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Edgar Allan PoeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The form of the poem is six stanzas, each eight lines long (called octaves), with a rhyme scheme that is loosely ABABCDCD in each stanza, meaning that there is a rhythmic, sing-song quality that suits its use as a ballad in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Poe does not uniformly use this rhyme scheme throughout the poem, as the first four lines of the first stanza are unrhymed. Poe also uses slant rhymes, such as “dallied” and “pallid” in Lines 13 and 15 and “river” and “forever” in Lines 45 and 47.
The meter of the poem is loosely trochaic tetrameter. Tetrameter means that many lines have four pairs of syllables, for a total of eight syllables, and many of the pairs of syllables are stressed on the first beat and unstressed on the second beat: For instance, in the first line, “In the | greenest | of our | valleys,” the first beat is stressed in each pair of syllables. Poe breaks the metrical pattern at key moments with especially short lines to draw attention to these lines, such as “It stood there!” (Line 6) and “Through the pale door” (Line 46).
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Berenice
Berenice
Edgar Allan Poe
Hop-Frog
Hop-Frog
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe
Tamerlane
Tamerlane
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Conqueror Worm
The Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold Bug
The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe
The Imp of the Perverse
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
The Lake
The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe
The Man of the Crowd
The Man of the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe
The Philosophy of Composition
The Philosophy of Composition
Edgar Allan Poe