The Haunted Palace

by Edgar Allan Poe

‘The Haunted Palace” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about a once prosperous kingdom which,
like all things in life, was doomed to perish in the cruel hands of time. Appearing in one of
Poe’s other works, namely “The Fall of the House of Usher”, it can certainly be connected to
the slow but certain decay of the Usher family (the term house having two meanings, namely
“family” and “dynasty”, the latter being befitting to this work in particular). Despite this, the
poem itself is so rich in meaning and metaphors that it can absolutely be considered a
masterpiece.

Firstly, this work of art emanates an aura of melancholy for the “olden / Time long ago” of
this “fair and stately palace”, when “banners yellow, glorious, golden, / On its roof did float
and flow”. This palace was mighty and prosperous to the extent of it being protected even by
the heavens and the holy, as seen by the usage of terms such as “angels” and “seraph”. The
scene is set in the throne room of the kingdom, where “spirits” dance around in happiness and
glee to the glorious tune of a lute in front of their ruler. The king is described to have wit and
wisdom, and because the spirits and the echoes try so hard to entertain him, we can take from
this that he was a beloved and successful king.

The scenery surrounding this vast kingdom is very bright and heavenly: this can encapsulate
the image of this kingdom way back then when it actually existed in its glorious past or, in an
artistic way, it could be a current view of the kingdom which is now placed inside of Heaven
itself, after having disappeared from the human, mortal realm, and now lives on with the
help of its legacy being present in the minds of people. The predominance of holiness and
religious scenery and surroundings could also hint to the metaphor of the king also being
born from the holiness of heaven, a gift sent from the Lord to Earth. This idea is accentuated
by the term “porphyrogene”, which means “to be born in the purple”, to be a child born of
prominent or high-ranking parents. Heaven itself is, often times, considered a kingdom in
itself, so a significant number of similarities can be found between the two, knowing this
idea.
The scene it’s set in, the “happy valley”, is a very dream-like location, almost utopian, where
everything has such a feeling of being perfect and magical, further pushing the idea of
nostalgia present throughout the whole poem. It is a place of permanent happiness and
prosperity in the “sweet” days that have long since passed. Chromatic elements that are
present here are “pearl” and “ruby”, both also being gemstones. Combining these with the
presence of the color gold, we can certainly tell that this kingdom had no shortage of value
throughout its reign.

A reoccurring theme in this poem is song and dance, here being noticeably harmonic and
happy, celebrating some sort of occasion or simply taking place to honour their ruler. This
ruler could also be God Himself for these spirits and echoes and the land that they’re situated
in, due to the scenery and how he is described in such a perfect way. They are performing this
act to honour this being for everything it has done for them, for being a good king and
blessing them with his presence.

The luminous window could be a window that oversees a scenery of Heaven, a dream, or it
could be a metaphor for the action of looking back on nostalgic memories. Whichever the
case may be, a window is clear; it shows the truest form of things as they are, but limiting
entry from one side to the other; it is there to merely admire the side opposite to you. This is
what the wanderers do, learning of the celebration happening inside of the kingdom.

This whole event can be a big metaphor for the good things in one’s life. All of the
achievements, all the work done to reach this point, all of it is recognized by heavenly dance
and song. All of the good memories and happenings that form a person, the blissful scene that
everyone longs for, the truest form of happiness is present in these first four stanzas.

The spirits and echoes themselves, later on taking the stance of forms and ghastly beings,
could point to the legend of this once mythic king being passed onto further generations,
living on gloriously through word of mouth as time passes and new generations arise. Human
life is temporary, but the legacy of one’s accomplishments will forever live on in history.
Even in our world, there have been such stories that have gotten this treatment, like
mankind’s oldest story the Epic of Gilgamesh, stories like the Illiad, Beowulf, the Odyssey
and so on.

The wanderers could symbolize random, ordinary people, admiring the king’s reign and the
appreciation his people show for him. They are the people looking inside from outside this
window that separates two entirely different worlds and points of view. They could be
nomads or even historians, looking to pass on good words of this amazing king through
speech or writing.

A general theme present in Edgar Allan Poe’s works is decay, which is also to be observed
here under the guise of the unforgivable passing of time. So far, we could not tell the
connection of the title to the content of the poem, as nothing about this perfect scenery could
possibly convey something haunted. All good things must come to an end though, and so will
this kingdom. The bright, heavenly scenery becomes dark and ghastly; it takes a disturbing
form. The change from the happy and bright feeling of this poem to absolute and utter
destruction is very abrupt, a feeling akin to waking up from a good dream only to face the
brutal and unforgiving reality.

The last three stanzas describe the ruins of the once prosperous kingdom in a very dark and
depressing manner. It starts off by mentioning “evil things, in robes of sorrow”, which signify
the imminent end that haunts everything in existence. They could be a metaphor of the
cruelty of time, or, even more, they could be the sin that brought this dynasty into ruin. They
could be the enemies that brought this king down either by war or other means.

The wanderers of the past have now become travellers. Wanderers have no specific place
they have to go to, they simply “wander”. Travellers are passers-by, people who have a
destination in mind. These travellers see the ghastliness of this ruin and are curious to see
what is left of it, only coming to the realization that this place is thoroughly haunted by
“forms” of the past. These travellers, seeking their destination, could also be a metaphor of
the people of today, making plans for themselves, being too busy to just have time to wander
in places as they please, unlike the past.

These travellers look inside the red-litten window and see the gruesome reality of what has
once been an utopia. The red light could be, most likely, due to evil or fire, mainly the fiery
pits of hell. It makes one wonder: what sin could be so great as to take down a kingdom in
such a way as to invoke such hellish beings and scenery? This king’s legacy is still present in
the current day through the ruins of his kingdom, but is it necessarily a good legacy,
considering the surroundings of it in the current time?

The spirits and echoes present in the dreamy legends of this place have now turned into forms
and ghasts. They have changed, chanting death and sorrow through their discordant melody –
perhaps to mourn the king they once loved and praised and to curse the enemy - or time – for
causing this much destruction to their Heaven, their idea of seemingly permanent perfection.
They mourn for what they once had, like family members mourning the loss of a loved one at
a funeral. The scenery is no longer bright. It is now pale and grim, akin to a graveyard, where
life is lost and there is no such thing as happiness. They laugh, but smile no more – this can
mean they are laughing at how they’ve turned out in the end, losing everything they ever
cared for, a behaviour similar to a coping mechanism. They cannot smile because they cannot
ever go back to dancing and singing for their beloved ruler, as he is now gone.

In the first four stanzas of the poem, everything makes sense, it is very harmonic: firstly, the
echoes and the spirits are mentioned, then the wanderers. In the last three stanzas, however,
this is reversed: first, the travellers are mentioned, then the forms and ghasts. These two
opposing images convey the idea that everything is turned upside down as time relentlessly
annihilates this kingdom and everything its people stood for; it emphasizes and shows the
fragility of life and hope. Nothing is ever permanent, and it shows how important living in the
moment is, as it can all be taken away from us in the blink of an eye. The idea that everything
has changed is further accentuated by the usage of the past tense in the first four stanzas of
this poem, which is changed to the present tense in the last three.

All in all, this work of art is a statement on the fragility of life and it communicates the fact
that we should live in the moment and strive to reach our goals and make various
achievements, because soon we may also perish like this prosperous kingdom has. Even the
most perfect and seemingly untouchable things in existence will certainly meet their end.