“I no longer hesitated what to do. I resolved to lash myself securely to the water cask upon which I now held, to cut it loose from the counter, and to throw myself with it into the water. I attracted my brother’s attention to signs, pointed to the floating barrels that came near us, and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about to do. I thought at length that he comprehended my design—but, whether this was the case or not, he shook his head despairingly, and refused to move from his station by the ringbolt. It was impossible to reach him; the emergency admitted of no delay; and so, with a bitter struggle, I resigned him to his fate, fastened myself to the cask by means of the lashings which secured it to the counter, and precipitated myself with it into the sea, without another moment’s hesitation.

“The result was precisely what I had hoped it might be. As it is myself who now tells you this tale—as you see that I did escape—and as you are already in possession of the mode in which this escape was effected, and must therefore anticipate all that I have further to say—I will bring my story quickly to conclusion. It might have been an hour, or thereabout, after my quitting the smack, when, having descended to a vast distance beneath me, it made three or four wild gyrations in rapid succession, and, bearing my loved brother with it, plunged headlong, at once and forever, into the chaos of foam below. The barrel to which I was attached sunk very little farther than half the distance between the bottom of the gulf and the spot at which I leaped overboard, before a great change took place in the character of the whirlpool. The slope of the sides of the vast funnel became momently less and less steep. [The gyrations of the whirl] grew, gradually, less and less violent. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the full moon was setting radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the surface of the ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above the spot where the pool of the Moskoe-strom had been. It was the hour of the slack; but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane. I was borne violently into the channel of the strom, and in a few minutes was hurried down the coast into the ‘grounds’ of the fishermen. A boat picked me up—exhausted from fatigue—and (now that the danger was removed) speechless from the memory of its horror. Those who drew me on board were my old mates and daily companions, but they knew me no more than they would have known a traveler from the spirit-land. My hair, which had been raven-black the day before, was as white as you see it now. They say, too, that the whole expression of my countenance had changed. I told them my story—they did not believe it. I now tell it to you—and I can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry fishermen of Lofoden.”

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biography. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was the greatest poet and short story writer the South has produced. His parents belonged by profession to the stage; his mother was English and his father American by birth. Born in Boston, he was left an orphan at an early age, and was adopted by a Mr. Allan, a wealthy citizen of Richmond, Virginia. Poe was sent to school in London, and later he attended the University of Virginia, and the military academy at West Point. Mr. Allan lavished money and other inducements upon him in vain efforts to get him to settle down to a permanent profession, but finally abandoned him to his own resources. From that time on, Poe eked out a living by publishing poems and tales, by contributions to newspapers and magazines, and by editorial work. But he was too erratic in his habits to retain long either positions or friends. His writings, like his character, were weird, mysterious, haunted by brooding melancholy. But his poetry is perhaps the most purely musical of any in our language—for Poe believed that poetry should be the language of the feelings rather than of thought, and that it should therefore seek to produce its effects through “harmony of sweet sounds” rather than through the meaning of its lines. His prose tales of mystery and adventure are remarkable for their imaginative and poetic style; they have served as models for many well known writers. Poe was the originator of the modern short story.

Poe’s erratic, troubled life ended at Baltimore, in 1849, in the fortieth year of his age. The pathos of it is well summed up in the inscription on a memorial tablet erected to him in the New York Museum of Art: “He was great in his genius, unhappy in his life, wretched in his death, but in his fame, immortal.”

Discussion. 1. Locate the scene of this story on a map. 2. Read from the dictionary and encyclopedia to learn about whirlpools. 3. What do you learn from Jonas Ramus’s description of the whirlpool? 4. How does the Encyclopedia Britannica account for the vortex? 5. What was the theory of Kircher? 6. How does the hero account for his apparent age? 7. Relate briefly in your own words the hero’s story of his experience in the maelstrom. 8. What tempted him to brave the dangers of the whirlpool? 9. Account for his miscalculation of the time of the slack. 10. What three observations did the hero make while descending into the maelstrom? 11. How did he make his escape? 12. How does Poe try to give an idea of the noise of the whirlpool? 13. How does it differ from Hawthorne’s description of the roar of Niagara? ([See page 466.]) 14. How had the “ordinary accounts of the vortex” prepared Poe to see it? 15. In what were these accounts of the vortex inadequate? 16. Compare this with Hawthorne’s statement concerning what he had read of Niagara. 17. From this story what do you think of Poe’s powers of imagination and description? 18. What other authors have you read that have similar powers? 19. Point out descriptions in this selection that you particularly like. 20. Pronounce the following: ungovernable; maelstrom; vortices; herbage; gauntlet; ague; buoyant.

Phrases