You fancy me mad.
Madmen know nothing.
But you should have seen me.
You should have seen how wisely I proceeded,
With what caution.
With what foresight.
Every night, about midnight,
I turned the latch of his door |
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And opened it--oh, so gently!
And then,
When I had made an opening sufficient
for my head,
I put in a dark lantern, |
All closed so that no light shone
out,
And then I thrust in my head.
How cunningly
I thrust it in!
I moved it slowly--very, very slowly,
So that I might not disturb the old man's sleep.
It took me an hour. |
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Ha! Would a madman
have been so wise as this?
And then
I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture
eye. |
This I did for seven
long nights,
Every night just at midnight,
But I found the eye always closed;
And so it was impossible to do the work
For it was not the old man who vexed me,
But his evil eye. |
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This excerpt comes from Brod Bagert's book Poetry
for Young People; Edgar Allan Poe. This book is part of the Poetry for
Young People series that pairs classic poems with excellent illustrations, comments,
and explanations. Mr. Bagert edited the book while it was illustrated by Carolynn
Cobleigh.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The
Tell-Tale Heart." Poetry for Young People; Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Brod Bagert.
New York, 1995. 42. |
Click on
the hand to return to the lesson. |
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