The Haunted Palace

Poe's 1839 poem describes a palace of luminous beauty whose radiant halls are filled with music and a monarch ruling in perfect happiness, and charts the descent of that palace into ruin. The final stanzas, describing what the palace has become, are among the most efficient images of psychological decay in American poetry: the windows where once happy faces moved now show laughing, but mirthless, forms. The poem appeared within The Fall of the House of Usher as Roderick's own composition.

Lissa Lia and K. Anderson Yancy's dual reading gives the poem a theatrical quality that suits its paired-stanza structure, the contrast between the palace's former glory and its present ruin rendered more vivid by the vocal shift. The short runtime makes this an ideal standalone listen, or a companion piece to any recording of The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe's verse rewards being heard rather than read: the rhythms and internal rhymes were designed for the ear.