The Haunted Palace

Using carefully crafted tone, figurative language, setting, and theme, Poe weaves a story of the destruction of a beautiful palace and its transformation into a haunted one, all the while presenting an allegory for damage wrought by mental and physical illness.

In the first stanza, Poe evokes a happy, peaceful tone, describing the setting as the “greenest of our valleys” (Line 1). The setting and imagery conjure a mood of serenity and joy. When Poe begins describing who lives in the palace, he uses figurative language and imagery to suggest that the palace is a symbol of something more complex. In Line 4, the palace is personified when the speaker says it “reared its head.” This image connects the palace with the human head. In Line 5, the king of the palace is named “Thought.” These two lines imply that the palace is meant to symbolize a human head: Just as a king controls his kingdom, the mind is responsible for all of the actions a person takes because it is through thought that people have reason and make decisions.