONYM: (n) single of reference, times
(adj) repulsive, loathsome, repellant, ensuing: (adj) following, consequent, epsilon: (n) alphabetic character
unattractive, undesirable, unlikable, succeeding, later, subsequent, next, equalization: (n) equation, feat,
dull, unpleasant, repellent successive, resulting, consequential, exploit, balancing, levelling,
engrossing: (adj) fascinating, ensue, posterior. ANTONYMS: (adj) retaliation, measure for measure,
riveting, gripping, captivating, antecedent, earlier, prior, effort, demolishing, deed, leveling
entrancing, enthralling, beguiling, preliminary equals: (n) classmates, colleagues,
charming, enchanting; (adj, v) entablature: (n) cornice, architrave, contemporaries, generation, age
interesting; (v) engross. capital, coping stone, structure, group
ANTONYMS: (adj) uninteresting, epistyle, entablement, construction, equerry: (n) functionary, groom,
dull, monotonous, tiresome, zoophorus, sconce, pediment Querry, attendant
unexciting entanglement: (n) snarl, complexity, equivocal: (adj) ambiguous,
enigma: (adj, n) mystery, riddle; (n) embarrassment, implication, mesh, indefinite, doubtful, dubious,
puzzle, secret, perplexity, poser, knot, tangle, web, perplexity, hitch; questionable, elusive, cryptic,
question, problem, closed book, nut (adj, n) involution. ANTONYMS: (n) precarious, problematic, apocryphal,
to crack, logogriph. ANTONYMS: simplification, extrication double. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear,
(n) clearness, explanation entertain: (v) amuse, delight, bear, unequivocal, definite, obvious,
enlighten: (v) advise, edify, educate, cherish, beguile, admit, plain, unquestionable, certain, direct
inform, clarify, apprise, instruct, accommodate, harbor, hold, distract; equivocation: (n) evasion, quibble,
illuminate, clear, notify; (adj, v) (n, v) interest. ANTONYMS: (v) ambiguity, casuistry,
lighten. ANTONYMS: (v) puzzle, disregard, ignore, banish, forget, misrepresentation, hedging,
obfuscate, mystify, confound, cloud, tire, displease equivocalness, tergiversation,
brutalize, bewilder, muddle entertained: (adj) diverted, pleased circumlocution, deception; (n, v)
enlightened: (adj) liberal, entrails: (n) bowels, gut, bowel, shuffling
disillusioned, progressive, cultured, viscera, innards, internal organs, erect: (adj) upright, vertical,
aware, informed, learned, lettered; insides, intestines, guts, tripe, inside straightforward; (v) build, raise,
(adj, v) wise; (n, v) savant; (v) entranced: (adj) delighted, rear, construct, assemble, lift, put
shrewd. ANTONYMS: (adj) captivated, fascinated, enthralled, up, put together. ANTONYMS: (v)
puzzled, unenlightened, enchanted, ecstatic, beguiled, dismantle, wreck, topple, level,
 272 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
demolish, destroy; (adj) prostrate, boundless, deathless, enduring. ongoing; (n) movement,
drooping, prone, flaccid, flat ANTONYMS: (adj) mortal, finite, development
erection: (n, v) building, structure; (n) brief, ephemeral, fleeting, exactitude: (n) precision, exactness,
assembly, construction, erecting, terminable, ending, fragile, correctness, punctuality, fidelity,
architecture, installation, creation, inconstant trueness, truth, veracity, rigor,
foundation, framework; (adj) eternally: (adv) always, permanently, thoroughness, promptitude.
elevation incessantly, perpetually, constantly, ANTONYMS: (n) vagueness,
erroneous: (adj) incorrect, inaccurate, ceaselessly, endlessly, unendingly, inaccuracy, inexactness
false, untrue, wrongful, improper, unceasingly, lastingly; (adj, adv) exaggerate: (v) boast, aggravate,
fallacious, amiss, unsound, faulty; forever. ANTONYMS: (adv) briefly, amplify, dramatize, overdo,
(adj, v) mistaken. ANTONYMS: sporadically overdraw, brag, overstate, magnify,
(adj) valid, right, accurate, true, eternity: (n) aeon, afterlife, forever, aggrandize, enhance. ANTONYMS:
reliable, real, wise, logical perpetuity, timelessness, (v) minimize, alleviate, weaken
erudite: (adj) educated, scholarly, endlessness, everlasting, endless exaggerated: (adj) extravagant,
academic, knowledgeable, cultured, time, everlastingness, everness, theatrical, immoderate, inflated,
informed, profound; (adj, v) wise, existence. ANTONYMS: (n) overdone, hyperbolic, magnified,
prudent; (n) scholar, savant. finiteness, impermanence pretentious, overstated, excessive;
ANTONYMS: (adj) unschooled, ether: (adj) air, elastic fluid, (adj, v) hypertrophied.
uneducated, uncultured, illiterate, anaesthetic agent, steam, flatus, ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained,
unlearned, uninformed, foolish fume, reek, vapor; (n) divinyl ether, unembellished, minimized
erudition: (n) education, scholarship, firmament, vinyl ether exaltation: (n) elation, ecstasy,
letters, edification, reading, ethereal: (adj) airy, celestial, apotheosis, worship, praise, rapture,
learnedness, culture, lore, unworldly, delicate, intangible, deification, grandeur, adoration; (n,
eruditeness; (n, v) knowledge; (adj, aeriform, spiritual, aery, vaporous, v) sublimation; (v) laud.
n) wisdom. ANTONYM: (n) incorporeal, diaphanous. ANTONYMS: (n) abasement,
simplicity ANTONYMS: (adj) earthly, heavy, belittlement, debasement,
escaping: (n) evasion, getaway, indelicate, worldly, tangible, thick, degradation, humiliation, sorrow,
break, breakout, running away, robust, concrete derogation, disparagement
running off, run-around; (adj) etiquette: (n) decorum, rite, civility, exalted: (adj) elevated, eminent,
fugitive protocol, label, form, convention, noble, high, August, elated,
eschew: (v) abstain, shun, elude, decency, formality, tag, custom dignified, great, sublime, grand, big.
forbear, evade, shirk, refrain, keep euphonious: (adj) sweet, euphonic, ANTONYMS: (adj) belittled,
from, let alone, duck, flinch. harmonious, melodious, musical, condemned, criticized, debased,
ANTONYMS: (v) like, choose, sonorous, tuneful, euphemistic, humble, humiliated, low, lowly,
embrace, participate, court euphonical orthography; (adj, n) minor, ridiculed, base
escritoire: (n) secretary, desk, euphonous; (n) euphemism examiner: (n, v) inspector; (n)
secretaire, writing table, vitrine, eventful: (adj) fateful, weighty, assessor, tester, supervisor, overseer,
vargueno, etagere, cabinet, scrutoire lively, important, momentous, analyst, controller, questioner,
especial: (adj) extraordinary, special, memorable, notable, hectic, searcher; (v) inquisitor, inquirer
specific, chief, individual, distinct, significant; (n) stirring; (v) full of exceeding: (prep) beyond, more than,
distinctive, characteristic, incident. ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, greater than; (adj) excessive,
appropriate, peculiar, express. insignificant, ordinary, slow, empty transcendent, extraordinary,
ANTONYMS: (adj) general, normal, everlasting: (adj) eternal, ceaseless, exceptional, prodigious, surpassing,
common, unexceptional, usual endless, constant, continual, Olympian; (v) exceed
esquimau: (n) Inuit perpetual, immortal, deathless, exceedingly: (adj, adv) very, highly;
establishes: (v) establish; (adj) ageless, aeonian; (adj, n) lasting. (adv) too, exceptionally, overly,
established ANTONYMS: (adj) finite, surpassingly, extraordinarily,
estimation: (n) deference, ephemeral, fleeting, mortal, ending, greatly, awfully, terrifically,
assessment, calculation, terminating, inconstant, fragile, eminently. ANTONYMS: (adv)
approximation, appraisal, attention; perishable slightly, hardly, insufficiently,
(n, v) esteem, consideration, regard, everlastingly: (adv) perpetually, somewhat
reputation, credit. ANTONYMS: (n) always, lastingly, continually, excellence: (adj, n) worth, eminence,
calculation, disbelief, doubt endlessly, unendingly, incessantly, desert; (n) distinction, advantage,
estrange: (v) disaffect, alien, separate, permanently, constantly, undyingly; goodness, superiority, virtue,
wean, divide, dissociate; (adj, v) set (adj, adv) forever greatness, predominance; (adj)
against; (adj) rile, incense, repel, sow evils: (n) mala mastery. ANTONYMS: (n)
dissension. ANTONYMS: (v) evince: (v) show, display, evidence, mediocrity, failing, fault, flaw,
involve, engage, espouse, reconcile, argue, indicate, manifest, mark, unevenness, imperfection, disgrace,
unite, conciliate express, prove, establish, exhibit commonness
eternal: (adj) constant, perpetual, evolutions: (n) evolution excessively: (adj, adv) immoderately,
ceaseless, everlasting, lasting, evolving: (v) evolve; (adj) moving, exorbitantly, inordinately; (adv)
continual, aeonian, immortal, nascent, growing, embryonic, extremely, enormously, exceedingly,
 Edgar Allan Poe 273
very, profusely, overly, expressive: (adj) significant, moderate, cautious, tasteful
exaggeratedly, intemperately. meaningful, descriptive, mobile, extravagantly: (adv) excessively,
ANTONYMS: (adv) justifiably, revelatory, indicative, articulate, immoderately, inordinately,
moderately, insufficiently graphic, emphatic, suggestive, vivid. luxuriously, prodigally, wastefully,
exchanged: (adj) counterchanged, ANTONYMS: (adj) unemotional, profligately, profusely,
bartered, substituted undemonstrative, nondescript, cold, ostentatiously, improvidently,
excursion: (n) expedition, jaunt, expressionless, empty, emotionless, unrestrainedly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
outing, digression, drive, tour, inarticulate, innocent, impassive, economically, stingily, reasonably,
airing, voyage, deviation, stroll; (n, reserved meagerly, cheaply, modestly,
v) journey exquisite: (adj) beautiful, delicate, humbly
exemplifying: (adj) illustrative, excellent, dainty, gorgeous, extravaganza: (n) vaudeville, farce,
demonstrative admirable, acute, heavenly, choice, spectacular, display, burlesque,
exerting: (n) push wonderful; (adj, v) delightful. show, opera, pageant, piece, play,
exertion: (n) application, exercise, ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, inferior, revue
endeavor, attempt, struggle, trouble, ugly, subdued, rough, poor, coarse, extremity: (n) end, member,
diligence, strain, labor, pull, essay. mild, imperfect, horrible, flawed boundary, bound, close, appendage,
ANTONYMS: (n) idleness, exterior: (adj, n) outside, surface, limit, limb, ending, fringe,
inactivity, inertia, relaxation, outward; (n) appearance, skin, front; conclusion. ANTONYMS: (n) trunk,
laziness, ease (adj) external, superficial, outlying, average, minimum, head, leniency
exhibit: (adj, n, v) display; (v) evince, outer, outdoor. ANTONYMS: (adj, exultation: (n) jubilation, joy, delight,
evidence, expose, demonstrate, n) interior, inside; (adj) inner, ecstasy, elation, rejoicing, revelling,
disclose, flaunt, announce, present, internal, intrinsic, middle, deep transport, joyousness, bliss, glee.
show, produce. ANTONYMS: (v) extinct: (adj) dead, deceased, defunct, ANTONYMS: (n) depression,
hide, cover; (n) concealment, hiding departed, obsolete, extinguished, desolation, misery, sorrow
exhibited: (adj) ostensible, avowed, exhausted, inanimate, out, fable: (n) legend, fiction, tale, story,
apparent, declared quenched, gone. ANTONYMS: (adj) fabrication, fairy tale, lie, myth,
exhibiting: (n) advertising; (adj) alive, living, extant, active, dormant, anecdote; (adj, n) apologue, parable.
exhibitory, ostensive thriving, existing, live ANTONYMS: (n) fact, history
exigency: (n) need, distress, exigence, extinguish: (v) destroy, exterminate, fabulous: (adj) mythical, legendary,
want, lack, requirement, pressure, eradicate, douse, annihilate, fabled, mythological, wonderful,
necessity, crisis, juncture, pinch consume, wipe out, end, suppress, marvelous, spectacular, fab, terrific,
expedient: (adj) fit, advisable, quash; (adj, v) allay. ANTONYMS: amazing, imaginary. ANTONYMS:
becoming, desirable, adequate, apt, (v) ignite, build, create, encourage, (adj) normal, prosaic, routine,
convenient, suitable; (n) contrivance, inflame, sustain, protect ordinary, factual, common,
resource, artifice. ANTONYMS: extinguished: (adj) extinct, out, dead, humdrum, dire, unimpressive,
(adj) inappropriate, inexpedient, quenched, allayed, destroyed; (n) abysmal
impractical, futile, detrimental, defunctness, complete annihilation, faculties: (n) mother wit
inconvenient, foolish experimental extinction, fainting: (n) swoon, syncope,
expedite: (n, v) accelerate; (v) extermination, extinction deliquium, lipothymy, prostration,
dispatch, advance, hasten, speed, extort: (v) exact, soak, compel, take, stupor; (adj) lipothymic
quicken, assist, hurry, hurry up, wring, force, extract, pry; (adj) faintly: (adv) dimly, vaguely,
rush, precipitate. ANTONYMS: (v) bleed, fleece, overcharge indistinctly, lightly, weakly, hazily,
stop, delay, halt, hinder, impede extraction: (n) ancestry, origin, birth, slightly, softly, shadowily, infirmly,
expeditious: (adj) agile, brisk, swift, removal, family, lineage, blood, palely. ANTONYMS: (adv) clearly,
prompt, quick, hasty, fast, rapid, beginning, withdrawal, extract, intensely, distinctly,
speedy, efficient, ready. strain. ANTONYMS: (n) addition, overpoweringly, harshly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) ineffectual, inclusion, exposition considerably, powerfully, strongly,
sluggish, slothful, inefficient, extravagance: (n) dissipation, luxury, brightly, obviously, audibly
leisurely excess, profligacy, lavishness, fairy: (n) elf, sprite, brownie, fag,
expiration: (n) ending, end, squandering, recklessness, waste, faggot, fagot, imp, pixie, pixy; (adj,
conclusion, finish, close, exhalation, prodigality, magnificence, n) faery, faerie. ANTONYM: (n)
termination, exit, death, lapse, immoderateness. ANTONYMS: (n) ogre
expiry. ANTONYM: (n) beginning economy, frugality, parsimony, falsely: (adv) incorrectly,
expired: (adj) lapsed, deceased, prudence, paucity, moderation, fraudulently, deceptively,
invalid, dead, overdue, extinct, austerity, necessity, bareness dishonestly, wrongly, erroneously,
elapsed, out extravagant: (adj) wasteful, misleadingly, deceitfully,
exploded: (adj) antebellum, luxurious, prodigal, exaggerated, unfaithfully, spuriously, fictitiously.
antediluvian, blown over, expired, profligate, costly, expensive, lavish, ANTONYMS: (adv) honestly,
unconnected, elapsed, that has been, immoderate, profuse, undue. truthfully, faithfully, authentically,
run out, no more, never to return; ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained, correctly, naturally, rightly
(v) at a discount frugal, parsimonious, plain, stingy, falsify: (v) garble, adulterate,
exposes: (adj) exposed understated, thrifty, reasonable, misrepresent, counterfeit,
 274 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
manipulate, fake, forge, juggle, fashionably: (adv) elegantly, smartly, kindly. ANTONYMS: (adj) adverse,
fudge, distort, cook. ANTONYM: (v) trendily, stylishly, modishly, neatly. negative, ominous, disapproving,
right ANTONYM: (adv) unfashionably inauspicious, detrimental,
falsity: (n) deceit, fabrication, lie, fashioned: (adj) formed, featured, unfriendly, disagreeable, hindering,
falsification, falseness, deception, fictitious, intentional, bent, wrought harmful, untimely
fable, disloyalty, dishonesty, fastened: (adj) tied, fast, buttoned, favorite: (adj, n) darling, favourite,
unreality, fiction. ANTONYMS: (n) closed, tight, secure, pinned, dear, number one; (adj) favored,
validity, verity binding, empight, steady, firm. beloved, popular; (n) pet, choice,
familiarly: (adv) intimately, usually, ANTONYMS: (adj) unfastened, pick, preference. ANTONYMS: (n)
ordinarily, nearly, frequently, unbuttoned indifference, superior, underdog;
commonly, regularly, informally, fastidious: (adj, n) exacting, critical, (adj) unwanted, despised, disliked,
closely, acquaintedly, accurate; (adj) delicate, particular, hated, unusual
conventionally. ANTONYM: (adv) careful, exigent, dainty, fearful: (adj, n) afraid; (adj, v)
distantly discriminating, nice, fussy. dreadful, cowardly; (adj) terrible,
fancied: (adj) unreal, chimerical, ANTONYMS: (adj) sloppy, apprehensive, awful, timid, anxious,
fictional, fanciful, fictitious, unfastidious, careless, uncouth, craven, frightful, eerie.
fabricated, preferred, assumed, uncritical, easy, indifferent, ANTONYMS: (adj) rational, calm,
illusory, imagined, ideal undemanding, slapdash, relaxed, confident, bold, unimpressed,
fancies: (n) stock easygoing charming, fearless, courageous,
fanciful: (adj) mythical, fantastic, fatality: (n) disaster, calamity, death, reassuring, unafraid, wonderful
capricious, unreal, arbitrary, mishap, demise, misadventure, fearfully: (adv) timidly, timorously,
romantic, ideal, chimerical, notional, lethality, adversity, loss, decease, awfully, apprehensively,
visionary; (adj, v) fancy. dead horrendously, hideously, anxiously,
ANTONYMS: (adj) prosaic, real, fates: (adj) book of fate, Parcae, sky; appallingly, terribly; (adj, adv)
realistic, plausible, normal (n) fortune, the fates shockingly, dreadfully.
fangs: (v) tentacle, tenaculum, nail, fathom: (n, v) plumb; (v) penetrate, ANTONYMS: (adv) bravely, calmly,
hook, unguis, teeth; (n) clutches discern, bottom, understand, confidently, wonderfully, rationally,
fare: (n, v) do; (n) food, aliment, comprehend, know, make out, unconcernedly
board, table, charge, chow, menu, measure; (n) probe, gauge. fearlessly: (adj, adv) daringly, boldly,
traveller; (v) come, eat. ANTONYM: ANTONYMS: (v) confuse, heroically, courageously, valiantly;
(v) stop misunderstand, Miss (adv) dauntlessly, bravely, gallantly,
far-fetched: (adj) improbable, tall, fatigue: (v) exhaust, tire, weary, undauntedly, audaciously,
implausible, foreign, unreasonable harass, enervate, fag, jade, wear; (n) unflinchingly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
farrago: (n) mishmash, gallimaufry, exhaustion, weariness, tiredness. nervously, cautiously, timidly
hodgepodge, hotchpotch, jumble, ANTONYMS: (n) energy, liveliness, feasible: (adj) probable, possible, fit,
melange, miscellany, welter, vitality, vigor, strength; (v) energize, viable, available, practical, credible,
medley, mixture, motley renew, rejuvenate, restore, achievable, likely, doable, realizable.
farther: (adj, adv, prep) beyond; (adj) invigorate ANTONYMS: (adj) impossible,
additional, more, distant; (adv) fatigued: (adj) tired, weary, beat, unlikely, impracticable, impractical,
furthermore, besides, abroad, in worn, tired out, jaded, spent, worn inconceivable, infeasible, unfeasible,
addition, too; (adj, prep) outside; out, done in, fagged, run-down. unrealistic, implausible
(pron) another. ANTONYMS: (prep) ANTONYMS: (adj) refreshed, alert, feast: (n, v) junket, fete; (n)
within; (adv) nearer, closer lively, energized, energetic entertainment, dinner, binge,
farthest: (adj) ultimate, extreme, fattened: (adj) finished spread, celebration, jamboree,
farthermost, utmost, uttermost, last, faulty: (adj) erroneous, deficient, carousal; (v) feed, eat. ANTONYMS:
furthermost, endmost, greatest, defective, false, vicious, bad, broken, (v) abstain, starve; (n) snack
most distant; (adj, adv) remotest. wrong, incorrect, inaccurate, feather: (n) pen, feathering, pinion,
ANTONYMS: (adv) closest, nearest damaged. ANTONYMS: (adj) nib, plumage, quill, kind, spline; (n,
farthing: (n) craps, faro, ante, chuck, perfect, flawless, sound, adequate, v) plume; (adj, n, v) fringe; (v) fledge
doit, small change; (adj) bulrush, working, certain, logical, fine feathered: (adj) plumy, plumelike,
pinch of snuff, peppercorn, old son, favor: (n, v) countenance, aid, grace, featherlike, plumose, plumed,
jot support, benefit, boon; (adj, n) plumaged, fledged, plumigerous,
farthingale: (n) jupe, skirt, pinafore, kindness; (n) advantage; (v) flighted, decorated; (v) fledge
kilt, hoop, panier, bustle, apron befriend, encourage, patronize. feathers: (n) plumage, fur, indument,
fascination: (n) charm, glamor, ANTONYMS: (v) hinder, contradict, garment, garb, fine hair, clothing,
bewitchment, glamour, dislike, hurt, differ, thwart, reject, dress, apparel, attire, array
enchantment, enthrallment, demean; (n) derogation, feeble: (adj) delicate, decrepit, ailing,
charisma, magnetism, allure, magic, disapproval, unkindness helpless, powerless, poor, mild, lax,
captivation. ANTONYMS: (n) favorable: (adj) lucky, fortunate, thin; (adj, v) faint, debilitated.
disinterest, boredom, propitious, prosperous, convenient, ANTONYMS: (adj) strong, vigorous,
disenchantment, disenthrallment, advantageous, encouraging, happy, hearty, tough, effective, powerful,
repulsion helpful; (adj, v) friendly; (adj, n) unrelenting, robust, potent,
 Edgar Allan Poe 275
persuasive, able calm, passionless, dispassionate, (n) effervescence; (v) sizzle.
feeblest: (adj) least indifferent, placid, gentle, cool; ANTONYM: (adj) still
fellows: (n) fellow, membership, (adv) easygoing flaming: (adj, n) burning, ardent,
faculty figuratively: (adv) allegorically, glowing, passionate; (adj) blazing,
felon: (n) convict, culprit, crook, symbolically, tropically, typically, ablaze, aflame, hot; (n) enthusiastic,
malefactor, thug, desperado, representatively, parabolically, flame, fire. ANTONYMS: (adj)
miscreant, offender, hoodlum, parabolicly, flowerily, symbolicly, extinguished, placid, gentle, quiet
outlaw; (adj) felonious floridly, figurally. ANTONYM: flashy: (adj) flamboyant, cheap, loud,
feminine: (adj) effeminate, womanly, (adv) factually gaudy, brassy, glaring, flash,
maidenly, delicate, not male, filtered: (n) clean, drinkable; (adj) tasteless, tawdry, garish; (adj, v)
pistillate, wifely, mild; (n) girl, lady, refined showy. ANTONYMS: (adj) tasteful,
gender. ANTONYMS: (adj) male, filthy: (adj) unclean, dingy, nasty, restrained, drab, unexceptional,
unwomanly, neuter foul, disgusting, squalid, bawdy, understated, dull, modest,
femoris: (n) femur muddy, grimy, grubby, vile. inconspicuous, muted
fender: (n) wing, cushion, barrier, ANTONYMS: (adj) decent, pleasant, flatter: (v) fawn, adulate, wheedle,
mudguard, dashboard, guard, attractive cajole, soap, kowtow, blandish,
mudguard seat, cowcatcher, financier: (n) capitalist, backer, grovel, butter up; (n, v) court; (n)
framework, sheer log, framing banker, sponsor, dealer, broker, caress. ANTONYMS: (v) insult,
ferocious: (adj) cruel, brutal, moneylender, stockbroker, city man, disparage, criticize, discourage
barbarous, feral, truculent, investor; (v) operate. ANTONYM: flattered: (adj) pleased
atrocious, fell, bloodthirsty, brutish; (n) supplier flattering: (adj) ingratiating,
(adj, v) fierce, savage. ANTONYMS: finder: (n) discoverer, view finder, complimentary, courtly, obsequious,
(adj) gentle, mild, tender, tame, line finder, observer, perceiver, adulatory, fulsome, bland, candied,
nonviolent, kind, calm inventor, artificer, beholder, spotter smooth, encouraging; (n) flattery.
fervid: (adj) ardent, burning, hot, finer: (adj) superior, advanced, ANTONYMS: (adj) assertive,
vehement, eager, passionate, bigger, higher, more, greater critical, unflattering, unattractive,
impassioned, fiery, enthusiastic; finery: (n) regalia, clothing, attire, wounding, uncomplimentary,
(adj, v) warm, glowing decoration, dress, pinchbeck, negative; (adv) partially
fervor: (adj, n) devotion, passion; (n) spangle, trimmings, gimcrack; (adj, fleece: (v) extort, bilk, pluck, deceive,
enthusiasm, zeal, eagerness, n) tinsel, gewgaw. ANTONYM: (n) rip off, swindle, strip, pigeon, shear;
fervency, energy, warmth, rags (adj, v) bleed; (n) wool
earnestness, fervidness, ardour. finicky: (adj) fussy, finical, picky, flickeringly: (adv) flickering, fitfully
ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, choosy, squeamish, exacting, fling: (n, v) toss, throw, pitch, slam,
apathy, impassiveness, aloofness, particular, dainty, nice, hard to hurl; (v) chuck, shoot, dash, rush,
coolness, dejection, doubt please, selective. ANTONYMS: (adj) discard; (n) crack. ANTONYM: (v)
feudal: (adj) feudatory, medieval, accepting, dilettante, relaxed, collect
feodal easygoing flippant: (adj) frivolous, airy, saucy,
fiat: (n) decree, edict, dictum, act, finite: (adj) parochial, narrow, giddy, impertinent, impudent, rude,
order, call, behest, bidding, rescript, definite, limited, qualified, lightheaded, pert; (adj, v) glib; (v)
enactment, mandate circumscribed, mortal, scanty, voluble. ANTONYMS: (adj) earnest,
fiddle: (n, v) con, cheat, trick; (v) measurable, confined, delimited. caring, respectful
tamper, play, diddle, meddle, tinker; ANTONYMS: (adj) countless, flirt: (n, v) coquette; (v) dally, coquet,
(n) kit, swindle, fraud endless toy, romance, trifle, spoon; (n)
fiddlestick: (n) bow, violin bow; (adj) fire-eater: (adj) daring, combative, dalliance, vamp, tease, flirting
fiddlestick end argumentative flirting: (n) flirtation, dalliance, flirt,
fiddling: (adj) petty, piffling, fireplace: (n) chimney, fire, hearth, coquetry, flirtingly, dawdling,
niggling, picayune, little, footling, oven, stove, fire place, fireside, coquette, toying, caper, frivolity
piddling, Lilliputian, diminutive, kitchen, niche, recess, furnace flitting: (adj) fleeting, fugitive,
tiny, insignificant. ANTONYM: (n) firmness: (adj, n) constancy; (n) momentary, transient, ephemeral;
correction determination, resolution, (v) migration
fiend: (n) monster, devil, fanatic, assurance, consistency, obstinacy, flourish: (n, v) display; (v) thrive,
brute, deuce, incubus, goblin, ogre, steadfastness, resolve, confidence, prosper, boast, wave, brag, wield,
enthusiast, daemon, addict. courage, backbone. ANTONYMS: boom, grow; (adj, v) bloom; (adv, v)
ANTONYM: (n) angel (n) softness, instability, vacillation, shake. ANTONYMS: (v) decline,
fiendish: (adj, v) infernal, diabolic, unsteadiness, yielding, struggle, deteriorate, wilt, pine,
satanic, hellish; (adj) demonic, irresoluteness, droopiness, fade, flounder, decrease, dwindle
diabolical, cruel, atrocious, indefiniteness, indecisiveness, flourishing: (adj) thriving, palmy,
inhuman, wicked, brutal indecision, leniency healthy, successful, luxuriant,
fiery: (adj, n) burning, passionate, fizz: (n, v) froth, lather, buzz; (v) booming, verdant, lush, auspicious,
glowing; (adj) fervent, ablaze, hot, bubble, sparkle, effervesce, hiss, favorable, rich. ANTONYMS: (adj)
fervid, impassioned, peppery; (adj, seethe, simmer; (n) sizzle, fizzle arid, declining, fading, poor,
v) fierce, violent. ANTONYMS: (adj) fizzing: (adj) fizzy, frothy, sparkling; unhealthy
 276 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
flowing: (adj) fluent, running, permitted, permissible, legal, open foretold: (adj) foreseen; (v)
graceful, smooth, fluid, soft, liquid; forbidding: (adj) grim, ominous, annunciate
(n) current, flux, flow; (adj, v) loose. dismal, dour, austere, abominable, formless: (adj) shapeless, unformed,
ANTONYMS: (adj) secure, ugly, ugly, hard, repulsive, redoubtable; indistinct, unstructured, unbodied,
still, stilted, jerky, harsh, halting (n) banning. ANTONYMS: (adj) nebulous, vague, indistinguishable,
fluent: (adj) flowing, eloquent, alluring, inviting, pleasant, soft, fuzzy, rude. ANTONYMS: (adj)
smooth, facile, clear, articulate, hospitable, friendly, favorable, organized, clear, distinct
graceful, fluid, glib, liquid, voluble. comforting forsooth: (adv) really, actually,
ANTONYMS: (adj) illiterate, forcibly: (adv) forcefully, certainly, indeed, in truth, truly, by
reticent, hesitant, halting, formal emphatically, powerfully, by force, right; (adj) in fact, joking apart; (int)
flummery: (n) pudding, mightily, under protest, cogently, quotha
nonsensicality, meaninglessness, hard, strongly, convincingly, clearly. forte: (adj, n) faculty, ability,
nonsense, mummery, knickknack; ANTONYMS: (adv) voluntarily, endowment; (n) strong point,
(adj) palaver, mere words, rant, weakly, gently strength, specialty, strong suit,
jargon; (v) honeyed words forefathers: (n) patriarchs, forefather, metier; (adj) loud, strong; (adv)
flurry: (n) commotion, stir, bother, ancestor, colony, lineage, family loudly. ANTONYMS: (n) weakness,
squall, breeze, ado; (adj, n) bustle, forefinger: (n) index finger, index, failing
fuss, hurry; (n, v) fluster; (v) forefingers, paw, thumb, hand, forthwith: (adv) directly,
disconcert. ANTONYM: (n) quiet exponent, antenna, feeler immediately, at once, now,
foaming: (adj) foamy, effervescent, foregoing: (adj) previous, anterior, instantly, straight, presently,
effervescing, bubbly, bubbling, antecedent, prior, past, above, straightaway, incontinently; (adj,
sparkling, spumy; (adj, n) frothing; preceding, aforegoing, earlier. adv) quickly; (adj) immediate
(n) surging, effervescence, scum ANTONYM: (adj) following fortuitous: (adj) contingent,
foible: (adj, n) failing, fault, frailty, foreground: (n) front, scene, accidental, chance, adventitious,
defect, imperfection, eccentricity; (n) panorama, window, vista; (v) bring fortunate, coincidental, lucky,
oddity, vice, weakness; (adj) feeble, out, emphasize, highlight, cozy up, unintentional, haphazard,
infirmity cotton up, accentuate. ANTONYM: incidental, odd. ANTONYMS: (adj)
folding: (n) foldaway, plication, (v) background unlucky, deliberate
foldable, bend, crease, bending, foreigner: (adj, n) stranger; (n) foul: (adj, v) nasty, base, corrupt,
flexure, pleating, collapsable, outlander, outsider, unknown, coarse; (adj) filthy, disgusting, evil,
collapsible, doubling barbarian, gringo, newcomer, unclean, putrid; (n, v) defile, soil.
foliage: (n) verdure, foliation, immigrant, deportee, traveler; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj, v) clean, pure;
greenery, leaf, frond, cotyledon, foreign. ANTONYMS: (n) (adj) pleasant, fair, inoffensive,
ramage, tigella, stem, blade, leaves inhabitant, domestic, citizen humane, attractive, honest, pleasing,
folio: (n) leaf, sheet, number, page foreman: (n) boss, master, overseer, fragrant; (v) unclog
number, flyleaf, quarto, octavo, gaffer, supervisor, ganger, fountain: (n, v) fount, well; (n) jet,
blade, foliage, number the folios, craftsman, straw boss, foreperson, font, source, reservoir, origin,
book leader, foremen. ANTONYM: (n) derivation, repository, root, squirt
folks: (n) people, folk, tribe, relations, worker fourpence: (n) coin
household, house, relatives, relative, foreseen: (v) foresee, long expected; fowl: (n) poultry, bird, domestic fowl,
kindred, lineage, kin (adj) envisioned, foretold, chick, cochin, birds, partlet, poult,
foolscap: (v) table, vellum, tablet, contingent, concourse, coming, hen, fowls, rooster
marble, papyrus, parchment, pillar, casual, adventitious, accidental, fracture: (n, v) crack, rupture, burst,
slate, paper; (n) cap predictable breach; (n) cleft, fissure, breaking,
footman: (n) attendant, butler, foreshadowing: (adj) prefigurative, crevice, disruption; (v) bust, smash.
follower, flunkey, flunky, varlet, adumbrative, prophetic; (n) ANTONYM: (n) repair
servitor, valet de chambre, boy, prefiguration, omen, adumbration, fractured: (v) cracked, contrite,
knave; (n, v) lackey revelation, portent, sign, prediction, broken friendship, blighted, apart,
footnote: (v) annotate, indite, write; harbinger disunited, disconnected; (adj) torn,
(n) commentary, comment, gloss, foresight: (n) prevision, forecast, fissured
notation, explanation, postscript, caution, prospicience, calculation, fragility: (n) brittleness, weakness,
marginal note, entry prescience, prediction, precaution, feebleness, flimsiness, daintiness,
forbade: (v) prohibit, to prohibit vision, foresightedness; (n, v) breakability, fineness, finesse,
forbear: (v) refrain, desist, help, expectation. ANTONYM: (n) vulnerability; (adj, n) frailty; (adj)
tolerate, abide, eschew, endure, hindsight failing. ANTONYMS: (n) sturdiness,
relinquish; (n) predecessor, forethought: (n) caution, care, solidity
progenitor, forebear forecast, anticipation, deliberation, fragrance: (n, v) aroma, perfume,
forbidden: (adj) banned, taboo, premeditation, precaution, counsel, scent, smell; (n) bouquet, odor,
illegal, prohibited, contraband, circumspection, consideration, essence, odour, redolence,
illicit, verboten, proscribed, discretion. ANTONYMS: (n) sweetness; (adj) fragrant.
outlawed, illegitimate; (adj, adv) off- hindsight, unpreparedness, neglect, ANTONYMS: (n) stink, stench
limits. ANTONYMS: (adj) allowed, impulsiveness, carelessness framed: (adj) counterfeit, prepared,
 Edgar Allan Poe 277
orderly, methodical, spurious. effervescent, bubbly, spumous, furrier: (n) cloakmaker,
ANTONYM: (adj) unframed spumy, effervescing, sudsy, garmentmaker, garmentworker
frantic: (adj) desperate, crazy, agitated; (n) effervescence, scum futile: (adj) useless, empty,
excited, distraught, frenetic, frown: (adj, v) lower; (adj, n) scowl; ineffective, frivolous, idle, abortive,
distracted; (adj, v) frenzied, furious, (n, v) pout, grimace, glower, glare; bootless, hopeless, meaningless,
wild, raging; (n) maniac. (adj) black looks, gloam, glout; (v) vain, hollow. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ANTONYMS: (adj) mellow, sulk, gnash. ANTONYM: (v) successful, useful, fruitful,
composed approve meaningful, worthwhile, promising,
frantically: (adv) frenziedly, fruitless: (adj, v) abortive; (adj) productive, effective
desperately, wildly, distractedly, barren, useless, empty, futile, futility: (n) emptiness, inanity,
furiously, excitedly, deliriously, ineffective, idle, pointless, sterile, worthlessness, vanity, uselessness,
ravingly, distraughtly, fiercely, bootless, unproductive. fruitlessness, frivolity, unusefulness,
crazily. ANTONYMS: (adv) ANTONYMS: (adj) fertile, useful, purposelessness, hollowness,
sensibly, cautiously, peacefully, effective, satisfying, fruitful, insignificance. ANTONYMS: (n)
sluggishly worthwhile, profitable, successful, importance, worth, worthiness,
fraternity: (adj, n) brotherhood; (n) productive, hopeful, meaningful fruitfulness, effectiveness,
association, company, club, fulfilled: (adj) complete, finished, competence, usefulness
fellowship, society, companionship, done, satisfied, accomplished, gaillard: (n) spark, jester, Joe miller,
clan, circle, community, completed, whole, delighted, joker
organization concluded, happy, full of pride. galaxy: (adj, n) array; (n) galax
fraudulent: (adj) false, dishonest, ANTONYMS: (adj) incomplete, urceolata, bevy, cosmos, galax,
fallacious, crooked, deceptive, unfulfilled, frustrated, ashamed, extragalactic nebula, beetleweed,
corrupt, dishonorable, crafty, dissatisfied herb, Via lactea; (adj) a quantity,
underhand; (adj, v) bogus, fulfillment: (n) completion, fruition, army
counterfeit. ANTONYMS: (adj) achievement, satisfaction, fulfilment, gale: (n) blast, blow, tempest, storm,
honest, fair, genuine attainment, execution, squall, hurricane, gust, wind,
freak: (n, v) crotchet, caprice; (adj, n) consummation, contentment, thunderstorm, blizzard, fresh gale.
eccentric; (n) oddity, crank, fanatic, observance, discharge. ANTONYM: (n) breeze
nut, monster, fit, whim, fad ANTONYMS: (n) disobedience, gallant: (adj) fearless, brave, daring,
freaks: (n) caprices, facetiousness, dissatisfaction, abandonment, courageous, chivalrous, bold,
humor dismay manly, heroic, dashing, courteous,
frenchman: (n) French person, Gaul, fulfilment: (n) achievement, fine. ANTONYMS: (adj) boorish,
frog, Norman, Parisian, accomplishment, fulfillment, rude, selfish
Frenchwoman, savoyard, Breton, completion, fruition, discharge, gallows: (n) gibbet, gallous, gallows-
Angevine, Angevin, monsieur consummation, effectuation, bitts, hanging, noose, scaffold,
frenzy: (n) fury, anger, insanity, satisfaction, pursuance, prosecution halter, tree, rope, gallowstree, bough
mania, hysteria; (adj, n) distraction, fulness: (n) fullness, entirety, galvanic: (adj) Voltaic, hasty, hurried,
aberration, alienation, phrensy, completeness, totality restless, electrical, mercurial,
derangement; (n, v) craze. fumes: (n) gas, exhaust, exhaust unquiet, galvanizing, galvanising,
ANTONYMS: (n) calmness, calm, fumes, smokes, smog, vapor, fussy, fidgety
order exhalation, steam, smoke, toxic gaping: (adj, n) agape; (adj) vast,
frey: (n) Freyr waste, contamination yawning, cavernous, discontinuous,
frisking: (n) search, hunt, hunting, fungi: (n) bacteria, fungus, kingdom wide, ajar, drowsy, hollow, wide
searching fungi, Thallophyta, fungus kingdom open; (adj, v) oscitant. ANTONYMS:
frivolous: (adj) empty, foolish, dizzy, funnel: (n) flue, tunnel, funnel shape, (adj) cramped, narrow
petty, idle, light, flighty, shaft, cone, hopper, trachea, gardening: (n) cultivation,
unimportant, flippant, trivial, weasand; (v) channel, move, pipe horticulture, agronomy, floriculture,
superficial. ANTONYMS: (adj) furies: (n) Eumenides agriculture, husbandry, spade
important, solemn, worthwhile, furiously: (adv) irately, angrily, husbandry, vintage, landscape
vital, weighty, staid, significant, fiercely, wildly, violently, ragingly, gardening, flower gardening,
sensible, responsible, crucial, heavy wrathfully, infuriatedly, rabidly, landscaping
frock: (n) dress, gown, clothing, impetuously, frantically. garments: (n) attire, clothing, dress,
attire, robe, kirtle, habit, clothes, ANTONYM: (adv) sluggishly apparel, raiment, outfit, costume,
coat, chemise, caftan furnish: (v) afford, provide, garb, array, gear, anything
frog: (n) frogs, toad, chamois, contribute, render, offer, worthless
epaulet, crapaud, batrachian, accommodate, supply, outfit, yield, garret: (n) cockloft, loft, attic, house
anuran, aigulet, grasshopper, decorate; (n, v) give. ANTONYM: top, storey, level, upper story, story,
Frenchman, shoulder knot (v) divest dome, noggin, classical Greek
frogs: (n) adornment, point frogs, furnished: (adj) fitted, arranged, gaseous: (adj) volatile, airy, gasiform,
class Amphibia, caecilians, privileged, instruct, carrying aerial, gassy, vaporous, tenuous,
batrachian, amphibia, anuran weapons, equipt, enlightened; (v) evaporable, flatulent, invisible,
frothing: (adj) foamy, bubbling, provide, furnish, begone, beset ethereal. ANTONYM: (adj) solid
 278 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
gasping: (adj) panting, winded, rashness, symptom, swimming. (n, v) cloud. ANTONYMS: (n)
blown, out of breath, thirsty, pursy; ANTONYMS: (n) seriousness, brightness, happiness, cheerfulness,
(v) spavined, touched in the wind reliability glee, ecstasy, joy, optimism, cheer
gaspingly: (adv) breathlessly, giddy: (adj, v) flighty; (adj) dizzy, gloomily: (adv) murkily, obscurely,
windedly, puffingly, pursily faint, silly, changeable, vertiginous, drearily, darkly, somberly,
gaunt: (adj) lean, thin, cadaverous, featherbrained, light, fickle, morosely, sadly, sorrowfully,
desolate, bleak, dreary, meager, capricious; (adv) careless. despondently, unhappily, glumly.
bony, angular, lanky, sullen. ANTONYMS: (adj) serious, dull ANTONYMS: (adv) brightly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) fresh, rounded, gigantic: (adj) colossal, enormous, favorably, happily, optimistically,
obese large, huge, giant, stupendous, contentedly; (adj) auspiciously
gauze: (n) film, curtain, blind, monstrous, vast, big, immense, gloomy: (adj) black, desolate,
bandage, mask, mantle, muslin, massive. ANTONYMS: (adj) small, dejected, cheerless, depressing,
screen, gauze bandage, shutter, daze tiny, little, insignificant, short, dismal, downcast, disconsolate,
gazette: (n) magazine, journal, miniature melancholy, funereal, downhearted.
newspaper, gazetteer, organ, public gilt: (n) gilding, plating, money, ANTONYMS: (adj) encouraging,
press, list, the press, tract, catalogue; decoration; (adj) aureate, golden, cheery, cheerful, bright, hopeful,
(v) publish gold, florid; (v) tesselated, ornate, light, promising, uplifting, joyful,
gazing: (adj) fixed rich sunny, clear
generalities: (n) general points, gladly: (adv, v) happily; (adv) gloriously: (adv) brilliantly, grandly,
general terms, generalia gleefully, contentedly, cheerfully, magnificently, illustriously,
generalization: (n) generalisation, fain, joyfully, jovially, cheerily, marvelously, superbly, wonderfully,
induction, idea, abstraction, delightedly, gladsomely, readily. gorgeously, radiantly, greatly,
dialectics, theorisation, theorization, ANTONYMS: (adv) reluctantly, renownedly
learning, notion, concept, unwillingly, sadly, resentfully, gloss: (adj, n, v) polish; (n, v) glaze,
colligation. ANTONYM: (n) fact miserably comment, burnish, veneer, shine,
generously: (adv) profusely, glancing: (adj) passing color; (v) annotate; (n) brightness,
copiously, bountifully, abundantly, glare: (n) glance, brilliance, radiance, annotation, finish. ANTONYMS: (v)
largely, magnanimously, brightness; (n, v) glower, flash, overemphasize, exaggerate
munificently, kindly, handsomely, shine, scowl, beam, frown; (v) flame. glove: (n) boxing glove, gloves, mitt,
freely, benevolently. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (n) dullness, dimness mitten, baseball mitt, baseball glove,
(adv) acquisitively, selfishly, glaring: (adj) conspicuous, bright, handwear, wristband, sleeve,
prudently, grudgingly, blatant, egregious, obvious, plain, mittens, batting glove
malevolently, parsimoniously, flaming, garish, crying, gross, glary. goading: (n) encouragement,
harshly, scantily, stingily, thinly, ANTONYMS: (adj) soft, exhortation, gad, branch line,
ungenerously inconspicuous, dull, minor prodding, prod, spur, urging,
gentleness: (adj, n) kindness, glassy: (adj, v) glossy; (adj) clear, spurring; (adj) provocative
courtesy, benignity, compassion; (n) glazed, smooth, flat, crystalline, goblet: (n) bowl, chalice, cup, mug,
kindliness, lenity, mildness, dead, dull, hyaline, transparent; (v) grail, beaker, basin, tumbler,
sweetness, softness, benevolence, glabrous. ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, rummer, flask; (v) glass
mercy. ANTONYMS: (n) severity, bumpy, dull, expressive, murky, godhead: (adj, n) divinity, the Deity;
harshness, fierceness, cruelty, rough (n) godhood, godship, churchman,
ferocity, brusqueness, abruptness, glean: (v) cull, garner, reap, harvest, ecclesiastic, almighty, cleric, creator,
rage, callousness, sharpness, gather, extract, accumulate, divine; (adj) God
roughness winnow, assemble, pick up, to godlike: (adj) celestial, heavenly,
geographer: (n) cartographer gather seraphic, holy, angelic, godly, divine
geometry: (v) arithmetic, analysis, glee: (n) delight, cheerfulness, mirth, worship, deified, elysian,
algebra, stereometry, hypsometry, fun, gaiety, hilarity, joy, rejoicing, foreboding, divine songs
configuration, analytic geometry, frolic, jubilation, happiness. good-bye: (n) bye, farewell, goodbye,
analytical geometry, coordinate ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, gloom, goodby, vale, adios, cheerio
geometry, descriptive geometry, sorrow, despondency, displeasure, good-for-nothing: (adj) worthless,
elementary geometry misery, boredom feckless, pointless, asinine,
ghastly: (adj) awful, fearful, glittering: (adj, v) brilliant; (adj) unworthy; (n) loafer, do-nothing,
cadaverous, dreadful, grisly, sparkling, flashing, dazzling, rascal, rotter, cur, trash
gruesome, macabre, hideous, glistering, glistening, glinting, good-hearted: (adj) benign, good-
appalling, atrocious; (adv) shining, scintillating, splendid; (adj, natured, kindly, kindhearted
gruesomely. ANTONYMS: (adj) adv) aglitter good-humored: (adj) affable,
wonderful, lovely, attractive, globe: (n) earth, world, orb, circle, cheerful, good-natured, pleasant,
delightful eyeball, round, planet, bolus, sweet, funny, amicable, congenial,
gibbering: (adj) wild fireball, bulb; (adj, n) sphere mild, obliging
giddiness: (n) flightiness, frivolity, gloom: (n) desolation, dark, darkness, goodly: (adv) benignly, kindly,
vertigo, silliness, frivolousness, blackness, depression, dimness, strongly, rightly, graciously,
levity, lightness, capriciousness, dusk, dreariness, despair, dejection; virtuously, soundly, uprightly; (adj)
 Edgar Allan Poe 279
sizable, handsome, respectable indulge, cater; (n, v) humor; (adj) grossly: (adv) rudely, roughly,
goose: (n) goof, fathead, cuckoo, contented. ANTONYMS: (v) commonly, heavily, bluntly,
barnacle, fool, jackass, brent, brant, dissatisfy, displease, disappoint disgustingly, shamefully, rankly,
goosecap; (n, v) spur; (v) serpent gratitude: (n) appreciation, thanks, totally, uncouthly, obscenely.
gorgeous: (adj) luxurious, gaudy, thank, acknowledgement, ANTONYM: (adv) appealingly
attractive, brilliant, wonderful, acknowledgment, appreciativeness, grotesque: (adj) fantastic, bizarre,
glorious, gay, florid, palatial, dressy; feeling, appreciate, grateful, funny, antic, absurd, droll, strange,
(adj, v) rich. ANTONYMS: (adj) thanksgiving, kindness. baroque, weird, ugly, hideous.
ugly, unattractive, detestable, ANTONYMS: (n) ingratitude, ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, normal,
shabby ungratefulness commonplace, attractive
gossip: (n, v) chatter, rumor, chitchat, graven: (adj) carved, engraved, grotesquerie: (n) grotesquery
gab, talk, babble, natter, tattle; (n) etched, sculptured, sculptile, grovelling: (adj) groveling, base,
chatterbox, conversation, small talk. sculpted, inscribed, carven abject, menial, vulgar, slavish,
ANTONYM: (n) truth gravitation: (n) gravity, attraction, servile, obsequious, low, wormlike,
gossiping: (adj) gabby, garrulous, pull, graveness, habit, gravitational earthbred
scandalous; (n) gossipmongering attraction, gravitational force, growl: (adj, n, v) snarl; (n, v) roar,
gouge: (v) swindle, deceive, beguile, attractive force bark, howl, yap, moan, thunder; (v)
fleece, dig, scoop, extort, defraud, greatness: (n) excellence, dimension, gnarl, mutter, complain, croak
cut; (n, v) groove, dent dignity, bulk, size, enormousness, gruff: (adj) bluff, abrupt, curt, crusty,
graceful: (adj) beautiful, delicate, bigness, enormity, grandness, brusque, brutal, husky; (adj, v)
amiable, easy, fine, charming, fair, magnitude, fame. ANTONYMS: (n) coarse, rough, hoarse, harsh.
airy, becoming, lovely, lithe. obscurity, austerity, commonness, ANTONYMS: (adj) courteous,
ANTONYMS: (adj) inelegant, mildness, moderation, simplicity friendly, high, velvety, smooth,
stocky, awkward, vigorous, jerky, grecian: (adj) Hellenic, Achaian, mellow, gentle, civil, polite
ugly, stilted, heavy, coarse, classical; (n) cheat grumble: (n, v) mutter, gripe, growl,
strenuous greedy: (adj) avid, gluttonous, moan, rumble, mumble, groan, roar;
gracious: (adj) genial, benign, good, desirous, grasping, acquisitive, (v) complain, grouch; (n) complaint.
courteous, compassionate, kind, glutton, piggish, voracious, selfish; ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise; (v)
accommodating, civil; (adj, n) (adj, v) avaricious, covetous. compliment, rejoice
benevolent, congenial, gentle. ANTONYMS: (adj) temperate, grumbling: (n) grumble, growling,
ANTONYMS: (adj) ungracious, ascetic, unconcerned, abstemious, murmur, murmuring, mutter,
boorish, discourteous, reserved, moderate muttering; (adj, n) rumbling; (adv)
rude, abrupt, critical, unkind, greet: (n, v) receive; (v) address, grumblingly; (adj) grouchy,
hardhearted, harsh, poor acknowledge, hail, welcome, cry, grumpy, irritable
gradation: (n) degree, scale, ablaut, salute, bid, weep, meet, recognize guessing: (adv) guessingly; (n) dead
progression, graduation, tier, step, grieve: (n, v) distress, aggrieve, reckoning, guesswork,
level, shade, form, extent afflict, sorrow, annoy; (v) trouble, approximation, supposition, gibe,
granite: (n) firmness, pluton, lament, deplore, bemoan, fret, shot, blastoff, barb, estimation, dig
steadiness, batholite, limestone, bewail. ANTONYMS: (v) rejoice, gullet: (n) esophagus, gorge, orifice,
stonework, batholith; (adj) flint, celebrate, encourage mouth, throat, oesophagus,
crystal, fossil, crag grind: (n, v) labor, toil, comminute, weasand, muzzle, pharynx, larynx;
granting: (n) concession, conceding, drudge; (v) grate, crunch, abrade, (v) gill
yielding, surrendering, issue, chew, scrape, mash; (n) mill. gullibility: (n) ingenuousness,
agreement; (conj) although ANTONYMS: (v) blunt, smooth simplicity, credulousness, credulity,
grapple: (n, v) grip, clasp, tackle, grinning: (n) grin, smile, facial naivety, naivete, inexperience,
grasp; (v) fight, contend, grab, expression, facial gesture, smiling; navet; (adj, n) cullibility.
struggle; (adj, n, v) lock; (adj, n) (adj) beaming ANTONYMS: (n) sophistication,
hook; (n) grappling grins: (n) merriment, amusement, wariness
grasping: (adj) avaricious, covetous, entertainment, fun, gaiety, levity, gutter: (n) groove, trough, ditch,
acquisitive, greedy, avid, voracious, diversion, mirth, recreation, sport drain, chute, trench, canal, furrow,
rapacious, grabby, mercenary, grocery: (n) foodstuff, marketplace, conduit, waterway, gully
stingy; (n) seizing. ANTONYMS: grocery store, preserve, guttural: (adj) hoarse, throaty, gruff,
(adj) generous, altruistic supermarket, julep, jam, mart, food croaking, husky, harsh, velar,
gratification: (adj, n) delight; (n, v) market, confiture, consumer goods raucous, grum; (n) dental; (v) nasal.
content; (n) enjoyment, pleasure, groggy: (adj) dizzy, rickety, drunken, ANTONYMS: (adj) soft, smooth,
satisfaction, fruition, complacency, hazy, fuzzy, dazed, foggy, blurry, high
joy, luxury, treat, fulfillment. unsteady; (n) flustered, disguised. gymnastic: (n) gymnastics, athletics,
ANTONYMS: (n) dissatisfaction, ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, clear physical education; (adj) acrobatic,
disenchantment, dismay, discontent, grooming: (n) drill, discipline, gymnical; (v) palestric, herculean
anxiety dressing, exercise, fecundation, gypsum: (n) alabaster, plaster,
gratify: (v) delight, please, appease, toilet, schooling, reprimand, mineral, plaster cast, plaster stone,
accommodate, satisfy, amuse, suit, preparation, practice, formulation alabastrine
 280 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
habiliment: (n) garment, habit, uniform, synchronized, heaped: (adj) dense, cumulative,
clothing, vesture, dress, vestment, standardized, in harmony. concentrated, collective, coacervate,
raiment, garb, gear, clothes, ANTONYM: (adj) heterogeneous thick
abiliment harshness: (n) austerity, asperity, hearken: (v) hark, harken, attend,
habiliments: (n) clothes, garb, severity, acrimony, brutality, listen, hear, heed, list, listen in, listen
apparel, clothing, costume, dress, hardness, roughness, rigor, to, regard, look out
equipage, material, tackle, thing, inclemency, hoarseness; (adj, n) hearse: (n) catafalque, coffin, entomb,
apparatus strictness. ANTONYMS: (n) urn, shell, sarcophagus, pall,
habited: (adj) clothed, dressed, softness, leniency, quietness, cinerary urn, auto, car, automobile
garbed flexibility, kindness, mercy, heartfelt: (adj) cordial, sincere,
habitual: (adj, n) common, frequent, sweetness, melodiousness, devout, dear, genuine,
usual; (adj) chronic, conventional, brightness, smoothness, lenience wholehearted, frank, deep, honest,
confirmed, accustomed, natural, haste: (n, v) hurry, dash, dispatch, fervent, real. ANTONYMS: (adj)
commonplace, everyday, ordinary. rush; (n) celerity, expedition, dishonest, unenthusiastic, impassive
ANTONYMS: (adj) occasional, rapidity, speed, bustle, hastiness, hearth: (n) fire, oven, fireside, stove,
infrequent, mild, irregular, quickness. ANTONYMS: (n) delay, chimney, focus, furnace, dwelling,
exceptional, erratic, abnormal, patience, forethought, caution kiln, home, abode
innovative hastening: (n) quickening, speed, heartily: (adv) cordially, sincerely,
handiwork: (n) handicraft, creation, hurrying, speeding up, faster, fast, enthusiastically, warmly, strongly,
production, handcraft, product, stepping up earnestly, vigorously, ardently,
handwork, work, produce, design, hasty: (adj) fast, abrupt, cursory, fleet, soundly, devoutly, eagerly.
performance; (v) workmanship sudden, rash, impetuous, careless, ANTONYMS: (adv) feebly,
handkerchief: (n) hankie, kerchief, speedy, hurried, quick. languorously
bandanna, cravat, hanky, wipe, ANTONYMS: (adj) deliberate, hearty: (adj) heartfelt, healthy, genial,
bandana, collar, shawl; (n, v) considered, leisurely, sensible, sturdy, cheering, fervent,
napkin; (v) sudary gradual, thorough, cautious, careful, wholehearted, lusty, enthusiastic,
handsomely: (adv) liberally, prettily, roundabout, prudent, patient convivial; (adj, n) well.
magnanimously, bonnily, largely, haughty: (adj) supercilious, arrogant, ANTONYMS: (adj) unhealthy, frail,
lovely, charmingly, finely, assuming, contemptuous, proud, old, weak, sluggish, unwholesome,
generously, good-lookingly, lordly, cavalier, vain, contumelious, meager
smartly. ANTONYM: (adv) poorly grand; (n) boastful. ANTONYMS: heavenly: (adj) celestial, blissful,
hangings: (n) long curtains (adj) modest, meek, subservient, ethereal, delightful, angelic, blessed,
hangman: (n) executioner, headsman, unassuming, considerate, elysian, holy, unearthly, godlike,
hanger, tormentor, tiger, boggle, deferential sacred. ANTONYMS: (adj) worldly,
crossword puzzle, scrabble, wild hauteur: (n) arrogance, pride, miserable, infernal, hellish,
beast, hyena disdain, conceit, assumption, unappealing, dreadful, turbulent
haply: (adv) accidentally, by conceitedness, insolence, loftiness, heavens: (n) firmament, heaven, sky,
accident, maybe, by luck, casually, lordliness, airs, elegance. welkin, sphere, atmosphere, celestial
fortuitously, mayhap, perchance, ANTONYM: (n) modesty sphere, space, skies, area, vault of
incidentally, perhaps, peradventure hazardous: (adj) risky, unsafe, heaven
harangue: (v) declaim; (n) rant, perilous, critical, insecure, hebrews: (n) epistle to the Hebrews
screed, address, tirade, oration, precarious, dicey, chancy, uncertain; heel: (n) blackguard, dog, counter,
diatribe, sermon; (n, v) lecture, (adj, n) daring, adventurous. cad, villain, scoundrel, shoe, sole,
discourse, stump ANTONYMS: (adj) secure, stable bounder, tree rest; (v) lean
harassing: (adj) troublesome, carking, hazel: (n) cobnut, hazelnut, hazel heighten: (v) amplify, enlarge,
galling, thorny, vexatious; (v) tree, wood, brown, hazelnut tree, aggravate, raise, deepen, elevate,
bothering, pestering, tormenting, filbert bush, cob, beaked hazelnut, boost, grow, expand, compound,
worrying, annoy, harass auburn; (adj) chromatic advance. ANTONYMS: (v) alleviate,
hare: (n) leporid, cony, puss, doe, headless: (adj) acephalous, brainless, damage, decrease, improve, lessen
jackrabbit, coney; (adj) antelope, beheaded, foolish heightened: (adj) excited, intense,
courser, eagle, gazelle, greyhound headlong: (adj, adv) headfirst; (adv) irritate, keen, resonant, sensitive
harmless: (adj) safe, benign, directly, hastily, precipitately; (adj) hematite: (n) alexandrite, bloodstone,
inoffensive, hurtless, innocent, rash, hurried, desperate, jasper, moonstone, sunstone
innoxious, intact, simple; (n) silly; precipitous, impetuous, sudden, henceforward: (adv) in future, from
(adj, n) foolish; (v) weaponless. precipitate. ANTONYMS: (adj) now on, from this time on, from this
ANTONYMS: (adj) lethal, cautiously, considered; (adv) moment on, after this
damaging, destructive, poisonous, carefully herd: (n, v) crowd; (adj) bevy, many;
toxic, serious, offensive, malicious, heady: (adj) hot, intoxicating, (adj, n, v) swarm; (n) drove, gang,
hurtful, noxious, unpleasant exciting, keen, headstrong, strong, crew, collection, covey, multitude,
harmonized: (adj) harmonical, acute, quick, rude, vehement, brash. mob
consonant, harmonic, harmonious, ANTONYMS: (adj) bored, cautious, hereafter: (adv) thereafter, from now
concordant, identical, coordinated, dull, mild, weak, bland on, hence, henceforth, hereinafter,
 Edgar Allan Poe 281
afterwards; (n) afterlife, futurity, ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, (adj, n, v) worship, grace.
time to come, great beyond, future wonderfully, appealingly ANTONYMS: (n, v) dishonor,
life hieronymus: (n) Eusebius disgrace; (n) shame, humiliation,
hereditary: (adj) familial, ancestral, Hieronymus, Jerome wickedness, contempt, insult; (v)
inherent, heritable, inherited, high-minded: (adj) great, noble, break, ignore, disrespect, discredit
inborn, congenital, innate, generous, lofty, magnanimous, honorable: (adj) good, estimable,
patrimonial, native, heredity elevated, exalted, upright, exalted, respectable, fair, decent,
herein: (adv) here, therein chivalrous, magnificent, honest reputable, ethical, honor; (adj, v)
heresy: (n) paganism, heathenism, high-mindedness: (n) virtue, great, noble. ANTONYMS: (adj)
false doctrine, nonconformity, greatness shameful, disgraceful, corrupt,
revisionism, unbelief, orientation, highness: (n) excellency, altitude, degenerate, immoral, humiliating,
apostasy, fallacy, schism, dissent loftiness, nobility, greatness, dishonest, unethical, decadent, bad,
heretical: (adj) heterodox, gnostic, eminence, size, stateliness, majesty, deceitful
nonconformist, Sabian, high, grandeur hooked: (adj) bent, curved, aquiline,
gymnosophist, fire worshiper, high-spirited: (adj) valiant, valorous, addicted, infatuated, obsessed,
dissident, magi, dissenting, impious, spirited, manful, vivacious, enamored, dependent, dependant,
sacrilegious. ANTONYMS: (adj) effervescent, exuberant, jaunty, airy, engrossed, uncinate. ANTONYM:
orthodox, reverent ebullient, martial (adj) unenthusiastic
heretofore: (adv) formerly, as yet, hind: (adj, n) rear; (adj) after, hoop: (n) circle, band, ring, loop,
before, so far, yet, already, until posterior, hindermost; (n) doe, annulus, round, sphere, wheel,
now, previously, once, hereunto; clown, peasant, roe, countryman, circlet, halo; (v) encircle
(adv, n) hitherto servant; (v) hinder hopeless: (adj) incurable,
hereupon: (adv) immediately, hindoo: (n) Brahman, Vaishnava, despondent, forlorn, disconsolate,
whereupon, thereupon Kshatriya, Hindustani, gentoo, desperate, impossible, useless,
herman: (n) Woodrow Charles Brahmin, chela; (adj) Hindi abject, despair, dismal, irreparable.
Herman hinted: (adj) veiled, roundabout, not ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful,
hermann: (n) Arminius, Armin explicit, implicit, coded, oblique competent, promising, optimistic,
herod: (adj) bear down, out Herod, hissing: (adj) sibilant, sibilous, encouraging, helpful, useful,
ride roughshod; (n) Herod the great sibilatory; (n) whistling, heckling, successful, practical, laudable,
hesitate: (adj, n, v) pause, delay; (adj, scoffing, sibilance, taunts, sibilation, effective
v) linger; (v) fluctuate, halt, waver, white noise; (v) fizzle. ANTONYM: horn: (n) car horn, antler, klaxon,
vacillate, demur, boggle, (n) applause cornet, French horn, ivory, foghorn,
procrastinate; (n, v) doubt. hither: (adv) here, whither, cornu, alarm, trumpet, arm
ANTONYMS: (v) rush, decide hitherward, thither horribly: (adv) horrifically, awfully,
hesitation: (n, v) falter, fear; (n) hobbling: (n) limping; (adj) crippled terrifically, hideously, atrociously,
hesitance, faltering, delay, hesitate, hobby: (n) amusement, cockhorse, appallingly; (adj, adv) frightfully,
diffidence, hesitancy, qualm, pursuit, avocation, interest, pastime, terribly, fearfully, shockingly; (adj)
reluctance; (v) hesitating. entertainment, indulgence, fancy, ghastly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
ANTONYMS: (n) certainty, hobbyhorse, sideline. ANTONYMS: pleasantly, wonderfully, kindly,
resolution, confidence, decisiveness, (n) work, job sweetly
enthusiasm, inclination, willingness hoggishly: (adv) gluttonously, horrid: (adj) grisly, ghastly, ugly,
hessian: (n) hessian boot, Wellington greedily, piggishly, grossly gruesome, grim, fearful, dreadful,
boot, Wellington, duke of hogs: (n) Suidae, boars, family direful, dire, horrible, fearsome.
Wellington, first duke of Wellington, Suidae, stock ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, nice,
canvas, boot, capital of new hollands: (n) Holland gin, holland, appealing, attractive, kind
Zealand, Arthur Wellesley, jackboot, Genf, Geneve horseman: (n) cavalier, rider, jockey,
burlap hollo: (n, v) holler; (v) cry, scream, horse fancier, horseback rider,
heterogeneous: (adj, v) different; shout, yell, call; (n) roar, holloa, trooper, trainer, knight, cavalryman,
(adj) assorted, miscellaneous, mixed, bellowing, roaring; (int, n) holla animal fancier, postilion
unlike, motley, varied, various, hollow: (adj, n) blank; (n) cavity, hospitable: (adj) affable, receptive,
disparate, heterogenous; (v) diverse. depression, cave, dell; (adj) empty, gracious, cordial, generous, amiable,
ANTONYMS: (adj) homogeneous, false; (adj, n, v) concave; (n, v) convivial, genial, pleasant, warm, to
autogenous excavate, dent, scoop. ANTONYMS: enjoy having guests. ANTONYMS:
hideous: (adj) dreadful, frightful, (adj) convex, sincere, true, full, (adj) unwelcoming, inhospitable,
fearful, ghastly, horrid, ugly, meaningful, cramped, valid; (n) sinister, hostile
repulsive, lurid, horrible, grisly, hump, bump, hill, lump hostess: (n) mistress, air hostess,
grim. ANTONYMS: (adj) lovely, homer: (n) homing pigeon, poet, flight attendant, housewife, steward,
pleasant, beautiful, wonderful Winslow homer, bingle, referee, cor, innkeeper, landlady, prostitute, host
hideously: (adv) dreadfully, ghastly, kor, basking shark, base hit, triumph hottentot: (n) Zulu, yahoo, savage,
awfully, loathsomely, horrendously, honor: (n, v) respect, reputation, barbarian, vandal, Khoikhoi
fearfully, odiously, gruesomely, glory, fame, reward; (n) award, hourly: (adv) always, by the hour,
shockingly, repulsively, heinously. accolade, reverence; (v) celebrate; daily, often, constantly, continually,
 282 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
frequently; (adj) horary, continual, ANTONYMS: (n) noise, turmoil; (v) imagining: (n) conception,
ephemeral; (n) an hour Louden daydream, fantasy, opinion; (v)
housekeeper: (n) factotum, mistress, husky: (adj) hoarse, gruff, burly, big, imagine; (adj) imaginant
shepherd, householder, housewife, dry, raucous, beefy, strapping, imbecile: (adj) foolish, idiotic,
domestic, cleaning woman, brawny, sturdy; (n) Eskimo dog. fatuous, dumb, imbecilic, simple; (n)
croupier, domestic help, seneschal, ANTONYMS: (adj) high, puny, idiot, moron, cretin, ass, oaf.
house servant small, smooth, soft ANTONYM: (adj) genius
hovel: (n) hut, cot, booth, hole, hyacinth: (n) zircon, amethyst, cape imbecility: (n) folly, foolishness,
cottage, hutch, shanty, bothy, shed, hyacinth, carbuncle, common idiocy, fatuity, weakness, stupidity,
shack, croft. ANTONYM: (n) hyacinth, hyacine feeblemindedness, lunacy; (adj, n)
mansion hyena: (n) wild beast, aardwolf, hyen, debility, feebleness; (adj) infirmity
hover: (v) fly, hang, float, poise, hangman, canine, canid, butcher, imbue: (v) infuse, saturate, permeate,
vacillate, flutter, brood, drift, glide, brown hyena, tiger tinge, steep, dye, fill, impregnate,
waver; (adj) boggle hysterical: (adj, n) feverish; (adj) pervade, instill, inoculate
howl: (n, v) cry, roar, scream, bark, wild, violent, eccentric, frenzied, imbued: (adj) addicted, alive,
shout, yell, bay, yelp; (v) bawl, emotional, fitful, febrile, erratic; (n) instinct, full
growl, yawl. ANTONYM: (v) laugh fanatical, hysterics. ANTONYMS: imitate: (n, v) duplicate; (v) forge,
howling: (n) howl, cry; (adj) fierce, (adj) relaxed, composed, restrained ape, emulate, follow, feign,
fantastic, gross, glaring, marvelous, hysterics: (adj) frenzy, hysterical, counterfeit, mimic, mock, assume,
wonderful, wondrous; (adj, n) phrensy; (n) panic, mirth, emotional act
weeping, sniveling behavior, dramatics, paroxysm, imitated: (adj) mimical
hudson: (n) Hudson River, Henry rage, tantrum, affected behavior imitation: (adj, n) fake, sham,
Hudson idly: (adj, adv) foolishly; (adv) vainly, reproduction; (n) dummy, forgery,
humble: (v) demean, humiliate, vaguely, listlessly, forgetfully, mockery, copy, emulation; (n, v)
mortify; (n, v) disgrace, debase; (adj, distractedly; (adj) thoughtlessly. parody; (adj) false, bogus.
n, v) abase; (adj) base, lowly, ANTONYM: (adv) energetically ANTONYMS: (adj) genuine, real,
unassuming, docile, low. ignoble: (adj) contemptible, abject, natural; (n) original, formalism
ANTONYMS: (adj) impressive, base, dishonorable, disgraceful, immaterial: (adj) insignificant,
arrogant, haughty, imposing, beggarly, mean, humble, degraded, inconsequential, irrelevant,
conceited, pompous, snooty, despicable, caddish. ANTONYMS: disembodied, incorporeal, trivial,
overbearing, presumptuous, proud, (adj) honorable, glorious bodiless, spiritual, unimportant,
exalted ignoramus: (n) fool, dolt, idiot, extraneous, psychic. ANTONYMS:
humbled: (adj) humble, humiliated, blockhead, simpleton, numskull, (adj) significant, material, corporeal,
crushed, depressed, dispirited, bungler, dullard, dumbbell, physical, tangible, important
abased, broken in, abject, ashamed; dummy, booby immeasurable: (adj) endless,
(n) humbler; (v) apart ignorant: (adj) unconscious, immense, infinite, huge, enormous,
humming: (adj) droning, zippy, unwitting, rude, illiterate, illimitable, unmeasurable,
reeking, bustling, grunting, stinking; uneducated, blind, dull, unaware, incalculable, inestimable,
(n) buzzing, vocalizing, sound, uninformed, unlearned, innocent. innumerable, interminable.
murmur, growling ANTONYMS: (adj) conscious, ANTONYMS: (adj) limited, minute,
humor: (n, v) caprice, freak, humour; versed, cultured, educated, finite, shallow, slight, negligible,
(n) temper, mood, disposition, wit; informed, wary, literate, aware, tiny, few, minor, small
(v) indulge, gratify; (adj, n) spirit, polite immeasurably: (adv) boundlessly,
frame of mind. ANTONYMS: (n) ill-adapted: (adj) inapt endlessly, immensely, greatly,
seriousness, gravity, solemnity; (v) ill-bred: (adj) boorish, discourteous, much; (adj) exceedingly, extremely,
displease impertinent, graceless, gruff, exquisitely, acutely, ultra, intensely.
hungarian: (n) Hungary uncouth, uncivil, ill-mannered, ANTONYM: (adv) slightly
hunks: (adj) niggard, screw, crude, inurbane, indelicate imminent: (adj) forthcoming, coming,
muckworm, churl, skinflint, ill-fitted: (adj) ill-suited, inapt close, future, near, pending,
curmudgeon, Jew, crib, codger, illustrious: (adj, n) glorious, approaching, at hand, menacing,
lickpenny, scrimp celebrated, excellent, grand; (adj) threatening, prospective.
hurricane: (n) storm, tempest, famous, bright, eminent, famed, ANTONYMS: (adj) remote, past
cyclone, squall, tornado, whirlwind, distinguished, brilliant, well-known. immortal: (adj) eternal, enduring,
twister, tropical storm, gust, spring ANTONYMS: (adj) unknown, undying, endless, monumental; (adj,
hawser, monsoon obscure, ordinary, undistinguished, v) deathless, imperishable,
hurrying: (n) hastening, speed, lowly celebrated; (n) deity, God, divinity.
quickening, rushing, early, imaginary: (adj) fictitious, unreal, ANTONYMS: (adj) obscure, earthly,
speeding, speeding up, stepping up, false, mythical, illusory, ideal, forgettable, perishable, temporary
amphetamine, forward, eager hypothetical, visionary, fictional, immortality: (n) sempiternity,
hush: (adj, n, v) calm, silence, quiet, notional, chimerical. ANTONYMS: perpetuity, athanasia, glory, aye,
still, lull; (n) peace; (v) shut up, gag, (adj) real, palpable, actual, concrete, fame, everness, immortal,
quieten, muffle; (adj, v) soothe. prosaic, normal, true permanency, deathlessness,
 Edgar Allan Poe 283
undying. ANTONYM: (n) mortality indistinctly, scarcely, hardly. ANTONYMS: (adj) unimpressive,
immutable: (adj) unchangeable, ANTONYMS: (adv) obviously, modest, unimposing, weak,
permanent, changeless, eternal, visibly, audibly, conspicuously, undignified, lowly
inflexible, unchanging, irrevocable, perceptibly, heavily, clearly, imposition: (adj, n) exaction; (n)
stable, unalterable, invariable, fixed. strongly cheat, trick, deceit, imposture,
ANTONYMS: (adj) changeable, imperious: (adj) haughty, demand, hoax, tax, swindle, wile,
variable, flexible domineering, authoritative, infliction
impalpability: (n) intangibility, arbitrary, imperative, masterful, impost: (n) custom, tax, customs,
incorporeality, intangibleness. dictatorial, commanding, lordly, customs duty, toll, dues, cess, excise,
ANTONYM: (n) tangibility magisterial, despotic. ANTONYM: Scot, sess, stone
impalpable: (adj) imperceptible, (adj) subservient impotent: (adj) helpless, feeble, frail,
shadowy, invisible, efflorescent, impertinence: (n) audacity, gall, fragile, inadequate, weak, barren,
gritty, insubstantial, incorporeal, impudence, insolence, disrespect, slack, ineffective, incapable, unable.
inscrutable, ethereal, effrontery, brass, boldness, ANTONYMS: (adj) able, powerful
inapprehensible, elusive. impertinency, sauciness, freshness. impress: (n, v) mark, print, stamp; (v)
ANTONYMS: (adj) tangible, definite ANTONYMS: (n) politeness, move, affect, inscribe, instill, touch,
impartiality: (adj, n) justice, honesty; seriousness, reticence emboss, inculcate; (n) impression
(n) fairness, disinterestedness, impertinent: (adj) fresh, pert, saucy, impressions: (n) impersonation,
candor, equality, indifference, forward, audacious, brash, brazen, imitation
detachment, evenhandedness; (adj) extraneous, discourteous, impressiveness: (n) solemnity,
impartial, fair play. ANTONYMS: disrespectful, flippant. gravity, excellence, grandness, force,
(n) injustice, bias, inequality, ANTONYMS: (adj) respectful, expansiveness, weightiness,
partiality, prejudice, subjectivity polite, courteous loftiness, magnificence, majesty; (n,
impatience: (n) annoyance, impetuosity: (n) eagerness, haste, v) importance
eagerness, anger, intolerance, heat, violence, vehemence, imprisoned: (adj) confined, jailed,
restlessness, fidget, nervousness, impulsiveness, impetuousness, fenced in, unfree, locked up,
fidgetiness, enthusiasm, edginess; excitability, temerity, precipitation, incarcerate, deeply moved,
(adj) nonendurance. ANTONYMS: fervency. ANTONYMS: (n) enraptured; (v) behind bars
(n) calmness, endurance, apathy deliberation, patience, improbable: (adj) implausible,
impeded: (adj) blocked, disabled, consideration, carefulness impossible, incredible, unbelievable,
hampered, crippled, slow impetuous: (adj) boisterous, hasty, fishy, questionable, inconceivable,
impediment: (n, v) hindrance, check, fiery, headlong, heady, hot, brash, impractical, unthinkable, absurd;
difficulty, delay; (n) bar, hitch, foolhardy, dashing, fierce; (adj, v) (adj, n) marvelous. ANTONYMS:
barrier, obstruction, drawback, impulsive. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) probable, certain, plausible,
encumbrance, block. ANTONYMS: considered, careful, slow, sensible, truthful, ordinary, on, practical
(n) benefit, boost, incentive, strength patient improviso: (adj) improvised,
impenetrable: (adj) impassable, thick, implacable: (adj) cruel, remorseless, extemporaneous, impromptu
incomprehensible, hard, mysterious, irreconcilable, pitiless, merciless, impudence: (adj, n) boldness, brass;
unfathomable, unintelligible, grim, unappeasable, deadly, mortal, (n) cheek, gall, audacity,
impervious, opaque, heavy, obscure. relentless, unforgiving. impertinence, insolence, face,
ANTONYMS: (adj) penetrable, ANTONYMS: (adj) placable, cheekiness, effrontery, assurance.
readable, straightforward, apparent, unrelenting ANTONYMS: (n) cowardice,
simple, sparse, vulnerable, implicate: (v) embroil, involve, entail, reticence
accessible, transparent, tangle, include, accuse, compromise, impulse: (n) pulse, urge, impulsion,
understandable, open involvement, enmesh, concern, force, motive, whim, drive, goad,
imperatively: (adv) commandingly, complicate motivation, momentum, incentive.
imperiously, urgently, pressingly, implore: (v) beg, beseech, supplicate, ANTONYMS: (n) aversion,
authoritatively, obligatorily, ask, conjure, crave, pray, importune, disincentive, disinclination
essentially, magisterially, appeal, plead, solicit. ANTONYMS: impulsive: (adj) capricious, hasty,
necessarily, instantly, critically (v) demand, grant, reject driving, rash, instinctive,
imperceptible: (adj) invisible, imploring: (adj) appealing, begging, changeable, hotheaded, quick-
intangible, insensible, faint, suppliant, pleading, entreating, tempered, impellent, headlong,
evanescent, inaudible, negligible, piteous, importunate, entreating passionate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
indiscernible, unseen, unnoticeable, urgently; (v) supplicate, plead; (n) cautious, considered, predictable,
gentle. ANTONYMS: (adj) obvious, prayer unflappable, prepared, sensible,
overwhelming, clear, visible, imploringly: (adv) beseechingly, gradual, overdue, patient, placid,
perceptible, heavy, noticeable, pleadingly, importunately, premeditated
definite, considerable, conspicuous, beggingly, suppliantly, appealingly inaccurate: (adj) incorrect, faulty,
strong imposing: (adj, n, v) impressive; (adj, false, wrong, inexact, improper,
imperceptibly: (adv) unnoticeably, n) noble, commanding, solemn; (adj) loose, untrue, mistaken, not exact,
gradually, slightly, invisibly, gently, dignified, grandiose, stately, imprecise. ANTONYMS: (adj)
quietly, softly, observably, distinguished, regal, lofty, baronial. correct, exact, accurate, truthful,
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careful, reliable, valid incensed: (adj) angry, exasperated, implausible, incomprehensible,
inadequacy: (n) imperfection, defect, enraged, indignant, irate, infuriated, unimaginable, unthinkable,
inability, failure, shortage, irritated, mad, livid, angered, improbable, unintelligible,
incompetence, fault, deficit, aggravated. ANTONYM: (adj) inscrutable, fabulous. ANTONYMS:
inadequate, dearth, disproportion. pleased (adj) conceivable, believable, likely,
ANTONYMS: (n) adequacy, incessantly: (adv) constantly, understandable, credible
sufficiency, efficiency, abundance, endlessly, continually, perpetually, incongruity: (n) disharmony,
virtue, superiority, perfection, continuously, unceasingly, eternally, contradiction, disagreement,
fruitfulness, competence, capability persistently, unremittingly, incongruence, disparity,
inadmissible: (adj) ineligible, unendingly, steadily. ANTONYMS: discrepancy, discord, unconformity,
improper, unqualified, (adv) sporadically, briefly disproportion, absurdity, paradox.
inappropriate, inconvenient, unfit, incision: (n) dent, cut, gash, groove, ANTONYMS: (n) congruity,
impermissible, unbearable, score, scratch, furrow, slice; (n, v) normality, agreement
inadequate, undesirable; (v) crack, split; (v) fissure incontrovertible: (adj, v)
illtimed. ANTONYMS: (adj) inclination: (n, v) desire, bent; (n) indisputable; (adj) undeniable,
admissible, allowable fancy, affection, tendency, leaning, irrefutable, certain, indubitable,
inanimate: (adj) defunct, dull, drift, appetite, dip, proclivity, bias. unquestionable, positive,
breathless, inorganic, inactive, ANTONYMS: (n) disinclination, demonstrable, conclusive,
lifeless, exanimate, deceased, reluctance, aversion, indifference, irrefragable, sure. ANTONYMS:
extinct, unconscious, spiritless. unwillingness, antipathy, dislike, (adj) dubious, weak, arguable,
ANTONYMS: (adj) living, animate, horror tenuous, disputable, debatable
spirited incoherent: (adj) disjointed, inconvenience: (n, v) trouble,
inasmuch: (adv) gradually, pro tanto, disconnected, delirious, rambling, incommode; (v) discommode,
so, since, as, that, because, inasmuch confused, disordered, incompatible, disoblige, annoy, disturb, disquiet;
as, seeing that, for wandering, muddled, inconsistent, (n) disadvantage, difficulty,
inattentive: (adj) negligent, contradictory. ANTONYMS: (adj) nuisance, unsuitableness.
neglectful, forgetful, reckless, clear, articulate, eloquent, ANTONYMS: (n) expediency,
careless, unaware, regardless, intelligible, lucid, sound, concise, advantage; (v) help, please
inconsiderate, mindless, consistent inconvenient: (adj) inopportune,
inadvertent; (adj, v) remiss. incoherently: (adv) unconnectedly, awkward, disadvantageous,
ANTONYMS: (adj) attentive, alert, disconnectedly, disjointedly, bothersome, improper, unfavorable,
observant, carefree, cautious, loosely, confusedly, ramblingly, troublesome, hard, inapt, untoward,
conscientious, considerate, diligent, inarticulately, deliriously, unfortunate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
prudent disorderedly, incongruously, convenient, suitable, opportune,
incalculable: (adj) countless, wanderingly. ANTONYM: (adv) timely, advantageous
innumerable, numberless, clearly incredibly: (adv) unbelievably,
boundless, inestimable, immense, incomparably: (adv) superlatively, improbably, implausibly, greatly,
infinite, myriad, numerous, matchlessly, uniquely, dreadfully, fantastically; (adj, adv)
invaluable, unpredictable. exceptionally, outstandingly, astonishingly, amazingly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) calculable, unbeatably, uncomparably, marvelously, surprisingly; (adj)
negligible, limited, worthless, tiny, excellently, very, greatly, beyond emphatically. ANTONYMS: (adv)
slight, finite, few, definite, small, compare. ANTONYM: (adv) unremarkably, slightly, credibly,
minor comparably believably, sensibly, plausibly,
incapable: (adj) impotent, incomplete: (adj) faulty, deficient, conceivably, hardly
inadequate, unable, helpless, inadequate, imperfect, short, incredulity: (n) doubt, unbelief,
powerless, unqualified, inept, lacking, unfinished, half, skepticism, incredulousness,
insufficient, inapt, ineffectual, unfit. insufficient, sketchy; (adj, adv) distrust, wonder, surprise,
ANTONYMS: (adj) able, competent, halfway. ANTONYMS: (adj) suspicion, suspiciousness, mistrust,
strong, powerful, effective finished, whole, entire, scepticism. ANTONYMS: (n) faith,
incapacity: (n) inability, impotence, comprehensive, boundless, understanding, belief
incapability, disqualification, adequate incubus: (n) demon, load, weight,
inadequacy, disablement, incomprehensible: (adj) devil, fiend, daemon, Ephialtes,
inefficiency, powerlessness, inapprehensible, inscrutable, onus, situation, cacodemon,
insufficiency, incompetency; (adj) inarticulate, abstruse, cryptic, responsibility
imbecility. ANTONYMS: (n) unfathomable, puzzling, obscure, incumbent: (adj, v) superimposed;
capacity, ability, strength inexplicable, inconceivable, (n) functionary, official,
incendiary: (adj) inflammatory, unaccountable. ANTONYMS: (adj) householder, occupant, parson,
seditious, provocative, flammable, comprehensible, explicable, locum tenens, sojourner; (adj)
inflammable; (n) firebrand, agitator, understandable, intelligible, legible, compulsory; (v) supernatant,
arsonist, firebug, firebomb, obvious, straightforward overlying
incendiary bomb. ANTONYM: (adj) inconceivable: (adj, v) unbelievable, indebted: (adj) grateful, appreciative,
conciliatory hard to believe; (adj) impossible, thankful, obliged, liable, insolvent,
 Edgar Allan Poe 285
broke; (prep) beholden, debted; (n) words, unbelievably, unutterably, equivocal, debatable, imitation,
debtor; (v) owe. ANTONYM: (adj) unthinkably tenuous, weak
ungrateful indeterminate: (adj) inconclusive, indisputably: (adv) authentically,
indecent: (adj) indelicate, unseemly, indefinite, equivocal, vague, neutral, unquestionably, undeniably, clearly,
filthy, immodest, dirty, gross, indistinct, obscure, undetermined, indubitably, authenticly, decidedly,
immoral, indecorous, shameful, indecisive, inexact, adventitious. unarguably, incontrovertibly, easily,
unbecoming, inappropriate. ANTONYMS: (adj) quantifiable, certainly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
ANTONYMS: (adj) proper, fitting, definite, determinate, specific, exact, doubtfully, arguably, falsely,
admirable, correct, pleasant certain, strong possibly, unclearly
indecorous: (adj) indecent, indications: (n) discriminating indistinct: (adj) indefinite,
unbecoming, impolite, unseemly, marks, indicia, chance inarticulate, faint, dull, fuzzy,
coarse, indelicate, inappropriate, indifferent: (adj) apathetic, indeterminate, hazy, neutral; (adj, n)
untoward, immodest, unsuitable, impassive, cold, cool, callous, fair, confused, cloudy, dark.
tasteless. ANTONYMS: (adj) polite, insensible, unconcerned, careless, ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, slight,
decorous, proper, dignified, correct, dull, average. ANTONYMS: (adj) separate, certain, precise, audible,
decent enthusiastic, fervent, keen, strong, definite
indefatigable: (adj) tireless, obsessive, energetic, eager, indistinctly: (adv) vaguely, dimly,
assiduous, unflagging, untiring, involved, surprised, exceptional, hazily, mistily, inarticulately,
inexhaustible, energetic, concerned, shocked shadowily, obscurely, unclearly,
unremitting, indomitable, laborious, indignant: (adj) angry, incensed, fuzzily, confusedly, ambiguously.
unwearying, unwearied. furious, enraged, wrathful, hurt, ANTONYMS: (adv) precisely,
ANTONYMS: (adj) idle, feeble, rage, provoked, hot, anger, irate. audibly, coherently, distinctly
unrelenting, weary ANTONYMS: (adj) cool, content, indite: (v) pen, draft, draw up, frame,
indefinable: (adj) ineffable, unaffected dictate, write, annotate, footnote,
unspeakable, vague, indeterminate, indignantly: (adv) irately, angrily, formulate, adopt, dramatize
undefinable, inexpressible, elusive, wrathfully, enragedly, sorely, individuality: (n) character,
indefinite, undefined, nondescript, acrimoniously, cynically, sulkily, individualism, personality,
equivocal. ANTONYMS: (adj) hotly, exasperatedly, furiously originality, distinctiveness, identity,
concrete, precise indignation: (n) anger, resentment, peculiarity, selfhood, ego,
indefinite: (adj, v) ambiguous, vague; displeasure, grudge, umbrage, rage, disposition, independence.
(adj) uncertain, boundless, hazy, outrage, exasperation, choler, ANTONYMS: (n) commonality,
equivocal, unlimited, doubtful, dudgeon; (adj, n) wrath. sameness, conformity
dubious, imprecise, indecisive. ANTONYMS: (n) contentment, indolent: (adj) idle, lazy, slothful,
ANTONYMS: (adj) definite, limited, pleasure sluggish, careless, slow, dull, torpid,
fixed, constrained, specific, distinct, indiscriminate: (adj) random, inert, drowsy, listless. ANTONYMS:
known, precise, clear, exact haphazard, sweeping, general, (adj) active, industrious, vigorous,
indefinitely: (adv) indistinctly, confused, aimless, disorderly, diligent
indeterminately, unclearly, motley, indiscriminating, irregular; indubitably: (adv) certainly, surely,
uncertainly, undefinedly, unfixedly, (adj, v) miscellaneous. positively, incontrovertibly,
loosely, imprecisely, ANTONYMS: (adj) discerning, unquestionably, clearly,
undeterminedly, unsettledly, discriminating, selective, specific, undoubtedly, of course, absolutely,
obscurely. ANTONYM: (adv) systematic, isolated, methodical, indisputably, decidedly.
temporarily deliberate ANTONYMS: (adv) possibly,
indelicate: (adj) indecent, immodest, indispensable: (adj, v) necessary, arguably, doubtfully
crude, gross, improper, coarse, imperative, requisite; (adj) induce: (v) generate, tempt, cause,
crass, bawdy, unbecoming, broad, obligatory, fundamental, required, impel, bring, create, draw,
scurrilous. ANTONYMS: (adj) mandatory, vital, urgent, absolutely engender, beget, get, infer.
decorous, tasteful, sensitive, necessary; (v) needful. ANTONYMS: (v) prevent, restrain
discreet, decent, correct ANTONYMS: (adj) dispensable, induct: (v) inaugurate, initiate, invest,
indemnify: (v) reimburse, nonessential, optional, marginal, swear in, introduce, seat, instate,
recompense, cover, assure, ensure, unnecessary, worthless, minor consecrate, call, crown, enlist
repay, atone, remunerate, requite, indisposed: (adj) ill, ailing, loath, inductive: (adj) causative, epagogic,
recoup, refund sick, averse, poorly, sickly, reluctant, inductional, preparatory,
indescribable: (adj) indefinable, unwilling, unwell, diseased. preliminary, introductory
ineffable, unutterable, vague, ANTONYMS: (adj) inclined, willing, indulged: (adj) pet, privileged,
beyond expression, nameless, keen, disposed cherished, admired
inexpressible, nondescript, terrible, indisputable: (adj) incontestable, indulging: (n) pampering, excess,
intangible, termless. ANTONYMS: incontrovertible, sure, irrefutable, indulgence, orgy, folly, foolery,
(adj) explainable, conceivable, undeniable, firm, absolute, positive, gratification
concrete decided, obvious, unmistakable. ineffable: (adj) indescribable,
indescribably: (adv) unspeakably, ANTONYMS: (adj) dubious, unspeakable, unutterable,
incredibly, inconceivably, beyond doubtful, questionable, disputable, indefinable, inexpressible, beyond
 286 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
expression, unimaginable, beyond impure, tainted, festering, corrupt, ingenious: (adj) adroit, artful, clever,
words, unpronounceable, dreadful, unclean, morbid, stained, spoiled, cunning, deft, expert, creative,
untellable soiled. ANTONYM: (adj) healthy imaginative, cute, acute, able.
inessential: (adj) unnecessary, inference: (n) corollary, implication, ANTONYMS: (adj) impulsive,
unessential, petty, immaterial, illation, conclusion, assumption, naive, unoriginal, inept
dispensable, superfluous, judgment, surmise, derivation, ingeniously: (adv) artfully, cleverly,
peripheral, redundant, needless, analogy, guess, result. ANTONYM: adroitly, skillfully, inventively,
expendable; (n) entity. (n) fact resourcefully, shrewdly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) essential; (n) inferiority: (n) poorness, degeneracy, imaginatively, cunningly, craftily,
necessity subordinacy, minority, artistically. ANTONYM: (adv)
inexplicable: (adj) incomprehensible, disadvantage, calibre, vulgarity, ineptly
mysterious, unaccountable, quality, subordination, meanness, ingenuity: (adj, n) ability; (n)
inscrutable, unfathomable, deteriority. ANTONYMS: (n) adroitness, ingeniousness, cunning,
enigmatic, baffling, indecipherable, superiority, advantage, excellence, imagination, acumen, resource,
unexplained, incognizable, preeminence originality, skill, wit, inventiveness.
preternatural. ANTONYMS: (adj) infernal: (adj) devilish, fiendish, ANTONYM: (n) ineptness
understandable, explicable, diabolical, demonic, damned, ingratitude: (n) oblivion of benefits,
mundane, apparent, explainable, cursed, blasted, unholy, wicked; thanklessness, ungratefulness,
straightforward, natural, legible (adj, v) diabolic, satanic feeling. ANTONYM: (n) gratitude
inexpressible: (adj, v) indescribable; infernally: (adv) satanically, inhaling: (adj) inhale, breathing,
(adj) ineffable, unspeakable, fiendishly, diabolically, devilishly, inhalant
unutterable, indefinable, wickedly, unholy, demonically, inimitable: (adj) unique, matchless,
incommunicable, nameless, untold, satanicly, deucedly, blessedly, particular, unrivaled, unparalleled,
beyond description, unexpressible, damnedly special, unmatched, supreme,
undefinable. ANTONYM: (adj) infested: (adj) crawling, swarming, unparagoned, exclusive, single.
definite polluted, overrun, malodorous, ANTONYMS: (adj) universal,
inexpressibly: (adv) unspeakably, beset, diseased, contaminated, ordinary
indescribably, beyond words infected injudicious: (adj) foolish, unwise,
inextinguishable: (adj) indomitable, infinitely: (adv) greatly, vastly, indiscreet, unadvised, careless,
impregnable, dominating, immensely, immeasurably, improper, thoughtless, rash, hasty,
quenchless, indestructible, boundlessly, enormously, ill-judged, incautious. ANTONYMS:
unquenchable; (v) incommutable, unboundedly, hugely, ceaselessly, (adj) wise, sensible, careful, prudent,
indefeasible, volcanic, irreducible, unendingly; (adj, adv) incalculably. judicious, discreet, advisable
simmering ANTONYM: (adv) finitely injunction: (n) dictate, command,
infallible: (adj) sure, inevitable, infinity: (n) infinite, immensity, behest, bidding, commandment, fiat,
positive, inerrable, unfailing, infiniteness, infinitude, direction, enjoinment, enjoining,
absolute, confident, definite, boundlessness, immutability, glory, order, instruction
dependable; (adj, v) unerring; (n) greatness, holiness, forever, injure: (n, v) damage, harm, impair;
sterling. ANTONYMS: (adj) fallible, perpetuity. ANTONYM: (n) (v) contuse, disfigure, maim, bruise,
faulty limitedness blemish, wound, insult; (adj, v)
infancy: (n) babyhood, cradle, infirm: (adj, n, v) feeble; (adj, v) faint, abuse. ANTONYMS: (v) heal,
beginning, birth, genesis, minority, weak, sickly, debilitated; (adj) enable, repair, protect, help
early childhood, youth, nonage, impotent, fragile, decrepit, ill, inlaid: (adj) decorated
adolescence, early days. delicate, shaky. ANTONYMS: (adj) inlet: (n) bay, cove, gulf, entry,
ANTONYM: (n) maturity whole, well, hearty entrance, arm, gateway, loch,
infantine: (adj) babyish, childish, infirmity: (adj, n) frailty, foible, armlet, intake, recess
puerile, infant, babish, immature imbecility; (n) feebleness, innuendo: (n, v) hint, suggestion; (n)
infantry: (n) foot soldier, impotence, disability, decrepitude, allusion, implication, inkling, cue,
infantryman, artillery, army unit, illness, sickness, disease, weakness. insinuation, reference, intimation,
army, base, cavalry, dragoon, ft, ANTONYMS: (n) health, wellness, slur, sarcasm
fundament, groundwork strength innumerable: (adj) countless,
infatuation: (adj) devotion, inflated: (adj) grandiloquent, numberless, incalculable,
fascination, enchantment, gross exaggerated, puffy, conceited, multitudinous, infinite, innumerous,
credulity; (adj, n) passion, fervor, hyperbolic, vain, bloated, swollen, unnumbered, uncounted, myriad,
fanaticism; (n) crush, idolatry, love, extravagant, flatulent; (adj, v) immeasurable, untold. ANTONYM:
hobby. ANTONYM: (n) indifference distended. ANTONYMS: (adj) (adj) finite
infect: (v) contaminate, corrupt, deflated, humble, cheap, reasonable inordinate: (adj) immoderate,
affect, inspire, foul, pollute, defile, infliction: (adj) affliction; (n) extravagant, exorbitant, undue,
poison, touch, animate; (adj) punishment, annoyance, imposition, exuberant, unconscionable,
contagious. ANTONYMS: (v) discipline, worry, penalty, nuisance, unreasonable, fulsome, irregular,
purify, disinfect, clean bother, hardship, misery extreme, preposterous.
infected: (adj) diseased, dirty, informs: (v) inform; (n) informing ANTONYMS: (adj) moderate, small
 Edgar Allan Poe 287
inquietude: (n) anxiety, disturbance, significant, enormous, major, gut, reflex; (adj, v) involuntary.
unrest, perturbation, disquiet, important, huge, substantial, ANTONYMS: (adj) learned, stilted,
restlessness, uneasiness, edginess, considerable, great, colossal, deliberate, factual, systematic,
trepidation; (n, v) discomfort, valuable, influential trained, spiritual
vexation of spirit insinuate: (v) imply, hint, intimate, instinctively: (adv) involuntarily,
inquire: (v) demand, ask, explore, indicate, suggest, adumbrate, mechanically, spontaneously,
enquire, inspect, research, consult, connote, signify, ingratiate, instill, automatically, intuitively,
pry, request, wonder; (n, v) denote inherently, automaticly,
question. ANTONYM: (v) answer insinuated: (adj) subtle unconsciously, impulsively,
inquiring: (adj) inquisitive, quizzical, insisting: (v) insist; (adj) persistent, unthinkingly, instinctually.
interested, analytical, probing, insistent, incumbent; (n) insistency, ANTONYMS: (adv) consciously,
intrusive; (adj, n) questioning; (v) imperativeness objectively
inquire; (n) enquiry, question, insolence: (n) impertinence, instruct: (v) charge, educate, teach,
examination. ANTONYM: (adj) arrogance, audacity, impudence, advise, enlighten, direct, drill,
uninquiring effrontery, cheek, assumption, gall, inform, command, indoctrinate,
inquisitive: (adj) inquiring, disrespect, haughtiness, crust. tutor
speculative, nosy, prying, ANTONYMS: (n) respect, insufferable: (adj, v) intolerable,
questioning, nosey, meddling, politeness, meekness, shyness abhorrent; (adj) excruciating,
investigative, meddlesome, insolent: (adj) impertinent, abusive, impossible, unbearable,
quizzical, overcurious. disrespectful, impudent, fresh, insupportable, unendurable,
ANTONYMS: (adj) apathetic, arrogant, brazen, defiant, offensive, unsufferable, hateful, painful; (v)
uninterested brassy, bold. ANTONYMS: (adj) nauseous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
inquisitively: (adv) pryingly, nosily, respectful, modest, gracious, meek, manageable, nice, lovable
inquiringly, questioningly, submissive insulated: (adj) cloistered
meddlesomely, speculatively, insomnia: (n) restlessness, ahypnia, insult: (n, v) contumely, affront,
searchingly, meddlingly, wakefulness. ANTONYM: (n) abuse, flout, outrage, wound, taunt;
interestedly, interrogatively, eagerly hypersomnia (n) disgrace, indignity, contempt; (v)
inquisitiveness: (n) curiosity, inspect: (v) overhaul, overlook, cut. ANTONYMS: (n, v)
nosiness, prying, appetite for survey, watch, scrutinize, view, compliment, praise; (v) flatter,
knowledge, foreignness, exactness, explore, look, review, inquire, consecrate; (n) privilege
accuracy, elaboration, eagerness to monitor. ANTONYMS: (v) skim, insulted: (adj) affronted, offended,
learn, carefulness ignore injured, huffy
insane: (adj) foolish, daft, demented, inspire: (adj, v) cheer, enliven, insults: (adj) insulting; (n) abuse,
mad, delirious, lunatic, fool, exhilarate; (v) encourage, excite, swearing
moonstruck, frantic, idiotic, nutty. inhale, incite, affect, infuse, hearten, intellect: (n) mind, intelligence,
ANTONYM: (adj) sensible actuate. ANTONYMS: (v) understanding, reason, brains, head,
insanity: (adj, n) craziness, extinguish, disenchant, douse, intellectual, apprehension, psyche,
derangement, frenzy, aberration; (n) knock, dampen, calm, dishearten genius, brainpower. ANTONYM:
delirium, dementia, mania, folly, instantaneous: (adj) immediate, (n) stupidity
lunacy, idiocy; (adj) madness. prompt, sudden, precipitate, intelligibility: (n) readability,
ANTONYMS: (n) sanity, sense momentary, abrupt, precipitous, comprehensibility, clarity, lucidity,
inscribed: (adj) etched, incised, precipitant, swift, momentaneous, simplicity, articulation,
graven, written, carved, carven quick. ANTONYMS: (adj) gradual, understandability, perspicuity,
inscription: (n) epigraph, entry, delayed, considered precision, speech intelligibility,
dedication, autograph, epitaph, instantaneously: (adv) directly, intelligibleness. ANTONYM: (n)
registration, lettering, writing, instantly, at once, forthwith, unintelligibility
record, superscription, title suddenly, promptly, abruptly, intelligible: (adj) clear,
inserted: (prep) between; (adj) momentarily, outright, right away, understandable, articulate,
parenthetical in a flash. ANTONYM: (adv) luminous, apprehensible, graspable,
insignificance: (n) unimportance, eventually simple, lucid, definite, distinct,
insignificancy, indifference, instanter: (adv) immediately, now, perspicuous. ANTONYMS: (adj)
immateriality, inconsiderableness, directly, right, straightway, at once, difficult, illegible
slightness, smallness, meanness, straight; (adj) suddenly, like a shot, intemperance: (n) dissipation,
littleness, futility, subito, presto drunkenness, indulgence,
inconsequentiality. ANTONYMS: instigation: (n) fomentation, debauchery, crapulence, drinking,
(n) seriousness, importance, gravity, encouragement, incitement, drink, immoderateness,
appropriateness, value, fame abetment, incitation, agitation, overindulgence, intemperateness,
insignificant: (adj) inconsequential, provocation, inducement, initiation, insobriety. ANTONYM: (n)
inconsiderable, humble, poor, excitation, stimulus temperance
immaterial, trivial, unimportant, instinctive: (adj) inherent, inborn, intent: (n) idea, intention, design,
light, infinitesimal, indifferent, automatic, natural, mechanical, spirit, meaning, import, goal,
small. ANTONYMS: (adj) spontaneous, intuitive, unconscious, purpose; (adj, n) attentive; (adj)
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absorbed, engrossed conversance, confidence. outrageous, jealous, abominable,
intentional: (adj, v) voluntary; (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) distance, formality odious, loathsome, covetous; (adj, v)
deliberate, calculated, willful, intimated: (adj) tacit, furtive, dejected spiteful. ANTONYMS: (adj)
knowing, conscious, premeditated, intimation: (n) hint, inkling, pleasant, desirable
designed, planned, advised, wilful. implication, insinuation, suggestion, inviolate: (adj, v) intact; (adj) sacred,
ANTONYMS: (adj) accidental, clue, allusion, indication, cue, notice, sacrosanct, whole, entire, pure; (v)
unintentional, involuntary, innuendo in petto, clandestine, auricular,
spontaneous, undesigned, intoxicated: (adj) drunken, drunk, close, privy
unconscious, casual inebriate, tipsy, elated, stimulated, invitingly: (adv) pleasingly,
intentionally: (adv) deliberately, intoxicate, infatuated, fuddled, tantalizingly, engagingly, invite,
advisedly, consciously, purposely, loaded, plastered. ANTONYM: (adj) appealingly, attractively, enticingly,
on purpose, knowingly, willfully, sober seductively, alluringly, winningly,
studiedly, expressly, purposefully, intractable: (adj) inflexible, fractious, magnetically
intendedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) stubborn, contumacious, contrary, invoice: (n) account, tab, reckoning,
accidentally, innocently insubordinate, froward, recalcitrant, chit, score, receipt, accounting,
interloper: (adj, n) stranger, alien; (n) perverse, wayward, unruly. record, Federal Reserve note; (n, v)
encroacher, trespasser, invader, ANTONYMS: (adj) tractable, list; (v) charge
boarder, bodkin, foreigner, biddable, flexible, manageable, involuntary: (adj) instinctive,
gatecrasher, go between, unknown. compliant, easy, easygoing, docile, unconscious, unintentional, forced,
ANTONYM: (n) native amenable mechanical, unthinking, reluctant,
intermingled: (adj) amalgamated, intruder: (n) trespasser, interloper, unwilling, compulsory, inadvertent,
integrated, coalesced, blended, encroacher, raider, invader, accidental. ANTONYMS: (adj)
incorporated, assorted, aggressor, go between, gatecrasher, voluntary, intentional, intended,
consolidated, incorporate, stalker, boarder; (adj, n) stranger willing
amalgamate, fused intuition: (n) insight, feeling, irascibility: (n) irascibleness,
internally: (adv) innerly, intrinsically, presentiment, suspicion, touchiness, temper, acrimony,
inwardly, nationally, intimately, premonition, notion, instinct, sense, testiness, irritability, asperity,
insidely, within, locally, essentially, vision, bosom, thought. spleen, edginess, quick temper, bad
privately, really. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (n) intellect, certainty temper
(adv) outwardly, outside, intuitive: (adj) instinctive, inborn, iris: (n) diaphragm, flag, pupil,
internationally innate, impulsive, natural, rainbow, gladdon, blue flag, white,
interposed: (adj) interjacent, perceptive, automatic, intuitional, tulip, comet, tortoise shell, peacock
intercedent, intervenient, untaught, involuntary, presentative. irrational: (adj) absurd, inconsistent,
parenthetical, intermediate colors, ANTONYMS: (adj) intellectual, silly, unreasonable, blind, illogical,
mediate systematic, deliberate, obtuse, stilted senseless, preposterous, imprudent,
interred: (adj) buried, inhumed, invaluable: (adj) valuable, unsound, thoughtless.
hidden. ANTONYM: (adj) unburied inestimable, incalculable, precious, ANTONYMS: (adj) logical, lucid,
interrupt: (v) disturb, break, hinder, costly, rare, unvalued, beyond price, wise, sensible, worthwhile,
intermit, stop, cut, break in, arrest, unvaluable, serviceable, unprizable. systematic
check; (n, v) suspend; (adj, v) pause. ANTONYM: (adj) dispensable irregular: (adj) atypical, abnormal,
ANTONYMS: (v) cheer, respect, invent: (v) devise, form, create, erratic, anomalous, eccentric,
restore excogitate, concoct, imagine, broken, sporadic, disorderly,
interruption: (n) disruption, contrive; (n, v) forge, fabricate, strange, changeable; (adj, n) guerilla.
intermission, halt, pause, design, coin ANTONYMS: (adj) symmetrical,
suspension, discontinuance, hiatus; inventive: (adj) imaginative, normal, smooth, constant, even,
(n, v) break, hindrance, impediment; ingenious, clever, fertile, steady, compact, cyclic, equal,
(v) interrupt. ANTONYMS: (n) resourceful, innovative, originative, frequent, permanent
permanence, help, respect productive, artistic, bright; (adj, v) irregularity: (n) abnormality,
intersperse: (v) interject, interleave, original. ANTONYMS: (adj) anomaly, eccentricity, inequality,
diffuse, scatter, alternate, interlard, unoriginal, uninventive, stale, deviation, aberration, constipation,
interline, interpolate, interpose, hackneyed exception, unevenness, variation;
intercalate, diversify inventor: (n) architect, artificer, (adj, n) deformity. ANTONYMS: (n)
intervening: (adj) middle, interstitial, discoverer, founder, originator, symmetry, normality, regularity,
intervene, interposed, intermediate deviser, prime mover, author, dependability, equality, frequency,
colors, mediate, mesne; (adj, v) builder, contriver, designer evenness, consistency,
intercurrent, interjacent; (v) inveterate: (adj) incorrigible, predictability, smoothness
intervenient; (n) middler. confirmed, chronic, ingrained, old, irresistible: (adj) resistless, invincible,
ANTONYM: (adj) permanent irredeemable; (adj, v) fixed; (v) irrefragable, irrefutable,
intimacy: (adj, n) familiarity, rooted, ingrafted, hackneyed; (n) overpowering, overwhelming,
acquaintance; (n) closeness, ineffaceable impregnable, indomitable,
fellowship, association, friendship, invidious: (adj) obnoxious, hateful, charming, fascinating; (adj, v)
intercourse, affair, camaraderie, discriminatory, offensive, uncontrollable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
 Edgar Allan Poe 289
resistible, insignificant, unappealing, miserable, serious gentleness. ANTONYMS: (n)
weak joyous: (adj) happy, gleeful, elated, miserliness, spite, nastiness,
irritable: (adj) fractious, irascible, jolly, glad, gay, jovial, merry, festive, callousness, cruelty, unfriendliness,
edgy, cantankerous, touchy, cheerful, jocund. ANTONYMS: (adj) maliciousness, thoughtlessness,
petulant, excitable, cross, sensitive, despairing, joyless, miserable sourness, severity, disservice
grumpy, disagreeable. judicious: (adj, v) discreet; (adj) knickerbockers: (n) knickers,
ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, happy, careful, discerning, sensible, breeches, pants, knee pants,
cheerful, amiable, patient, pleasant, prudent, rational, sagacious, sound, trousers, bloomers, britches,
stable, courteous; (n) cheeriness cautious, reasonable, advisable. drawers, buckskins
irritating: (adj) infuriating, ANTONYMS: (adj) stupid, tactless, knocker: (n) boob, tit, breast,
bothersome, annoying, indiscriminate, reckless, illogical, doorknocker, nipple, knock, door-
exasperating, irksome, irritative, extreme, untimely knocker, depreciator, disparager,
vexatious, aggravating, jumps: (n) fit, nervousness, tension, detractor, hatemonger
troublesome, irritant; (v) stinging. anxiety, jitters knocking: (n) sound, bang, beating,
ANTONYMS: (adj) soothing, jung: (n) Carl Jung, Carl Gustav Jung hit, rap, strike, belt, criticism, bash
calming, delightful, pleasant juniper: (n) shrub, dwarf juniper, knot: (n) bow, cluster, lump, gang,
issuing: (n) issuance, supplying, bush, juniper bush, juniper berry, joint; (v) entangle, knit, bind; (n, v)
emanation, consequence, raetam, retama raetam, retem, savin, tie, loop, tangle. ANTONYMS: (v)
publication, effect, egress, Genista raetam unravel, undo, unknot, disentangle
emergence, exit; (adj) flowing, jupiter: (n) Jove, blazon, deity, father, knowingly: (adj, adv, v) wittingly;
emergent Zeus, solar system, thunderer (adv) intentionally, consciously,
jackanapes: (n) saucebox, brat, minx, justly: (adv) accurately, fairly, designedly, shrewdly, on purpose,
nobody, nonentity, coxcomb, ape, correctly, honestly, lawfully, purposely, wisely, wilfully,
monkey, cypher, lightweight, cipher properly, exactly, uprightly, ingeniously; (adv, v) by design.
java: (n) chicory, coffee capuccino, legitimately, impartially, purely. ANTONYMS: (adv) accidentally,
coffee bean, ice coffee, chocolate, ANTONYMS: (adv) wrongly, unintentionally, unwittingly, openly
coffee berry, coffee royal, decaf, unfairly, unjustifiably, unjustly, knuckles: (n) brass knuckles, knuckle
decaffeinated coffee, deep brown, unlawfully, sinfully, falsely, duster, weapon, arm, knucks, hand
demitasse immorally kraut: (n) Jerry, Krauthead, Hun,
jaws: (n) jaw, chops, fauces, chaps, keenly: (adv) eagerly, zealously, Boche
mandible, maw, lips, holding piercingly, acutely, cuttingly, labor: (n, v) toil, endeavor, drudgery,
device; (v) mazard ardently, strongly, lively, travail, struggle, confinement,
jealousy: (n) suspicion, jealous, penetratingly, fervently, avidly. childbirth, delivery, grind; (n) effort,
jealousness, envy, envious, ANTONYMS: (adv) exertion. ANTONYMS: (n, v) rest;
alertness, distrust, contention, unenthusiastically, apathetically, (v) relax, ignore; (n) management,
competition, scruple, qualm faintly, reluctantly, patiently, leisure, death, relaxation
jeremiad: (adj, n) jeremiade; (n) passively, halfheartedly, vaguely labored: (adj) elaborate, strained,
lament, dirge, grievance, plaint, keenness: (n) ardor, eagerness, laborious, heavy, arduous, hard,
lamentation, tirade, harangue, enthusiasm, acumen, sharpness, artificial, laboured, awkward,
invective, diatribe zeal, acuity, quickness, diligence, unnatural, studied. ANTONYM:
jerk: (n, v) jump, yank, shake, twitch, fervor; (n, v) edge. ANTONYMS: (n) (adj) easy
jar, tug, bump, heave, pull; (v) fling, unwillingness, dullness, lacerated: (adj) torn, blasted,
flip. ANTONYM: (v) ease indifference, faintness, dislike, mangled, hurt; (adj, prep) rent
jerking: (adj) arrhythmic, patience, reluctance lachrymatory: (n) lacrymal
arrhythmical, jerky, unsteady; (n) kepler: (n) Johannes Kepler laconic: (adj) curt, brief, terse,
movement, jolt, dork, jar kerseymere: (n) cassimere compendious, succinct, pithy,
jest: (n) gag, gibe, quip, game; (n, v) kicking: (n) boot, recoil, movement, compact, taciturn, laconical,
jape; (v) banter, jeer, deride, gird, bang, automobile trunk, beef, summary, short. ANTONYM: (adj)
sneer, clown charge, flush, gripe; (adj) peevish, voluble
jetty: (n) groyne, pier, breakwater, disgruntled ladle: (v) lade, scoop, dip, laden,
dock, mole, bulwark, berth, quay, kicks: (n) elation, thrill, excitement, transfuse; (n, v) shovel; (n) spoon,
wharf, jutty, harbor fulfillment, gratification, pleasure trowel, watch glass, vessel, thimble
jewelry: (n) jewellery, jewel, gem, kindhearted: (adj) kind, kindly, lafitte: (n) Jean Laffite, Jean Lafitte
bijou, gems, adornment, bangle, generous, obliging, kind-hearted, lamentable: (adj) grievous, pitiful,
earring, bead, bracelet, band merciful, good-hearted, gracious, distressing, sad, dismal, sorrowful,
jewels: (n) jewelry, gems, wealth, gentle, humane, charitable. piteous, unfortunate, lugubrious;
hoops, Perrie, riches, studs, fortune, ANTONYMS: (adj) unfeeling, (adj, v) pitiable, mournful.
fineness, earrings, decoration callous, cold, hardhearted, rough ANTONYMS: (adj) laudable,
jolly: (adj) gay, cheerful, happy, kindness: (n) generosity, clemency, fortunate
festive, genial, bright, cheery, merry, compassion, grace, good will, lamentation: (n) dirge, grief,
jocund; (v) chaff; (adv) lively. graciousness, humanity, goodness, mourning, plaint, regret, complaint,
ANTONYMS: (adj) gloomy, affection; (adj, n) courtesy, cry, crying, wail, moan, condolence.
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ANTONYM: (n) celebration release. ANTONYM: (v) flood increase, dye, depress, aggravate,
landlady: (n) landlord, madam, leap: (n, v) bound, spring, bounce, exacerbate
proprietor, hostess, innkeeper, caper, dive, vault, lunge; (v) dance, lightning: (n) levin, electricity,
landholder, lady of the house hop, start; (n) curvet. ANTONYMS: thunderbolt, Leven, ignis fatuus,
languidly: (adv) languorously, (n, v) plummet; (v) surface, drop, heat lightning, forked lightning,
listlessly, wearily, lethargically, hesitate; (n) slump fetter, dart, chain lightning; (adj)
slowly, dreamily, limply, weakly, leaping: (n) jump, bounce, bound, wind
torpidly, indolently, impassively. leap, spring, saltation, bouncing; (v) limiting: (adj) constrictive, confining,
ANTONYMS: (adv) dynamically, jumping; (adj, v) bounding; (adj) restricting, definitive, constraining,
vigorously springing; (adv) leapingly limited, determinative, definite; (n)
laplace: (n) Pierre Simon de Laplace ledger: (n) book, account book, modification, apposition, restriction
larboard: (adj) left; (n) sinister, daybook, account, book of account, lineament: (n) line, character,
embrasure, interface, nearside leger, books, calendar, diary, characteristic, contour, quality,
lash: (n, v) beat, chastise, scourge, ephemeris, crossbar forehead, brow, turn, profile,
goad; (v) flog, bind, batter; (adj, v) lees: (adj, n) grounds; (n) sediment, silhouette; (adj) diagnostic
strap, tie, lace; (n) hit. ANTONYMS: deposit, residue, ground, lee, dreg, lingering: (adj) long, chronic,
(v) unlash, untie feculence, bottom, silt, feces extended, dilatory, protracted,
lastly: (adv) eventually, ultimately, leeward: (n) lee side, direction, Bruce prolonged, residual, lengthy,
latterly, in conclusion, last, at last, Lee, Henry Lee, Gypsy Rose Lee, inactive, dull; (n) delay.
terminally, latestly, utmostly, Lee Yuen Kam; (adv) upwind, ANTONYM: (adj) quick
definitively, concludingly. against the wind, into the wind liqueur: (v) spirits, malt liquor,
ANTONYM: (adv) initially legible: (adj) readable, distinct, fair, stingo; (n) honeysuckle, absinthe,
lately: (adv) tardily, newly, freshly, plain, clean, definite, explicit, absinth, kummel, anisette,
belatedly, slowly, latterly, deadly; understandable, direct, cloudless, hydromel, sweet wine, ale
(adj, adv) anew, late, afresh; (adj) light. ANTONYM: (adj) unreadable listener: (n, v) auditor; (n)
recent legislature: (n) assembly, diet, eavesdropper, audience, observer,
latterly: (adv) lately, lastly, late, parliament, council, legislative perceiver, hearkener, attender,
subsequently, finally, of late, newly, body, house, legislative, senate, attendee, attendant, beholder
ultimately, secondly, freshly, legislative assembly, general lite: (adj) diet, flimsy, abstemious,
afterward. ANTONYM: (adv) assembly, convention clean, clear, faint, friable,
initially leisurely: (adj) slow, deliberate, lightheaded, lightsome, idle, easy
laudable: (adj) commendable, easygoing, leisure, at ease, literal: (adj) exact, bare, verbal,
creditable, admirable, praiseworthy, unhurried, measured, idle; (adv) accurate, genuine, faithful, actual,
worthy, deserving, good, honorable, deliberately, slowly, at leisure. plain, true; (n) misprint, erratum.
meritorious, applaudable, estimable. ANTONYMS: (adj) rushed, hurried, ANTONYMS: (adj) figurative,
ANTONYMS: (adj) shameful, formal, vigorous, speedy, fast; (adv) symbolic, loose, imprecise,
regrettable, unimpressive, formally, quickly metaphorical, broad, approximate,
lamentable, poor, despicable lepidolite: (n) lithia mica, mica, false
laughs: (n) diversion, comedy, isinglass livelihood: (n) subsistence, existence,
amusement, sport, recreation, lethargic: (adj, v) drowsy, dozy; (adj) job, maintenance, support, living,
merriment, entertainment, levity languid, indolent, comatose, dull, sustenance, bread, keep, bread and
lavish: (v) dissipate; (adj) exuberant, sleepy, torpid, slow, listless, lazy. butter, career
generous, copious, prodigal, ample, ANTONYMS: (adj) alert, playful, livery: (adj) liverish, bilious; (n)
abundant, bountiful, excessive, lively, agitated, vigorous, awake, clothing, accouterment, uniform,
improvident; (adj, v) profuse. enthusiastic, industrious, spirited complexion, legal transfer, color,
ANTONYMS: (adj) simple, scant, lettered: (adj, v) erudite; (adj) hue, dye, bailment
economical, impoverished, frugal, learned, educated, enlightened, livid: (adj) furious, irate, ashen, mad,
unadorned, plain; (v) stint, skimp, literate, knowledgeable, scholarly, blue, gray, ghastly, leaden, colorless,
begrudge, economize knowing, literary; (v) instructed, angry, enraged. ANTONYMS: (adj)
lazily: (adv) indolently, idly, leaned flushed, happy, pleased
slothfully, languidly, slowly, lids: (n) lid loadstone: (n) magnet, magnetite,
torpidly, supinely, lethargically, lied: (n) song, hymn loadstar
sleepily, drowsily, apathetically. lieu: (n) office, position, locality, loathsome: (adj) foul, hideous,
ANTONYMS: (adv) dynamically, stead, behalf, part, role, berth, distasteful, disgusting, hateful,
vigorously station, site, seat abominable, revolting, execrable,
leaden: (adj) heavy, gray, sluggish, lighted: (adj) illuminated, lit, light, loathly, nauseous, horrible.
grey, inert, torpid, grave, languid, ablaze, bright, ignited, burn, ANTONYMS: (adj) delightful, nice,
drab, burdensome, livid. burning, ignite, kindled, lighten noble, inoffensive, pleasant,
ANTONYM: (adj) bright lighten: (v) assuage, alleviate, light, admirable, good, attractive
leak: (n) crevice, disclosure, breach, illuminate, brighten, lessen, allay, locality: (n) vicinity, area, place, spot,
hole, chink; (v) leak out, dribble, clear, mitigate, relieve, illumine. position, district, point, region,
reveal, disclose, trickle; (n, v) ANTONYMS: (v) darken, intensify, stead, section; (n, v) quarter
 Edgar Allan Poe 291
locke: (n) John Locke ANTONYMS: (adj) unbeneficial, opulent, profuse. ANTONYMS:
locking: (n) lockup, bolting, unproductive (adj) barren, meager, unhealthy,
interlocking, engagement, ludicrous: (adj) absurd, ridiculous, arid, withering, sparse, shabby,
cordoning off, closing off, binding, farcical, foolish, laughable, comical, unadorned
guarding grotesque, derisory, droll, lynching: (n) kill, killing, murder
locks: (n) hair, tresses, head of hair preposterous, jocular. ANTONYMS: madam: (n) dame, lady, ma'am,
lodged: (adj) wedged, stuck fast, (adj) sane, impressive gentlewoman, missis, Mrs, brothel
stuck, jammed lumen: (n) lm keeper, madames, signora, female,
lodging: (n) abode, apartment, luminous: (adj) glowing, brilliant, bawd
accommodation, housing, hostel, lustrous, lucent, sunny, lambent, madman: (n) bedlamite, maniac,
residence, quarter, home, radiant, light, aglow; (adj, n) lucid, crazy, loony, nut, madcap, looney,
lodgement, address, hospice clear. ANTONYMS: (adj) dark, loco, sufferer, raver, nutcase
loftily: (adv) majestically, obscure madness: (n) frenzy, insanity, lunacy,
superciliously, proudly, haughtily, lunacy: (adj, n) frenzy, craziness, idiocy, folly, delirium, insaneness;
sublimely, stately, exaltedly, tally, madness, derangement, aberration; (adj, n) furor, rage, desperation,
toweringly, soaringly, lordly (n) folly, foolishness, mania, furore. ANTONYMS: (n) sense,
lofty: (adj, v) high, elevated; (adj) delirium, dementia; (adj) distraction. calmness, order
exalted, eminent, arrogant, grand, ANTONYM: (n) sanity magician: (n) enchanter, conjurer,
tall, haughty, great, distinguished, lunatic: (n) madman, maniac, illusionist, wizard, conjuror,
majestic. ANTONYMS: (adj) short, bedlamite; (adj) insane, foolish, thaumaturge, magicians, performer,
lowly, base, modest, deferential, moonstruck, mad, mental, magus, necromancer, prestidigitator
humble deranged, idiotic; (adj, n) madcap. magnanimous: (adj) generous, great,
logically: (adv) rationally, coherently, ANTONYM: (adj) sensible noble, bountiful, exalted, big,
lucidly, consistently, soundly, lungs: (v) air pump, air blower, handsome, lofty, large, charitable,
judiciously, systematically, wisely, ventilator, punkah; (n) blowpipe, considerate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
validly, cogently, consecutively. organ miserly, unforgiving, petty
ANTONYMS: (adv) imaginatively, lurch: (n, v) stumble, pitch, stagger; magnet: (n) lodestone, magnetic,
foolishly, randomly, irrationally, (v) reel, tilt, cant, rock, sway, shake, seduction, siderite, prestige,
obscurely, inconsistently, teeter, wobble. ANTONYM: (v) permanent magnet, magnetic force,
contradictorily, carelessly, hesitate temptation, magnets, loadstone,
haphazardly, unreasonably, lurid: (adj) ghastly, grisly, gruesome, magnetism
unconvincingly loud, frightful, sharp, shocking, magnetics: (n) magnetism,
loins: (n) waist, body part, haunch, gaudy, sensational, hideous, geophysics, geophysical science,
lends, pubic region, area, pubes horrific. ANTONYMS: (adj) subtle, magnetic attraction, magnetic force
loiter: (v) dawdle, dally, tarry, hang muted, bland, dull, modest magnificence: (adj, n) splendor,
around, prowl; (adj, v) loaf, delay, lurking: (n) ambush; (adj) snaky, brilliancy, gorgeousness; (n) glory,
lounge, hesitate; (adv, v) lag; (n, v) backstair, backstairs, clandestine, pomp, brilliance, grandness,
saunter. ANTONYMS: (v) leave, concealed, dormant, latent, greatness, dignity, majesty, loftiness.
lead potential, skulking, sneaky ANTONYMS: (n) paucity, modesty,
lookout: (n, v) guard, prospect, lustily: (adv) stoutly, energetically, shabbiness, poverty, austerity,
expectation; (n) scout, watch, sentry, robustly, powerfully, vigorously, unattractiveness
sentinel, outlook, post, picture; (v) mightily, halely, strappingly, majestic: (adj) grand, awesome,
landscape potently, sturdily, heartily stately, imperial, royal, exalted,
loser: (n) flop, washout, underdog, lustre: (n) brilliance, gloss, brilliancy, glorious, kingly, August; (adj, v)
lame duck, dud, also-ran, geek, oaf, grandeur, splendour, effulgence, imposing; (adj, adv) regal.
nerd; (adj) defeated, stupid. splendor, shininess, shine, sheen, ANTONYMS: (adj) pathetic, pitiful,
ANTONYMS: (n) winner, achiever brightness modest, lowly, undignified
loveliness: (n) comeliness, fairness, lustrous: (adj, v) bright, splendent; majesty: (adj, n) grandeur, splendor,
grace, attractiveness, charm, (adj) glossy, brilliant, lucid, shiny, nobility; (n) dignity, loftiness,
glamour, pulchritude, shining, light, luminous, sleek, magnificence, stateliness, greatness,
beauteousness, good looks, radiant. ANTONYM: (adj) king, royalty, highness.
cuteness, fineness. ANTONYMS: (n) unhealthy ANTONYMS: (n) austerity,
unattractiveness, unpleasantness, lustrum: (n) luster lustre, ceremony, simplicity
awkwardness amount of time malady: (n, v) illness, ailment,
lowed: (adj) dispirited, humbled, luxuriance: (n) exuberance, indisposition, distemper; (adj, n, v)
dejected copiousness, abundance, lushness, disorder; (adj, n) complaint,
luce: (n) pike, Clare booth Luce, affluence, wealth, luxury, excess, infirmity; (n) sickness, condition,
Henry Robinson Luce, Henry Luce luxuriancy, rampancy; (adj) trouble, ill
lucrative: (adj, v) profitable, gainful, fecundity malignancy: (n) malignance, evil,
remunerative; (adj) fat, fruitful, luxuriant: (adj, n) lush; (adj) malice, malignity, malevolence,
moneymaking, favourable, helpful, abundant, lavish, exuberant, dense, disease, maliciousness, grudge,
beneficial, worthwhile; (v) paying. thick, fertile, flourishing, fecund, enmity; (adj) carcinoma, leukemia.
 292 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
ANTONYM: (n) benignity mantel: (n) mantelpiece, mantlepiece, Arts, momma, am
malignity: (n) malevolence, chimneypiece, lintel, mantelshelf, materialism: (n) deism, dialectical
malignance, venom, animosity, mantle piece, mantleshelf, shelf, materialism, desire, Sabellianism,
enmity, hatred, evil, rancor, spite, drapery, drape, curtain Tractarianism, theism, Socinianism,
malignancy, hate. ANTONYM: (n) mantelet: (n) mantlet, shelter, mantle, greed, Erastianism, Adventism,
benignity mantilla anabaptism. ANTONYM: (n)
mallet: (n) maul, club, gavel, mall, mantle: (n) cloak, cape, pall, blanket, generosity
beetle, heavy rapping hammer, curtain, blind, coat; (n, v) cover, veil; materially: (adv) physically,
mace, beat, pestle, hit, drumstick (adj, n, v) blush, flush substantially, corporeally,
mamma: (n) breast, mother, ma, manuscript: (n, v) writing; (n) book, significantly, really, essentially,
knocker, boob, mum, mammy, handwriting, record, copy, text, corporally, vitally, solidly,
mom, momma, mommy, mummy document, Ms, holograph, momentously, fundamentally
manageable: (adj, v) docile, transcript, palimpsest mates: (n) match, couple, mate, pair,
governable; (adj) flexible, malleable, maple: (n) box elder, full moon Lucifer, friction match, family unit,
ductile, handy, gentle, tame, pliable, maple, moosewood, hedge maple, family, equal, dyad, duo
controllable; (v) tractable. great maple, dwarf maple, goosefoot mathematically: (adv) arithmetically,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unbearable, maple, field maple scientifically, punctually,
unmanageable, uncontrollable, mare: (n) Maria, Money makes the algebraically, algebraicly
awkward, fixed, unattainable, mare go, broodmare, doe, hen, bitch, mathematician: (v) arithmetician,
heavy, distant, inaccessible horse, region, part, jennet, roe algebraist, calculator, abacist; (n)
mandragora: (n) genus mandragora marinade: (n) cold marinade, geometrician, gauss, scientist, man
manganese: (n) metal, Gopher State, condiment, brine; (v) drench, of science, Archimedes, whitehead;
manganium, atomic number immerse, infuse, saturate, soak, (adj) Cartesian
manger: (n) crib, cage, bunk, gutter, submerge matured: (adj) ripe, experienced,
rack, flume, feed bunk, bowl, marl: (n) loam, soil, clod, dirt, marvel, developed, old, adult, mellow,
container glebe, subsoil, mold, earth, gravel, maturer, ripened, ready, payable,
mania: (n) passion, craze, delirium, cledge owing. ANTONYMS: (adj) unripe,
fad, fury, enthusiasm, rage, marquis: (n) lord, marquisate, noble, young
obsession; (adj, n) insanity, lunacy, margrave, nobleman, Donald Robert mavis: (n) bulbul, thrush, song thrush
madness perry marquis, don marquis, Markis mazurka: (n) Morris dance,
maniac: (n) madman, bedlamite, martyrdom: (n) torture, suffering, mazourka, folk dance, folk dancing
madcap, freak, fanatic, nut, looney, calvary, agony, pain, ordeal, meaningless: (adj) empty, pointless,
bigot, madwoman; (adj) loco, Golgotha; (adj) devotion, suttee, hollow, useless, stupid, worthless,
maniacal stoicism; (v) vivisection futile, needless, inane, absurd, vain.
manifest: (adj) evident, distinct, marvelous: (adj) wonderful, fantastic, ANTONYMS: (adj) meaningful,
conspicuous, clear, patent, plain; (v) incredible, fabulous, extraordinary, worthwhile, sensible, significant,
display, demonstrate, exhibit, tremendous, grand, astonishing, reasonable, purposeful, provoked,
evidence; (n, v) declare. terrific, great; (adj, v) prodigious. offensive, justifiable, clear, useful
ANTONYMS: (v) hide; (adj) hidden, ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary, measurable: (adj) mensurable,
obscure, secret, inconspicuous, mundane, abysmal, bad, dreadful, computable, quantifiable, finite,
veiled, furtive, avoidable, unworthy, dire, humdrum, gaugeable, perceptible, sensible,
ambiguous; (adv) absent unimpressive, unremarkable, boring temperate, mathematical, calculable;
manifestation: (n) appearance, masculine: (adj, v) male, not female; (adj, v) fathomable. ANTONYMS:
indication, exhibition, expression, (adj) manly, manlike, virile, (adj) immeasurable, undetectable,
display, demonstration, sign, mannish, mankind, bold, manful; imperceptible
incarnation, advent, show, (n) gender, he. ANTONYMS: (adj) mechanically: (adv) mechanistically,
revelation female, neuter instinctively, routinely,
mankind: (n) world, humanity, masked: (adj) cloaked, covert, involuntarily, industrially,
humankind, human race, humans, concealed, hidden, covered, unconsciously, automaticly,
person, flesh, mortality, people, camouflaged, secret, veiled, intuitively, impulsively, technically,
human beings, humanness incognito, draped, furtive. technologically. ANTONYMS: (adv)
mann: (n) Horace Mann ANTONYM: (adj) overt manually, consciously
manners: (n) conduct, etiquette, mastered: (adj) down pat, low, medallion: (n) laurels, decoration,
propriety, behavior, deportment, downhearted, perfecter, dispirited, laurel wreath, locket, pendant, palm,
manner, courtesy, custom, decorum, depressed, declining, downcast, ribbon, bay wreath, badge, accolade
good manners, usage. ANTONYM: down in the mouth, cut down, mediate: (v) intervene, intercede,
(n) vulgarity beaten interfere, intermediate, referee,
manoeuvering: (n) gimmick, device, mastodon: (n) proboscidean, arrange, interpose, moderate,
artifice mastodont reconcile, negotiate; (adj) middle.
manoeuvre: (n) device, gambit, mater: (n) mother, ma, mama, ANTONYM: (v) provoke
artifice, ruse, stratagem, ploy, tactic; mamma, mammy, mammary gland, meditation: (n, v) contemplation,
(v) direct, guide, steer, go Massachusetts, mom, Master of study; (n) consideration, reflection,
 Edgar Allan Poe 293
deliberation, thought, introspection, amalgamated, unified, incorporate, minced, dressed, beaten, broken up
musing, rumination, conception, united, fused, combined, mingled: (adj) miscellaneous,
reflexion. ANTONYM: (n) interconnected, mixed, complex, indiscriminate,
distraction intermingled, complex heterogeneous, medley, confused,
meditations: (n) contemplation, merriment: (n) fun, amusement, eclectic, motley, different; (v)
consideration, cogitation cheerfulness, hilarity, glee, jollity, blended, blent
medley: (n) mixture, miscellany, frolic, gaiety, happiness, festivity; mingling: (adj) blending, merging,
jumble, melange, potpourri, (adj, n) mirth. ANTONYMS: (n) confluent, blended; (n) mixture,
hotchpotch, concoction, admixture, misery, gloom, seriousness, mixing, commixtion, interchange,
hash; (adj) imbroglio, chaos despondency, boredom exchange, commixture; (adv)
meerschaum: (n) mineral, pipe, sea merry: (adj) joyful, lively, cheerful, minglingly
foam, kiefekil glad, jolly, facetious, frolicsome, minutely: (adv) precisely, in detail,
melancholy: (adj, v) dreary; (adj, n) lighthearted, festive; (adj, n) closely, tinily, smally,
gloom, melancholic; (adj) depressed, convivial, jovial. ANTONYMS: (adj) insignificantly, infinitesimally,
dejected, dismal, gloomy, doleful; gloomy, miserable, serious, uptight diminutively, nicely, exactly,
(n, v) low spirits; (n) gloominess, metaphysical: (adj) theoretical, microscopically
depression. ANTONYMS: (n) supernatural, mental, immaterial, minuteness: (n) diminutiveness,
happiness, cheerfulness, mystical, nooscopic, abstract, smallness, attention to detail,
hopefulness, optimism; (adj) happy, metaphysic, subjective, unworldly, petiteness, tininess, weeness
bright, cheery, satisfied theological. ANTONYM: (adj) miraculously: (adv) astoundingly,
melodious: (adj) harmonious, empirical marvelously, strangely, remarkably,
musical, sweet, tuneful, mellow, metaphysician: (v) mark stupendously, supernaturally,
dulcet, soft, gentle, full, canorous, metaphysics: (n) ontology, astonishingly, staggeringly,
mellifluous. ANTONYMS: (adj) metaphysic, outside actual wondrously, startlingly,
harsh, unmelodious, inharmonious, experience, ontological, phenomenally
tuneless, grating, loud cosmological, philosophy mirth: (adj, n) merriment, jollity; (n)
melody: (n) air, tune, music, measure, metempsychosis: (n) rebirth, amusement, happiness, delight, joy,
harmony, aria, song, strain, line, phenomenon, reincarnation, hilarity, cheerfulness, festivity,
melodic phrase; (n, v) chant mutagenesis transanimation, gladness, exhilaration.
melting: (n) thawing, fusion, melt, conversion ANTONYMS: (n) gloom, sadness,
dissolution, warming, thaw, methinks: (adv) meseems misery
liquefaction, fusion range; (adj) methodical: (adj) methodic, formal, misadventure: (n) calamity, disaster,
liquescent, pathetic; (adj, n) systematic, regular, organized, mischance, ill, plague, mishap,
dissolving businesslike, neat, precise, exact, misfortune, bad luck, catastrophe,
memoirs: (n) reminiscences, memoir, correct, meticulous. ANTONYMS: woe, ill luck
autobiography, essay, biography, (adj) careless, illogical, chaotic, misanthropic: (adj) cynical,
annals, chronicle, account, diary, life aimless, thoughtless, haphazard, pessimistic, misanthropical,
story, memento Mori unprofessional, disorderly, antisocial, standoffish, solitary,
memorable: (adj) extraordinary, unscientific, inconsistent reserved, reclusive, distrustful,
unforgettable, signal, eventful, metropolis: (n) city, capital, town, crabby, unfriendly
monumental, impressive, municipality, buffalo, meshed, misanthropy: (n) hatred, hate,
noteworthy, momentous, striking, borough, burgh, independence, hull, incivism
catchy, lasting. ANTONYMS: (adj) bale miscellaneous: (adj) heterogeneous,
unremarkable, unfamiliar, mexican: (n) wetback mixed, different, general, sundry,
commonplace microscope: (n) micrometer, indiscriminate, motley, varied,
memorandum: (n, v) note; (n) megascope, light microscope, diverse, multifarious, versatile.
memorial, entry, letter, memoranda, electron microscope, magnifier ANTONYMS: (adj) uniform,
record, inscription, notice, protocol, midst: (adj, n) middle; (adv) mid, homogeneous, limited
chit, missive between; (prep) among, amid; (n) mischievous: (adj) bad, injurious,
memorials: (n) memoir core, center, thick, interior, heart, detrimental, naughty, deleterious,
menaced: (adj) doomed, exposed waist impish, harmful, playful, maleficent,
merchandise: (v) market, deal; (n) midsummer: (n) summer, solstice, arch; (adj, v) hurtful. ANTONYMS:
freight, cargo, product, commodity, June solstice, June (adj) harmless, serious
goods, consignment, wares; (adj) mildew: (n, v) mold, rust, decay, cast; misconceived: (adj) inaccurate,
commodities, ware (n) fungus, blight, mushroom, erroneous, deformed
merge: (v) combine, amalgamate, helminth, moulding; (v) must, misdemeanors: (n) misbehavior, bad
melt, fuse, integrate, meld, become moldy behavior
commingle, unite, mix, consolidate; milky: (adj) milk, cloudy, lacteal, miserably: (adv) pathetically,
(adj, v) coalesce. ANTONYMS: (v) white, muddy, pearly, milklike, patheticly, pitiably, unhappily,
split, diverge, decentralize, unpick, opalescent, lacteous, tender, mild sorrowfully, pessimistically,
segregate milled: (adj) pulverized, milt, Millen, tragically; (adj, adv) piteously,
merged: (adj) integrated, crushed, powdered, polished, grievously, woefully; (adj)
 294 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
miserable. ANTONYMS: (adv) very, unreasonably, massively, brightly
happily, hopefully, brightly, immoderately, absolutely, monument: (n) headstone, cenotaph,
affluently, enthusiastically, excessively, completely, hugely, tombstone, tablet, shrine, slab,
fortunately, profusely, contentedly severely, wholly gravestone, landmark, statue; (adj,
misfortune: (n) accident, hardship, modesty: (n) reserve, bashfulness, n) column; (n, v) record
misadventure, disaster, calamity, humility, diffidence, humbleness, moodily: (adv) morosely, peevishly,
mischance, catastrophe, mishap, bad demureness, coyness, gentleness, glumly, sulkily, grumpily,
luck, misery, affliction. continence; (adj, n) decency, capriciously, temperamentally,
ANTONYMS: (n) joy, bonus, honesty. ANTONYMS: (n) petulantly, saturninely, crossly,
opportunity, privilege, success, arrogance, immodesty, spectacle, erratically. ANTONYM: (adv)
happiness flamboyance, abandon, cheerily
misfortunes: (n) misfortune bigheadedness, pretension, moody: (adj) gloomy, dark, irritable,
misinformed: (adj) ignorant decadence, boldness morose, capricious, glum, grumpy,
mislaid: (adj) misplaced, absent, modus: (n) system fickle, petulant, dour, sullen.
disordered, gone astray, not there, moiety: (n) mediety, portion, part, ANTONYMS: (adj) equable, happy,
missing, lost temporarily. parcel, section, piece, bit, division, reliable, stable, calm
ANTONYM: (adj) found cut, class morbid: (adj) diseased, gruesome,
misled: (adj) fooled, undirected, false, moles: (n) suborder Lipotyphla, macabre, corrupt, pathologic,
bewildered, confused, erroneous, order Insectivora, Talpidae, unwholesome, peccant, sick,
mistaken, misleading, misdirected, hedgehogs, family Talpidae, unhealthy, pathological; (adj, v)
led astray, incorrect Lipotyphla sickly
misrule: (n) chaos, disorder, anarchy, momentary: (adj) brief, fugitive, morceau: (adv) bourdon, drone,
riot, maladministration, disturbance, transient, short, instantaneous, terzetto; (adj) globule, grain,
confusion, misfeasance, ephemeral, passing, momentaneous, granule, minim, scruple, sip, spice,
misdirection, government; (v) dead temporary, impermanent, temporal. sup
letter ANTONYMS: (adj) lasting, lengthy, morrow: (n) morning, future, mean
misshapen: (adj) deformed, long solar day, day
malformed, shapeless, crooked, momently: (adv) momentarily, in a morsel: (n, v) bite, mouthful; (n)
ugly, contorted, monstrous, moment, presently crumb, chew, particle, fragment,
unshapely, grotesque, deformity, momentous: (adj, v) grave, taste, piece, nibble; (adj, v) gobbet,
perverted. ANTONYMS: (adj) memorable; (adj) significant, mite
straight, attractive weighty, material, big, mortal: (adj) deadly, fatal, lethal,
mistrust: (adj, n, v) distrust; (n, v) consequential, serious, critical, deathly, earthly; (n) man,
doubt, query; (n) suspicion, crucial, great. ANTONYMS: (adj) individual, creature, person, human
misgiving, disbelief, apprehension, trivial, unimportant, being, body. ANTONYMS: (adj, n)
wariness; (v) suspect, disbelieve, inconsequential, frivolous, minor immortal; (adj) eternal, heavenly,
discredit. ANTONYM: (v) believe monologue: (n) soliloquy, speech, mild, perfect, spiritual
misty: (adj) hazy, foggy, cloudy, words, apostrophe, discourse, mortification: (n) chagrin,
brumous, dim, indistinct, nebulous, language embarrassment, shame, gangrene,
fuzzy, dark, dull, blurred. monomania: (adj, n) madness, disappointment, disgrace,
ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, distinct fanaticism, frenzy, derangement, corruption, necrosis, degradation;
misunderstanding: (n) aberration, alienation, insanity, (adj, n) vexation; (adj) grievance
misapprehension, disagreement, lunacy; (adj) infatuation; (n) passion, mortified: (adj) humiliated,
misconception, misinterpretation, craze embarrassed, abashed, gangrenous,
error, misconstruction, dispute, monosyllable: (n) word, polysyllable, sheepish, chagrined, feeling shame,
quarrel, mistaking; (n, v) dissension, dissyllable feeling guilty, guilty, hangdog,
difference. ANTONYMS: (n) monotone: (adj) humdrum, humbled. ANTONYM: (adj)
harmony, fact, agreement, monotonic, monotonous, toneless, unabashed
understanding pedestrian; (n) drone, droning, motionless: (adj) inactive, inert,
moaning: (n, v) lamentation; (adj) bourdon, laggard, intonation, lagger immobile, stationary, fixed,
groaning, whining, funereal, monotonous: (adj) dull, flat, boring, unmoving, quiescent, dead, torpid;
inarticulate, dirgeful; (n) dreary, tedious, insipid, monotone, (adj, adv) calm, at rest.
complaining, mourning monotonic; (adj, v) dry, ANTONYMS: (adj) mobile, active,
moat: (n) ditch, dike, dyke, trench, uninteresting, stupid. ANTONYMS: alive, flowing
main, gully, sewer, siphon, sough, (adj) exciting, varied, stimulating, mould: (n, v) mildew, cast, form,
barrier; (v) bulwark lively, exotic, enthralling, brilliant, model; (v) make, frame, knead,
modelled: (adj) patterned flexible fashion, forge; (n) molding, matrix
moderately: (adv) abstemiously, monotonously: (adv) uninterestingly, mouldering: (adj) moldering,
quietly, modestly, pretty, boringly, drearily, tiresomely, becoming rotten, rotten, rotting
temperately, soberly, slightly, tediously, wearisomely, flatly, mounting: (n, v) mount; (adj, n)
calmly, mildly, reasonably, humdrumly, prosaically, tonelessly, climbing; (n) ascent, setting, climb,
restrainedly. ANTONYMS: (adv) routinely. ANTONYM: (adv) frame, assembly, chassis,
 Edgar Allan Poe 295
framework, ascension; (adj, adv) unstinted, unsparing, princely. muttering: (n) grumbling, mutter,
rising ANTONYMS: (adj) mean, murmuring, grumble, murmuration,
mournful: (adj) sad, miserable, tightfisted, malevolent murmur vowel, complaint, heart
melancholy, funereal, dolorous, murderer: (n) assassin, cutthroat, murmur, cardiac murmur; (adj)
dark, pensive, gloomy, lugubrious, killer, manslayer, murderess, mumbling, faint
lamentable; (adj, n) plaintive. executioner, thug, liquidator; (v) mutually: (adv) jointly, commonly,
ANTONYMS: (adj) joyful, happy, butcher; (n, v) slayer, terrorist together, mutual, collectively,
emotionless murmuring: (n) murmuration, publically, unitedly, publicly,
mourning: (n) lament, lamentation, murmur, complaint, grumble, bilaterally, communally, sharedly.
bereavement, gloom, woe, muttering, mutter, murmur vowel; ANTONYM: (adv) alone
memorial, sorrowfulness, sadness, (adj) whispering, humming, mynheer: (n) senor, mein Herr
sorrow; (adj) grieving; (v) lamenting droning, murmurous myriad: (adj) innumerable, countless,
mousseux: (v) frothy, up, nappy, muscular: (adj) athletic, strong, multitudinous, numerous,
sparkling brawny, hefty, burly, powerful, numberless, infinite, untold, many;
muddled: (adj) bewildered, robust, husky, stout, stalwart, (adj, n) legion, scads; (n) ten
disorganized, messy, addled, sturdy. ANTONYMS: (adj) puny, thousand
disordered, incoherent, bemused, slight, weak, ectomorphic, mysteriously: (adv) enigmatically,
unintelligible, chaotic, upset, endomorphic, skinny, unfit, feeble, strangely, obscurely, secretly,
jumbled. ANTONYMS: (adj) frail, delicate uncannily, mystically, darkly,
organized, precise, lucid, coherent, muse: (v) meditate, ponder, puzzlingly, weirdly, abstrusely,
distinct, clear deliberate, consider, cogitate, reflect, occultly. ANTONYM: (adv)
muddy: (adj) turbid, filthy, boggy, brood, ruminate, speculate, think, normally
cloudy, dark, unclean, dingy, grimy, mull. ANTONYM: (v) wander mystic: (adj, v) secret, recondite; (adj)
miry; (adj, v) foul, sloppy. mushrooms: (n) fungi mysterious, occult, cryptical, cryptic,
ANTONYMS: (adj) clean, dry; (v) musically: (adv) harmoniously, esoteric, inscrutable, weird, magical;
clarify, cleanse melodiously, sweetly, melodically, (adj, n) psychic
muffled: (adj) hushed, muted, dulcetly, euphoniously, pleasingly, mystical: (adj) mysterious, esoteric,
hollow, inarticulate, faint, soft, canorously, pleasantly, hidden, occult, secret, cryptic,
subdued, low, quiet; (v) allusive, rhythmically, metrically. cryptical, unearthly, Orphic,
covert. ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, ANTONYMS: (adv) harshly, metaphysical, arcane. ANTONYMS:
distinct, audible, slight unmusically (adj) physical, natural
multicolor: (adj) multicolored, musician: (n) singer, composer, mystification: (n) bafflement,
motley, varicolored, piebald, instrumentalist, minstrel, confusion, befuddlement,
multicoloured, varicoloured, clarinettist, lutenist, director, bemusement, puzzlement,
multicolour, variegated, colored, choirmaster, accompanist, deception, deceit, fraud, imposture,
calico, assorted harpsichordist, harpist riddle, obfuscation
multiform: (adj) different, musing: (adj) contemplative, nape: (n) nucha, scruff, occiput, rear,
multifarious, polymorphous, meditative, thoughtful, pensive; (n) back end, backside, chine
multigenerous, manifold, meditation, consideration, reflection, narration: (n) description, recital,
miscellaneous, multiple, rumination, reverie, thought, narrative, explanation, history, tale,
polymorphic, multiplex, cogitation report, relation, story, recitation,
polyschematist, multifold musingly: (adv) thoughtfully, rehearsal
multiply: (v) expand, increase, ponderingly, meditatively, narrowly: (adv) closely, barely,
propagate, breed, augment, contemplatively, reflectively, hardly, strictly, slenderly, tightly,
duplicate, proliferate, procreate, ruminatively, broodingly, deep in smally, contractly, slimly, precisely,
reproduce, calculate, extend. thought. ANTONYM: (adv) nearly. ANTONYMS: (adv) broadly,
ANTONYMS: (adv) singly; (v) unthinkingly inaccurately
divide, diminish, reduce, estimate, muster: (v) assemble, gather, natives: (n) nation, populace,
dwindle congregate, collect, convene, rally, community, citizens, public
multitude: (n) flock, horde, crowd, marshal, accumulate; (n) levy, navigation: (n) sailing, steering,
host, throng, concourse, mob, gathering; (n, v) draft. ANTONYM: shipping, seafaring, cabotage,
masses, mass, herd, swarm. (v) demobilize astronavigation, work,
ANTONYM: (n) trickle musty: (adj) fusty, rancid, stale, transportation, transport, travel,
multitudinous: (adj) innumerable, mouldy, rank, bad, obsolete, flight
infinite, manifold, multiple, antiquated, stuffy, threadbare, trite. nebulous: (adj) hazy, indistinct, dark,
numberless, myriad, many, ANTONYMS: (adj) airy, modern muddy, indefinite, vague, nebulose,
numerous, thick, populous, mute: (adj) dumb, silent, inarticulate, dim, murky, formless, shapeless.
innumerous dummy, tongueless; (v) muffle, ANTONYMS: (adj) defined, precise,
munching: (n) feeding dampen, deaden, hush; (adj, v) definite
munificent: (adj) liberal, bountiful, quiet, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) needless: (adj, v) unnecessary,
lavish, free, bounteous, prodigal, talkative, speaking, spoken; (v) superfluous; (adj) futile,
beneficent, magnanimous, amplify dispensable, bootless, excessive,
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preventable, meaningless, pointless, haste, legerdemain, grace. nothingness: (n) nothing, void,
wanton, unavailing. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (n) clumsiness, nullity, nihility, emptiness,
(adj) essential, worthwhile, heaviness, awkwardness insignificance, nonentity, blankness,
inevitable, justifiable nincompoop: (n) idiot, fool, jerk, vacuum, cipher; (adj) nonbeing.
neglected: (adj) dilapidated, blockhead, dunce, sap, Gaby, ANTONYMS: (n) being, importance,
disregarded, ignored, deserted, dimwit, dope, fathead, ass significance
derelict, forsaken, obsolete, nitrogen: (n) azote, n, nitrogens, noticeable: (adj) notable, evident,
antiquated, antique, shabby, azotic, chemical element, newton, noteworthy, discernible, apparent,
unnoticed. ANTONYM: (adj) liquid nitrogen, element, due north, marked, visible, remarkable,
salubrious atomic number, gas appreciable, considerable; (adj, v)
negro: (n) black, darky, blackamoor, nobility: (n) aristocracy, greatness, perceptible. ANTONYMS: (adj)
nigger, Negroid, black person, dignity, lord, noblesse, obscure, inconspicuous, hidden,
darkie, coon, moke, lightlessness; magnanimousness, baronage, unobtrusive, unclear, unnoticeable,
(adj) dark gentry, nobleman; (adj) generosity; unremarkable, uninteresting,
neighbor: (v) abut, adjoin, populate, (adj, n) magnanimity. ANTONYM: inward, invisible, indistinguishable
touch; (n) acquaintance, (n) baseness notoriety: (n) publicity, reputation,
neighborhood, national; (adj) nobleman: (n) patrician, aristocrat, fame, infamy, disrepute, note,
neighborly, neighbouring, lord, peer, marquis, nobility, notability, prominence, flagrancy,
neighboring, adjacent. ANTONYM: grandee, baron, duke, armiger, distinction; (adj, n) renown.
(n) foreigner burgrave ANTONYM: (n) obscurity
neighborhood: (n) vicinity, district, nonce: (n) hour, nowadays, crisis, notwithstanding: (adv, conj)
area, community, locality, place, moment, instant, epoch, present, nevertheless, although, even
quarter, environs, section; (adj) time being, minute, day though, yet, but; (conj) albeit; (adv)
neighboring, local nonchalance: (n) indifference, nonetheless, though, still, all the
neighboring: (adj, adv) adjacent, apathy, composure, disregard, same; (prep) despite
near; (adj) adjoining, nearby, impassiveness, equanimity, novelty: (adj) news; (n) freshness,
contiguous, neighbor, abutting, negligence, casualness; (adj, n) mutation, newness, trinket,
next, neighborly, nigh, next to. unconcern; (adj) insouciance, curiosity, originality, oddity, bauble;
ANTONYMS: (adj) distant, remote, indifferent. ANTONYMS: (n) (n, v) change, difference
far, national anxiety, interest nucleus: (n) core, kernel, center,
neighbors: (n) neighbourhood nonchalant: (adj) careless, indifferent, essence, nub, root, basis, focus,
nether: (adj) lower, inferior, down, insouciant, unconcerned, casual, stone, embryo, germ. ANTONYM:
low, chthonic, chthonian, infernal, carefree, calm, heedless, listless, (n) periphery
subjacent, less, lesser; (adj, adv) apathetic, offhand. ANTONYMS: numberless: (adj) countless,
under (adj) concerned, uptight, careful, innumerable, multitudinous,
nett: (v) clear; (adj) final, last; (n) excited infinite, incalculable, endless,
clearer. ANTONYM: (adj) gross nondescript: (adj) indescribable, dull, uncounted, unnumbered,
nicety: (n) detail, exactness, ordinary, vague, indefinite, innumerous, legion, untold.
fastidiousness, nuance, refinement, indefinable, unremarkable; (n) soul, ANTONYM: (adj) few
exactitude, justness, precision, someone, somebody, person. numerously: (adv) frequently,
correctness, daintiness, elegance ANTONYMS: (adj) extraordinary, multiplely, variously, severally,
niche: (n) alcove, hole, bay, recess, distinctive, exciting, special sundrily, abundantly, profusely,
nook, compartment, recession, nonentity: (n) nobody, cipher, commonly, infinitely, rifely,
opening, place, ecological niche, nothing, naught, cypher, nil, numberlessly
fireplace nonexistence, aught, zero, nuts: (adj) crazy, insane, balmy,
niece: (n) grandniece, aunt, brother's jackanapes, lightweight nutty, crackers, loopy, batty, barmy,
daughter, uncle, kinswoman noon: (n) high noon, noonday, loony, dotty, daft. ANTONYM: (adj)
niggardly: (adj) mean, stingy, noontide, afternoon, hour, sensible
closefisted, parsimonious, grudging, dinnertime, crest, twelve noon; (adj) oaks: (n) beech family, Castanopsis,
close, near, skimpy, miserable, meridian, meridional; (adj, n) Nothofagus, Lithocarpus, genus
penurious; (adj, v) avaricious. culmination Quercus, Genera Castanea, family
ANTONYM: (adj) graceful noose: (n) loop, trap, gin, lasso, net, Fagaceae, Fagus, Fagaceae,
nigger: (adj) blackamoor, Negro, man gibbet, gallows, bowstring, snare, chestnuts
of color; (n) darky, spade, darkie, girdle; (v) hang oath: (n) expletive, malediction,
boy, jigaboo, black person, Ethiop, northward: (adj, adv) north; (adj) imprecation, promise, affidavit,
nigra northbound; (adv) northerly, cuss, swearing, pledge, assurance,
nihil: (n) naught, aught, cypher, northwards, in the north, to the asseveration; (v) swear
cipher, goose egg, nada, zip, zilch, north obedient: (adj) submissive,
nix; (adj, n) nil nosology: (adj) etiology, pathology; compliant, good, conformable, tame,
nimbleness: (n) lightness, dexterity, (n) nosography, classification of acquiescent, dutiful, meek, biddable,
alertness, adroitness, legerity, disease amenable, subservient.
deftness, quickness, lightsomeness, nostrils: (n) naris, nose ANTONYMS: (adj) defiant,
 Edgar Allan Poe 297
assertive, rebellious, crooked, vociferous, tumultuous, turbulent fat, oleaginous, unctuous, slick,
intractable, naughty, wild, resistant obtrusively: (adv) forwardly, buttery; (adv) unctuously, smoothly,
objectionable: (adj) distasteful, officiously, pushily, protrudingly, oleaginously. ANTONYM: (adj) lean
offensive, nasty, exceptionable, saucily, prominently, impudently, olive: (n) Olea europaea, European
undesirable, disagreeable, meddlesomely, blatantly, pertly, olive tree, wood, olive tree, olive
unwelcome, disgusting, conspicuously green, chromatic color, chromatic
unacceptable, repugnant, obnoxious. occupant: (n) tenant, inhabitant, colour, drupe; (adj) green, glaucous,
ANTONYMS: (adj) agreeable, dweller, denizen, occupier, inmate, chromatic
desirable, acceptable, inoffensive holder, citizen, householder, omicron: (n) alphabetic character,
objectivity: (n) objectiveness, dalesman, coaster letter of the alphabet
detachment, impartiality, neutrality, occupying: (n) commencement, ominous: (adj) baleful, inauspicious,
indifference, objective, objectivities, employment, moving in, occupation ill, menacing, threatening, black,
perspicacity, outness, lack of occurence: (n) event sinister, minatory, unlucky,
involvement, judgement. octavo: (n) folio, eightvo, size, quarto, forbidding, minacious.
ANTONYMS: (n) subjectivity, book ANTONYMS: (adj) promising,
involvement ocular: (adj, v) visual; (adj) optical, auspicious, reassuring, bright, lucky,
oblige: (v) coerce, force, drive, ophthalmic, visible, optic, sensory, wonderful
constrain, make, bind, opthalmic, oculary; (n) lens system, omnibus: (n, v) bus, autobus; (n)
accommodate, obligate, necessitate, lens motorbus, coach, charabanc,
enforce, impel. ANTONYMS: (v) oddity: (n) curiosity, peculiarity, collection, anthology, compilation,
displease, request, hinder crotchet, curio, novelty, original, jitney, car, motorcoach
obligingly: (adv) accommodatingly, quirk, eccentric, character, omnipresence: (n) omnipotence,
attentively, courteously, kindly, aberration; (adj, n) idiosyncrasy. ubiquitousness, presence,
thoughtfully, gentlely, ANTONYMS: (n) normality, omniscience, everywhereness
cooperatively, helpfully, benignly, conformist, regularity omniscience: (n) omnipotence,
goodly, pleasantly. ANTONYM: oddly: (adv) curiously, peculiarly, pantology, state, omnisciency,
(adv) uncooperatively strangely, funnily, queerly, omnipresence
obliquity: (n) inclination, unusually, grotesquely, oneness: (n) identity, unity,
crookedness, slope, depravity, extraordinarily, uncommonly, sameness, individuality, harmony,
asynclitism, meretriciousness, singularly, weirdly. ANTONYMS: one, integrity, identicalness,
deceptiveness, grade, deviousness; (adv) ordinarily, typically, sensibly, concord, agreement, entirety
(adj) pollution, pravity harmoniously onerous: (adj) hard, difficult,
oblong: (adj) oval, elliptical, odious: (adj, v) hateful, obnoxious; laborious, heavy, cumbersome,
rectangular, rounded; (v) (adj) detestable, hideous, nasty, arduous, tough, weighty, taxing,
longitudinal; (n) block, quadrangle execrable, disgusting, abhorrent, oppressive, formidable.
obscurity: (n) gloom, darkness, abominable, heinous, forbidding. ANTONYMS: (adj) easy, effortless
shade, dimness, obscureness, night, ANTONYMS: (adj) pleasant, onward: (adv) ahead, forwards,
oblivion, haze, ambiguity, shadow, delightful, agreeable, lovable, nice before, forth, onwards, along, in
cloudiness. ANTONYMS: (n) clarity, odor: (n) aroma, scent, odour, advance, frontward, forrader; (adv,
fame, light, simplicity, prominence, bouquet, flavour, perfume, flavor, prep) on; (adj) progressive.
celebrity, brightness savor, stink; (n, v) smell, stench ANTONYM: (adv) backward
observable: (adj, adv) noticeable, odorous: (adj) fragrant, odoriferous, opium: (v) poppy, balm, anodyne,
perceptible; (adj) discernible, aromatic, balmy, scented, sweet, milk, rose water; (adj) anaesthetic
apparent, appreciable, visible, redolent, perfumed, odorant, agent; (n) tobacco, hashish, ether,
evident, noteworthy, notable, malodorous, fragrance. ANTONYM: Opie, cocaine
detectable, remarkable. (adj) smelly oppressed: (adj) laden, persecuted,
ANTONYMS: (adj) hidden, odyssey: (n) journey, epic, epic poem, broken, burdened, drawn, gloomy,
imperceptible, invisible epos, journeying aggrieved, downcast, heavy,
observing: (adj) observant, mindful, offended: (adj) angry, affronted, ladened, loaded
watchful, commemorative, aggrieved, pained, wronged, oppression: (n, v) hardship,
conscious, observative, perceptive, annoyed, insulted, shocked, vexed, grievance; (n) injustice, despotism,
thoughtful; (n) investigation resentful, injured. ANTONYMS: weight, stress, doldrums; (adj, n)
obstinacy: (n) stubbornness, (adj) indifferent, proud, abuse, tyranny, dictatorship,
firmness, bullheadedness, unconcerned autocracy. ANTONYMS: (n)
determination, contumacy, offending: (adj) opprobrious, democracy, ease, freedom, liberty
mulishness, impenitence, resolve, criminal, aberrant, guilty, opprobrium: (n) infamy, dishonor,
resoluteness, impenitency, delinquent, antisocial, scurrilous, disgrace, defamation, reproach; (n,
pertinacity. ANTONYMS: (n) errant v) insult, abuse, invective,
cooperation, compliance officiate: (v) function, act, manage, contumely; (adj, n) obloquy, odium.
obstreperous: (adj) noisy, boisterous, minister, serve, run, referee, do ANTONYM: (n) fame
blatant, clamorous, defiant, duty, marry, conduct, sprinkle opulence: (n) fortune, wealth, luxury,
disobedient, disorderly, unruly, oily: (adj, v) bland, soapy; (adj) fatty, exuberance, comfort, luxuriousness,
 298 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
prosperity, wealthiness, plenty; (adj, unreal, supposed, colorable. unobserved, unnoted, unmarked
n) riches, affluence. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adj) real, actual, overpowered: (adj) beaten,
(n) poverty, paucity, shabbiness, genuine conquered, inundated, engulfed,
austerity ostentatious: (adj) showy, flashy, flooded, routed, vanquished,
oration: (n) discourse, harangue, pompous, pretentious, loud, subdued, subjugated, overflowing,
lecture, speech, declamation, extravagant, garish, flamboyant, mild
homily, tirade, say, recitation, proud, grandiose; (adj, n) haughty. overtake: (v) catch, attain, catch up
oratory, language ANTONYMS: (adj) restrained, with, exceed, overpower, overcome,
oratory: (n) elocution, rhetoric, unostentatious, unpretentious, drab, go by, gain, devastate, outstrip, beat
declamation, speech, oration, humble overthrow: (adj, n, v) defeat, rout; (n)
church, chapel, tabernacle, ottoman: (n) hassock, footstool, fall, downfall, destruction; (n, v)
valediction, cathedral, public footrest, fauteuil, Osmanli, settle, overpower, ruin, overturn; (adj, v)
speaking Turk, Ottomite, woolsack, fag, pouf overcome; (v) bring down,
orbit: (n, v) circle, turn; (n) cycle, outlay: (n) expenditure, expense, demolish. ANTONYMS: (v) install,
field, orb, area, domain, compass, disbursement, charge, outgo, validate, lose, appoint; (n) victory,
expanse, course; (v) revolve spending, fee, expenses, beginning
orderly: (adj) neat, tidy, exact, defrayment, payment; (v) expend overthrown: (adj) overcome,
regular, ordered, systematic, logical, out-of-the-way: (adj) strange, conquered, battered, overpowered,
coherent, businesslike; (adv) singular, remote, devious, secluded, dejected, cast down, dissolute,
systematically; (n) attendant. outlying, distant, obscure, unusual, doomed, flooded, discomfit, mat
ANTONYMS: (adj) unmanageable, peculiar, far overwhelmed: (adj) beaten,
rowdy, wild, disorganized, untidy, outre: (adj) bizarre, freakish, freaky, overpowered, vanquished,
disorderly, confused, lawless, outlandish, flaky, remarkable, dumbfounded, inundated, flooded,
messy, defiant, haphazard stilted, bombastic; (adj, v) overthrown, engulfed, conquered,
ordinarily: (adv) generally, usually, extravagant; (v) fabulous, egregious bewildered; (v) overborne.
regularly, normally, frequently, outrider: (n) herald, precursor, ANTONYM: (adj) unimpressed
customarily, habitually, routinely, prodrome, prodromus, vancourier, owing: (adj) due, unpaid, unsettled,
middlingly, plainly, familiarly. pioneer, guard, escort, attendant, outstanding, overdue, owed,
ANTONYMS: (adv) unusually, scout payable, undischarged, indebted,
rarely, strangely, exceptionally outright: (adj) straight, absolute, fulfilling obligation, lawful.
originality: (n) novelty, imagination, entire, perfect, altogether, total, ANTONYM: (adj) settled
ingenuity, initiative, freshness, downright; (adv) wholly, oysters: (n) class Pelecypoda, family
newness, invention, creativity, instantaneously, instantly, fully. Ostreidae, Lamellibranchia,
heterodoxy, innovation; (adj, n) ANTONYMS: (adv) hardly, Ostreidae, class Lamellibranchia,
individuality. ANTONYMS: (n) indirectly; (adj) partial, qualified Bivalvia, clams, class Bivalvia
normality, unoriginality outskirts: (n) edge, periphery, packing: (n) boxing, package, gasket,
originator: (n) creator, author, margin, environs, border, fringe, bundling, fill, pad, pack,
founder, mover, producer, pioneer, boundary, rim, skirt, precincts, envelopment, wadding, wrap,
generator, architect, inventor, frontier. ANTONYM: (n) middle backpacking
maker, prime mover. ANTONYM: outstretched: (adj) extended, lengthy, paddy: (adj) rice, flour, bran, farina,
(n) successor flat, open, unfolded, stretched, meal, spore, sporule; (n) paddy
orleans: (n) siege of Orleans broad, wiredrawn, wide, long field, Irishman, Mickey, rice paddy
ornament: (n) decoration, adornment, outward: (adj) external, apparent, pagoda: (n) tower, pagod, pagody,
embellishment, decor; (v) beautify, extrinsic, outer, superficial, surface, temple
decorate, deck, embellish, adorn; (n, outside, ostensible, foreign, outdoor; painfully: (adv) sorely, grievously,
v) garnish, dress. ANTONYM: (v) (adv) out. ANTONYMS: (adj, adv) distressingly, severely, tenderly,
strip inward; (adj) inner, internal, deep badly, agonizingly, laboriously,
ornamental: (adj) fancy, florid, outwardly: (adv) exteriorly, sadly, bitterly, poignantly.
cosmetic, extravagant, elaborate, superficially, apparently, outside, ANTONYMS: (adv) easily, tolerably
showy, enhancing, delicate, seemingly, without, ostensibly, palate: (n) gusto, savour, flavour,
beautifying; (n) decoration, evidently, extrinsically, outerly, gustation, liking, tooth, taste, relish,
adornment. ANTONYMS: (adj) outsidely. ANTONYMS: (adv) roof of the mouth, smack, fancy
plain, unadorned internally, underneath pall: (v) cloy, tire, jade, fatigue; (n)
ornamented: (adj) embellished, oval: (adj) elliptical, elliptic, ovate, curtain, coffin, shroud, cloak,
beautified, fancy, flowery, ornate, oviform, ovoid, oblong, egg-shaped, cerement, mantle; (adj, v) disgust
adorned, bedecked, decked, rounded, prolate, round; (n) ovule pallid: (adj) ghastly, wan, bloodless,
festooned, feathered, florid overboard: (adj) exorbitant, rabid lurid, cadaverous, sickly, ashen,
ortolan: (n) Emberiza hortulana, overcoat: (n) greatcoat, coat, cloak, white, pasty, livid, watery.
bunting robe, topcoat, surcoat, coating, ANTONYMS: (adj) healthy, rosy,
ostensible: (adj) seeming, alleged, overcoating, capote, chesterfield, vivid
specious, superficial, nominal, gown pallor: (n) pallidness, wanness,
manifest, outward, pretended, overlooked: (adj) ignored, neglected, complexion, achromasia, lividity,
 Edgar Allan Poe 299
lividness, luridness, pale, skin color, opposite, irony, equivocation pate: (n) crown, noddle, nob, crest,
whiteness, sallowness. paradoxical: (adj) contradictory, chief, poll, cerebrum, brainpan,
ANTONYMS: (n) rosiness, conflicting, ambiguous, illegible, cranium, scull, upper story
coloration, bloom contrary, strange, inconsistent, patent: (adj) overt, evident, apparent,
palpable: (adj) tangible, obvious, questionable, ironic; (v) enigmatic, manifest, plain, clear, conspicuous,
evident, apparent, clear, problematical open, palpable, explicit; (n) letters
transparent, indubitable, noticeable, parallelogram: (n) rhomb, tetragon, patent. ANTONYMS: (adj)
lucid, patent, perceptible. quadrilateral, diamond, rhombus, inconspicuous, obscure, subtle,
ANTONYMS: (adj) imaginary, rhomboidal, quadrangle, oblong, unobtrusive, veiled, ambiguous,
intangible, impalpable, doubtful, rhomboid, rhombic furtive, questionable
furtive, imperceptible, insignificant, parcel: (n) bale, pack, bundle, paternal: (adj) parental, agnate,
obscure, unclear package, packet, section, division, maternal, agnatic, concerned,
palpitating: (adj) fluttering, batch; (n, v) portion; (v) distribute, solicitous, patrimonial, ancestral,
throbbing, aflare, flittering, flying, apportion fatherlike, racial, fraternal.
unsteady, vibrant, flaring parenthesis: (n) brackets, bracket, ANTONYMS: (adj) filial, motherly
paltry: (adj, n) mean; (adj) digression, interlude, episode, pathetic: (adj) deplorable, miserable,
contemptible, measly, trifling, abject, anastrophe, metastasis, hyperbaton, pitiful, wretched, forlorn,
insignificant, inconsiderable, puny, hypallage, excursus, anastrophy lamentable, tragic, distressing; (adj,
little, trivial, low. ANTONYMS: parlor: (n) front room, lounge, sitting v) touching, affecting, sad.
(adj) generous, substantial, plentiful, room, saloon, salon, parlour, ANTONYMS: (adj) strong, comical,
enormous, important, profound parlors, livingroom, common room, effective, impressive, admirable,
pamphlet: (n) book, leaflet, booklet, parlours, drawing room spirited, praiseworthy, generous,
flyer, magazine, treatise, tract, paroxysm: (adj, n) fit, burst; (n) fine, brilliant, decisive
writing, literature, folder, lampoon convulsion, outburst, explosion, pathology: (n) ankylosis,
pandemonium: (n) chaos, confusion, attack, seizure, spasm, gust, agony; palaeopathology, azotemia,
hubbub, disorder, commotion, (adj) breaking out cartilaginification, azoturia, asystole,
racket, turmoil, noise, mayhem, partaking: (n) input, contribution ascites, alkalosis, acidosis,
clamor, hullabaloo. ANTONYMS: parted: (adj) divided, separate, bacteremia, adhesion
(n) order, peace, calm distributed, separated, divisible, patron: (n) backer, advocate, friend,
panes: (n) Fauni disunited, compounder, compound, defender, customer, client, helper,
pannel: (n) pillion, saddle dividable sponsor, benefactor, frequenter,
pantaloons: (n) pants, small clothes, partiality: (n) favor, fondness, supporter. ANTONYM: (n)
smalls, pantaloon, trousers, leaning, fancy, favour, predilection, detractor
inexpressibles, overalls liking, prejudice, favoritism, bias, patronize: (v) frequent, support,
pants: (n) knickers, trousers, drawers, affection. ANTONYMS: (n) sponsor, patronage, favor, patronise,
knickerbockers, underpants, chinos, impartiality, fairness, indifference, condescend, defend, promote, back,
cords, denim, bloomers, flannel, horror, antipathy help. ANTONYMS: (v) respect,
knee pants particle: (n) molecule, grain, speck, boycott
papa: (n) father, pa, daddy, Dada, iota, fragment, jot, bit, mite, patronymic: (adj) patronymical ; (n)
sire, pappa, pop, old man, corpuscle, spot; (adj, n) atom surname
paterfamilias, cardinal, high priest particulars: (n) specification, data, paved: (adj) cobbled
papal: (adj) apostolic, pontifical, nicety, minutiae, terms, peacock: (v) strut, swagger, pose; (n)
apostolical, popish, pontific, consideration, workings, fine points, iris, tortoise shell, peafowl, bird of
pontificial, clerical ins and outs Juno, tulip, spectrum, peacock
papyrus: (n) paper rush, Egyptian parting: (n) adieu, division, leave, butterfly, chameleon
paper reed, Cyperus papyrus, departure, disunion, goodbye, pearl: (adj, n) jewel; (n) gem, bead,
sedge, bulrush; (v) foolscap, pillar, leaving, segregation, dying, rupture; dewdrop, ivory, bone; (adj) brilliant,
tablet, table, slate, vellum (adj) valedictory. ANTONYMS: (n) flower, bijou, satin etched, ruby.
parable: (n) fable, comparison, tale, joining, meeting, connection, ANTONYM: (n) dud
proverb, myth, legend, fiction, story; Reunion peculiarity: (n) idiosyncrasy,
(adj, n, v) apologue; (adj) simile, partition: (n) wall, bulkhead, divider, distinction, particularity, oddness,
metalepsis distribution, separation, screen; (n, eccentricity, distinctiveness,
paradise: (n) Elysium, bliss, Eden, v) part, split; (v) divide, apportion, abnormality, characteristic,
Zion, promised land, Garden of deal. ANTONYMS: (v) join, reveal; attribute, difference, individuality.
Eden, Elysian Fields, ecstasy, (n) union ANTONYM: (n) similarity
nirvana, Valhalla, utopia. partitioned: (adj) divide, enclosed, peculiarly: (adj, adv) particularly,
ANTONYM: (n) misery partitioned off, separate curiously, unusually, uncommonly,
paradises: (n) paradise pascal: (n) Blaise Pascal, singularly; (adv) especially, oddly,
paradox: (n) incongruity, mathematician strangely, specifically, weirdly,
contradiction, ambiguity, paste: (n, v) glue, gum, plaster; (n) specially. ANTONYMS: (adv)
inconsistency, puzzle, figure of dough, adhesive, cream, batter; (v) typically, ordinarily, slightly
speech, phenomenon, paradoxy, bond, affix, to stick, attach pecuniary: (adj) financial, fiscal,
 300 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
commercial, economic, nummulary, crown, flawlessness, development, knotty, troublesome; (adj, n)
sumptuary, numismatical, pecunial, ne plus ultra. ANTONYMS: (n) difficult. ANTONYMS: (adj) simple,
crumenal imperfection, fault, abandonment, enlightening, soothing,
peep: (n, v) glance, peek, look, gaze, ugliness, deterioration understandable, explicable
glint, squeal; (n) glimpse, cheep; (v) perforce: (n) on compulsion; (adv) persecute: (v) molest, chase, badger,
chirp, peer, pry. ANTONYMS: (v) needs harry, follow, plague, bait, afflict,
stare, gaze; (n) examination performer: (n) musician, doer, artiste, beset; (adj, v) oppress; (adj)
peering: (adj) nosy, prying, snoopy comedian, player, conjurer, juggler, aggrieve. ANTONYMS: (v) comfort,
pendulous: (adj) drooping, hanging, magician, executant, thespian, agent support
cernuous, droopy, nodding, perfume: (n, v) scent, essence, odor, persecuted: (adj) downtrodden,
flagging, swinging, pensile, flabby, smell; (n) aroma, bouquet, cologne, aggrieved, laden, mistreated,
wavering, unstable incense, odour; (v) embalm, wronged
penetrate: (v) bore, imbue, fathom, aromatize. ANTONYMS: (n) stink, persecution: (adj, n) annoyance; (n)
infiltrate, pierce, permeate, cut, stench harassment, torture, maltreatment,
filter, interpenetrate, get through, pericranium: (n) pate, skull, cranium, subjugation, hurt, nuisance, cruelty;
enter noddle, upper story, sconce, (adj) molestation, intolerance, abuse
penetrating: (adj) astute, sharp, brainpan, scull, noggin, cerebrum persecutor: (n) tormentor, bully,
cutting, discerning, incisive, peril: (n, v) hazard, risk, endanger, gadfly, tormenter, teaser, pursuer,
piercing, perceptive, discriminating, menace, adventure; (n) danger, dictator, annoyer, tantalizer,
trenchant; (adj, v) biting, acute. jeopardy, chance; (v) imperil, pesterer, pest
ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, soft, expose, compromise. ANTONYM: perseverance: (n) endurance,
mellow, low, gentle, dull, dense (n) security tenacity, resolution, constancy,
penetration: (n, v) intelligence, periodically: (adv) regularly, fortitude, assiduity, industry,
discernment, discrimination, recurrently, now and then, doggedness, firmness, persistence,
judgment; (adj, n) acumen; (n) frequently, intermittently, once in a determination. ANTONYMS: (n)
incursion, acuteness, entrance, while, sometimes, from time to time, vacillation, cowardice, indecision,
interpenetration, invasion, seasonally, repeatedly, infrequently. indifference
breakthrough. ANTONYM: (n) ANTONYMS: (adv) frequently, persevere: (v) persist, continue,
foolishness constantly, regularly, spasmodically endure, abide, go on, hang on, hold
pennies: (n) change perish: (v) expire, pass away, on, follow, keep, remain, pursue.
perceiving: (n) feeling, sensing, decease, go, fade, decay, depart, fall, ANTONYMS: (v) surrender, stop,
hearing, looking at, recognition, pass, ruin, annihilate. ANTONYMS: quit
thought, vision, lipreading; (adj) (v) survive, live, appear persia: (n) Islamic Republic of Iran,
conscious, percipient, reasonable perished: (adj) decayed, emperished, Persian Empire
perceptible: (adj) conspicuous, rotting, annihilated, fallen, lost, persian: (n) Farsi, Irani, Iranian
appreciable, evident, discernible, moldy, nonexistent, putrefied, dead, language
obvious, visible, palpable, apparent, decomposed persist: (v) persevere, go on, endure,
detectable, manifest, observable. perishing: (adj) chilly, cold and insist, maintain, remain, linger,
ANTONYMS: (adj) intangible, damp, crumbly, starving, inclement; follow; (n, v) last, abide, hold.
unclear, inaudible, inconspicuous, (n) decay ANTONYMS: (v) abandon, desist,
obscure, undetectable, invisible permitting: (adj) lenient, permitted cease
perceptibly: (adv) discernibly, perpendicularly: (adv) uprightly, personage: (n) person, notable,
apparently, appreciably, manifestly, erectly, straightly, upright, celebrity, personality, individual,
clearly, sensibly, markedly, orthogonally, sheerly, precipitously, bigwig, figure, somebody, human,
conspicuously, recognizably, really, normally, plumb; (adv, v) sheer; character, being
patently. ANTONYMS: (adv) (adj, adv) directly personate: (v) act, mimic, perform,
inaudibly, invisibly perpetually: (adv) eternally, do, play, personify, pose, simulate,
peremptory: (adj) imperious, everlastingly, always, incessantly, ape, mock, embody
commanding, dictatorial, continually, endlessly, permanently, pertinaciously: (adv) stubbornly,
overbearing, decisive, magisterial; unceasingly, ceaselessly, ever; (adj, unyieldingly, firmly, tenaciously,
(adj, v) authoritative, dogmatic, flat, adv) forever. ANTONYMS: (adv) obstinately, doggedly, headstrongly,
absolute; (v) decided. ANTONYM: erratically, sporadically stiffly, contumaciously, dourly
(adj) polite perplexed: (adj) confused, puzzled, pertinacity: (n) persistence,
perfected: (adj) consummate, baffled, confounded, doubtful, persistency, doggedness, obstinacy,
elaborate, mellow, mature, ripe, distracted, disconcerted; (adj, v) tenacity, contumacy, pertinacy,
fulfilled, done, formed; (v) intricate, complicated, lost, purpose, endurance, firmness,
completed, consummated, excessive involved. ANTONYMS: (adj) constancy
perfecting: (n) development, unperplexed, assured, clear, pertinent: (adj) apropos, appropriate,
reiteration knowing relevant, applicable, fitting, suitable,
perfection: (n) maturity, ideal, perplexing: (adj) enigmatic, puzzling, related, adequate, opportune, pat;
consummation, paragon, embarrassing, intricate, complex, (adj, n) apposite. ANTONYMS: (adj)
completeness, finish, completion, baffling, complicated, bewildering, inappropriate, unrelated, immaterial
 Edgar Allan Poe 301
pertinently: (adv) relevantly, physiognomy, face, mug, forehead, bottom, trough
appositely, aptly, fitly, properly, contour, brow, Artemus ward, piously: (adv) religiously, reverently,
fittingly, rightly, patly, germanely, mark, smiler godly, spiritually, devotedly,
relatedly, apropos phlegmatic: (adj) indifferent, listless, righteously, sacredly, earnestly,
perusal: (n) examination, scrutiny, stolid, unconcerned, phlegmatical, saintly, purely, devotionally
study, survey, inspection, poring lethargic, passive, inert, nonchalant, piquant: (adj) peppery, spicy,
over, studying, literary scholarship, cold, careless. ANTONYM: (adj) engaging, tasty, salty, strong, sharp,
perusing, lection, look demonstrative gamy; (adj, n) pungent, racy,
peruse: (v) examine, look through, phraseology: (n) language, trenchant. ANTONYMS: (adj) bland,
inspect, study, leaf, flip, flick, learn, expression, phrasing, wording, dull, insipid, faint
review, to read, browse. idiom, vernacular, dialect, choice of pique: (v) nettle, insult, outrage,
ANTONYM: (v) skim words, terminology, locution; (n, v) irritate, fret; (n) grudge, annoyance,
pervading: (adj) penetrating, general, style umbrage, irritation; (n, v) anger,
profound, permeating, permeant, physician: (n) doctor, medico, doc, spite
overmastering, lowly, deeply felt, medic, quack, surgeon, leech, pirouette: (n, v) spin, whirl; (v)
intellectually deep, deep, almighty houseman, MD, allergist, intern gyrate, wheel, rotate, turn round,
perverse: (adj) fractious, obstinate, physiognomy: (n) face, kisser, phiz, roll; (n) circination, revolution,
obdurate, bad, corrupt, headstrong, visage, mug, look, brow, contour, volutation, turbination
disobedient, intractable, willful, aspect, physnomy , metoposcopy piteously: (adj, adv) sadly; (adv)
sinister, wayward. ANTONYMS: piazza: (n) plaza, square, mall, circus, pitifully, wretchedly, ruefully,
(adj) wholesome, obliging, cloister, arcade, court, crescent, woefully, poorly, plaintively,
agreeable, accommodating, porch, space, veranda sorrily, grievously, sorrowfully,
malleable, good pictorial: (adj) picturesque, dolefully
perversion: (n) misrepresentation, illustrative, graphical, vivid, pitiable: (adj) forlorn, abject, pathetic,
falsification, corruption, depravity, photographic, lifelike, pictural, miserable, pitiful, wretched,
misuse, casuistry, vice, buggery; figurative, descriptive, artistic, lamentable, poor, squalid; (adj, v)
(adj) declension, hardening, scenic deplorable, mournful. ANTONYMS:
backsliding picturesque: (adj, v) pictorial; (adj) (adj) privileged, strong
perversity: (n) perverseness, beautiful, striking, colorful, idyllic, plague: (v) molest, harass, afflict,
cussedness, evil, perversion, scenic, vivid, quaint, lovely, hassle, annoy, badger, pester,
willfulness, unruliness, corruption, romantic, colourful. ANTONYMS: disturb, beleaguer; (n, v) worry; (adj,
wilfulness, depravity; (adj) (adj) drab, dull, ugly, unattractive, n, v) bother. ANTONYM: (v)
contumacy, spinosity modern comfort
pestilence: (n) pest, epidemic, blight, piety: (n) godliness, devoutness, plainly: (adv) evidently, manifestly,
disease, curse, infectious disease, faith, righteousness, holiness, clearly, distinctly, openly, obviously,
contagion, infection, virus; (adj) reverence, religion, religiousness, patently, overtly, definitely; (adj,
murrain, pox piousness, sanctity, goodness. adv) frankly, honestly.
pestis: (n) bubonic plague ANTONYMS: (n) sin, profanity, ANTONYMS: (adv) imperceptibly,
petersham: (n) grosgrain wickedness vaguely, obscurely, figuratively,
petit: (adj) small, insignificant piles: (adj, n) hemorrhoids, heaps, unclearly, politely, incoherently,
petty: (adj) insignificant, trivial, little, lots, loads, plenty; (n) hemorrhoid, implicitly, finely, ambiguously,
frivolous, paltry, puny, negligible, stacks, haemorrhoid, tons; (adj) covertly
light, mean, minute, exiguous. heartburn, hernia platonist: (n) platonic, academician,
ANTONYMS: (adj) important, pillow: (v) rest, breathe, lie, not idealist
serious, generous, profound, move; (adj) wadding; (n) throw plausible: (adj) credible, likely,
significant, expansive, crucial, pillow, Wanger, bed pillow, feather convincing, acceptable, feasible,
considerable, broadminded, bed, long pillow, padding probable, reasonable, ostensible,
enormous pills: (n) medicine, tablets imaginable, oily; (adj, v) specious.
philippic: (n) diatribe, broadside, pinch: (n, v) nip, arrest, twinge, ANTONYMS: (adj) implausible,
harangue, bill, broadsheet, squeeze; (n) emergency, crisis, unlikely, unbelievable, improbable,
denouncement, denunciation, flier, exigency; (v) compress, lift, wring, improbably, untenable
flyer, fulmination, handbill constrict pleasantry: (n) joke, wit, jocularity,
philosopher: (n) thinker, bacon, pine: (v) languish, long, ache, droop, jest, fancy, waggery, drollery, esprit,
libertarian, gymnosophist, flag, crave, fade; (n) fir; (n, v) yearn, banter, sport, jocosity
empiricist, necessitarian, moralist, sink; (adj) peak pleasing: (adj, n) acceptable; (adj)
theorist, wisdom, pundit, mechanist piningly: (adv) droopingly, amiable, lovable, amusing,
philosophic: (v) platonic, staid, languishingly, longingly attractive, gratifying, lovely,
stayed, stoical; (adj) thoughtful, pinions: (n) restraint pleasant, charming, delightful,
rational, patient, learned, ideologic, pinnacle: (n) apex, top, height, crest, inviting. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ideological. ANTONYM: (adj) zenith, crown, summit, acme, unpleasant, unwelcome, infuriating,
nonphilosophical heyday, climax, culmination. disappointing, straight, hurtful,
phiz: (n) countenance, visage, ANTONYMS: (n) nadir, base, maddening, displeasing, discordant,
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harsh, frustrating ponder: (v) meditate, consider, Gladstone bag, word, suitcase, box,
pleasures: (n) pleasure cogitate, deliberate, think, reflect, blending, grip, portmantle
pleiades: (n) Great Bear, Little conceive, mull, mull over; (n, v) portraiture: (n) depiction,
Dipper, pencil, zodiac, Southern muse, study. ANTONYMS: (v) description, delineation, picture,
Cross, signs of the zodiac, decide, wander, ignore characterization, likeness, portrayal,
constellation, cluster, Big Dipper, ponderous: (adj) heavy, grave, imagery, representation; (v) genre,
group onerous, burdensome, massive, high art
plucking: (n) harvesting, rip out unwieldy, bulky, stodgy, hard, possessions: (n) means, belongings,
plume: (n) feather, plumage, quill, tedious, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) assets, goods, property, effects,
panache, aigrette, crest, feathering; elegant, graceful, lively, brisk, wealth, gear, things, possession,
(v) pride, pluck, dress, preen manageable riches
plunge: (n, v) drop, dive, fall, jump; pontifical: (adj) papal, apostolic, possessor: (n) owner, holder,
(v) douse, duck, submerge, crash, Episcopal, portentous, apostolical, proprietor, householder, occupant,
dunk, plummet; (adj, v) immerse. overblown, grandiloquent, landowner, landholder, proprietary,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) rise; (v) hesitate; pretentious, Episcopalian, popish, somebody, someone, soul
(n) improvement clerical possum: (n) opossum, cuscus, koala,
plunging: (adv) diving, headlong, poodle: (n) domestic dog, dog, flying squirrel, flying opossum,
pitching, headfirst; (adj) precipitous, poodle dog, miniature poodle, large koala bear, flying phalanger,
low, plummeting; (n) descent poodle marsupial, native bear, common
pneumatics: (adj) pneumatostatics; popinjay: (n) parrot, fop, coxcomb, opossum, kangaroo bear
(n) mechanics, aerometry swellhead, dude, egoist, egotist, postage: (n) postage stamp, token,
pocket-handkerchief: (n) Beau Brummel seal, cast, postage expense, value or
handkerchief poplars: (n) genus Populus prepayment, mold, item, franking,
poetic: (adj) poetical, artistic, popping: (n) pop, blowing, cratering, pestle, impression
rhetorical, lyrical, imaginative, dad, Dada, flaring, pa, papa, pappa; pounce: (n) talon; (v) leap, bound,
beauteous, elegiac, graphic, fanciful, (adj) joyful, busy dive, descend, swoop, stoop, charge,
metrical, figurative. ANTONYM: populace: (n) multitude, masses, attack, seize; (n, v) jump
(adj) prosaic inhabitants, public, commonalty, powerless: (adj) impotent, unable,
poetical: (adj) imaginative, rhetorical, mob, crowd, population, nation, feeble, incapable, ineffective,
poematic, figurative, inventive man, country ineffectual, infirm, inefficient,
poignant: (adj, v) acrid, biting, harsh, populous: (adj) multitudinous, nerveless, weak, prostrate.
painful, penetrating, brisk; (adj) crowded, densely populated, ANTONYMS: (adj) powerful,
acute, cutting, moving, affecting; multiple, thick, inhabited, strong, effective, capable, able
(adj, n) piquant. ANTONYMS: (adj) numerous, manifold, multiplied; practicability: (n) practicableness,
unemotional, cheerful, emotionless (adj, v) teeming; (v) closely packed. practicality, possibility, probability,
poking: (n) thrusting, jabbing, jab, ANTONYM: (adj) uninhabited usefulness, utility, viability,
driving force, dalliance, Phytolacca pork: (n) pig, hog, swine, pork barrel, convenience, feasibleness,
Americana, dig, biff, drive, carrier porc, red meat, white meat, animal handiness, likelihood
bag, garget protein, appropriation, beef, cochon practising: (adj) practicing,
polished: (adj) glossy, cultured, de lait churchgoing
finished, refined, smooth, lustrous, porphyry: (n) igneous rock prairie: (n) meadow, lea, grassland,
genteel, courtly; (adj, v) courteous, porridge: (v) oatmeal, hasty pudding, field, savanna, steppe, heath, bush,
civil, polite. ANTONYMS: (adj) mince pie, oyster, pineapple, mango; jungle, desert, pampas
rough, coarse, shoddy, unpolished, (n) burgoo, pap, plash, loblolly, prate: (n, v) gossip, chatter, prattle,
amateur, awkward, unsophisticated podge tattle; (v) jabber, gab, chat, natter,
polled: (adj) hornless, poley portal: (n) gate, door, mouth, clack, palaver, gabble
pompey: (n) Portsmouth, naval base, gateway, porch, entry, entrance, prattling: (n) gab; (adj) voluble,
Pompey the great inlet, portals, entree, lips gabby
pomposity: (n) haughtiness, portentous: (adj) fateful, precaution: (n) foresight, care,
arrogance, glitter, conceit, extraordinary, pompous, amazing, prevention, discretion, anticipation,
pretension, pompousness, strut, pontifical, prodigious, caution, circumspection, prudence,
vanity, pretentiousness, dash, grandiloquent, sinister, unusual, safeguard, protection; (adj)
ostentatiousness. ANTONYMS: (n) foreboding, astonishing. precautionary
modesty, informality ANTONYMS: (adj) modest, precincts: (n) entourage, arena,
pompous: (adj) grand, arrogant, promising outskirts, neighbourhood, walk,
ostentatious, affected, pretentious, portly: (adj) plump, stout, corpulent, neighborhood, proximity,
overblown, showy, inflated, heavy, obese, chubby, fleshy, surroundings, vicinity, limitations,
majestic, lordly; (adj, prep) bloated. overweight; (adj, adv) burly, stately; suburbs
ANTONYMS: (adj) modest, (adv) plumply. ANTONYMS: (adj, precipice: (n) abyss, chasm,
straightforward, unceremonious, adv) thin, slim; (adj) skinny escarpment, gulf, steep, crag, verge,
quiet, unassuming, natural, portmanteau: (n) valise, Gladstone, brink, abysm, ravine, drop
deferential, relaxed, meek portmanteau word, blend, precipitate: (adj, n) hasty; (adj, n, v)
 Edgar Allan Poe 303
deposit; (adj) impetuous, headlong, forwardly, beforehand govern; (v) dominate, overcome,
sudden, immediate, instant, premeditated: (adj) intentional, outweigh, obtain, persist, carry,
precipitant; (n, v) accelerate, planned, designed, conscious, vanquish; (adj) preponderate.
expedite; (v) hurry. ANTONYMS: calculated, studied, intended, ANTONYM: (v) lose
(adj) overdue, cautious, protracted; prearranged; (v) prepense; (adj, v) prevalent: (adj, v) prevailing; (adj)
(v) retard aforethought, premeditate. predominant, general, common,
precipitation: (n) rain, downfall, ANTONYMS: (adj) accidental, popular, preponderant, rife,
haste, hastiness, rush, rashness, ingenuous, spontaneous, extensive, dominant, epidemic; (adj,
rainfall, temerity, acceleration, fall; unintentional, unpremeditated, n) current. ANTONYMS: (adj) rare,
(adj, n) precipitancy automatic, casual uncommon, sparse, limited
preclude: (v) forbid, obviate, avert, preparatory: (adj, v) preparative; priesthood: (n) ministry, apostleship,
hinder, forestall, bar, debar, (adj) introductory, preceding, clericals, profession, the desk, the
foreclose, prevent, anticipate, propaedeutic, prefatory, initial, cloth, church government, clerical,
obstruct. ANTONYM: (v) encourage precedent, opening, antecedent; (n) community, hierarch, presbytery
preconcert: (v) preestablish; (n) preparation, prior. ANTONYM: priestly: (adj) ministerial, hieratic,
preconcertion (adj) final sacerdotal, priestlike, hieratical,
predicament: (n) dilemma, fix, plight, preposterous: (adj) absurd, irrational, religious, theocratic, ecclesiastical;
crisis, difficulty, mess, quandary, ludicrous, nonsensical, foolish, (adv) divinely, hieratically,
case, category, impasse; (n, v) ridiculous, laughable, derisory, theocratically. ANTONYM: (adj)
condition monstrous, inconsistent; (adj, v) secular
predicate: (n, v) affirm; (v) assert, extravagant. ANTONYMS: (adj) prig: (v) pilfer, filch, steal, rob,
allege, declare, connote, found, sensible, reasonable, impressive, purloin, thieve; (n) nim, snob, old
imply, base, ground, establish, plausible maid, pedant, filcher
maintain prerogative: (n) franchise, claim, primval: (adj) primal, primeval,
prediction: (n) foresight, forecasting, power, immunity, liberty, primordial, original, ancient,
forecast, prophecy, vaticination, perquisite, right, influence, immemorial, early, primitive,
augury, anticipation, concession, due, authority primary, native, key
announcement, oracle, prescience: (n) forecast, precognition, primness: (n) priggishness,
prognostication, foretelling anticipation, prevision, Grundyism, propriety, properness,
predilection: (n) penchant, foreknowledge, forethought, vision, correctitude, prudery, prudishness,
preference, partiality, inclination, presentiment, prediction, hunch, reserve, modesty
bent, weakness, predisposition, insight princely: (adj, v) August, grand,
liking, fondness, bias, taste. preserves: (n) conserve, jam, great, lordly, dignified, stately; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (n) indifference, chowchow, conserves, jelly, generous, munificent, majestic,
horror marmalade, canned food, confiture, magnificent, gorgeous. ANTONYM:
predisposed: (adj) inclined, European federation of importers of (adj) ungenerous
susceptible, partial, disposed, dried fruit, preserved food, apple principality: (n) princedom, empire,
willing, likely, propense, vulnerable, butter realm, protectorate, sphere of
biased, of a mind, interested. presume: (v) dare, consider, believe, influence, duchy, principate,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unbiased, think, infer, guess, expect, esteem, sovereignty, area, satrapy, Cambria
impervious conclude, suppose, conjecture. proboscis: (n) beak, nozzle, neb,
preeminent: (adj, v) paramount, ANTONYMS: (v) appreciate, trunk, muzzle, snout, bole, boot,
greatest; (adj) distinguished, despair, speculate olfactory organ, automobile trunk,
leading, chief, grand, excellent, pretending: (n, v) pretense; (n) luggage compartment
palmary, principal; (v) affectation, appearance, acting, proceeded: (v) proceed, yode
supereminent, supreme. pretence, mannerism, dissembling, proceeding: (n) matter, transaction,
ANTONYMS: (adj) undistinguished, pretension, deception, deceit; (adv) affair, procedure, lawsuit,
worst, inferior pretendingly proceedings; (v) deed, act; (n, v)
pre-eminent: (adj) prominent, pretense: (n) affectation, pretension, measure; (adv, n) happening; (adj,
outstanding, notable, transcendent, deception, show, cover, adv, v) going on
remarkable, eminent, famous, masquerade, hypocrisy, mask, procure: (v) get, obtain, buy, earn,
principal, utmost, uppermost, facade, sham; (adj, n) feint. win, gain, have, purchase, induce,
unequaled ANTONYMS: (n) reality, honesty, derive, find. ANTONYM: (v) give
pre-eminently: (adv) principally, humility, sincerity, genuine procuring: (v) procure
eminently pretensions: (n) airs, affected prodigal: (adj) extravagant,
preliminaries: (n) introduction, manner, mannerism improvident, generous, lavish,
preparation, opening, initiation, preternatural: (adj) unearthly, occult, wasteful, excessive, exuberant,
training, preface, preamble outlandish, miraculous, uncanny, liberal, profuse, dissipated; (adj, n)
prematurely: (adv) early, transcendental, extraordinary, profligate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
inopportunely, hastily, precipitately, abnormal, weird, nonnatural, economical, cautious
unripely, previously, rashly, otherworldly prodigious: (adj) gigantic, enormous,
immaturely, precociously, prevail: (n, v) triumph, control, huge, phenomenal, portentous,
 304 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
stupendous, exceptional, colossal, importance, height, consequence, banishment, ostracism; (adj)
immense, gargantuan; (adj, v) projection, distinction, bulge, excommunication. ANTONYM: (n)
monstrous. ANTONYMS: (adj) celebrity, fame, moment. permission
unexceptional, normal, average, ANTONYMS: (n) valley, prosecute: (v) pursue, persecute,
tiny, weak commonness, insignificance follow, chase, engage, indict, litigate,
professed: (adj) alleged, declared, promptness: (n) promptitude, agility, drive, execute, accuse; (n, v) sue.
apparent, avowed, pretended, celerity, readiness, eagerness, ANTONYM: (v) pardon
seeming, supposed, affected, expedition, dispatch, rapidity, prostrate: (adj, v) prone, exhaust,
feigned, so-called, purported alacrity, punctuality, speed. level, fatigue; (v) fell, overwhelm,
profoundly: (adv) thoroughly, ANTONYMS: (n) slowness, overcome, floor, overthrow; (adj)
extremely, intensely, exhaustively, sluggishness, tardiness, delay deject, knock down. ANTONYM:
greatly, sincerely, gravely, deep, prone: (adj) liable, apt, inclined, (adj) upright
heavily, weightily, very. disposed, subject, flat, predisposed, protestation: (n) protest, objection,
ANTONYMS: (adv) lightly, mildly likely, prostrate, procumbent, declaration, outcry, complaint,
profundity: (n) deepness, susceptible. ANTONYMS: (adj) claim, demur, dissent, opposition,
profoundness, abstruseness, upright, immune, resistant, statement, affirmation
penetration, wisdom, obscurity, unwilling, impervious, disinclined protracted: (adj, v) extended,
astuteness, abstrusity, erudition; pronounce: (v) articulate, declare, lingering, continued; (adj)
(adj) profound, extensive. affirm, say, assert, express, vocalize, prolonged, lengthy, extensive,
ANTONYMS: (n) superficiality, proclaim; (n, v) allege; (adj, v) prolix, chronic, lengthened, slow,
banality, flippancy, height, deliver, utter. ANTONYM: (v) spun out. ANTONYMS: (adj) brief,
mildness, simplicity mumble abrupt, short, concise, easy
profusion: (n) opulence, abundance, pronouncing: (v) pronounce; (n) protruded: (adj) extant, outstanding
prodigality, plenty, excess, pronunciation, utterance protruding: (adj) obtrusive,
cornucopia, plenitude, profuseness, propagator: (n) communicator, projecting, jutting, protrusive,
copiousness, exuberance; (adj) phytologist, botanist, plant scientist salient, projected, bulging,
amplitude. ANTONYMS: (n) propensity: (n) proclivity, leaning, protuberant, noticeable, sticking out,
insufficiency, scarcity disposition, bias, bent, aptitude, proposed
progenitors: (n) lineage aptness, proneness, predisposition, protuberance: (n) prominence, bulge,
progression: (n) advance, headway, predilection, penchant. ANTONYM: swelling, bump, hump, lump, nub,
chain, course, train, development, (n) inability node, knob, protrusion, jut
series, sequence; (n, v) prophecy: (n) oracle, augury, proudly: (adv) haughtily, arrogantly,
improvement, advancement, prognostication, forecast, superciliously, boastfully, vainly,
furtherance. ANTONYM: (n) decay vaticination, prevision, prediction, splendidly, stately, loftily, snootily,
progressively: (adv) gradually, by prognosis, omen, revelation, disdainfully, conceitedly.
degrees, advancedly, little by little, foreboding ANTONYMS: (adv) humbly,
more and more, liberally, forwardly, propitious: (adj) fortunate, lucky, modestly
advancingly, consecutively, good, benign, happy, opportune; proverb: (n) adage, byword,
enlightenedly, continuously. (adj, v) auspicious; (adj, n, v) aphorism, dictum, saying, axiom,
ANTONYM: (adv) rapidly friendly; (adj, n) promising, parable, motto, expression; (n, v)
prohibited: (adj) illicit, illegal, taboo, advantageous, kind. ANTONYMS: maxim, saw
banned, unlawful, contraband, (adj) unfortunate, unlucky, proverbial: (adj) axiomatic,
barred, proscribed, not allowed, out; unpropitious, inopportune, hopeless hackneyed saying, common saying,
(adj, adv) off-limits. ANTONYMS: proportioned: (adj) attemperate, notorious, famed, legendary,
(adj) legitimate, permitted, allowed, shapely, regular, properly adapted, famous, common, true saying, trite
authorized, legal, permissible, even, balanced. ANTONYM: (adj) saying, recognizable
acceptable, eligible, lawful, open asymmetrical proverbially: (adv) commonly,
projecting: (adj) projected, proprietor: (n) possessor, manager, famedly, famously, legendarily,
protruding, jutting, protrusive, landlord, holder, host, keeper, notoriously
pendent; (adj, v) overhanging, master, employer, patron, proverbs: (n) proverb
jutting over, salient; (v) beetling, proprietress, proprietary proximity: (n) propinquity, vicinity,
protuberant, convex propriety: (adj, n) decency, modesty, adjacency, neighborhood,
projector: (n) designer, searchlight, correctness, aptitude; (n) decorum, contiguity, presence, closeness,
schemer, film projector, overhead fitness, etiquette, civility, grace, contact, nearby, juxtaposition,
projector, planner, slide projector, politeness, manners. ANTONYMS: approach. ANTONYM: (n)
magic lantern, movie projector, (n) impropriety, rudeness, remoteness
optical device; (v) promoter unsuitableness, indecorum, prudence: (n) foresight, economy,
promenade: (n, v) stroll, walk, amble, decadence, tactlessness, corruption, frugality, caution, care, forethought,
ramble; (v) march, parade; (n) vulgarity, indecency providence, circumspection,
esplanade, perambulation, prom, proscription: (n) prohibition, ban, judgment, deliberation; (adj, n)
ball, mall embargo, expulsion, anathema, wisdom. ANTONYMS: (n)
prominence: (n) eminence, hump, expatriation; (adj, n) exclusion, exile, imprudence, profligacy, generosity,
 Edgar Allan Poe 305
hindsight, recklessness, punctuality: (n) accuracy, precision, Arianism, anabaptism, Adventism
extravagance nicety, exactitude, truth, fidelity, quaint: (adj) odd, funny, picturesque,
prudish: (adj) priggish, prissy, exactness, promptitude, steadiness; comical, fanciful, curious,
demure, coy, proper, squeamish, (adj) rigor, mathematical precision. whimsical, strange, queer, peculiar,
puritanical, Victorian, straitlaced, ANTONYM: (n) tardiness droll. ANTONYMS: (adj) modern,
stiff, delicate. ANTONYMS: (adj) pundit: (n) critic, connoisseur, ordinary, dull
brash, brazen, liberal, permissive, authority, scholar, learned person, quaintly: (adv) unusually, oddly,
strong jurist, initiate, legist, wrangler, curiously, weirdly, singularly,
prussian: (adj) prutenic Schoolman, professional peculiarly, queerly, strangely,
prying: (adj) inquisitive, punish: (v) amerce, discipline, outlandishly, charmingly, pleasingly
meddlesome, nosy, inquiring, nosey, castigate, chasten, chastise, penalize, quantum: (n) measure, magnitude,
intrusive, busy, snoopy; (n) strike, avenge, pay, beat, execute. quantity, volume, number, mass,
nosiness, curiosity; (adj, n) ANTONYMS: (v) excuse, exonerate, measurement, sum, total, size,
meddling. ANTONYMS: (adj) pardon, reward, commend amplitude
apathetic; (n) apathy puppy: (n) pup, cub, youth, doggy, quarrel: (adj, n, v) dispute; (n, v)
psyche: (n) mind, brain, ego, spirit, whelp, younker, dog, brat, child, fight, feud, brawl, row, altercation,
intellect, ghost, heart, mentality, youngster, frankfurter argue, conflict, squabble; (n)
soul, Hydropsyche, head. purchasing: (n) buying, purchase, dissension, difference.
ANTONYM: (n) body buy, buy-out, purchases, shopping, ANTONYMS: (n) agreement,
publican: (n) bartender, barman, transaction, sale, catalog buying, reconciliation, acceptance, concord,
landlord, cafe proprietor, barkeep, ownership consensus; (v) agree
caf owner, cafe owner, caf purification: (n) defecation, purge, quarterly: (n) quarterlies, periodical,
proprietor, tapster, mixologist, refinement, catharsis, purgation, series, journal, period, glossy
tapper purging, refining, cleaning, magazine, monthly, paper,
puckered: (adj) corrugated, wrinkly, cleansing, cleanup, rectification. publication; (adv) every quarter;
unsmooth, rough, inflated, ANTONYMS: (n) debasement, (adj) trimestrial
furrowed, cockled, bullate, creased dirtying, contamination quartz: (adj) flint, fossil, crag, marble,
puddle: (n, v) plash; (n) pond, lake, purifying: (adj) purging, purgatorial, pebble; (n) quartz glass, citrine,
slop, lough, mere, loch, lin; (v) antiseptic, expurgatory, ablutionary, chalcedony, lechatelierite,
muddle, make, addle remedial; (v) cathartic, abstergent; aventurine, cairngorm
puff: (adj, n, v) gasp; (n, v) blow, (n) purification quasi: (adv) nearly, almost, partly,
whiff, gust, drag; (v) boast, inflate, purity: (n) holiness, cleanness, practically, just as; (adj) mock,
huff, heave, brag, distend cleanliness, virtue, honor, ostensible, similar, pseudo; (n) semi
puffed: (adj) puff, bloated, distended, perfection, pureness, sanctity, queenly: (adj) queenlike, royal, noble,
puffy, tumid, turgid, swell, chastity, elegance; (adj, n) clearness. dignified, regal, majestic, imperial,
breathless, bepuffed, overflowing, ANTONYMS: (n) coarseness, sovereign
out of breath impurity, contamination, clutter, queer: (adj) fantastic, odd, eccentric,
puffy: (adj) pompous, swollen, dirtiness, corruption, mustiness funny, curious, gay, peculiar,
bloated, inflated, bombastic, tumid, purloiner: (n) crook strange, quaint, fishy, outlandish.
puffed, distended, orotund, puff; (v) purport: (n, v) aim, amount; (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) conventional,
obese intent, drift, intention, meaning, normal, well
pulmonary: (adj) pneumonic, end, effect, design; (v) mean, quench: (adj, v) extinguish, allay,
cardiopulmonary propose slake; (v) appease, quash, put out,
pulpit: (n) platform, dais, ambo, purposely: (adj, adv) designedly, destroy, assuage, annihilate, calm,
lectern, hustings, stump, rostrum, advisedly, knowingly; (adv) chill. ANTONYMS: (v) stimulate,
forum, desk, stand, state intentionally, on purpose, by design, light
pulsation: (n) pulse, beat, pounding, consciously, by choice, calculatedly, querulous: (adj) petulant, irritable,
impulse, heartbeat, throb, tremor, explicitly; (adj) wittingly. fretful, discontented, tetchy,
pulsing, palpitation, throbbing, ANTONYM: (adv) unintentionally complaining, fractious, touchy,
beating purse: (n) bag, pouch, money, cross, grumpy, grouchy
pulseless: (adj) inanimate, dead, handbag, sac, currency, pocketbook, query: (n, v) doubt, inquire, quiz; (n)
breathless, nonliving, dyspnoeic, pelf; (v) wrinkle, pucker, crease inquiry, interrogative; (v)
dyspnoeal, dyspneic, dyspneal, pursuance: (n) prosecution, interrogate, ask, examine,
breathtaking, appearing dead execution, pursuit, implementation, interpellate, wonder, challenge.
pumpkin: (n) Autumn pumpkin, fulfillment, achievement, search, ANTONYMS: (n, v) answer; (n)
vegetable, veggie, squash, gourd, quest, fulfilment, exercise, chase certainty; (v) trust, accept
head, punkin, pumpion, pumpkin pursuant: (adj) agreeable quiescence: (n) still, calm, abeyance,
vine pursuits: (n) diversion, duties inaction, ease, inactivity, rest,
pumps: (n) heart, spectator puseyism: (n) Calvinism, quiescency, estivation, hibernation,
puncheon: (n) punch, vat, barrel, Tractarianism, Stundism, calmness
cask, tun, keg, butt, filling piece, Quakerism, Protestantism, quintessence: (n) heart, epitome,
drum, caldron Methodism, Jansenism, Erastianism, marrow, gist, core, model, paragon,
 306 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
archetype, nub, substance, soul dried raisin expedition, preparation,
quit: (adj, n, v) leave; (v) go, drop, rake: (n, v) tilt; (adj, v) comb; (v) hoe, promptness, knack, dexterity,
break, cease, give up, depart, end, harrow, graze, draw, plow; (n) eagerness, quickness, fitness; (adj, n)
discontinue; (adj, v) discharge; (n, v) debauchee, roue, slant, blood. alacrity. ANTONYMS: (n)
part. ANTONYMS: (v) stay, occupy, ANTONYM: (v) glance reluctance, delay
enter, maintain, start, come, arrive rant: (n, v) harangue, rave, spout, reasoning: (n) argumentation,
quitting: (n) departure, resignation rage, fume; (adj, v) jabber; (v) deduction, ratiocination, illation,
quivering: (adj, n) trembling, tremor, declaim, mouth, bluster; (n) logic, argument, abstract thought,
quaking, trepidation; (n) palpitation, bombast; (adj, n) fustian sense, judgment, thought; (adj)
quiver, vibration; (adj) flutter, rantipole: (adj) wild rational
quavering, shivering, tremulous. rapacious: (adj) avid, voracious, rebellious: (adj) insubordinate,
ANTONYM: (adj) steady predatory, edacious, acquisitive, mutinous, disaffected, defiant,
quixotic: (adj) impractical, dreamy, ravenous, gluttonous, ferocious, disobedient, contrary,
visionary, fire eating, cavalier, raptorial; (adj, v) covetous, contumacious, insurgent, stubborn,
fantastic, adventurous; (adj, v) avaricious unruly, malcontent. ANTONYMS:
utopian, unrealistic; (v) fanatic, rapidity: (n) expedition, quickness, (adj) docile, conventional, obedient,
extravagant promptness, dispatch, celerity, conformist, content, conforming,
quiz: (v) interrogate, examine, haste, velocity, pace, fleetness, cooperative, loyal, meek,
question, chaff, inquire, joke, promptitude, speed. ANTONYM: submissive, obliging
enquire, grill; (n, v) test; (n) (n) tardiness rebus: (n) puzzle, conundrum,
examination, exam. ANTONYM: (v) rapt: (adj) engrossed, intent, ecstatic, enigma, problem, charade, nut to
answer preoccupied, spellbound, captive, crack, mystery, logogriph
quizzical: (adj) mocking, eccentric, enthralled, attentive, fixed, recalling: (adj) revocatory; (n)
fanciful, fantastic, queer, playful, enwrapped; (v) engrossed in. recognition
derisive, jocular, waggish, ironical, ANTONYMS: (adj) detached, receptacle: (n) box, holder, case,
ironic inattentive, uninterested, bored torus, can, outlet, pocket, pyx,
quorum: (n) gathering rascal: (n) villain, rapscallion, beehive, cuspidor, pix
quoting: (n) citation monkey, miscreant, knave, recherche: (n) chic, modish; (adj)
rabble: (n) crowd, masses, trash, scoundrel, scamp, rogue, varlet, choice, rare, select, best, picked,
herd, canaille, people, rout, ragtag, vagabond, brat elect, dainty, priceless, elegant
horde, gang, riffraff rascality: (n) dishonesty, deviltry, reckless: (adj) careless, rash,
radiant: (adj, v) bright, glittering, devilry, devilment, naughtiness, foolhardy, hasty, incautious,
lustrous, beamy, glorious; (adj) mischief, misdeed, roguishness, extravagant, daring, desperate,
beaming, luminous, effulgent, lucid, mischievousness, prankishness; (adj, brash; (adj, v) imprudent, wanton.
glowing, beautiful. ANTONYMS: n) roguery ANTONYMS: (adj) cautious,
(adj) gloomy, dark, pale, unhappy rascally: (adj) dirty, contemptible, prudent, sensible, wise, responsible,
radically: (adv) essentially, abject, mean, mischievous, parsimonious, considered, safe,
fundamentally, revolutionarily, scoundrelly, roguish, scabby, guarded, dutiful, discreet
basically, completely, drastically, scurvy, shabby, paltry recoil: (n, v) rebound, kick, bounce,
ultraly, exhaustively, extremely, rash: (adj, n) foolhardy, hasty, shrink; (n) reaction, repercussion,
originally, primarily. ANTONYMS: precipitate, eruption; (adj) backlash; (v) bound, cringe, flinch,
(adv) modestly, slightly, imprudent, reckless, impetuous, quail
insignificantly, superficially heedless, audacious, sudden; (adj, recollect: (v) recall, remember,
raging: (adj) hot, angry, fierce, irate, adv) thoughtless. ANTONYMS: recognize, call to mind, remind,
wild, infuriated, enraged, vehement, (adj) cautious, careful, sensible, mind, think, call up, reminisce,
heated; (adj, n) mad, rabid. wise, considered, deliberate, refresh, retrieve. ANTONYM: (v)
ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, mild, prudent, modest, slow, responsible, forget
contained patient recollection: (n, v) mind; (n)
rags: (adj) refuse, rubble, scourings, rattled: (adj) hot and bothered, reminiscence, recall, anamnesis,
sweepings, trash, waste; (n) perturbed, upset, unsettled, remembrance, recognition,
clothing, tatter, orts, odds and ends, puzzled, disconcerted, memento, memorial,
dress discomposed, bewildered, beside commemoration, memoir, retrospect
railroad: (n) railway, railway system, oneself, abashed, addled. recollections: (n) memories,
tram road, tramway, rails, doctrine; ANTONYM: (adj) calm reminiscences, recollection,
(v) dragoon, push, coerce, bully, ravages: (n) devastation, destruction, biography
dispatch negative effects recommending: (adj)
rails: (n) track, railroad, Gruiformes, rays: (n) light, sunlight, Selachii, recommendatory, commendatory
railing, railway, bustards, Coots, dogfishes, elasmobranch, reconciled: (adj) consistent, resigned,
course, gallinules, crakes, order Elasmobranchii, emission, daylight, serene, meet; (v) made friends,
Gruiformes sunshine, selachian, subclass affriended. ANTONYM: (adj)
raisin: (n) plum, sultana, Valencia Elasmobranchii unreconciled
raisins, raisins, grape, dried fruit, readiness: (n) facility, ease, recount: (v) tell, recite, relate,
 Edgar Allan Poe 307
describe, enumerate, inform, detail, punctuality, orderliness, uniformity, memorial, recall, relic, monument,
rehearse, count, report, convey steadiness, method, accuracy, keepsake, reminiscence, recognition;
recourse: (n, v) appeal, haunt; (n) discipline, system, exactness. (adj, n) memento
refuge, expedient, resource, ANTONYMS: (n) lateness, remorseless: (adj) merciless,
assistance, alternative, dependence, asymmetry, irregularity, disorder, relentless, cruel, unmerciful, brutal,
haven, asylum, request variability, variety, abnormality callous, unrelenting, ruthless,
recruits: (n) human resources, regulated: (adj) ordered, arranged, inexorable, inhuman, heartless.
employees, people, reinforcements, consistent, lawful, temperate, not ANTONYMS: (adj) merciful,
staff, workers, personnel, supplies, haphazard, organized; (adv) in time, compassionate, gentle, kind,
succors, reenforcements in harmony, keeping pace, keeping tolerant, unrelenting
rectangular: (adj) orthogonal, oblong, up remoteness: (n) aloofness,
square, rectangled, rectangle, reigning: (adj) regnant, predominant, detachment, farawayness, remotion,
multilateral, angular; (n) rectangular overruling, reign, sovereign, loneliness, longinquity, reserve,
wave controlling, royal, dominant, abstraction, separation,
recur: (v) resort, repeat, go back, ascendant, prevalent, chief standoffishness; (adj, n) farness.
reappear, duplicate, revert, return, rein: (n) bridle, curb, restraint, check, ANTONYMS: (n) warmth,
persist, fall back, cycle, circulate. strap; (v) leash, harness, contain, accessibility, inclusion, friendliness,
ANTONYM: (v) cease rule, rein in, confine closeness, approachability
redeemed: (adj) ransomed, blessed reins: (n) bridle, Reins of a vault, remotest: (adj) furthest, uttermost,
redoubled: (adj) ingeminate reins of government, wheel, endmost, extreme, last, utmost
reeler: (n) staggerer, totterer gearshift, joystick, pedals, potency, render: (v) interpret, explain, give,
referable: (adj) ascribable, referrible, power, powerfulness offer, furnish, pay, construe, return,
attributable, accusable, culpable, rejecting: (adj) negative, dismissive, provide, impart, translate
chargeable disdainful; (n) rejection rendering: (n) interpretation,
refined: (adj) delicate, cultured, rejoice: (v) cheer, gladden, triumph, translation, rendition, reading,
graceful, polite, gentle, urbane, revel, jubilate, gratify, gloat, please; representation, version, interpreting,
courteous, courtly, cultivated; (adj, (n, v) delight, glory, joy. depiction, execution, construction,
n) polished, pure. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (v) lament, mourn, explanation
(adj) unrefined, raw, uncouth, complain renounce: (v) abandon, abdicate,
rough, careless, crude, brute, rejoinder: (n) reply, comeback, abjure, relinquish, desert, reject, give
boorish, plain, lowly, inelegant response, riposte, return, reaction, up, disown, deny, quit, forgo.
refinedly: (adv) tastefully, demurrer, plea, replication, retort, ANTONYMS: (v) acknowledge,
sophisticatedly, delicately, objection reassert, assert, continue, retain,
polishedly, gentlely, chastely, relentless: (adj) implacable, cruel, persist
culturedly, cultivatedly, inflexible, stern, pitiless, harsh, renown: (n, v) fame; (n) glory,
sublimately, subtlely, elegantly merciless, grim, obdurate, distinction, eminence, notoriety,
refrain: (v) desist, cease, fast, avoid, persistent, unrelenting. kudos, name, popularity, prestige,
leave off, withhold, stop, spare; (adj, ANTONYMS: (adj) gentle, lenient, prominence, honor. ANTONYMS:
v) forbear; (n) chorus, hold. merciful, finite, soft, sporadic, feeble (n) infamy, commonness; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (v) participate, act, reliance: (n) credit, faith, trust, anonymity
consume, persist dependence, belief, credence, renowned: (adj, n) illustrious,
refutation: (n) confutation, denial, conviction, hope, assurance, glorious; (adj) famous, famed,
rebuttal, refutal, contradiction, dependency, expectation. notable, noted, eminent,
negation, answer, refusal, defense, ANTONYM: (n) distrust distinguished, great, notorious,
falsification, defence. ANTONYM: relics: (n) relic, rood, rosary, thurible, well-known. ANTONYMS: (adj)
(n) agreement reliquary, remainder, remain, obscure, anonymous,
regards: (v) regard, esteem, respect, leavings, remains, remnants, patera undistinguished
consideration, honor, motive; (adj) relieve: (n, v) ease, assuage, mitigate, rented: (adj) on loan, borrowed
abord, devoir; (n) greeting, relation, alleviate, allay, calm, redress; (v) rents: (n) quad, board walk, close,
duty free, help, console, excuse. embankment, esplanade, lane,
regenerated: (adj) elected, justified, ANTONYMS: (v) burden, parade, alley, place, Alameda,
unearthly, renewed, sanctified, aggravate, exacerbate, harbor, quadrangle
converted, consecrated, inspired, enforce, include, upset, depress repaired: (adj) reconditioned,
new relieving: (adj) pertinent, comforting, maintained, mended, fastened,
regeneration: (n) rebirth, renovation, applicable; (n) encouragement serviced, intent, frozen, flat,
revitalization, palingenesis, relinquish: (v) abandon, abdicate, serviceable
resurgence, regeneracy, renaissance, leave, cede, quit, renounce, give up, repast: (n) feast, food, banquet,
new edition, inspiration; (adj, n) discard, disclaim, yield, desert. dinner, lunch, refection, collation,
sanctification; (adj) adoption. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, accept, luncheon, spread, potluck, eating
ANTONYMS: (n) decline, continue, enforce, acquire repeater: (v) floater, Indian giver,
deterioration remembrance: (n, v) recollection, keener; (n) repeating firearm,
regularity: (n) constancy, evenness, mind; (n) commemoration, habitual criminal, revolver, criminal,
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soul, master clock, somebody, analogous, parallel, similar, apropos, as regards, pertaining to;
someone conformable, approximate, (adj) relative, not absolute,
repeating: (n) repeat, iteration, semblative, other, probable; (prep) pertaining, referring, loving
renewal, repetition, redundancy, similar to, reminiscent of. respiration: (n) breathing, breath,
copying, reduplication; (adj) ANTONYM: (prep) unlike breathe, aspiration, respire,
repetitious, iterating, iterative, reserved: (adj, n) cold, distant, frigid; inspiration, wind, breathing place,
repetitive (adj) coy, reticent, diffident, bashful, periodic breathing, panting,
repetitions: (n) iteration, reiteration, aloof, retiring, quiet, shy. exercising
iterance ANTONYMS: (adj) open, rested: (adj) comfortable
replete: (adj) fraught, profuse, forthcoming, uninhibited, relaxed, restless: (adj) fidgety, uneasy,
excessive, inordinate, exuberant, warm, communicative, talkative, impatient, restive, agitated, fretful,
overmuch, satisfied; (v) fill, take, free, definite, cordial, forward turbulent, feverish; (adj, n) nervous,
satiate, cloy. ANTONYM: (adj) resignedly: (adv) abjectly, apprehensive; (adj, v) unquiet.
hungry submissively, patiently, subduedly, ANTONYMS: (adj) relaxed,
repletion: (n) satiety, surfeit, glut, passively, uncomplainingly, peaceful, lethargic, unbroken, still,
satisfaction, excess, plethora, despairingly, yieldingly, tolerantly, contented
satiation, saturation, plenitude, unhopefully restrain: (adj, v) confine; (v) control,
suffusion, impletion resolute: (adj, n) constant, firm, fixed, rein, hold, curb, bind, contain,
repose: (n, v) recline, peace, lie, calm; steady; (adj, v) determined; (adj) prevent, limit, repress; (n, v) check.
(n) composure, ease, quiet, leisure, inflexible, brave, adamant, dogged, ANTONYMS: (v) encourage,
recreation, relaxation; (v) lay. unbending, courageous. promote, unleash, impel, release,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) work; (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) weak, uncertain, intensify, increase, free, extend,
activity, panic, agitation uncommitted, timid, fickle, feeble, express, support
repression: (n) restraint, coercion, indecisive, flexible, flippant, restrained: (adj) reserved, quiet,
confinement, suppression, control, hesitant, undecided modest, temperate, discreet, limited,
oppression, check, inhibition, resolutely: (adv) determinedly, reasonable, subdued, unemotional,
despotism, cohibition, domination. decidedly, steadfastly, decisively, reticent, guarded. ANTONYMS:
ANTONYMS: (n) democracy, unfalteringly, boldly, steadily, (adj) unrestrained, open, flashy,
expression, liberty stubbornly, definitely, resolvedly, immoral, ostentatious, wild, loud,
reproof: (n, v) reprimand, censure, unwaveringly. ANTONYMS: (adv) theatrical, outgoing, extravagant,
rebuke, lecture; (n) reproach, irresolutely, indecisively, emotional
admonition, reprehension, blame, uncertainly, feebly, hesitantly, restraining: (adj) binding, astringent,
condemnation, objurgation, aimlessly warning, abstemious, continuous,
castigation resolving: (n) factoring, resolve, moderate, not interrupted,
republicanism: (v) democracy; (n) settlement, solving, solution, obligatory, opposing; (n) arrest,
political theory, political orientation, factorization, diagonalization, penning
ideology declaration, firmness, resoluteness; resume: (v) restart, regain,
reputable: (adj) estimable, honorable, (v) solve summarize, continue, revert, adopt,
respectable, famous, sound, good, resonant: (adj) vibrant, sonorous, recapitulate; (n, v) outline; (n)
honest, prestigious, reliable, worthy, deep, full, melodious, rich, distinct, digest, synopsis, summary.
distinguished. ANTONYMS: (adj) reverberative, reverberant, ANTONYMS: (v) abandon,
seedy, unreliable, shameful, wicked, resounding, reverberating. suspend, die, discontinue, expand
notorious ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, faint, retaining: (adj) retentive; (n)
requisite: (n) need, necessity, reedy, shrill employment, reservation
requirement, must; (adj, n) respectably: (adv) creditably, retard: (adj, v) hinder, check,
necessary, prerequisite; (adj) decently, honorably, properly, obstruct, deaden; (v) slow, detain,
required, mandatory, needful, appropriately, admirably, impede, arrest, decelerate; (n, v) lag,
compulsory, obligatory. commendably, decorously, fitly, defer. ANTONYMS: (v) expedite,
ANTONYMS: (adj) voluntary, justly, becomingly. ANTONYMS: hasten, prompt
optional, dispensable; (n) (adv) indecently, disreputably, retina: (n) cornea, iris, pupil,
inessential, luxury dishonorably membrane
resemblance: (n) affinity, parallel, respectfully: (adv) reverentially, retinue: (n) court, entourage,
similarity, comparison, reverently, politely, courteously, following, suite, cortege, escort,
correspondence, likeness, civilly, attentively, graciously, company, equipage; (n, v) train,
conformity, appearance, analogy, submissively, obsequiously, attendance; (v) attendants
semblance, resemble. ANTONYMS: admiringly, regardfully. retouch: (v) touch up, mend, restore,
(n) dissimilarity, contrast ANTONYMS: (adv) impudently, correct, vamp, tinker, emend,
resemble: (v) seem, imitate, compare, contemptuously, disdainfully, modify; (n) amendment, correction,
correspond, to resemble, agree, look, rudely, insolently, audaciously, modification
simulate; (adj) look like; (n) sneeringly, nastily, irreverently, retrogradation: (n) retrogression,
resemblance; (adv) alike disobediently, arrogantly regression, antecedence, fall back,
resembling: (adj, prep) like; (adj) respecting: (prep) about, regarding, go in reverse, decline, backward
 Edgar Allan Poe 309
development, lapse, precedence jaquima, lines, streamer, streamers, slapdash, sloppy, sketchy, lenient,
revel: (n, v) frolic; (v) drink, celebrate, ticker tape, paper chain, decoration, gentle, flexible, careless, halfhearted
exult, wallow, rejoice, bask, riot; (n) decorations, bunting ripe: (adj) adult, ready, advanced,
carousal, orgy; (adj) luxuriate. ribs: (n) dinner, chest, bosom prepared, good, grown, perfect,
ANTONYMS: (v) mourn; (n) riches: (n, v) money; (n) affluence, matured, finished, consummate;
mourning abundance, fortune, opulence, (adj, v) mellow. ANTONYMS: (adj)
reverberation: (n) echo, rebound, plenty, prosperity, exuberance, green, unripe, immature, dry,
noise, peal, replication, reaction, treasure, resources; (v) gold poisonous, young, unsuitable, sweet
recoil, boom, reflectivity; (n, v) richly: (adv) wealthily, copiously, riveted: (adj) immovable, immobile,
reflection; (v) reflexion. ANTONYM: opulently, lavishly, abundantly, irremovable, rooted, wrapped up,
(n) silence sumptuously, affluently, profusely, intent; (v) wrapped in, engrossed in,
reverence: (n, v) respect, regard, fear, amply, plentifully, fully. rapt, absorbed, transfixed.
worship, honor, esteem, adore; (n) ANTONYMS: (adv) meagerly, ANTONYM: (adj) detached
deference, adoration, admiration, poorly, simply, barely rivulet: (n) stream, creek, streamlet,
awe. ANTONYMS: (n) despise, ridiculer: (n) Juvenal, ironist, satirist, brook, arroyo, brooklet, rillet,
disrespect, irreverence, disdain, swift runnel, watercourse, gill, river
disparagement, contempt; (v) ridiculously: (adv) absurdly, roam: (adj, v) stray; (v) wander,
dishonor preposterously, idiotically, silly, gallivant, meander, range, gad,
reverend: (n) preacher, clergyman, stupidly, farcically, nonsensically, walk, drift, tramp, journey, stroll.
parson, rector, vicar, pastor, priest, laughably, comically, derisorily, ANTONYMS: (v) rush, settle
minister, churchman; (adj) foolishly. ANTONYMS: (adv) roaming: (adj) wandering, roving,
respectable, honourable impressively, solemnly, sensitively, errant, itinerant, Peripatetic,
reverently: (adv) reverentially, rationally traveling, vagabond, astray; (n)
piously, religiously, devoutly, rife: (adj) prevailing, current, ramble, journey, ubiquity
deferentially, worshipfully, rampant, plentiful, predominant, roanoke: (n) nickel, moss, red cent,
solemnly, godly, courteously, epidemic, copious, numerous, quarter, pin money, rock
politely, obsequiously. ANTONYM: common, regnant, abundant. roaring: (n) bellowing, roar, bellow,
(adv) irreverently ANTONYMS: (adj) scarce, limited, thunder; (adj) booming, prosperous,
revived: (adj) fresh, refreshed, rare, sparse thriving, flourishing, deafening,
animated, revitalized, alive, rifle: (v) plunder, pillage, despoil, noisy, boisterous
invigorated, new loot, ransack, steal, foray, reave, roasted: (adj) fried, baked
reviving: (adj) bracing, restorative, take; (n) gun, firearm robe: (n, v) dress, array, vest, garb,
renewing, refreshing, revival, brisk, rigging: (n) rig, tackle, apparatus, apparel; (v) clothe, attire, rig; (n)
enlivening, recuperative, outfit, accouterment, trappings, gown, cloak, garment
reanimating, promoting harness, tackling, suit, robust: (adj, n) hardy, firm, hard;
recuperation, giving life. paraphernalia, caparison (adj) strong, athletic, vigorous,
ANTONYM: (adj) soothing righteous: (adj) fair, right, good, powerful, muscular, brawny, lusty,
revolving: (adj) turning, rotating, moral, virtuous, honest, just, correct, mighty. ANTONYMS: (adj) slight,
vertiginous, rotary, gyratory, honorable; (adj, n) pious, godly. fragile, frail, delicate, flimsy, feeble,
wheeling, rotative, rotatory, ANTONYMS: (adj) immoral, fickle
rotational; (n) revolution; (v) revolve wicked, unrighteous, bad, corrupt, rocking: (adj) vivacious, merry,
rewarding: (adj) worthwhile, unethical, unjust, wrong, poor spirited, spry, festive; (n) metalling,
gratifying, pleasing, beneficial, rightful: (adj) right, lawful, just, convulsion
fulfilling, successful, productive, justifiable, proper, legal, equitable, rollers: (v) riffle, beach comber, white
remunerative, gainful, licit, real, genuine, true. horses, whitecaps, surf; (n) order
advantageous, fruitful. ANTONYMS: (adj) wrongful, Coraciiformes, bee eaters, breakers,
ANTONYMS: (adj) unrewarding, illegal, unlawful, fake Coraciidae, Coraciiformes, family
unprofitable, disappointing, rigidly: (adv) severely, sternly, Coraciidae
fruitless, frustrating, unhelpful strictly, firmly, stringently, roomy: (adj, n) capacious; (adj) broad,
rhinoceros: (n) hippopotamus, black unbendingly, rigorously, extensive, large, commodious,
rhinoceros, order Perissodactyla, uncompromisingly, stubbornly, ample, voluminous, expansive, big,
pachyderm, perissodactyl, unyieldingly, strongly. rangy, comprehensive.
perissodactyl mammal, ANTONYMS: (adv) loosely, ANTONYMS: (adj) small, narrow,
Perissodactyla, rhinocerote, extinct amenably airless, tiny, tight
forms rigmarole: (n) nonsense, boloney, ropes: (n) weight, pressure, leverage,
ribband: (n) riband, kerb, ribbon, bosh, absurdity, baloney, tripe, form, authority, dealings, control,
chain, cable, painter, moorings, line, trumpery, double-talk; (adj) influence
hawser, guy, halser rodomontade, nonsensical, foolish rotund: (adj) obese, chubby, round,
ribbon: (n) band, riband, tape, strip, rigorous: (adj) rigid, precise, hard, plump, corpulent, circular, full,
shred, decoration, medal, ribband, strict, austere, accurate, exacting, orotund, rounded, globular,
thread, fascia, belt exact, cruel, stern, inflexible. overweight. ANTONYMS: (adj)
ribbons: (n) cavesson, hackamore, ANTONYMS: (adj) lax, weak, gangling, slim, thin
 310 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
rousing: (adj) stirring, provocative, disastrous, calamitous, injurious, sans: (adj) without, devoid, minus,
bracing, thrilling, inspiring, deleterious, dilapidated, blasting, short, in need
exhilarating, moving; (n) baneful, pernicious; (adj, n) sarcasm: (adj, n) irony, ridicule,
awakening, wakening, stimulation; subversive. ANTONYMS: (adj) satire, humor; (n) gibe, bitterness,
(v) rouse. ANTONYMS: (adj) beneficial, fortunate, harmless jeer, scorn, insinuation, taunt; (adj)
conciliatory, dull, relaxing rumbling: (adj, n) grumbling; (n) sarcastic. ANTONYM: (n) kindness
rout: (adj, n, v) defeat; (n, v) grumble, noise, boom, thunder, roll, sash: (n) girdle, cincture, band,
discomfiture, overthrow, discomfit; roar; (adj) hollow, low; (v) cummerbund, baldric, framing,
(v) conquer, overpower, overcome, bombination, berloque waistband, framework, frame, fillet,
crush, beat, overwhelm; (n) flight. rummer: (n) goblet, bowl, cup, fascia
ANTONYMS: (v) lose, surrender chalice, jorum, drinking glass, basin, satanic: (adj) infernal, hellish,
rubbed: (adj) polished, refined, terse, punch bowl, tumbler fiendish, diabolical, diabolic,
attrite, marked, accomplished, rushing: (adv) rushingly; (n) haste, demonic, demoniacal, wicked,
fretten hurry, hurrying, running, hastening, unholy; (adj, v) mephistophelian,
rubens: (n) sir Peter Paul Rubens flush, movement; (adj) flowing, Stygian
ruby: (adj, n) red, crimson; (adj) headlong, moving sate: (v) fill, satisfy, glut, satiate, pall,
jewel, ruddy, scarlet, diamond, sable: (adj) black, dark, dusky, saturate, gorge, take, surfeit,
pearl, precious stone, bijou; (n) sombre, murky, mournful; (n) content, replete
carbuncle, deep red ebony, fur, blackness, marten, pitch satin: (adj) glossy, sleek, velvet,
ruddy: (adj) cherry, rubicund, rosy, black down, silky, silklike, silken, satiny,
flushed, florid, sanguine, reddish, saddle: (v) charge, load, burden, velure; (n) cloth, fabric
glowing, blooming, crimson; (adj, encumber, adjure, bear down, satisfying: (adj) satisfactory, pleasant,
adv) blushing blame; (n) pillion, seat, saddleback, enjoyable, gratifying, pleasurable,
rudely: (adv) crudely, coarsely, bicycle seat. ANTONYM: (v) relieve welcome, good, comforting, hearty,
uncivilly, indelicately, impolitely, sagacious: (adj, v) judicious, prudent, delightful, satisfy. ANTONYMS:
roughly, harshly, vulgarly, brutally, discreet; (adj) rational, astute, acute, (adj) unrewarding, disappointing,
meanly, wildly. ANTONYMS: (adv) discerning, keen, perspicacious, trying, light, frustrating,
respectfully, graciously, decently, intelligent, shrewd. ANTONYMS: unwelcome, unflattering,
civilly, properly, attentively, (adj) foolish, stupid, dense insufficient, disagreeable
agreeably, tactfully, thoughtfully, sagaciously: (adv) wisely, astutely, saucer: (n) plate, platter, discus, bowl,
acceptably, gently sapiently, judiciously, politicly, pan, dot, calabash, disk, dish
rudeness: (n) disrespect, audacity, prudently, cleverly, sharply, antenna, point, porringer
insolence, impudence, discourtesy, perceptively, sagely, discreetly sauerkraut: (v) damper, salmis,
incivility, effrontery, bad manners, sagacity: (n, v) discernment, porterhouse steak, porridge,
impoliteness, impropriety, judgment, penetration; (n) pineapple, oyster, oatmeal,
primitiveness. ANTONYMS: (n) judiciousness, sense, prudence, mangosteen, mango, fish; (n)
civility, refinement, propriety, gumption, acumen, perspicacity; sourcrout
courteousness, courtesy, decency, (adj, n) discretion, wisdom. sausage: (n) frank, blimp, pepperoni,
respect, diplomacy, praise, ANTONYM: (n) foolishness pudding, salami, hot dog, wiener,
thoughtfulness, gentleness salamander: (n) bear, poker, olm, intestine, hotdog, headcheese,
rudiment: (n) basis, fundamental, hellbender, fire hook, amphiuma, dirigible
germ, element, egg, principle, brasier, warming pan, savage: (adj, v) fierce, wild, furious;
essential, embryo, bedrock, dicamptodontid, sow, alpine (adj) ferocious, brutal, cruel,
fundamentals, vestige salamander bloodthirsty, rough, pitiless; (adj, n)
ruffian: (n) rowdy, rascal, hooligan, sanctity: (n) sanctitude, godliness, brute; (n) vandal. ANTONYMS:
bully, brute, hoodlum, tough, sacredness, devotion, piety, (adj) civilized, gentle, nice
miscreant, villain, rogue, roughneck saintliness, purity, halidom, savor: (n, v) taste, smack, smell,
rugged: (adj, n) rough, jagged, sanctimony, religion, innocence. savour; (n) flavor, gusto, sapidity,
ragged; (adj) difficult, rocky, tough, ANTONYM: (n) unholiness tang, flavour; (v) enjoy, bask.
broken, robust, hilly, strong, craggy. sandalled: (adj) shoder, shod ANTONYM: (v) dislike
ANTONYMS: (adj) delicate, easy, sane: (adj, n) reasonable, lucid; (adj) scaffold: (n) frame, scaffolding,
smooth, flimsy, fragile, soft, weak, rational, judicious, right, sensible, framework, foundation, gallows,
feeble normal, wise, wholesome, sound, stand, transom, summer, trave,
ruin: (n) devastation, desolation; (adj, prudent. ANTONYMS: (adj) Travis, stage
n) downfall; (v) break, consume, unbalanced, insane, crazed, scalping: (n) defeat
demolish, destroy; (n, v) doom, delirious, unreasonable, irrational, scamp: (n) rascal, imp, miscreant,
ravage, destruction, damage. foolish scalawag, rogue, monkey, villain,
ANTONYMS: (v) conserve, enhance, sanity: (n) reason, saneness, mind, brat, scallywag, rapscallion; (v)
save, restore, improve; (n, v) respect; health, reasonableness, rationality, skimp
(n) making, success, triumph, rise, soundness, mental health, lucidity, scampering: (n) running
preservation common sense, prudence. scandalous: (adj) infamous,
ruinous: (adj) harmful, baleful, ANTONYMS: (n) insanity, madness disgraceful, ignominious,
 Edgar Allan Poe 311
outrageous, opprobrious, shocking, scrambling: (adj) boisterous, religiously, thoroughly, nicely,
disreputable, disgusting, impetuous, cursory, furious exactly, fastidiously, particularly,
dishonorable; (adj, v) base, foul. scrap: (n, v) fight, brawl, clash, accurately. ANTONYM: (adv)
ANTONYMS: (adj) proper, seemly, quarrel, junk; (adj, n) remnant, negligently
honorable, appealing, fragment; (n) end, remainder, bit, scrutinizing: (adj) exploring
complimentary, reputable, piece. ANTONYMS: (v) keep, thoroughly, inquisitive, searching,
admirable restore, preserve, adopt, insert; (n) penetrating
scanty: (adj) insufficient, few, chunk, lot scuffle: (n, v) tussle, fight, scrap,
inadequate, bare, deficient, poor, scrape: (n, v) scratch, graze, score, struggle, disturbance, encounter; (v)
narrow, scant, light; (adj, v) spare, mark; (v) rub, pare, rake, grate, grapple, shuffle; (n) melee,
lean. ANTONYMS: (adj) generous, chafe, abrade; (n) abrasion scramble, fighting
abundant, ample, strong scraping: (n) scrape, scratching, sculptor: (n) carver, artist, sculptress,
scarce: (adj) rare, insufficient, scratch, rub, sizing, rament, incision, engraver, cutter, sculptors, statuary,
deficient, infrequent, uncommon, mark, prick; (v) rubbing; (adj) lin, statue maker, sculpturer,
scant, scanty, few, sparse; (adv) just, grating modeler
barely. ANTONYMS: (adj) plentiful, scraps: (n) garbage, odds and ends, sculptural: (adj) modeled, sculpted,
common, adequate, strong, usual, scrap, bits, food waste, leftover, resembling sculpture, sculptured,
extensive trash, waste, oddments, leftovers, shapely, graven
scenery: (n) scene, prospect, residue sculptured: (adj) sculpted, graven,
panorama, landscape, outlook, scratching: (n) scrape, scraping, modeled, engraved, carved, incised,
nature, picture, vista, set, backdrop, abrasion, mark, scar, poor in refief, etched, anaglyptic, shapely,
background handwriting, incision, excoriation, carven
scented: (adj) fragrant, perfumed, chicken feed; (adj) hoarse, abrasive scythe: (n) crotch, crutch, crane,
aromatic, balmy, sweet, redolent, scrawl: (n, v) scrabble, doodle, elbow, ankle, fluke, groin, knee,
odoriferous, spicy, savory, smelling, scratch; (n) squiggle, cacography, zigzag; (n, v) sithe; (v) reap
angelical. ANTONYMS: (adj) scrape, scratching, mark, dent, seated: (adj) sat, sedentary
scentless, smelly chicken feed; (v) write secluded: (adj) remote, secret,
scentless: (adj) inodorous, odourless screeching: (n) screaming, screech, reclusive, privy, cloistered, isolated,
sceptre: (n) sovereignty, verge, wand, shrieking, belly laugh, howler, lonely, retired, sequestered, solitary;
bauble, mace, brink shriek, riot; (adj) shrill, harsh, (adj, v) hidden. ANTONYMS: (adj)
schiller: (n) Johann Christoph strident nearby, near, exposed, busy,
Friedrich Von schiller, screw: (adj, n) bolt; (adj, v) nail, pin; accessible
Adularescence (v) cheat, fasten, wind; (n) propeller, secrecy: (adj, n, v) privacy; (n)
schist: (n) metamorphic rock jailer, gaoler; (n, v) turn, bonk. concealment, silence, confidentiality,
schorl: (n) black tourmaline, Shirl ANTONYM: (v) detach darkness, seclusion, retirement,
scion: (n) offspring, progeny, child, screwed: (adj) threaded, firm, mystery, secretiveness, privateness,
descendant, graft, sprout, cutting, maudlin, muddled, muzzy, raddled, mum
slip, offshoot, branch, bud. corned; (n) whittled secretly: (adv) privately,
ANTONYM: (n) ancestor scriptural: (adj) evangelical, Catholic, confidentially, quietly, stealthily,
scissors: (n) clipper, shears, pair of Christian, faithful, orthodox, surreptitiously, furtively, in secret,
scissors, scissors hold, compound religious, schismless, prophetic, darkly, secretively, clandestinely,
lever, edge tool, scissor grip, scissors monotheistic, sound, strick occultly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
grip; (adj, n) cutters scroll: (n, v) roll, list, roller, record; publicly, deliberately, brazenly
scorn: (v) despise, contemn, reject; (n, (n) curlicue, curl, archive, helix, securely: (adv) surely, safely, closely,
v) ridicule, neglect, disregard, book, whorl; (v) role solidly, steadily, assuredly, strongly,
deride, slight; (n) contempt, scruple: (adj, v) hesitate, demur, tightly, fixly, setly, stably.
derision, mockery. ANTONYMS: (n, pause; (n) hesitation, qualm, ANTONYM: (adv) insecurely
v) respect, praise; (v) appreciate, misgiving, distrust, objection; (n, v) sediment: (n) deposit, deposition,
revere, value, approve, admire, mistrust; (v) falter, question lees, dregs, grounds, alluvium,
accept; (n) admiration, scruples: (n) conscience, moral sense, substance, filth, refuse, settling,
commendation, humility sense of right and wrong, morality, residue
scoundrel: (n, v) rascal; (n) knave, ethical motive, principle, ethics, seduced: (adj) profaned, infatuated,
blackguard, cad, villain, ruffian, moral fiber, morals fascinated
miscreant, crook, rapscallion, varlet, scrupulous: (adj) careful, punctilious, seeming: (adj) ostensible, superficial,
scalawag exact, conscientious, particular, illusory, outward, probable,
scoundrelly: (adj) roguish, rascally, painstaking, accurate, prudent, deceptive, specious; (adj, n)
blackguardly, false, dishonorable, meticulous, rigorous, cautious. appearance, semblance; (n) aspect,
dishonest, devilish ANTONYMS: (adj) sloppy, show. ANTONYMS: (adj) actual,
scowl: (n, v) glare, grimace, roar, unscrupulous, slapdash, relaxed, deep, inner
sneer; (v) glower, pout, lower, sulk; guilty, deceitful seize: (v) catch, capture, grab, arrest,
(adj) black looks, mumps; (n) growl. scrupulously: (adv) carefully, clutch, get, apprehend, receive,
ANTONYMS: (n, v) grin painstakingly, strictly, meticulously, annex, clasp; (n, v) grapple.
 312 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
ANTONYMS: (v) baulk, relinquish, serene: (adj) peaceful, calm, quiet, shocking, ignominious,
restore, surrender, give, remove placid, composed, impassive, clear, disreputable, despicable; (adj, v)
seizing: (v) seize; (n) seizure, pacific, gentle, cool; (adj, v) tranquil. foul, base, gross, black.
clutches, prehension, taking, ANTONYMS: (adj) agitated, ANTONYMS: (adj) honorable,
apprehension, capture, infection; anxious, noisy, nervous, impatient, noble, dignified, admirable,
(adj) catching, galling, controlling excitable, scatterbrained, harsh, faultless, reputable, glorious,
self-evident: (adj) axiomatic, obvious, boisterous, excited, disturbed compassionate, praiseworthy,
apparent, demonstrable, sermon: (n) discourse, oration, commendable, excellent
perspicuous, proverbial, speech, address, homily, shamefully: (adv) ignominiously,
unquestionable preachment, harangue, preaching, ingloriously, scandalously,
self-interest: (n) selfishness exhortation, predication; (n, v) infamously, shockingly,
self-satisfaction: (n) boast, pride lecture discreditably, basely, outrageously;
self-satisfied: (adj) smug, self- servile: (adj) abject, obsequious, base, (adv, v) dishonorably, foully,
complacent, self-righteous, fawning, ignoble, sordid, nastily. ANTONYMS: (adv)
sanctimonious, proud, subservient, cringing, slavish; (adj, commendably, compassionately,
presumptuous, imperturbable n) mean, low. ANTONYMS: (adj) nobly
semblance: (adj, n) color; (n) bossy, assertive shattered: (adj) destroyed, smashed,
resemblance, appearance, look, settling: (n) settlement, subsidence, done in, crazy, shaky, crushed; (adj,
aspect, air, image, similarity, defecation, dregs, clearing, sinking, v) exhausted; (v) battered, dead
pretense, guise, pretext. dreg, remission, cave in; (adj) beat, done up, lame. ANTONYMS:
ANTONYM: (n) difference determining, definitive (adj) fresh, energetic, lively, whole,
sens: (n) marijuana, hemp, great deal, sever: (n, v) part, cut; (v) break, strong
green goddess, crumb, mickle, grass, detach, cut off, separate, rupture, shattering: (n) smashing, breakage;
good deal, Gunter Grass, ganja, gage rend, disconnect, crack, divorce. (adj) piercing, loud, ruinous, severe,
sensations: (n) feelings, vibrations, ANTONYMS: (v) join, associate, grueling, earsplitting, dreadful,
ambiance establish, initiate, unite, mend disastrous; (v) shatter. ANTONYMS:
sensibility: (adj, n, v) feeling, notion; sewer: (adj, n) cloaca; (n) channel, (adj) wonderful, fortunate
(n, v) sensation, appreciation, sense; ditch, gully, dike, culvert, sewerage, shelley: (adj) shelly; (n) Mary Shelley,
(n) emotion, sensitivity, drainpipe, moat, main; (adj) latrines Percy Bysshe Shelley
consciousness, perceptivity, sexton: (n) beadle, verger, almoner, sherry: (v) rye, schnapps, highball,
awareness; (adj, n) sentiment. Anne sexton, Suisse, gravedigger, peg, rum, whisky, xeres, sling,
ANTONYM: (n) insensitivity church officer, caretaker usquebaugh; (n) sherris, manzanilla
sensibly: (adv) sanely, intelligently, shabby: (adj) poor, abject, mean, shifting: (adj) moving, variable,
rationally, pragmatically, mangy, low, sorry, decrepit, worn, changeable, fickle, changing,
realistically, cleverly, politically, sordid, ragged; (adj, v) frayed. varying, unsettled, movable, fitful;
perceptibly, soundly, noticeably, ANTONYMS: (adj) pristine, elegant, (n) change, movement.
wisely. ANTONYMS: (adv) opulent, honorable, decent, new, ANTONYMS: (adj) smooth,
foolishly, ludicrously, ridiculously, neat, comfortable, tasteful, strong, consistent
unreasonably, illogically, madly, respectful shilling: (n) York shilling, Tanzanian
irrationally, hastily, stupidly, shades: (n) shade, sunglasses, dark shilling, British shilling, Kenyan
irresponsibly, immaturely glasses, shadow, glasses, blind, shilling, Ugandan shilling, Somalian
sensual: (adj, v) luxurious, awning, roller blind, eyeglasses shilling, dock, cork, farthing, coin,
voluptuous; (adj, adv) fleshly; (adj) shadowy: (adj) indistinct, misty, cheat
animal, lascivious, sexy, sexual, dark, faint, obscure, hazy, gloomy, shining: (adj, v) brilliant; (adj)
libidinous, lewd, gross, licentious vague, shady, insubstantial, dusky. lustrous, radiant, glossy, luminous,
sentience: (n) sense, sensation, ANTONYMS: (adj) clear, palpable, glorious, glowing; (adj, n) lucid,
awareness, sensibility, sensitivity, light, distinct, open resplendent, clear; (v) shine.
sentiency, modality, sensory faculty, shaken: (adj) jolted, agitated, ANTONYMS: (adj) dull, pale,
consciousness, sensitiveness, faculty dilapidated, frayed; (v) passe, lame, blemished
sentiment: (n) emotion, mind, notion, broken, threadbare, wilted, shaky, shipping: (n) transport, forwarding,
feeling, persuasion, opinion, vibrate sending, transportation, shipment,
judgment, sense, judgement, shakes: (n) hangover, jitters, navigation, carriage, conveyance,
attitude, impression nervousness, tension, anxiety dispatch, freightage, ferry
sentiments: (n) breast sham: (adj, adv, n, v) counterfeit; (adj, shocking: (adj) frightful, shameful,
sepulchral: (adj, v) hollow, hoarse; n, v) fake; (adj, v) pretend, put on; formidable, ghastly, horrible,
(v) mortuary, harsh, rough, (adj, n) imitation, phony; (v) feign; hideous, disgraceful, disgusting,
horrisonous, grum; (adj) ghastly, (adj) false; (n) fraud, impostor, scandalous; (adj, v) offensive,
raucous, husky; (n) funeral falsehood. ANTONYMS: (adj, v) abominable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
sepulchre: (n) mausoleum, burial, real; (n) original, truth, truthfulness, admirable, delightful, pleasing,
monument, repository, crypt, honesty; (adj) valid lovely, comforting, honorable,
sepulture, burial chamber, tomb, shameful: (adj) scandalous, wonderful, bland, inoffensive,
bier; (v) inter, bury dishonorable, opprobrious, decent, excellent
 Edgar Allan Poe 313
shopkeeper: (n) merchant, closure, ending, finish, mop up, threatening, malevolent, malign,
tradesman, merchandiser, shopman, culmination, closedown; (adj) inauspicious, vicious. ANTONYMS:
seller, storekeeper, florist, hosier, confining, claudent. ANTONYM: (n) (adj) innocent, hospitable, good,
market keeper, cleaner, dealer opening normal, favorable
shouts: (n) cries sickened: (adj) aghast, horrified, sinking: (n) sinkage, settling, fall,
shrank: (v) minify appalled, shocked descent, foundering, depression,
shriek: (n, v) screech, cry, shout, call, sickening: (adj) revolting, nauseous, immersion, submersion,
howl, yell, yowl, screak; (v) bellow, offensive, repulsive, foul, submergence; (v) decrease, decline.
caterwaul, shrill. ANTONYM: (v) nauseating, noisome, obnoxious, ANTONYM: (adj) rising
sigh loathsome, repugnant, abominable. sinner: (n) criminal, miscreant,
shrieking: (n) shriek, screeching, ANTONYMS: (adj) attractive, culprit, sinful, trespasser,
screech, scream, belly laugh, shright, pleasant, delightful, wholesome, transgressor, evildoer, magdalen,
howler, riot; (adj) sharp light, appealing, wonderful rascal, villain, sinners
shrilly: (adv) sharply, acutely, siege: (n) blockade, envelopment, sister-in-law: (n) the wife of one's
penetratingly, stridently, noisily, encirclement, investment, besieging; elder brother
harshly, raucously, keenly, loudly, (v) beleaguer, encompass, environ, sixpence: (n) bender, coin, teston,
discordantly, shrewdly. envelop, encircle, beset testern
ANTONYM: (adv) softly signor: (n) signior, man, sir, adult sized: (adj) pasted
shrine: (n) monument, place of male, senor, mynheer skeptic: (adj, n) unbeliever, atheist;
worship, altar, sanctuary, temple, signora: (n) lady, wife, madam, Mrs (n) agnostic, sceptic, pessimist,
house of worship, cenotaph, oracle, similes: (n) imagery, images, doubting Thomas, disbeliever,
tabernacle, church, grave metaphors cynic, pyrrhonist, infidel; (adj)
shrink: (adj, v) recoil; (n, v) flinch, simultaneous: (adj) concurrent, at the sceptical. ANTONYMS: (n)
wince; (v) contract, shorten, lessen, same time, coincidental, supporter, adherent, conformist
diminish, cower, reduce, quail, synchronous, contemporary, skeptical: (adj) disbelieving, skeptic,
decrease. ANTONYMS: (v) increase, synchronal, contemporaneous, sceptical, distrustful, doubting,
enlarge, grow, stretch, swell, bloom, concomitant, cooccurring, doubtful, dubious, suspicious,
rise, inflate coinciding, concurrently. unbelieving, freethinking, cynical.
shrinking: (n) contraction, recoil, ANTONYMS: (adj) separate, ANTONYMS: (adj) credulous,
reduction, decrease, condensation; independent, asynchronous, believing, sure, convinced
(n, v) lessening; (adj) timid, fearful, disparate, consecutive sketch: (n, v) plan, outline, draft,
shy, bashful; (adj, adv) cowardly. sincerity: (adj, n) candor, honesty, scheme, picture, project; (n)
ANTONYM: (adj) confident integrity, probity, faithfulness; (n) drawing, cartoon, plot; (v) paint,
shroud: (adj, n, v) cover; (n, v) cloak, earnestness, heartiness, draw
hide, conceal; (adj, n) shelter; (v) genuineness, candour, frankness, skies: (n) heavens, firmament,
shield, envelop, enshroud; (n) cordiality. ANTONYMS: (n) expanse
covering, mantle, pall. ANTONYM: dishonesty, hypocrisy, flippancy, skimmed: (v) flet, flotten
(v) disclose frivolity, affectedness, caution, skulking: (adj) surreptitious,
shrunk: (adj) contracted, wizened, reticence, deceit, doubt stealthy, lurking, hiding,
withered, shrivelled, shriveled, sinciput: (n) os, bone clandestine, backstairs, concealed,
wizen, insipid, drawn grain, wearish sinecure: (n) berth, plum, sitting cowardly; (n) malingering, dodging,
shudder: (adj, n, v) shake, quake, duck, post, position, plum job, place, evasion
tremble; (n, v) quiver, twitch, thrill; office, ecclesiastical benefice, cinch, skylark: (v) gambol, lark, romp, lark
(n) quivering, shivering, chill, benefice about, cavort, disport, frisk, run
frisson; (v) flutter singly: (adv) one by one, separately, around, rollick, amuse; (n) Alauda
shuddering: (adj, n) quivering, independently, severally, solely, arvensis
shaking; (adv) shudderingly; (n) respectively; (adj, adv) alone, only, slab: (n) hunk, chunk, bar,
cold sweat, tremor; (adj) rough, merely; (adj) single, particularly. monument, block, layer, board, flag,
shaky, jumpy, quaking, shivery, ANTONYM: (adv) multiply floor; (adj) plate, tablet
bumpy. ANTONYM: (adj) smooth singular: (adj, n) extraordinary; (adj) slain: (v) slay; (adj) overthrown, mat,
shuffle: (v) mingle, blend, hobble, odd, individual, particular, peculiar, fallen, dejected, cast down
muddle, drag, scuff, equivocate, phenomenal, rare, queer, single, sleeper: (n) railroad tie, crosstie, tie,
prevaricate, ruffle, mix; (n, v) quaint, exceptional. ANTONYMS: noctambulist, baggage car,
shamble. ANTONYMS: (v) remain, (adj) ordinary, normal, together, slumberer, dreamer, Pullman car,
tidy, leave usual, customary freight car, parlor car, express car
shuffled: (adj) disorganized singularly: (adv) peculiarly, slender: (adj, v) lean, meager; (adj)
shuffling: (n) shuffle, evasion, uniquely, unusually, curiously, little, thin, fine, lithe, slight, delicate,
shambling, make, shamble; (adj) rarely, uncommonly, oddly, solely, lissom, flimsy, faint. ANTONYMS:
evasive, moral turpitude, milling, exceptionally, individually; (adj, (adj) stocky, fat, wide, considerable,
laxity, abjection; (n, v) prevarication adv) remarkably short, substantial, good, adequate,
shuts: (adj) closed sinister: (adj) dark, forbidding, black, stout, thick
shutting: (n) closing, conclusion, end, menacing, wicked, baleful, sliding: (n) skating, shifting; (adj)
 314 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
gliding, down, downhill, slippery, secure, homely; (v) neat. solving: (n) solution, resolving,
labent, descending, downward; (v) ANTONYMS: (adj) baggy, settlement, resolve, answer,
to slide uncomfortable, unwelcoming, bleak, resolving power, finding,
slipping: (n) skidding, slippage; (adj) formal, loose determination, resoluteness,
slithering, gliding, down, labent so-and-so: (n) somebody declaration; (v) solve
slips: (n) pad soar: (v) climb, hover, fly, mount, sonorous: (adj) rotund, resonant,
slouched: (adj) slumped glide, leap, jump, lift, billow; (n, v) clear, rich, resounding, harmonious,
sluggish: (adj) inert, indolent, rise, increase. ANTONYMS: (v) round, full, ringing, vibrant, sonant.
inactive, idle, slow, torpid, slack, decrease, drop, descend, collapse, ANTONYMS: (adj) shrill, thin
languid; (adj, n) lazy, drowsy, sink sonorously: (adv) richly, rotundly,
heavy. ANTONYMS: (adj) energetic, sobbing: (adj) crying, weeping, loudly, vibrantly, roundly,
fast, brisk, lively, alert, speedy, weepy, tearful; (n) lamentation, harmoniously, soundingly, vocally,
industrious shortness of breath, shit, prick, fully, clearly
slumber: (n, v) rest, doze, snooze, motherfucker, tear, lament soothing: (adj) calming, soft, smooth,
nap, drowse, repose, catnap; (v) be sober: (adj, v) grave, sedate; (adj) pacifying, quiet, restful, bland, calm,
asleep, kip, take a nap; (n) siesta sane, earnest, quiet, solemn, assuasive; (adj, n) softening; (n)
slumberer: (n) noctambulist, moderate, modest, serene, dull, alleviation. ANTONYMS: (adj)
dreamer, dormouse, crosstie, somber. ANTONYMS: (adj) upsetting, disturbing, hostile, scary,
human, individual, marmot, intoxicated, unrestrained, drunk, worrying, stimulating, exasperating,
railroad tie, sleeper goby, sleeping playful, sensational, emotional, annoying, invigorating, painful,
car, sleepwalker cheerful, frivolous, funny, muddled, intimidating
slumbering: (adj) dormant, asleep, delirious sorrow: (n, v) regret, lament, grieve;
latent. ANTONYM: (adj) awake softened: (adj) diffused, muffled, (v) mourn; (n) mourning, heartache,
smelt: (v) fuse, temper, anneal, to muted, quiet, slow, touched, repentance, remorse; (adj, n)
smelt, distill, refine, heat; (n) sluggish, soften, pultaceous, sadness, misery; (adj, n, v) distress.
sparling, capelan, caplin, capelin subdued, low-key ANTONYMS: (n) joy, delight,
smitten: (adj, v) stricken; (adj) in love, sojourn: (adj, v) reside, inhabit; (n) happiness, peace, hopefulness,
crazy, enamored, struck, nuts, dotty, residence, abode; (adj, n, v) stay; (v) cheerfulness, shamelessness, calm,
besotted, gaga, taken with, affected remain, lodge, abide, live; (n, v) content; (v) rejoice
smuggle: (v) run, poach, insinuate, delay, domicile soulless: (adj) inanimate, exanimate,
contraband, bootleg, sneak, mold, solemn: (adj, n, v) serious; (adj, v) callous, impassive, flat, spiritless,
manage, cast, sell, shape sober, important, sedate, devout, passionless, lifeless, inert, dull, cold.
snake: (n) serpent, ophidian, viper, formal, demure; (adj) heavy, ANTONYMS: (adj) exciting, soulful
constrictor, hydra, elapid; (v) wind, dignified, sacred; (adj, n) earnest. soundly: (adv) sound, fully, solidly,
twist, curl, weave; (n, v) sneak ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous, thoroughly, deeply, substantially,
snap: (v) bite, nip, snarl; (adj, v) cheerful, unceremonious, funny, validly, strongly, stably, fastly,
break; (n, v) photograph, fracture, playful, flippant, relaxed safely. ANTONYMS: (adv)
clack, go; (n) pushover, picnic, catch. solemnity: (n) seriousness, sobriety, harmfully, halfheartedly, fitfully,
ANTONYMS: (adj) roundabout, earnestness, formality, ceremony, unconvincingly
considered impressiveness, austerity, southerly: (n) souther, south wind,
snappish: (adj) irritable, snappy, sedateness, display, pomp, austral, austrine; (adj) southern,
fractious, crusty, curt, irascible, grandeur. ANTONYMS: (n) humor, meridional; (adv) southwards,
brusque, waspish, peppery, peevish, levity, cheerfulness, understatement southly
morose. ANTONYMS: (adj) solemnly: (adv) earnestly, gravely, southwest: (adj) southwestern,
easygoing, gentle, rambling majestically, stately, sternly, staidly, Colorado, California, Arizona; (n)
sneer: (n, v) deride, jeer, scorn, flout, thoughtfully, soberly, formally, Sw, geographic area, geographical
ridicule, scoff, mock, leer, grimace, ceremoniously, importantly. region, geographic region,
gird; (n) smirk ANTONYMS: (adv) cheerfully, geographical area, compass point;
snore: (n) snoring; (v) snort, saw logs, flippantly (adv) sou'west
snooze, siesta, hibernation, breathe, soliciting: (n) traffic, suit; (adj) sovereign: (n) ruler, king, lord,
doze, saw wood, coma, dream petitory, petitioning emperor; (adj) independent,
snub: (n, v) repulse, insult, cut, slight, soliloquy: (n) language, oral autonomous, imperial, royal, free,
put down; (v) disregard, offend, communication, apostrophe regal; (adj, n) prince. ANTONYMS:
ignore, check, humiliate; (n) rebuke. solitary: (adj) forlorn, only, alone, (adj) dependent, ineffective, useless
ANTONYMS: (v) accept, single, lonely, lone, sole, spanker: (adj) cord, lump, clod,
acknowledge, notice, boost, include; unaccompanied, isolated; (adj, n) bushel, loaf, bulk, whooper, mass,
(n) acceptance recluse; (n) hermit. ANTONYMS: nugget; (n) coachman, driver
snuff: (v) smell, kill, douse, slay, (adj) sociable, combined, common, sparkle: (n, v) flicker, flash, shimmer,
scent, snuffle, bump off, smother, outgoing spark, shine, blaze, fizz, gleam,
snort; (adj) tobacco, nicotine solomon: (n) solon, shining light, glitter; (v) blink, glare.
snug: (adj, v) cosy, trim; (adj) cozy, Magnus Apollo, magi, luminary, ANTONYMS: (n) apathy, dullness,
easy, comfy, tight, close, warm, esprit fort, authority, Nestor lifelessness
 Edgar Allan Poe 315
sparks: (n) fire otherworldliness, benefice, religion, surprised, thunderstruck, angular,
spasmodic: (adj) spastic, convulsive, spiritualty, beneficiary, devoutness, dizzy, taken aback
intermittent, erratic, broken, belongings, religious studies staid: (adj, v) serious, sedate, grave,
irregular, sporadic, desultory, spite: (n) malice, grudge, hatred, solemn, sober, demure; (adj) calm,
sudden, discontinuous; (v) malevolence, rancour, venom, quiet, composed, somber, decorous.
inconsonant. ANTONYM: (adj) rancor, maliciousness, ill will, ANTONYMS: (adj) frivolous,
continuous animosity; (n, v) pique. exciting, funny, daring, playful,
specie: (n) currency, cash, mintage, ANTONYMS: (v) please; (n) bright, relaxed
coinage, money, piece, hard cash, benevolence, goodwill, love, stale: (adj, n) musty, moldy; (adj) old,
metal money, circulating medium, affection, harmony commonplace, hackneyed, insipid,
sort, species spitefully: (adv) maliciously, trite, corny, flat, stagnant; (adj, v)
spectacles: (n) glasses, specs, malevolently, resentfully, dry. ANTONYMS: (adj) fresh,
spectacle, eyeglass, goggles, vindictively, viciously, venomously, original, innovative, airy, new,
lorgnette, monocle, bifocals, dark malignantly, meanly, nastily, exceptional, imaginative
glasses, optical instrument, shades rancorously, hatefully. stalking: (n) deerstalking, hunting,
spectator: (n) eyewitness, observer, ANTONYMS: (adv) kindly, friendly, chaff, harassment, still hunt, shuck,
onlooker, witness, audience, harmoniously, genially, mercifully, pestering, pursuit, husk, nuisance,
beholder, viewer, watcher, benevolently, compassionately, angry walk
spectators, looker, ogler. innocently stall: (n) bench, barn, compartment,
ANTONYM: (n) player splendor: (adj, n, v) brilliancy; (n) stand, carrel, hut, stalling, cabin,
spectators: (n) spectator, gallery, magnificence, pomp, sheen, lustre, kiosk; (n, v) delay; (v) procrastinate.
viewer, viewers, attendance luster, glory, ostentation, glitter; (n, ANTONYM: (v) advance
spectre: (n) phantasm, shadow, v) brightness; (adj, n) radiance. stamboul: (n) Istanbul, Stambul,
shade, phantom, apparition, ghost, ANTONYMS: (n) dullness, Constantinople
spook, wraith, revenant, terror, ordinariness, paucity, austerity, stamped: (adj) beaten, marked,
eidolon understatement, shabbiness, pressed, printed; (v) fixed, engraved
speculative: (adj) risky, theoretical, simplicity, unattractiveness stamping: (n) impression, blocking,
academic, inquisitive, notional, splintered: (adj) shattered, broken, coin, postage, stamping of rail
hypothetical, chancy, conjectural; pixilated, split, soaked, blind drunk, starboard: (n) dexter, offside; (adj)
(adj, v) contemplative, reflective; (v) soused, blotto, sozzled, cracked, proper, good, ripe, correct.
meditative. ANTONYMS: (adj) plastered ANTONYM: (adj) port
definite, moderate, practical, proven spoil: (n, v) ruin; (v) rot, corrupt, mar, starry: (adj) sidereal, starlike, radiant,
speedily: (adj, adv) quickly, quick, deface, sack; (adj, v) impair, showy, gleaming, bright, lustrous,
immediately; (adv) rapidly, damage, injure, harm, indulge. shiny, lucid, stellar, fulgent.
promptly, hastily, swiftly, fast, ANTONYMS: (v) improve, ANTONYMS: (adj) starless, dull
apace, hurriedly, fleetly. conserve, enliven, help, abuse, startle: (n, v) start, jump; (v) frighten,
ANTONYMS: (adv) later, eventually beautify, deny, neglect, correct, scare, astonish, shock, astound,
speedy: (adj, v) rapid, prompt, fleet, respect, clean amaze, shake, threaten, electrify.
swift; (adj) fast, agile, ready, spoiled: (adj) bad, rotten, stale, spoil, ANTONYM: (v) soothe
immediate, cursory, hurried, brisk. coddled, pampered, corrupt, startled: (adj) dumbfounded,
ANTONYMS: (adj) leisurely, damaged, spoilt, putrid, rancid. dismayed, distressed, aghast,
plodding ANTONYM: (adj) unspoiled frightened, astonished, amazed,
spin: (n, v) whirl, twist, twirl, run, sprawling: (adj) sprawled, roomy, terrified, afraid, shocked, astounded
drive, roll; (v) revolve, reel; (n) sizeable, untidy, straggling, startling: (adj) wonderful, shocking,
revolution, ride, turning expansive, sprawly, wide, extensive; surprising, striking, alarming,
spinning: (n) rotation, revolution, (adv) asprawl; (n) attitude. appalling, marvellous, dramatic,
gyration; (adj) rotary, revolving, ANTONYM: (adj) narrow frightful, sensational, lurid.
rotating, turning, whirling, swirling; springing: (v) jumping, climbing, ANTONYMS: (adj) unremarkable,
(v) rotate, revolve bounding, furious, conspicuous, soothing, comforting
spiral: (n, v) coil, loop, roll; (n) helix, prominent, ascending, projecting stately: (adj) solemn, imposing,
spire; (adj, v) helical; (v) screw, outwardly; (n) growth, suspension, elegant; (adj, v) noble, dignified,
gyrate, corkscrew, circle; (adj, n) emanation grand, proud, great; (adj, adv) regal,
volute. ANTONYM: (v) plummet squalling: (adj) unquiet majestic, royal. ANTONYMS: (adj)
spirited: (adj) animated, frisky, squeak: (n, v) screech, shriek, scream, boisterous, humble, modest, lowly
energetic, racy, bold, gritty, quick, peep, yell, howl, chirp, cheep; (v) stationary: (adj) motionless, fixed,
enthusiastic, dashing, peppy, brave. creak, screak, scrape set, quiescent, permanent, immobile,
ANTONYMS: (adj) spiritless, squeaking: (adj) creaking, screaky, steady, static, constant, unmoving,
lifeless, feeble, cowardly, apathetic, screechy, squeaky, squealing, still. ANTONYMS: (adj) mobile,
lethargic, spineless, dull, solemn, creaky; (n) squeak shifting, flowing
sluggish, lackluster staggered: (adj) dumbfounded, statue: (n) figure, monument,
spirituality: (n) inwardness, astonished, flabbergasted, statuette, effigy, idol, sculpture,
incorporeity, church property, astounded, stunned, bewildered, carving, bust, sphinx, icon,
 316 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
representation dirk, awl, knife, bodkin, carving destitute, insolvent, indigent
stature: (n) height, altitude, standing, knife, cimeter, Creese, claymore stray: (v) wander, ramble, range,
tallness, prestige, figure, growth, stillness: (n) hush, calmness, digress, straggle, meander, depart,
status, quality, rank, greatness immobility, serenity, silence, deviate, rove, drift, err. ANTONYM:
stead: (n) behalf, room, lieu, spot, quietness, peacefulness; (adj, n) (v) settle
location, station, space, seat, calm, quiet, peace, still. streaming: (adj) flowing, flapping,
position, office, locality ANTONYMS: (n) bustle, movement, detached, incoherent, baggy, slack,
steamboat: (n) liner, steamer, steam uproar, motion, turbulence, turmoil, relaxed, loose, lax; (n) cyclosis; (v)
boat, steamship, cruise ship, ocean vigor, disturbance, chaos, agitation disheveled
liner stint: (v) skimp, curtail, pinch, strenuous: (adj) arduous, energetic,
steed: (n) horse, mount, charger, scrimp; (adj, v) begrudge, grudge; hard, grueling, active, keen, tough,
knight, courser, warhorse, pony, (n) restriction, extent, job, eager, dynamic, forward, difficult.
stallion, mare assignment, degree ANTONYMS: (adj) weak,
steen: (n) stean stirred: (adj) excited, agitated, undemanding, refreshing, effortless,
steeple: (adj, n) spire, tower; (n) moved, affected, aroused, feeble, light
campanile, minaret, turret, dome; emotional, aflame, Stirn, horny, strenuously: (adv) energetically,
(adj) pyramid, column, obelisk, susceptible, stirred up zealously, arduously, severely,
monument, pillar stocked: (adj) stocked with, forcefully, earnestly, laboriously,
stern: (adj) rigid, rigorous, austere, furnished, full busily, toilsomely, forwardly, hardly
hard, strict, grim, solemn, rough; stocking: (n) hosiery, boothose, trunk stricken: (adj) smitten, struck, beaten,
(adj, v) harsh; (n) back; (adj, n) rear. hose, supplying, stocking level, laid low, affected, hurt, low,
ANTONYMS: (adj) friendly, tights, silk stocking, nylons, nylon impaired, dotty; (v) heavy laden,
approving, lenient, funny, genial, stocking, rayon stocking; (adj) victimized
gentle, kindly, lax, liberal, cheerful, stockinged strikingly: (adj, adv) notably,
flexible stolid: (adj) impassive, obtuse, signally, unusually, singularly; (adv)
sternly: (adv) severely, strictly, stupid, heavy, doltish, bovine, prominently, stunningly,
austerely, harshly, rigidly, grimly, insulse, expressionless, shallow, imposingly, impressively, markedly,
rigorously, stringently, seriously, petty, apathetic. ANTONYMS: (adj) outstandingly, obviously
relentlessly, solemnly. emotional, imaginative, exciting striving: (n) nisus, pains, endeavor,
ANTONYMS: (adv) leniently, stoop: (v) crouch, bend, deign, strife, try, strain, attempt, strive,
lightheartedly, kindly, warmly, condescend, descend, squat, couch, ambition, struggle, exertion.
cheerfully cringe, lean, lower oneself; (n) ANTONYM: (adj) unmotivated
stiff: (adj) hard, formal, inflexible, porch. ANTONYM: (v) straighten strokes: (n) approval, reward,
difficult, rigorous, numb, firm, stooped: (adj) hunched, stoop, recognition, prize, acclaim, credit,
sturdy; (adj, n) stark, severe; (n) stooping, crooked, bended, not brownie points
corpse. ANTONYMS: (adj) soft, straight, inclined, not erect, arched, stroll: (n, v) ramble, saunter, walk,
supple, flexible, floppy, pliable, free, asymmetrical, droopy amble, wander, promenade, tramp,
easy, loose, informal, mild, pliant stooping: (adj) hunched, crooked, hike; (v) roam, go for a walk, range
stiffly: (adv) firmly, stiff, awkwardly, asymmetrical, not erect, not straight, stubborn: (adj) contrary, hard,
unbendingly, difficultly, woodenly, corrupt; (n) patronage intractable, perverse, rigid,
strongly, formally, stringently, stout: (adj, n) sturdy, stocky, hearty; determined, persistent, refractory,
clumsily, strictly. ANTONYM: (adv) (adj) hardy, strong, robust, obese, tenacious, obdurate, inveterate.
loosely husky, bold, corpulent, fleshy. ANTONYMS: (adj) compliant,
stiffness: (n) hardness, severity, ANTONYMS: (adj) thin, slim, irresolute, flexible, amenable, docile,
inflexibility, rigor, clumsiness, flimsy, cowardly, slight, skinny, easygoing, malleable, agreeable,
firmness, awkwardness, inclemency, fragile, weak accommodating, cooperative, feeble
harshness, tension, roughness. strained: (adj) tense, labored, intense, stubby: (adj) short, stocky, chunky,
ANTONYMS: (n) softness, constrained, laboured, unnatural, squat, thickset, stumpy, thick,
looseness, suppleness, weakness, nervous, affected, taut, artificial, bristly, dumpy, podgy, obtuse.
ease, malleability, friendliness, tight. ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, ANTONYM: (adj) tall
relaxation, leniency, smoothness, calm stud: (n, v) knob, boss, button; (v)
limpness strains: (n) tension, tenseness dot, nail, sprinkle, constellate; (n)
stifling: (adj) close, oppressive, straitjacket: (n) restraint, garment rivet, scantling, peg, stallion
sweltering, stuffy, heavy, hot, torrid, strangeness: (n) oddity, oddness, stuffed: (adj) crammed, packed,
sticky; (n) crushing, quelling, quaintness, peculiarity, curiousness, congested, replete, loaded, filled,
suppression. ANTONYMS: (adj) abnormality, weirdness, foreignness, fraught, chock-full, crowded,
fresh, airy, cool, temperate queerness, singularity, quirk. jammed, gorged. ANTONYMS: (adj)
stigmatize: (v) denounce, mark, ANTONYMS: (n) familiarity, hungry, lacking
defame, stigmatise, gibbet, label, nativeness stumpy: (adj) squat, stocky, podgy,
expose, taint, disgrace; (n, v) post; strapped: (adj) impecunious, poor, short, chunky, stubby, squatty,
(n) impute shame to penniless, late, poverty-stricken, dumpy, thick, squab, thickset.
stiletto: (n) stylet, piercer, poniard, short of money, impoverished, ANTONYM: (adj) slender
 Edgar Allan Poe 317
stunned: (adj) dumbfounded, outskirts, periphery, outer reaches, ANTONYMS: (adj) untarnished,
astonished, astounded, amazed, outer edge, fringes, entourage, clean
flabbergasted, dazed, stupefied, borderland; (adj) purlieus, sulphurous: (adj) stifling, acerb, hot,
staggered, bewildered, confused; alentours, neighborhood sulphureous, infernal, brimstony,
(adj, v) astonied. ANTONYMS: (adj) succeeding: (adj) following, virulent, caustic, containing acid,
indifferent, unimpressed subsequent, after, consecutive, sultry, burning hot
stupendous: (adj, v) prodigious; (adj) posterior, ensuing, consequent, sundown: (n) nightfall, evening,
huge, terrific, marvellous, immense, successive, consequential; (adj, adv) dusk, twilight, hour. ANTONYMS:
tremendous, fantastic, mighty, later; (v) succeed. ANTONYMS: (n) dawn, daybreak, sunrise
mammoth, miraculous, enormous. (adj) outgoing, preceding sunk: (adj) sunken, undone, finished,
ANTONYM: (adj) abysmal successively: (adv) in turn, one after ruined, profound, immersed,
stupidity: (n) foolishness, nonsense, the other, in succession, damaged, lowed, lying flat; (v) cut
obtuseness, dullness, fatuity, sequentially, serially, running, in up, dashed
absurdity, stolidity, slowness, order, gradually, subsequently, sunrise: (n) dawn, sunup, daybreak,
denseness, idiocy, imbecility. repeatedly, one after another daylight, aurora, first light,
ANTONYMS: (n) sense, logic, succumb: (v) defer, yield, bow, give dayspring, twilight, dawning, break
cleverness, shrewdness, wisdom, in, give way, accede, buckle under, of day, crack of dawn. ANTONYMS:
ability die, surrender, decease; (adj, v) faint. (n) sunset, sundown, nightfall
stupor: (n) lethargy, stupefaction, ANTONYMS: (v) endure, survive, superabundance: (n) overabundance,
coma, shock, insensibility, conquer glut, surplus, surfeit, abundance,
unconsciousness, trance, suddenness: (n) steepness, hastiness, overmuchness, copiousness,
sluggishness, torpor, haze, precipitance, precipitancy, plethora, redundancy, superfluity,
grogginess. ANTONYMS: (n) precipitateness, sudden, surplusage
alertness, awareness, wakefulness craggedness, surprise, superabundant: (adj) excessive,
sturdy: (adj) strong, stout, solid, precipitousness, brusqueness, profuse, plentiful, copious,
rugged, firm, mighty, robust, curtness superfluous, overmuch, redundant,
healthy, muscular; (adj, n) burly, suffice: (v) satisfy, do, answer, inordinate, prodigal, lavish,
brawny. ANTONYMS: (adj) flimsy, content, fulfill, be sufficient, qualify, abundant
puny, fragile, rickety, slight, function, be enough, suit, fulfil superbly: (adv) magnificently,
ramshackle, infirm, frail, feeble, sufficiency: (n) enough, fill, gloriously, beautifully, wonderfully,
delicate, soft ampleness, adequateness, fullness, brilliantly, grandly, gorgeously,
stylus: (v) phonograph needle; (n) capacity, competence, satisfaction, excellently, splendidly,
manner, panache, mode, fashion, affluence; (adj, n) plenty, abundance marvellously, outstandingly.
expressive style, elan, dash, flair, suffocating: (adj) choking, ANTONYMS: (adv) badly,
device oppressive, smothering, close, incompetently, poorly, abysmally,
subdued: (adj) quiet, muffled, dull, stifling, suffocative, suffocatingly, meagerly, slightly
restrained, muted, tame, faint, suffocate, sultry, stifle, superfluities: (n) added extras,
repressed, low, meek; (adj, v) overpowering additions, embellishments,
resigned. ANTONYMS: (adj) suffocation: (n) asphyxiation, trappings, accompaniments
enthusiastic, lively, uninhibited, asphyxia, choking, killing, garrote, superfluity: (n) plethora,
unsubdued, rebellious, noisy, bright, strangling, putting to death, apnoea, redundancy, superabundance,
elaborate, frivolous, upbeat kill nimiety, overabundance, overplus,
subjectivity: (n) subjectiveness, suffrage: (n) ballot, voice, franchise, embarrassment, redundance,
subjectivities, judgment, sound poll, election, right to vote, voting, extravagance, surplus, glut.
judgment, sound judgement, assistance, approval, testimony, ANTONYM: (n) shortfall
judgement, perspicacity recall superfluous: (adj, v) spare; (adj)
subjoined: (v) enclitical suffuse: (v) flush, infuse, saturate, needless, extra, excess, excessive,
sublime: (adj, v) majestic; (adj) perfuse, pervade, impregnate, unnecessary, surplus, pointless,
dignified, grand, lofty, magnificent, permeate, penetrate, fill, transfuse, superabundant, supernumerary,
elevated, noble, exalted, glorious; (v) bathe supererogatory. ANTONYMS: (adj)
sacred, sublimate. ANTONYMS: suicidal: (adj) ruinous, destructive, indispensable, important, essential,
(adj) poor, ridiculous deadly, despairing, suicidical, basic, pertinent
substitution: (n) replacement, dangerous, unsafe superhuman: (adj) supernatural,
exchange, substitute, interchange, sullenly: (adv) sulkily, sourly, heavenly, preterhuman, superman,
switch, permutation, commutation, grumpily, morosely, moodily, epic, daring, godlike, gallant, brave,
replacing, swap; (n, v) change, shift dourly, somberly, peevishly, surly, celestial, incredible. ANTONYM:
subterranean: (adj) underground, crossly, petulantly. ANTONYMS: (adj) normal
backdoor, profound, subaqueous, (adv) graciously, contentedly, superintendence: (n) oversight,
submarine, subterrene, gladly, cheerily direction, management, inspection,
subterrestrial, deep, hole-and- sullied: (adj) foul, soiled, tainted, control, government, surveillance,
corner, subterraneous, subterrany stained, besmirched, unclean, filthy, supervising, care, guidance,
suburbs: (adj, n) environs; (n) spotted, sordid, flyblown, dim. invigilation
 318 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
superiority: (n) predominance, surrendered: (adj) given fraudulent, double-dealing
priority, excellence, mastery, surtout: (n) spencer swinging: (adj) swaying, excessive,
precedence, preference, distinction, surveying: (n) mensuration, lilting, inordinate, hanging,
supremacy, domination, eminence; measurement, investigation, exorbitant, pendulous, outrageous,
(adj, n) odds. ANTONYMS: (n) triangulation; (v) inspect, examine; preposterous, extravagant; (n)
humility, weakness, friendliness, (adj) observant slewing
mediocrity, simplicity susceptibility: (n) sensitivity, swoop: (v) pounce, raid, descend,
supernal: (adj) heavenly, celestial, liability, impressibility, inclination, clutch, wrench; (n) descent, slide,
ethereal, lofty, unearthly, spiritual, capability, sensibility, dive; (n, v) sweep, stoop, plunge
unworldly; (v) head, capital, polar, susceptibleness, receptivity, sworn: (adj) extreme, mortal,
topgallant. ANTONYM: (adj) responsiveness, proclivity, implacable, engaged, dedicated,
infernal tendency. ANTONYMS: (n) committed, betrothed, bespoken,
supernumerary: (adj, v) spare; (adj, resistance, insensitivity affianced, inveterate
n) additional; (adj) redundant, susceptible: (adj) impressionable, syllable: (n) antepenultimate,
superfluous, supererogatory, receptive, sensitive, subject, liable, antepenult, penultima, penultimate,
surplus, excess, otiose; (n) super, delicate, susceptive, vulnerable, articulate, utter, linguistic unit, solfa
spear carrier, increment pliable, irritable, open. syllable, speech sound, syllabe,
superseded: (adj) outmoded, archaic, ANTONYMS: (adj) resistant, language unit
extinct, obsolete, out of date, impervious, resisting, safe, syllabub: (n) sillabub, dessert, drink,
outdated invulnerable, indifferent, smart sweet
superstition: (n) superstitious, taboo, suspend: (adj, v) defer, put off; (v) sympathize: (v) pity, understand,
religion, old wives' tale, interrupt, stop, adjourn, postpone, condole, compassionate, feel,
superstitious notion, lore, folklore, hang, dangle, stay, shelve, debar. sympathise, identify with,
fanaticism, fallacy, belief, magic. ANTONYMS: (v) continue, sustain, empathize, have compassion, feel
ANTONYMS: (n) science, truth rise, finish, advance, inaugurate sorry for, feel for. ANTONYMS: (v)
supposing: (adv) admitting, suspending: (adj) suspended, disapprove, disregard
conditionally, in case; (n) suspensory, depending, hanging synonymous: (adj) equivalent,
supposition, conjecture, thought, suspicions: (adj) entertain doubts, consignificative, synonymical,
theory, assumption; (conj) although, have doubts; (n) doubts, misgivings, similar, synonymic, same, the same
what if; (v) suppose reservations, qualms, worries, fears, as, interchangeable, equal,
supposition: (n, v) conjecture; (n) uncertainties corresponding, consignificant.
assumption, hypothesis, sustenance: (n) living, food, ANTONYMS: (adj) different,
presumption, premise, speculation, maintenance, subsistence, fare, antonymous, dissimilar, opposite
surmise, guess, supposal, thought, sustentation, provisions, systematical: (adj) methodical
imagination. ANTONYMS: (n) fact, nourishment, nutriment, aliment, tabby: (adj) brinded, brindle,
knowledge, proof, reality, practice livelihood. ANTONYM: (n) extras brindled; (n) cat, fairy, tabby cat,
suppressed: (adj) stifled, smothered, swallows: (n) sparrows, rooks, faggot, tattletale, domestic cat,
strangled, repressed, downtrodden, robins, Passeriformes, Hirundinidae, queer, queen regnant
buried, hidden, pent-up, latent, etc, order Passeriformes tailor: (v) sew, fashion, shape,
untold; (n) subordinate. swamp: (v) flood, submerge, accommodate, design, cut, adjust,
ANTONYMS: (adj) publicized, overt overwhelm, inundate, drench; (n) fit; (n) snip, dressmaker, sartor
supremacy: (n) superiority, marsh, mire, quagmire, morass; (adj, tails: (n) dress suit, tail coat, full
domination, sovereignty, authority, v) sink, drown. ANTONYMS: (v) dress, tail, waste, evening dress,
command, mastery, predominance, underwhelm, disperse, dry dress coat, coat, morning coat,
dominion, excellence, influence, swarm: (n) host, horde, multitude, cutaway, formalwear
leadership. ANTONYMS: (n) drove, throng, cloud, assembly; (n, talc: (n) steatite, rensselaerite,
inferiority, weakness, subservience, v) mob; (v) teem, pour; (adj) shoal. soapstone, soaprock
powerlessness, subjugation ANTONYMS: (v) retreat; (n) few talented: (adj) clever, gifted, capable,
surf: (n) foam, breaker, spray, wave, swear: (v) declare, assure, assert, accomplished, proficient, apt,
surge, swell, suds, bubble; (v) affirm, curse, pledge; (n, v) promise, versatile, promising, ingenious,
browse, beach comber, ground swell avow, depone, depose, aver. expert, competent. ANTONYMS:
surmount: (v) overcome, conquer, ANTONYMS: (v) distrust, refute, (adj) mediocre, slow, ordinary,
subdue, defeat, master, excel, deny, compliment incompetent, bad, clumsy
transcend, outstrip, surpass, swimmingly: (adj, adv) readily; (adj) talker: (n) speaker, conversationalist,
vanquish, outmatch. ANTONYMS: in triumph, well flying colors; (adv) orator, chatterbox, babbler, raver,
(v) yield, fail easily, successfully, prosperously, stammerer, chatterer, speechmaker,
surmounted: (adj) beaten waterily, favorably, fortunately, caller, mutterer
surpassing: (adj) excellent, superior, happily, natantly. ANTONYM: tame: (v) break, subdue, soften,
transcendent, exceptional, (adv) lousy domesticate; (adj) meek, docile,
prodigious, fine, outstanding, swindling: (n) cheating, deception, bland, domestic, gentle, slow; (adj,
extraordinary; (v) surpass; (adv) trickery, racket, deceit, chicanery, v) moderate. ANTONYMS: (adj)
surpassingly; (prep) above imposture, fixing; (adj) dishonest, exciting, bright, unmanageable,
 Edgar Allan Poe 319
interesting, untamed, inspiring, technicality: (n) detail, lingo, shocking. ANTONYMS: (adj) tiny,
brilliant, colorful, rebellious, lively technicalness, technology, St, abysmal, bad, calm, moderate,
tamely: (adv) dully, blandly, gentlely, triviality, small beer, side issue, nasty, dreadful, insignificant,
insipidly, obediently, point, pettiness, jargon ordinary, unremarkable
uninterestingly, moderately, tedious: (adj) tiresome, boring, terrifically: (adv) wonderfully,
brokenly, subduedly, domestically, dreary, slow, heavy, humdrum, marvelously, greatly, excellently,
flatly. ANTONYMS: (adv) cruelly, irksome, lifeless; (adj, v) superbly, stupendously, extremely,
assertively, disobediently, monotonous, arid, dry. marvellously, enormously, terribly,
interestingly, wildly ANTONYMS: (adj) exciting, varied, exceptionally. ANTONYM: (adv)
tanbark: (n) tan, bark easy, readable, lively, entertaining, abysmally
tangent: (n) digression, aside, tan, enthralling, brisk, concise, exotic, terror-stricken: (adj) afraid, scared
grade, departure, burn, tack, suntan, pleasant tertiary: (adj) third, Cambrian,
sunburn, straight line teetotum: (n) top, toy, humming top, Precambrian, Triassic, Silurian,
tangible: (adj) substantial, concrete, peak, whirligig, superlative, Permian, Pennsylvanian,
actual, real, perceptible, physical, summit, roundabout, round top, Ordovician; (n) Eocene, tertiary
palpable, evident, corporeal, plaything, elevation period, period
definite, sensible. ANTONYMS: telescopic: (adj) wide of, visible, testify: (v) declare, certify, affirm,
(adj) intangible, impalpable, farsighted, distant, distal, evidence, protest, prove,
incorporeal, disembodied, collapsible, sliding demonstrate, manifest, express,
conceptual, abstract, ethereal, temperament: (n) character, nature, show, vouch
insubstantial disposition, constitution, testimony: (n, v) attestation, witness;
taper: (n) candle, taper hole, bougie, personality, quality, spirit, humor, (n) declaration, proof, evidence,
rushlight, taper ratio; (v) sharpen, equanimity, composure, mettle testimonial, confirmation, statement,
point, acuminate, diminish, lessen, tempest: (adj, n) storm, gust; (n) gale, affidavit, affirmation, profession
reduce. ANTONYMS: (v) rise, hurricane, squall, disturbance, thankful: (adj) appreciative,
widen cyclone, typhoon, agitation, tornado, indebted, beholden, obliged,
tapestry: (n) arras, tapis, textile, blizzard. ANTONYM: (n) serenity contented, pleased, gratified,
embroidery, hanging, carpet, cloth, tempestuous: (adj, n) rough, relieved, under obligation,
complexness, fabric, material, boisterous, severe; (adj) raging, appreciatory, welcome.
mending furious, wild, angry, windy, fierce, ANTONYMS: (adj) worried,
tapis: (n) tapestry, textile, cloth, gusty; (adj, v) turbulent. unappreciative, unthankful, sorry
fabric, material, arras ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, moderate, thence: (adv) therefore, thus,
tapping: (n) draining of the furnace, relaxed therefrom, thereof, consequently,
paracentesis, to tap, tick, temples: (n) brow then, so, thereafter, thenceforth,
tapotement, sound, patter, drainage, temporal: (adj) secular, earthly, since, on account of
clapping, casting, restriking profane, lay, carnal, mortal, fleeting, thenceforward: (adv) thereafter
taps: (n) demise, bugle call temporary, transient, impermanent, theorist: (n) theorizer, philosopher,
tardily: (adv) belatedly, late, mundane. ANTONYMS: (adj) thinker, visionary, intellect,
dilatorily, lately, slackly, sluggishly, spiritual, otherworldly, mental, idealogue, intellectual, spectator,
recently, backwardly, behindhandly; permanent, perpetual, lasting speculatist, speculator, theoriser.
(adv, v) slow, easy. ANTONYMS: tenderness: (n) fondness, soreness, ANTONYM: (n) realist
(adv) quickly, punctually love, affection, sympathy; (adj, n) theorize: (v) suppose, speculate,
tasty: (adj) tasteful, delicious, spicy, clemency, mildness, compassion, theorise, guess, hypothesize,
dainty, delectable, appetizing, gentleness, softness, delicacy. meditate, hypothecate, formulate,
luscious, nice, palatable, savoury, ANTONYMS: (n) pleasure, dryness, develop, retrace, construct
scrumptious. ANTONYMS: (adj) hatred, strength, detachment therefrom: (adv) therefore, thereof,
bland, inedible, unappetizing, tenor: (n) purport, meaning, hence; (adj) redundance, strictly,
insipid, revolting substance, tendency, spirit, tone, exact, expected, likeness,
tattle: (v) gossip, babble, chat, chatter, mood, effect, set, temper; (adj) deportment, coincidence, accurate
blather, snitch, blabber, talk, prate, soprano therein: (adv) in this, in there
prattle, blither. ANTONYMS: (v) tenths: (n) custom, assessment, thereto: (adv) thereunto, moreover;
hide, conceal excise, gavel, octroi, tithe (adj) likeness, accurate, coincidence,
tattoo: (n) drumbeat, tattoos, bugle tenuity: (n) feebleness, rareness, correct, correctness, deportment,
call, decoration thinness, low density, slenderness, detail, exact, expected
tavern: (n) hotel, saloon, bar, inn, debility, infirmity, weakness, thereupon: (adv) hereupon, next,
pub, public house, pothouse, indigence, fineness, frailness. then, immediately, therefore,
taphouse, cabaret, khan, hostelry ANTONYM: (n) thickness therewith, in the sequel, close upon,
tearing: (adj) fierce, violent, terra: (n) mother Earth, terra firma upon which, whereupon,
vehement, furious, ripping, terrific: (adj) tremendous, fantastic, accordingly
ferocious; (n) lachrymation, great, wonderful, dreadful, thermometer: (n) thermocouple,
lacrimation, riving ahead, tear, formidable, splendid, brilliant, thermograph, telethermometer,
lancination marvellous; (adj, v) terrible, cryometer, pyrometer, platinum
 320 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
thermometer, heat indicator, gas (adj) bored, unhappy, depressed, annoying, slow, dreary, bothersome;
thermometer, candy thermometer; desolate, sad, down, miserable (adj, v) wearisome, troublesome.
(v) heliometer, galvanometer thrilling: (adj, n) electric; (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) stimulating, fun,
thickness: (n) density, width, exciting, sensational, exhilarating, varied, soothing, pleasant, brisk,
consistency, layer, consistence, electrifying, emotional, rousing, exciting, convenient, refreshing
heaviness, concentration, bulk, gripping, stimulating; (adj, v) titanic: (adj) enormous, giant,
breadth, compactness, substance. impressive; (n, v) swelling. colossal, massive, mammoth, huge,
ANTONYMS: (n) slenderness, ANTONYMS: (adj) boring, vast, stupendous, immense, titanical
smoothness, length, clearness depressing, discouraging, upsetting, , titanitic . ANTONYM: (adj) tiny
thigh: (n) portion, limb, second joint, uninspiring titian: (n) auburn, orange
femur, hip, serving, drumstick, crus, thronged: (adj) throng, busy, token: (n) memento, souvenir, note,
helping, flank populous, brisk, teeming, swarming, keepsake, sign, relic, stamp, signal,
thirst: (n, v) hunger, lust, wish; (n) sprightly, sensitive, replete, indication; (adj) nominal; (n, v)
longing, yen, craving, hankering, overflowing; (n) persistent trace. ANTONYM: (adj) great
dryness, appetite; (v) starve, crave. thrusting: (n) thrust, push, jab, poke, tolerable: (adj) passable, mediocre,
ANTONYM: (n) dislike jabbing, stab, driving force, scoke, bearable, fair, middling, reasonable,
thither: (adv) hither, whither, on that sack, punch, Phytolacca Americana adequate, respectable, endurable,
point, in that respect, at that place, thump: (n, v) thud, bang, bump, sufferable; (adj, v) satisfactory.
in that location; (adj) further, knock, hit, strike, cuff, punch, crash, ANTONYMS: (adj) intolerable,
ulterior, remoter, succeeding, more crack; (v) pound. ANTONYM: (v) exceptional, unbearable,
distant tiptoe unsatisfactory, bad, inadequate,
thou: (n) chiliad, grand, m, g, one thumping: (adj) spanking, whacking, appalling, inadmissible
thousand, gramme, gram, gm, roaring, thudding, lubberly, tolerably: (adv) well enough,
gigabyte, Gb, curtilage walloping, lumpish, gaunt; (n) thud, passably, acceptably, reasonably,
thoughtful: (adj, v) serious, solemn, thump, clump enough, moderately, to a tolerable
grave; (adj) kind, careful, pensive, thunder: (adj, n, v) boom; (n, v) roar, degree, pretty, to an adequate
heedful, attentive, discreet, sensible, bang, roll, bellow; (adj, n) peal; (adj, degree; (adj, adv) somewhat; (adj)
courteous. ANTONYMS: (adj) v) explode, detonate; (v) howl, pretty well. ANTONYMS: (adv)
thoughtless, careless, heedless, rumble, fulminate unbearably, intolerably,
uncaring, unkind, tactless, thunderstruck: (adj) astonished, unacceptably, unreasonably,
superficial, stupid, negligent, idiotic, flabbergasted, dumbfounded, insufficiently, inadequately
unthinking amazed, stupefied, stunned, toll: (n, v) ring, chime; (n) price, fee,
thoughtlessness: (n) inconsideration, speechless, dumfounded, aghast, tax, cost, charge, impost, due, tariff;
rashness, carelessness, dazed; (v) awestruck (v) peal
impulsiveness, imprudence, thwarted: (adj) disappointed, foiled, tolling: (n) kneel, passing bell,
indiscretion, heedlessness, discomfited, defeated, not clangor, pealing
bluntness, foolhardiness, neglect, victorious, baffled, balked, beaten, tore: (v) tare; (n) moulding, molding
negligence. ANTONYMS: (n) upset, embarrassed, saddened. tormentor: (n) pest, tormenter,
thoughtfulness, care, responsibility, ANTONYM: (adj) satisfied torturer, pesterer, annoyer, teaser,
carefulness, caution, wisdom, ticking: (n) tick, cloth, fabric, ticken; tease, tantalizer, persecutor, gadfly,
diplomacy, sensitivity (adj) living flat
thrashing: (n) beating, lashing, tier: (n) layer, floor, stratum, grade, tornado: (n) storm, hurricane, gale,
flogging, whipping, drubbing, level, degree; (adj, n) rank, row, line, cyclone, squall, whirlwind, twister,
licking, flagellation, rout, tanning, range, file typhoon, waterspout, windstorm,
hiding, debacle. ANTONYMS: (n) tile: (n) roof, thatch, bonnet, pantile, crack
victory, win castor, ceiling, roofing tile, wimple, torpor: (n) lethargy, lassitude, stupor,
thread: (n) screw thread, yarn, rope, tiling, paving stone; (v) cover languor, indolence, sluggishness,
wire, twine, ligature; (adj, n, v) line, timepiece: (n) clock, watch, ticker, listlessness, torpidity, torpidness;
file; (n, v) string together; (adj, v) timer, sundial, sandglass, (adj, n) inactivity, inertia.
range; (v) penetrate chronometer, measuring system, ANTONYMS: (n) energy, vigor,
thrice: (adv) three times, thirdly measuring instrument, watches, activity
thrill: (n, v) delight, shudder, quiver, clocks torture: (n, v) pain, distress, agonize,
shiver; (v) excite, exhilarate, exalt, tinged: (adj) plausible, bright, afflict; (n) agony, anguish, suffering,
stir; (n) shake, excitement, chill. painted, fey, touched, specious, excruciation, grief; (v) rack,
ANTONYMS: (v) dishearten, colorful, stained, tined, dyed, tinct excruciate. ANTONYMS: (n) relief,
discourage, disappoint, displease; tink: (v) clink, check, tinkle, sound, alleviation, content, ecstasy, joy,
(n) depression, calm, boredom, go pleasure; (v) relieve, alleviate
agony, sorrow; (n, v) bore tiptoe: (v) tip, tippytoe, creep, patter, tortured: (adj) anguished, suffering,
thrilled: (adj) jubilant, excited, skirt, skip, tilt, sidle, lean; (adj) alert; agonized, excruciate, excruciated,
happy, overjoyed, elated, ecstatic, (n) quieter. ANTONYM: (v) clump gnarled, hagridden, miserable,
pleased, thrillful, contented, tiresome: (adj) tedious, dull, woeful, hurt
grateful, flattered. ANTONYMS: laborious, irksome, monotonous, tottering: (adj) unsteady, ramshackle,
 Edgar Allan Poe 321
easily shaken, tottery, sick, rocky, funds; (n, v) hoard, prize, store; (v) profound, substantial; (n)
broken, trembling, cracked; (v) cherish, appreciate; (adj, n) jewel, importance
drooping; (n) convulsion precious stone. ANTONYMS: (v) trim: (adj, v) tidy, spruce; (adj, n, v)
touch-and-go: (adj) dangerous, dislike, disparage, scorn, neglect; (n) dress; (n, v) cut, clip, garnish, lop;
doubtful, tricky, intermittent dud, poverty (adj) neat, orderly; (v) shave,
tout: (v) bluster, brag, advertise, treatise: (n) tract, thesis, essay, embellish. ANTONYMS: (adj)
boast, canvass, blow, gas, bespeak, discourse, paper, article, scruffy, unkempt, sloppy, large,
gasconade, swash; (n) hotel runner. monograph, piece, pamphlet, chubby, disorderly, overweight; (v)
ANTONYMS: (v) conceal, review, book lengthen, develop, expand, lose
understate trembling: (adj, n) shaking; (adj, n, v) trimmings: (n) embellishments,
traceable: (adj) trackable, tremor; (adj) shaky, quaking, trappings, finery, fixing,
attributable, derivable; (adv) shivering, flutter; (n) palpitation, superfluities, plumage, edge,
noticeable quiver, vibration, shiver, quake. paraphernalia, gear, additions,
tracing: (n) trace, copy, design, ANTONYMS: (adj) stable, steady fixings
model, chase, drafting, action of tremendously: (adv) hugely, awfully, triple: (adj) threefold, ternary, triplex,
tracing, blueprint, cast, greatly, terrifically, wonderfully, trine, tripartite, Ternate, triplasian;
draftsmanship, ghost immensely, marvelously, vastly, (adj, n) thribble; (n) triad, safety,
tragedian: (n) thespian, comedian, dreadfully, excellently; (adj, adv) threesome
role player, histrion, actor, author, severely. ANTONYMS: (adv) triumphant: (adj) victorious,
player insignificantly, somewhat, hardly, successful, triumphal, exulting,
trailing: (n) tracking, drift, pursuit, abysmally winning, joyful, rejoicing, elated,
streaminess, hunt, heeling; (adj) tremulously: (adv) fearfully, conquering, prideful; (adj, v)
following, rambling, sprawling, shiveringly, tremblingly, shakingly, exultant. ANTONYMS: (adj)
prone, procumbent quiveringly, quaveringly, fidgetily, disappointed, failing, losing,
trait: (n) characteristic, attribute, vibratingly defeated, miserable, sorrowful
quality, character, idiosyncrasy, trencher: (n) dish, platter, chopping trotter: (adv) falter; (n) bangtail, race
property; (adj, n) peculiarity, trick; board, porringer, potager, ditch horse, racehorse, trotting horse,
(n, v) lineament; (v) stroke, touch digger, saucer, calabash, crucible animal foot
transcendental: (adj) preternatural, trepidation: (n) fear, tremor, alarm, troublesome: (adj) difficult, hard,
supernatural, nonnatural, apprehension, fright, terror, dread, arduous, bothersome, inconvenient,
otherworldly, metaphysical, dismay, consternation, perturbation, onerous, awkward, annoying,
sublime, theoretical, ultimate, disquiet. ANTONYMS: (n) laborious, tough, heavy.
utopian, unworldly, ineffable contentment, calm, confidence, ANTONYMS: (adj) nice, helpful,
translating: (n) communication, equanimity, bravery, reassurance useful, advantageous, convenient,
movement tresses: (n) locks, mop, head of hair uncomplicated, delightful
transparent: (adj) diaphanous, tribe: (n) clan, house, race, kin, trough: (n) chute, channel, manger,
obvious, plain, limpid, sheer, filmy, nation, people, kindred, folk, stock, depression, gutter, conduit, ditch,
gauzy, pellucid; (adj, n) lucid, lineage, breed canal, crib, valley, bowl.
luminous, bright. ANTONYMS: tribulation: (n) trial, misery, distress, ANTONYM: (n) ridge
(adj) solid, unclear, cloudy, thick, ordeal, calamity, trouble, affliction, trout: (n) sea trout, Isospondyli, lake
vague, subtle, questionable, hidden, suffering, hardship, pain, grief. trout, order Isospondyli, salmon
robust, heavy, furtive ANTONYMS: (n) peace, ease, trout, salmonid, smelts, sardines,
trash: (n) rubbish, litter, scum, opportunity anchovies, speckled trout, tarpon
garbage, refuse, rubble, debris; (n, v) trice: (n) minute, instant, jiffy, flash, trove: (n) treasure trove, treasure,
scrap, junk; (v) destroy; (adj, n) second, twinkling, breath, wink, accumulation, conglomeration,
trumpery. ANTONYMS: (n) blink of an eye, split second, while hoarded wealth, hoard
valuables, sense, possessions, assets, tricks: (n) actions, behavior, thing, trowsers: (n) pants, trews
fact; (v) renovate, conserve clowning around, fooling, magic, troy: (n) city, Ilion, ilium, metropolis,
traveller: (n) passenger, tourist, plunder, possession, activities system of weights, troy weight
wanderer, voyager, wayfarer, trifle: (n, v) play; (adj, n, v) trinket; truism: (n) platitude, commonplace,
mover, itinerant, courier, entrant, (v) dally, fiddle, flirt, fool, frivol; (n) banality, aphorism, theorem,
swimmer, outlander nothing, triviality, detail; (adj, n) proverb, adage, maxim, clich,
traversing: (n) traverse, bagatelle scholium, saying
perambulation, crossing; (adj) trifles: (n) jests, nonsense, nugae, trump: (n) trump card, brick; (adj)
moving trivia truepenny, quell, silence, stalemate,
treason: (n) treachery, perfidy, high trifling: (adj) paltry, slight, petty, checkmate, nonplus; (v)
treason, sabotage, lese majesty, negligible, immaterial, worthless, outmaneuver, crossruff, scoop
traitorousness, subversiveness, trivial, minor, small; (adj, v) trumpery: (n) nonsense, trash,
duplicity; (adj, n) disloyalty, inconsequential; (adj, n) frivolity. frippery, gimcracks, gimcrackery,
sedition, prodition. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (adj) significant, tripe, frills, folderol, falderal; (adj)
(n) loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity worthwhile, major, considerable, trashy, worthless
treasure: (n) gem, fortune, riches, crucial, enormous, great, mature, trunk: (n) stem, boot, torso, bole,
 322 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
body, stalk, snout, proboscis, stock, stalk; (n, v) stick; (v) grasp (adj, adv) out of the blue; (v)
tree trunk, box twilight: (n) nightfall, night, sunset, unhoped for, unlooked for; (adj, v)
trunks: (n) short pants, pants, gloaming, evening, sundown, unpredicted
luggage, Jockey shorts, Jamaica eventide, fall, decline, evenfall; (adj) unattainable: (adj) impossible,
shorts, Bermuda shorts, bathing aurora. ANTONYMS: (n) daybreak, inaccessible, impracticable,
trunks, bathing suit, costume, sunrise impractical, unapproachable,
drawers, swimming trunks twinkling: (n) moment, jiffy, minute, unobtainable, out of print, not
trusting: (adj) credulous, second, flash, trice, twinkle, wink, possible, unassailable, unavailable,
unsuspecting, naive, confident, split second, breath; (adj) sparkling. unbeatable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
confiding, simple, innocent, gullible, ANTONYM: (adj) dull vulnerable, accessible, possible,
reliant, give, easy to fool. twisting: (adj) tortuous, winding, attainable, feasible
ANTONYMS: (adj) distrustful, sinuous, crooked, zigzag, unattended: (adj) ignored, neglected,
suspicious, doubtful, hesitant, meandering; (n) distortion, turn, alone, solitary, abandoned,
protective, shrewd, disingenuous, spin, torsion, overrefinement disregarded, not safeguarded,
smart, jaded twofold: (adj) dual, duplicate, twin, lonely
tulip: (n) iris, rainbow, cottage tulip, doubled, threefold, treble, duplex, unbent: (adj) straight, upright, erect,
candlestick tulip, chameleon, dwarf duple; (adv) two times, as much neat, level, consecutive, good, just,
tulip; (adj) lily, asphodel, anemone, again, twice accurately fitted; (v) virgate; (n)
buttercup, daffodil typography: (n) composition, musical erecter
tumble: (n, v) drop, jumble, stumble, creation, musical composition, unbroken: (adj) continuous, entire,
plunge, slip, spill, downfall; (v) makeup, lettering, craft, print, complete, continual, constant, intact,
crumble, collapse, topple, confuse constitution, font, opus, paper incessant, endless, whole,
tumbled: (adj) disordered ultimatum: (n) obligation, undivided, solid. ANTONYMS:
tumbling: (adj) falling, billowing, stipulation, challenge, claim, (adj) intermittent, temporary,
dropping, rolled; (adj, adv) covenant, taunt, ultimation, sine qua plowed, discontinuous, disturbed,
plunging; (n) gymnastics, acrobatics, non, mandate, petition, provocation sporadic, partial
stunting, stunt flying, rumbling; ultra: (adj, n) radical, extremist; (adj) unbrokenly: (adv) undividedly,
(adv) headfirst immoderate, extreme, utmost, continually, completely, wholely,
tumult: (adj, n, v) hubbub, fanatical, excessive, outlandish; unceasingly, continuously, solidly,
disturbance; (n) stir, commotion, (adv) extremely, very; (v) intactly, incessantly, endlessly,
bustle, din, fuss, excitement; (n, v) distinguished. ANTONYMS: (adj) entirely
clamor, disorder, brawl. middle, moderate unceasing: (adj) ceaseless, incessant,
ANTONYMS: (n) peace, push, unabated: (adj) unreduced, perpetual, continuous, constant,
serenity, order, calm unrestricted, unmitigated, continual, everlasting, eternal,
tumultuously: (adv) turbulently, unflagging, relentless, intense, lasting, uninterrupted, endless.
tempestuously, violently, unrelenting ANTONYMS: (adj) acute,
uproariously, boisterously, unaccountable: (adj) intermittent, sporadic
tumultuarily, noisily, furiously, incomprehensible, inexplicable, uncivilized: (adj) savage, barbarian,
loudly, agitatedly; (adj, adv) madly strange, unintelligible, barbarous, wild, barbaric, brutal,
turbulent: (adj, n) tempestuous, unexplainable, mysterious, coarse, rude, rustic, ferocious,
rough, stormy, boisterous, rude; impenetrable, undiscoverable, impolite. ANTONYMS: (adj)
(adj) furious, disorderly, violent, undecipherable, unknowable, sophisticated, civilized, polite,
wild, noisy, riotous. ANTONYMS: unnatural. ANTONYMS: (adj) cultured, pleasant
(adj) peaceful, untroubled, accountable, explainable, unconnected: (adj) detached,
manageable, moderate, obedient, responsible, explicable disjointed, incoherent, unrelated,
settled, still, relaxed, orderly, mild unaccountably: (adv) mysteriously, illogical, confused, irrelevant,
turk: (n) effendi, Ottoman especially, curiously, bizarrely incongruous; (adj, prep) separate,
turmoil: (n, v) commotion; (n) unaided: (adj) naked, unassisted, separated; (v) unattached.
disturbance, agitation, disorder, defenseless, nude, bare, ANTONYMS: (adj) attached,
hubbub, confusion, excitement, independent, unaccompanied, open; pertinent, relevant, together
flurry, mess, hullabaloo, disruption. (adj, adv) alone, on your own; (adv) unconsciously: (adv) instinctively,
ANTONYMS: (n) order, calm, peace, single-handed. ANTONYM: (adv) unintentionally, unthinkingly,
accord jointly unwittingly, ignorantly, innocently,
turnip: (n) rutabaga, Swede, root unanimous: (adj) consentaneous, comatosely, automatically,
vegetable, cruciferous vegetable, harmonious, consentient, strong, obliviously, unsuspectingly,
white turnip, clock firm, of one mind, concordant, inadvertently. ANTONYMS: (adv)
turtle: (n) terrapin, redbelly, cooter, accordant, compact, collective, consciously, deliberately,
snapping turtle, box tortoise, cubic. ANTONYMS: (adj) narrow, knowingly, purposely
painted terrapin, marine turtle, individual uncontrollable: (adj) unruly,
slider, sea turtle; (adj) game, venison unanticipated: (adj) unforeseen, incontrollable, ungovernable,
twig: (n) sprig, bough, limb, shoot, sudden, surprising, amazing, unmanageable, intractable,
offshoot, spray, branchlet, scion, startling, shocking, serendipitous; undisciplined, disobedient, indocile,
 Edgar Allan Poe 323
overwhelming, boisterous; (adj, v) inquietude, anxiety, unease, malaise, fruitless, effete, infecund, lean,
uncontrolled. ANTONYMS: (adj) disquietude, apprehension, unrest, unfertile, inoperative. ANTONYMS:
controllable, imperceptible, orderly, impatience; (n, v) agitation. (adj) fruitful, fertile
biddable, weak ANTONYMS: (n) peace, calm, unfulfilled: (adj) wanting,
uncovered: (adj) naked, open, bare, confidence unsuccessful, unsatisfied,
nude, unclothed, bald, unreserved, uneducated: (adj) illiterate, unrealized, unrealised, unhappy,
unprotected, evident, frank, unschooled, uninstructed, rude, dissatisfied, displeased,
manifest. ANTONYMS: (adj) indoor, unlearned, uninformed, discontented
concealed uncultivated, untaught, unread, ungentlemanly: (adj) ribald,
uncurtained: (adj) curtainless. uncivilized, unenlightened. discourteous, shabby, uncouth,
ANTONYM: (adj) curtained ANTONYMS: (adj) trained, literate, unrefined, impolite
undeceive: (v) unbeguile, unbefool, learned, intelligent, informed ungovernable: (adj) unruly,
disabuse, inform unendurable: (adj) intolerable, uncontrollable, irrepressible,
undefined: (adj) indeterminate, insufferable, insupportable, intractable, licentious, violent, wild,
indistinct, obscure, shadowy, excruciating, impossible, indocile, uncontrolled, turbulent;
uncertain, vague, unspecified, unsupportable, uneasy, teasing, (adj, v) headstrong
ambiguous, unlimited, inexact, passionate, not patient, intolerant. unhallowed: (adj) ungodly, impious,
neutral. ANTONYMS: (adj) defined, ANTONYM: (adj) bearable profane, demonic, unsanctified,
exact, constrained unequal: (adj) different, unlike, diabolic, sinful, wicked, infernal,
undeniable: (adj) incontrovertible, uneven, rough, lopsided, unfair, impure, unchaste. ANTONYM: (adj)
irrefutable, certain, indisputable, inadequate, disparate, holy
positive, incontestable, obvious, disproportionate, unbalanced, unhappily: (adv) wretchedly,
indubitable, unquestionable, unsymmetrical. ANTONYMS: (adj) unluckily, disconsolately, badly,
conclusive, evident. ANTONYMS: equal, even, fair, identical, similar, woefully, forlornly, sorrowfully,
(adj) disputable, dubious, doubted, same, level, constant, balanced, like, unfortunately, dismally, dejectedly,
contestable, questionable, debatable, corresponding despondently. ANTONYMS: (adv)
uncertain, equivocal, unconvincing unequalled: (adj) unequaled, unique, cheerfully, contentedly, luckily,
underwent: (v) endure, tolerate alone, peerless, incomparable, willingly, enthusiastically,
undetermined: (adj, v) uncertain, matchless, unrivaled, unsurpassed, fortunately
indefinite, vague; (adj) unrivalled, solitary, inimitable unhappiness: (n) sadness, misery,
indeterminate, unsettled, indecisive, unequivocally: (adv) decidedly, melancholy, distress, grief, regret,
unresolved, irresolute, accidental, definitely, absolutely, positively, infelicity, woe, sorrowfulness,
open; (v) ambiguous. ANTONYMS: exactly, clearly, plainly, depression, displeasure.
(adj) determinate, definite, decided, categorically, expressly, explicitly, ANTONYMS: (n) cheerfulness,
specific distinctly. ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasure, joy, elation, contentment,
undeviatingly: (adv) straightly, unclearly, vaguely, partially, satisfaction, cheer
directly, regularly, literally, fixedly, guardedly, implicitly unheard: (adj) aspirated, atonic, deaf,
unflinchingly, unwaveringly, unerring: (adj) sure, certain, inerrant, indistinct, involving surds,
unvaryingly, unvariedly, uniformly, inerrable, accurate, exact, faithful, nonvocal, radical, sharp, silent, surd,
unfalteringly perfect, unblemished, constant, irrational
undistinguishable: (adj) exactly right. ANTONYMS: (adj) erring, unheeded: (adj) unnoticed, neglected,
alike, identical, undistinguished. imperfect, mistaken, inaccurate, disregarded, ignored; (v) unthought
ANTONYM: (adj) distinguishable faulty of, unseen, unperceived,
undoubted: (adj) unquestionable, unexplored: (adj) unexplained, unobserved, unnoted, unmarked,
undisputed, indisputable, unapprehended, unascertained, unmissed
undeniable, sure, positive, true, undiscovered, unheard of; (v) unhewn: (adj) unwrought,
unquestioned, indubitable, definite, unexamined, uninvented, unlabored, unpolished, rude, rough,
unchallenged unsearched, unstudied, unweighed, shapen, unblown, unboiled,
undue: (adj) excessive, immoderate, unsifted unconcocted, uncooked,
unreasonable, unwarranted, unfeigned: (adj) sincere, true, unfashioned
inordinate, extravagant, exorbitant, genuine, honest, unaffected, unimaginable: (adj) impossible,
extreme, unfair, improper, heartfelt, truthful, frank, hearty, unthinkable, incredible,
unjustified. ANTONYMS: (adj) straight, natural unbelievable, out of the question,
reasonable, due, appropriate, unflinchingly: (adv) intrepidly, unspeakable, miraculous, untold,
sensible, justified, just, fair firmly, resolutely, undauntedly, unsolicited, unlikely; (adj, v)
unearthly: (adj) weird, ghostly, determinedly, dauntlessly, inimaginable. ANTONYMS: (adj)
uncanny, ethereal, unworldly, unshrinkingly, bravely, daringly, describable, believable
preternatural, spectral, eerie, audaciously, steadfastly unimpaired: (adj) unbroken, intact,
spiritual, strange, heavenly. unfrequently: (adv) not much, not clean, sound, healthy, entire,
ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, often, unoften, rarely complete, undamaged, uninjured;
physical, acceptable, normal, human unfruitful: (adj) sterile, infertile, (v) unmarred, unsinged.
uneasiness: (n) disquiet, discomfort, acarpous, unproductive, arid, ANTONYM: (adj) impaired
 324 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
unimportant: (adj) insignificant, stilted, mannered, anomalous. ANTONYMS: (adj) dubious,
frivolous, inconsequential, ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, normal, uncertain, doubtful, indefinite,
irrelevant, trifling, slight, petty, real, unaffected, commonplace, tenuous, provisional, debatable,
little, negligible, immaterial, minor. genuine, sincere disputable
ANTONYMS: (adj) important, unnaturally: (adv) falsely, unusually, unquestionably: (adv) certainly,
significant, major, crucial, relevant, contrivedly, affectedly, definitely, indubitably, decidedly,
serious, powerful, connected, extraordinarily, monstrously, indisputably, positively, surely, of
central, profound, considerable manneredly, by artificial means, course, assuredly, no doubt; (adj)
unintelligible: (adj) opaque, abnormally, peculiarly, cruelly. doubtless. ANTONYMS: (adv)
inarticulate, unfathomable, ANTONYM: (adv) normally doubtfully, possibly, arguably
impenetrable, unaccountable, unoriginal: (adj) derivative, stale, unquiet: (adj) restless, anxious,
ambiguous, not clear, obscure, old, imitative, hackneyed, banal, nervous, turbulent, unsettled,
indistinct, inconceivable, secret. unimaginative, uninspired, trite, disturbed, fussy, tumultuous; (v)
ANTONYMS: (adj) understandable, tired, timeworn. ANTONYMS: (adj) movable, saltatory, shifting.
clear, comprehensible, intelligible, original, unique, clever, inspired, ANTONYM: (adj) quiet
obvious exceptional, imaginative unravel: (v) disentangle, solve, undo,
uninterrupted: (adj) ceaseless, unostentatious: (adj) unassuming, decipher, explain, resolve, ravel,
continuous, continual, unbroken, unpretentious, unobtrusive, humble, unpick, untangle, uncoil; (adj, v)
incessant, perpetual, constant, restrained, understated, simple, extricate. ANTONYMS: (v) fasten,
unceasing, endless; (adj, adv) homely, lowly, unpretending; (adj, ravel, entangle, tangle
straight, nonstop. ANTONYMS: n) plain unreal: (adj) illusory, fantastic,
(adj) intermittent, temporary, unparalleled: (adj) unequaled, fanciful, imaginary, insubstantial,
broken, alternate, noisy, sporadic; unique, unmatched, incomparable, artificial, fictitious, visionary,
(adv) indirectly matchless, unprecedented, peerless, untrue; (adj, v) ideal, fancied.
unite: (v) associate, meet, connect, unexampled, inimitable, unequalled, ANTONYMS: (adj) genuine, natural,
link, blend, join, coalesce, unify, tie, alone. ANTONYMS: (adj) ordinary, substantial, authentic, ordinary,
amalgamate; (adj, v) fuse. inferior, surpassable, abysmal, plausible
ANTONYMS: (v) divide, cut, unremarkable, usual unsatisfactory: (adj) insufficient,
disband, disconnect, diverge, unpardonable: (adj) irremissible, poor, deficient, bad, lame,
segregate, split, undo, unpick unforgivable, indefensible, terrible, dissatisfactory, disappointing,
unlearned: (adj) ignorant, appalling, unwarranted, awful, empty, mediocre, limited, pitiful.
unenlightened, illiterate, unacceptable, shocking, not ANTONYMS: (adj) acceptable,
uninformed, unlettered, unread, remissible; (v) inexpiable. reasonable, adequate, satisfying,
uninstructed, unconditioned, ANTONYMS: (adj) pardonable, impressive, perfect
nescient, innate, unknowing. excusable, justified, excellent, unscathed: (adj) uninjured, unhurt,
ANTONYMS: (adj) conditioned, justifiable intact, safe, safe and sound,
cultured, educated unphilosophical: (adj) irrational, undamaged, unscratched, whole,
unlucky: (adj) luckless, hapless, undiscerning, unenlightened, unmarred, untouched; (n) untainted.
unhappy, sinister, inauspicious, ungifted, unwise ANTONYMS: (adj) hurt, injured,
unsuccessful, ominous, adverse, unprincipled: (adj) abandoned, harmed
disastrous, unfavorable; (adj, v) unscrupulous, depraved, dishonest, unseen: (adj, v) unknown; (adj)
untoward. ANTONYMS: (adj) unethical, profligate, dissolute, invisible, concealed, hidden,
fortunate, happy, auspicious, shameless, unconscionable, vicious, unobserved, secret, veiled, latent; (v)
successful immoral. ANTONYMS: (adj) ethical, unheeded, unperceived; (n) spiritual
unmeaning: (adj) insignificant, moral, honest, professional world. ANTONYMS: (adj) seen,
meaningless, senseless, nonsensical, unprofitable: (adj) profitless, visible, open, famous, noticeable
irrational, expressionless, gibberish, fruitless, futile, inutile, untenable: (adj) unjustifiable, not
foolish, peanut, weetless, disadvantageous, unfruitful, barren, defensible, unreasonable,
undistinguished idle, vain, uneconomic, inexcusable, illogical; (v) sine ICTU,
unmentionable: (n) scandalous, too unproductive. ANTONYMS: (adj) pregnable, unfortified, unarmed,
bad; (adj) impermissible, impious, fruitful, lucrative harmless, defenseless. ANTONYMS:
disreputable, execrable, forbidden, unquenchable: (adj) quenchless, (adj) valid, watertight, justifiable
nameless, nefandous, taboo inextinguishable, voracious, untimely: (adj) early, unseasonable,
unmitigated: (adj) absolute, total, impregnable, unconquerable, inopportune, inappropriate,
thorough, consummate, sheer, resistless, irresistible, invincible, awkward, immature, previous, ill
unqualified, unconditional, regular, indomitable, dominating, proof timed, inconvenient, improper,
perfect, entire, outright. against belated. ANTONYMS: (adj) timely,
ANTONYMS: (adj) mixed, unquestionable: (adj) appropriate, opportune, convenient,
imperfect, partial, rather incontrovertible, indisputable, sure, overdue
unnatural: (adj) affected, artificial, incontestable, indubitable, certain, untiring: (adj) indefatigable,
grotesque, supernatural, forced, unequivocal, irrefutable, undoubted, unflagging, persistent, assiduous,
abnormal, eccentric, uncanny, definite; (v) unimpeachable. industrious, persevering,
 Edgar Allan Poe 325
indomitable, diligent, hardworking, bleak, uncooked doubt, indecisiveness, instability,
patient, unfaltering. ANTONYMS: uplift: (n, v) lift; (v) elate, raise, indetermination, oscillation,
(adj) irresolute, failing, weary elevate, exhilarate, pick up, hoist, uncertainty, vibration.
unto: (prep, v) to, till, up to; (prep) upheave, regenerate; (n) upheaval, ANTONYMS: (n) decisiveness,
towards, before upthrust. ANTONYMS: (v) degrade, insistence, resolution, determination
untractable: (adj) penurious, depress, knock, dishearten vagabond: (n, v) tramp; (adj, n)
niggardly, hidebound, contrary, uplifted: (adj) high, raised, noble, not vagrant; (v) roam, stray, wander,
perverse, crossgrained, bigoted inverted, not prone, proud, range, ramble; (n) outcast, bum,
unutterable: (adj) indescribable, undismayed, stately, lofty, sublime, wanderer, nomad. ANTONYMS: (n)
unspeakable, inexpressible, animated inhabitant, resident; (adj) settled
unpronounceable, indefinable, uplifting: (n) ascent, exaltation, vagueness: (n) ambiguity,
untellable, unnameable, edification, upbuoyance; (adj) indistinctness, haziness,
unapproachable, beyond heartening, healing, gratifying, indefiniteness, obscurity, dimness,
description, incommunicable, exhilarating, exalted, curative, ambiguousness, murkiness,
terrible cheering. ANTONYMS: (adj) unclearness, indirectness; (adj)
unvarying: (adj) unchanging, deadly, ridiculous, heartbreaking inconceivableness. ANTONYMS: (n)
invariable, constant, steady, uproar: (adj, n, v) hubbub, clarity, accuracy, exactness,
uniform, invariant, changeless, disturbance, tumult; (n) din, noise, directness, concentration, certainty,
consistent, unvaried, unchanged, turmoil, commotion, disorder, reliability, confidence, clearness,
equal. ANTONYMS: (adj) irregular, confusion; (adj, n) row; (n, v) brawl. attentiveness
multiform, varied, dynamic, erratic, ANTONYMS: (n) calm, peace, vain: (adj) proud, arrogant, conceited,
unequal serenity, order fruitless, idle, empty, abortive,
unwavering: (adj) steadfast, firm, upside: (n) crest, crown, poll, top ineffectual, unproductive,
constant, unfaltering, resolute, fixed, side, upper side, pate, round top, narcissistic; (adj, v) useless.
unshakable, unswerving, sure; (adj, acme, summit, superlative, teetotum ANTONYMS: (adj) shy, successful,
n) loyal, faithful. ANTONYMS: (adj) upward: (adv) upwards, upwardly, possible, persuasive, selfless,
wavering, inconsistent, varying, aloft; (adj) overhead, rising, upper, fruitful, humble, useful, responsible,
unreliable, uncertain, temporary, increasing, open, vertical, mounting, worthwhile, effective
compliant, erratic, hesitant upright. ANTONYMS: (adj) vainly: (adv) uselessly, futilely,
unwelcome: (adj) undesirable, descending, downward; (adv) down fruitlessly, conceitedly, in vain,
objectionable, unpopular, unasked, usurped: (adj) tortious worthlessly, abortively, bootlessly,
unwished, unintroduced, unvisited, usury: (n) usure, rapacity, rate of arrogantly, unproductively; (adj,
uninvited, unpleasant; (adj, n) interest, vigorish; (v) accustom, adv) foolishly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
disagreeable, unsatisfactory. common occurrence, practice, treat, fruitfully, successfully, effectively
ANTONYMS: (adj) welcome, usage, use, usefulness valet: (n) man, attendant, lackey,
desirable, gratifying, wanted, utmost: (adj, n) maximum, extreme, butler, flunkey, manservant, waiter,
fortunate uttermost, furthermost, best, gentleman, livery servant, servant,
unwisely: (adv) imprudently, highest; (adj, adv) farthest; (adj, v) retainer
injudiciously, indiscreetly, supreme; (adj) last, furthest; (adj, n, valiantly: (adv) bravely, valorously,
recklessly, rashly, idiotically, v) greatest. ANTONYMS: (adj) gallantly, intrepidly, heroically,
thoughtlessly, silly, stupidly, moderate, worst boldly, audaciously, fearlessly,
irrationally, hastily. ANTONYMS: utter: (v) say, state, speak, breathe, doughtily, pluckily, heroicly.
(adv) judiciously, carefully, articulate, deliver, voice, pronounce; ANTONYMS: (adv) execrably,
cautiously, prudently, sensibly, (adj, n, v) express, declare; (adj, v) nervously, timidly, fearfully
deliberately tell. ANTONYMS: (adj) qualified, valor: (n) bravery, courage, heroism,
unwittingly: (adv) unintentionally, incomplete, uncertain, rather, slight; valiancy, daring, spirit, pluck,
unknowingly, unconsciously, (v) conceal, hide, block audacity, boldness; (adj, n)
accidentally, ignorantly, innocently, utterance: (n) pronunciation, gallantry, prowess
unawares, unawarely, expression, speech, exclamation, valueless: (adj) useless, futile,
unsuspectingly, uninformedly, statement, remark, articulation, insignificant, meaningless, null,
obliviously. ANTONYMS: (adv) observation, language, phrase, unvalued, trifling, of no value,
mindfully, deliberately, knowingly speaking rubbish, priceless, refuse.
unworthy: (adj) undeserving, base, uttered: (adj) expressed, express, ANTONYM: (adj) valuable
disgraceful, ignoble, low, verbalised, verbalized, vocal, vanish: (n, v) disappear; (adj, v) fade;
contemptible, despicable, ugly, explicit, oral; (v) spoke, quoth, said (v) disperse, pass, go, die, dissipate,
unmerited, unseemly, shameful. uttermost: (adj, n) extreme; (adj, adv) evaporate, depart, flee, melt away.
ANTONYMS: (adj) deserving, farthest; (n) maximum, level best; ANTONYMS: (v) come, arrive, wax,
valuable, honorable, estimable, (adj) furthest, utter, last, stay
reputable farthermost, furthermost, ultimate, vanished: (adj, v) extinct, lost; (adj)
unwrought: (adj) unfashioned, most. ANTONYM: (adj) moderate disappeared, departed, missing,
unformed, unhewn, raw, crude, vacillation: (n) indecision, died out, absent, dead, wiped out,
unpolished, unlabored, bald, bare, irresolution, hesitancy, fluctuation, bygone; (v) exhausted.
 326 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
ANTONYMS: (adj) found, living (n, v) avenge, resentment. uncomplicated
vapory: (adj) ethereal, foggy ANTONYMS: (n) forgiveness, vibration: (n) tremor, shudder,
variance: (n) disagreement, acceptance quiver, beat, pulse, oscillation,
difference, dissension, division, venus: (adj) the Graces; (n) Urania, shiver, pulsation, trembling,
divergence, deviation, narcissus, terrestrial planet, Adonis, undulation, movement.
misunderstanding, discord, peri, solar system, Hyperion, houri, ANTONYM: (n) stillness
diversity, dissimilarity, dissonance. Hebe, genus Venus vicinity: (n) region, district,
ANTONYMS: (n) invariability, verbatim: (adv) literally, word for proximity, place, neighbourhood,
consistency, concurrence, concord word, literatim, verbally, to the locality, environs, vicinage, area,
variously: (adv) differently, letter; (adj) exact, direct, verbal, propinquity, nearness
multifariously, sundrily, variedly, verbatim et literatim, not vielle: (n) clavier, dulcimer, eolian
severally, assortedly, dissimilarly, alternating; (adj, adv) directly. harp, pianino, virginals
numerously, versatilely, diversly, ANTONYMS: (adj) imprecise, broad vigilance: (n) caution, alertness,
variegatedly verbose: (adj) wordy, prolix, tedious, prudence, attention, watchfulness,
varnished: (adj) sullied, polished, redundant, talkative, garrulous, surveillance, jealousy, vigil, watch,
spotted, shiny, lustrous, smooth, windy, lengthy, diffuse, copious, circumspection; (adj) vigilant.
painted, besmirched, glossy, tainted, loquacious. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) carelessness,
flyblown. ANTONYM: (adj) dull concise, straightforward, succinct, indiscretion, negligence,
vassal: (n) feudatory, liegeman, liege, brisk, taciturn inattentiveness, recklessness
serf, helot, dependent, subject, liege verdant: (adj) lush, leafy, flourishing, vigor: (n, v) energy; (adj, n) intensity;
subject, follower, bondman, fresh, raw, verdurous, blooming, (n) spirit, vitality, force, life,
homager immature, inexperienced, emerald, strength, power, might, vim,
vastness: (n) enormity, immensity, young. ANTONYMS: (adj) dying, stamina. ANTONYMS: (n)
immenseness, enormousness, urban, withering weakness, apathy, frailty, laziness,
grandeur, size, hugeness, bigness, verdure: (adj, n) greenness; (n) enervation, inactivity, indifference,
extent, magnificence, grandness. greenery, foliage, verdancy, viridity, illness, lifelessness, sluggishness,
ANTONYM: (n) closeness green, leafage, flora, freshness, tardiness
vault: (n, v) leap, bound, spring, strength, vegetable kingdom vile: (adj, n) contemptible, dirty, low;
jump, arch, hop, hurdle; (n) grave, verging: (adj) marginal, adjoining (adj, v) base; (adj) despicable,
tomb, cellar, crypt verified: (adj) substantiated, ignoble, evil, sorry, revolting,
vaulted: (adj) domed, hollow, confirmed, hard, proven, offensive, nasty. ANTONYMS: (adj)
hooked, testudinated, rounded, demonstrated, authoritative, actual, attractive, kind, nice, lovely, lovable,
arcuated, in the form of an arch, established. ANTONYM: (adj) gentle, honorable, good, delightful,
curved, concave, roofed unproven admirable, noble
veal: (n) calf, venison, veau, animal veritable: (adj, v) real, true, actual, villain: (n) rascal, scoundrel, rogue,
protein, beef, calves' feet, chicken, very; (adj) genuine, authentic, bona knave, miscreant, criminal, bandit,
ham, lamb, meat, mutton fide, unquestionable, factual, crook, reprobate, varlet, rapscallion.
vehement: (adj) fierce, intense, truthful, right. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (n) heroine, hero
violent, strong, furious, passionate, false, unreal villainous: (adj, v) base, infamous,
ferocious, eager, hot, fervent, fervid. vertically: (adv) uprightly, erectly, vile, black, shameful; (adj) heinous,
ANTONYMS: (adj) impassionate, straightly, upright, standingly, atrocious, depraved, wicked, evil,
indifferent, mild, calm normally, sheerly, steeply; (adj) vicious
veil: (n, v) cover, hide, disguise, crosswise villanous: (adj) vile
mask, cloud, shroud, camouflage; vestibule: (n) lobby, hall, foyer, violating: (adj) illegal
(v) cloak, conceal; (n) curtain, blind. antechamber, entrance hall, hallway, violation: (n) infraction, breach,
ANTONYMS: (v) disclose, unveil, entry, porch, passage, anteroom, infringement, trespass, assault,
expose threshold outrage, invasion; (adj, n, v) abuse;
veiled: (adj) hidden, unseen, covert, veto: (n, v) ban, negative, bar; (v) (n, v) crime, offense; (adj, n)
secret, masked, disguised, obscure, disallow, forbid, proscribe, reject, defilement. ANTONYMS: (n)
cryptic, covered, indistinct, oblique. blackball, interdict; (n) prohibition, obedience, observance, consecration,
ANTONYMS: (adj) overt, open, rejection. ANTONYMS: (v) permit, respect
unveiled, blatant authorize, ratify, allow, accept; (n) violently: (adj, adv) vehemently,
venerable: (adj) ancient, reverend, approval, permission, ratification; hotly, madly, ardently; (adv) wildly,
estimable, August, respectable, (n, v) sanction passionately, strongly, hard,
aged, distinguished, sacred, worthy, vexation: (adj, n) annoyance, furiously, turbulently; (adv, n)
of long standing, revered. nuisance; (n) irritation, worry, vigorously. ANTONYMS: (adv)
ANTONYMS: (adj) unworthy, aggravation, displeasure, chagrin, gently, nonviolently, feebly,
unimpressive, undignified, chafe, anger, frustration, botheration impassively, peacefully, tamely
disreputable vexed: (adj) troubled, irritated, angry, violet: (adj, n) mauve, lavender; (adj)
vengeance: (n) retribution, reprisal, pestered, peeved, harassed, sore, empurpled, lilac, purplish; (n) viola,
retaliation, requital, avengement, harried, uneasy, cross, offended. purpleness, indigo, sweet violet,
wrath, vendetta, spite, revengeance; ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, reddish blue, pansy
 Edgar Allan Poe 327
virtu: (n) connoisseurship, allow; (adj) full, occupied, filled, ANTONYM: (adj) resident
perceptiveness, taste, quality, objet meaningful, solid; (n) fullness wasteful: (adj) improvident, profuse,
d'art, appreciation, artistic quality, volition: (n, v) will, testament; (n) prodigal, lavish, profligate, ruinous,
discernment choice, option, selection, uneconomical, spendthrift, thriftless,
virtues: (n) brawn, sinew, qualities, determination, conation, preference, destructive, uneconomic.
nerve, manner, habit, disposition, velleity, free will; (v) purpose ANTONYMS: (adj) economical,
custom voluble: (adj) loquacious, glib, cautious, parsimonious, efficient,
virtuous: (adj) upright, pure, talkative, garrulous, eloquent, frugal, productive, sensible
righteous, good, moral, just, flowing, chatty, conversational, wearied: (adj) jaded, tired, spent,
honorable, honest, respectable, articulate, flippant, wordy. fatigued, weary, prostrate, limp,
decent, pious. ANTONYMS: (adj) ANTONYMS: (adj) taciturn, haggard, shattered, worn, fatigate
bad, sinful, corrupt, impure, uncommunicative, gentle, reticent weary: (adj, n, v) fatigue; (v) exhaust,
unethical, decadent, degenerate, voluptuous: (adj) luscious, tire out; (adj) tired, exhausted,
irreverent voluptuary, sensual, carnal, fatigued, aweary, beat, languid; (n,
visage: (n) face, look, mug, sybaritic, epicurean, buxom, sexy, v) jade, bore. ANTONYMS: (adj)
physiognomy, expression, kisser, sensuous, lascivious, erotic. energetic, fresh, lively, untiring,
appearance, aspect, brow, smiler, ANTONYM: (adj) underdeveloped hopeful, refreshed; (v) refresh,
forehead vortex: (n) swirl, convolution, whirl, enliven, energize, activate, rally
viscera: (n) innards, intestines, maelstrom; (n, v) whirlpool; (v) weasel: (n) muishond, informer,
bowels, guts, insides, womb, undercurrent, storm, heavy sea, whittret, vare, troublemaker,
internal organs, gut; (adj, n) the ground swell, reflux, indraught shorttail weasel; (v) equivocate,
bowels; (adj) internal, inward vowel: (n) ablaut, consonant, evade, hedge, pussyfoot, dodge
visibly: (adv) apparently, noticeably, diphthong, gradation, stem vowel, weighing: (n) deliberation,
manifestly, obviously, plainly, letter of the alphabet, schwa, shwa; consideration, think, advisement,
perceptibly, appreciably, clearly, (adj) vocal prayer, oral, sonant speculation, quantify, weigh,
discernibly, overtly, conspicuously. voyage: (n, v) travel, cruise, tour; (n) unhurriedness, study, slowness,
ANTONYMS: (adv) imperceptibly, trip, passage, expedition, flight, ponderation
invisibly, secretly, ambiguously crossing, quest; (v) sail, navigate well-dressed: (adj) handsome
visitation: (v) visit, examination; (n) vulgar: (adj) rude, coarse, plebeian, well-informed: (adj) educated,
tribulation, calamity, annoyance, nasty, common, foul, indecent, conversant, knowing, wise,
misfortune, irritation, infliction, gross, unrefined; (adj, n) low, vile. intelligent, studious, versed
inspection, test, ordeal ANTONYMS: (adj) refined, well-regulated: (adj) methodical,
vista: (n) outlook, panorama, horizon, sophisticated, tasteful, polite, conformable
aspect, scene, landscape, scenery, aesthetic, muted, fashionable, well-to-do: (adj) rich, well-off,
picture, alley; (adj, n) view, decent, artistic, pleasant, clean affluent, opulent, prosperous,
perspective vulgarly: (adv) crudely, commonly, moneyed, substantial, comfortable,
vitally: (adv) necessarily, plebeianly, grossly, smuttily, easy, fortunate
significantly, basically, crucially, uncouthly, boorishly, cheaply, wharf: (n) quay, harbor, port, pier,
fundamentally, principally, rudely, vilely, tastelessly. waterfront, jetty, nailery, bindery,
decisively, materially, importantly, ANTONYM: (adv) decently beehive, basin; (n, v) berth
vivaciously, primarily. wags: (adv) as the world goes whereabouts: (adv, n) whereabout;
ANTONYMS: (adv) insignificantly, waistcoat: (n) CHUDDER, barbe, (n) place, site, position, seat,
superficially garment, jerkin, jubbah, oilskins, location, venue, station, address,
vituperative: (adj, v) reproachful; (v) pilot jacket, pajamas, cardigan, situation, actions
objurgatory, condemnatory, singlet, talma jacket wherein: (adv) in what, in which,
clamorous, denunciatory, wakeful: (adj) vigilant, sleepless, where
damnatory, disparaging; (adj) awake, observant, restless, light, whereupon: (adv) thereupon,
scurrilous, scathing, defamatory, wary, psychologically light, hereupon, upon which, at what, at
libelous. ANTONYM: (adj) loving lightheaded, tripping; (v) wistful. which
vivacity: (adj, n) life, liveliness; (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) unaware, asleep, wherewith: (adv) therewith, herewith
energy, vitality, enthusiasm, dash, inattentive, relaxed whim: (n, v) fancy, vagary, humor,
spirit, vigor, happiness, sparkle, wand: (n, v) stick, rod; (n) scepter, freak; (n) notion, impulse, fad,
effervescence. ANTONYMS: (n) verge, mace, pole, baton, sceptre, mood, whimsy, thought, idea.
apathy, dullness, sluggishness fasces, rod of empire; (v) staff ANTONYMS: (n) plan, reality,
vociferate: (v) cry, roar, bawl, wanderer: (n) vagabond, roamer, aversion
exclaim, yell, shout out, call, holler, tramp, nomad, drifter, traveler, whims: (n) vagaries, freaks, humor,
outcry, scream, utter wayfarer, stranger, hobo, traveller; ill humor, mood, facetiousness,
void: (adj, n) hollow, null, blank; (n) (n, v) rambler caprices, disposition, temper
emptiness, vacancy; (adj, v) vacant; wandering: (adj) itinerant, nomadic, whimsical: (adj, n) fanciful, eccentric;
(v) nullify, quash, rescind; (adj) erratic, rambling, errant, migratory; (adj) capricious, freakish, humorous,
invalid, vacuous. ANTONYMS: (v) (adj, v) stray, vagrant, vagabond, changeable, fickle, erratic, wayward,
validate, sanction, permit, keep, unsettled; (n) peregrination. odd, arbitrary. ANTONYMS: (adj)
 328 Collected Works of Poe, Volume IV
reasonable, behaving, normal, meandering, twisty, wandering; practice, tradition, cleanliness,
serious, predictable (adj, n) twisting, twisted. assuetude, assuefaction, convention,
whip: (n, v) lash, strap, goad; (v) flog, ANTONYMS: (adj) direct, unbent rut; (v) practise
flagellate, beat, punish, thrash, windward: (adv) downwind; (n) woodwork: (n) woodworking,
trounce, stir, wallop. ANTONYMS: weatherboard, to windward, joinery, cabinetwork, millwork,
(v) lose, return weather side, direction; (adj) cabinetmaking, work, trade, craft,
whipped: (v) whipt tempestuous, flatulent, empty, airy, wainscot, skirting board, lining
whirl: (n, v) spin, turn, eddy, roll, windy, boisterous woollen: (n) wool, cloth, fabric,
wheel, twist, swirl; (v) reel, gyrate; winged: (adj) swift, rapid, speedy, fleece, tweed; (adj) woolly
(n) go, fling quick, flying, alate, sublime, lofty, wording: (n) phraseology, phrasing,
whirligig: (n) roundabout, carousel, alated, aligerous, composed language, verbiage, expression,
carrousel, teetotum, screw, spinning wink: (n, v) twinkle, blink, flash; (n) choice of words, style, text,
top, circle, windmill, top side, instant, twinkling, trice; (v) sparkle, formulation, verbalization, textbook
elevation; (adj, n) rotary nictitate, flicker, nictate, leer workmanship: (n) craft, handicraft,
whirling: (adj) rotary, revolving, winking: (n) twinkling, wink, blink, craftsmanship, skill,
dizzy, giddy, lightheaded, rotating, New York minute, jiffy, instant, accomplishment, performance,
vortical; (n) rotation, gyration, nictation, nictitation, trice, blink of acquirement, priestcraft, trade,
revolution; (adj, n) swirling an eye; (adj) pink ribbons artistry; (v) handiwork
whirlwind: (n) tornado, hurricane, wires: (n) chains, rigging, ropes, worldly: (adj, adv) earthly; (adj)
twister, gale, tempest, cyclone, dealings mundane, secular, terrestrial,
typhoon, waterspout, windstorm, wiseacre: (n) witling, fool, tomfool, temporal, carnal, sophisticated, lay,
flurry, dust devil idiot, weisenheimer, smart aleck, profane; (adv) mundanely,
whiskers: (n) fuzz, goatee, hair, upstart, whippersnapper, temporally. ANTONYMS: (adj)
imperial, face fungus, beaver, wisenheimer, wiseling, simpleton spiritual, naive, cloistered, religious,
mustache, moustache, sideburns, withering: (adj) devastating, unsophisticated, unworldly,
facial hair, sideboards extortionate, grinding; (v) dry, unrefined, otherworldly, low,
whisper: (n, v) murmur, hum, sarcastic, sharp, severe, satirical, heavenly, immaterial
mumble, suggestion, hint, inkling; sardonic, cutting; (n) shrinkage. worm: (v) squirm, wriggle, twist,
(v) breathe, hiss; (n) rustle, trace, ANTONYM: (adj) hopeful spiral, helix, writhe; (n) helminth,
breath. ANTONYM: (n) information withhold: (v) reserve, keep, suppress, maggot; (adj) emmet, midge, fly
whist: (adj) quiet, noiseless; (n) long deny, retain, hold, detain, restrain, worshipped: (adj) adored, idolized,
whist, short whist, whisk, tut, tush, abstain, check; (adj, v) stint. venerable
dummy whist, cards, card game; (v) ANTONYMS: (v) transmit, release, worsted: (adj) disappointed; (n)
shut up show, lavish, add fabric, knitting worsted, cloth
whistle: (v) sing, twitter, hiss, warble, withholding: (n) detention, worthless: (adj, v) futile, vain; (adj)
tweet, cheep, chirp, wheeze; (n, v) reservation, withholding tax, vile, idle, empty, trifling, void,
cry; (n) whistling, tin whistle confinement, custody, deduction, trivial, cheap, miserable, null.
whistling: (n) whistle, sound, tin deprivation, estrangement, holding, ANTONYMS: (adj) precious, useful,
whistle, music, pennywhistle, sign, keeping, maintenance. ANTONYM: worthwhile, priceless, meaningful,
signal, signaling (n) release helpful, invaluable, deserving, valid,
whither: (adv) hither, thither, wits: (n) intellect, mind, wit, brains, worthy, substantial
whereunto, whereto, for common sense, presence, wrath: (n) rage, resentment, ire, fury,
whiting: (n) Merlangus Merlangus, percipience, observation, mother displeasure, indignation, passion,
Gadus Merlangus, kingfish, wit, right mind, judgment madness, choler, irritation; (adj)
whitening, kingfishes, corbina, witticism: (n) humor, jest, wit, gag, angry. ANTONYMS: (n) happiness,
gadoid fish, hake, king whiting, repartee, humour, pun, quip, crack, love, composure, serenity
percoid fish, sciaenid pleasantry, epigram wreck: (n, v) smash, shipwreck,
wholesome: (adj) healthy, beneficial, wonderfully: (adv) superbly, wrack; (v) damage, spoil, demolish,
salubrious, healthful, salutary, astonishingly, terrifically, destroy, devastate; (n) crash, ruins,
sound, good, nutritious, nourishing, magnificently, fantastically, destruction. ANTONYMS: (v) build,
pure, hale. ANTONYMS: (adj) marvellously, wondrously, preserve, create, repair, assist; (n)
unwholesome, unhealthy, impure, amazingly, excellently; (adj, adv) creation
indecent, sordid, warped, tainted, strangely, famously. ANTONYMS: wrenched: (adj) strained, weakened
decadent, deadly, unsavory (adv) awfully, unpleasantly, poorly, wretch: (n) victim, villain, scoundrel,
wilderness: (adj, n, v) desert; (adj, n) abysmally, unremarkably, mildly, reprobate, reptile, miscreant, martyr,
wild; (n) wasteland, solitude, horribly, badly, incompetently object of compassion, poor devil,
badlands, wildness, frontier, wonderment: (n) wonder, prey, wreak
boondocks, backwoods; (adj) admiration, amazement, wretched: (adj) unfortunate, pitiful,
Sahara; (v) squandering. astonishment, surprise, awe, sad, pitiable, woeful, pathetic,
ANTONYM: (n) metropolis bewilderment, marvel, curiosity, piteous, lamentable; (adj, v) poor,
winding: (n) twist, wind, turn; (adj) annus Mirabilis, esteem unhappy, forlorn. ANTONYMS:
indirect, crooked, circuitous, wont: (adj, n) use, custom, usage; (n) (adj) fine, strong, fortunate,
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overjoyed, nice, admirable, good,
cheery, joyous, lucky, comfortable
wretchedness: (n) unhappiness, grief,
distress, desolation, woe, sorrow,
anguish, infelicity, tribulation,
affliction, misfortune
wriggling: (adj) squirming, writhing,
twisting, wiggly, wriggle, moving,
flexible, frisky, pliant, wriggly,
winding
wrought: (adj) shaped, done, worked,
worked up, formed
wyatt: (n) James Wyatt, Wyat, sir
Thomas Wyatt
yankee: (n) American, Canadian,
northerner, Caledonian, Irishman,
Canuck, Cambrian, Scot, Scotchman,
Uncle Sam; (v) Jew
yelled: (adj) loud
yelling: (adj) crying, howling,
fantastic, noisy, marvelous,
marvellous, instant, insistent, rank;
(n) screaming, noise
yielded: (v) yold, yolden
yielding: (adj, v) flexible, pliable,
supple, tractable, pliant; (adj)
compliant, submissive, soft,
obedient, docile; (n) submission.
ANTONYMS: (adj) hard, firm,
inflexible, solid, rigid, obstinate,
stiff, stubborn, unyielding,
rebellious
yonder: (adv) beyond, further,
farther, abroad, thither, further
away, at that place; (adj) distant,
yond, furious, fierce
zaire: (n) Congo, French Congo,
Belgian Congo, Republic of the
Congo, English breakfast tea,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
congou tea, congou, Congo river
zephyr: (n) wind, air, breath, gentle
wind, whiff, puff, gentle breeze,
aviation; (v) Boreas, Eolus, cave of
Eolus
zest: (n) gusto, taste, savor, flavor,
enthusiasm, piquancy, energy,
enjoyment, tang, appetite; (n, v)
spice. ANTONYMS: (n) lethargy,
blandness, dullness, indifference
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