Runic: secret, mysterious.

11. Why does Poe use this peculiar word? Compare its use with that of
"euphony," 1. 26, "jangling," 1. 62, "moLotone" 1. 8'3.

26. euphony: the quality of having a pleasant sound.

72. monody: a musical composition in which some one voice-part
predominates.

88. Ghouls: imaginary evil beings of the East who rob graves.

ELDORADO

6. Eldorado: any region where wealth may be obtained is abundance;
hence, figuratively, the source of any abundance, as here.

21. "Valley of the Shadow" suggests death and is a fitting close to
Poe's poetic work.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)

"His verse blooms like a flower, night and day;
Bees cluster round his rhymes; and twitterings
Of lark and swallow, in an endless May,
Are mingling with the tender songs he sings.
Nor shall he cease to sing--in every lay
Of Nature's voice he sings--and will alway."

--JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.

Born in Portland, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and
went abroad to prepare himself to teach the modern languages. He taught
until 1854, when he became a professional author. During the remaining
years of his fife he lived quietly at Craigie House in Cambridge and
there he died.

The poems by Longfellow are used by permission of, and by special
arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his
works.

HYMN To THE NIGHT

"Night, thrice welcome."
"Night, undesired by Troy, but to the Greeks
Thrice welcome for its interposing gloom."

-COWPER, TRANS. OF ILIAD VIII, 488.

21. Orestes-like. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra,
avenged the death of his father by killing his mother. The Furies chased
him for many years through the world until at last he found pardon and
peace. The story is told in several Greek plays, but perhaps best in
AEschylus' "Libation Pourers" and "Furies"

A PSALM of LIFE

"I kept it," he said, "some time in manuscript, unwilling to show it to
any one, it being a voice from my inmost heart."

7. "Dust thou art": quoted from Genesis 3:19, "Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return."

10. Pope in Epistle IV of his "Essay on Man" says: "0 happiness! our
being's end and aim." How does Longfellow differ with him?

THE SKELETON IN ARMOR

The Skeleton in Armor. "The following Ballad was suggested to me whil