Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly-very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it-oh, so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded-with what caution-with what foresight-with what dissimulation I went to work! Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold and so by degrees-very gradually-I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. It is impossible to tell how first the idea entered my brain but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the whole story. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.
Above all was the sense of hearing acute. This is a carefully constructed world, a miniature word puzzle where each piece reflects an angle of the narrator's chaotic mind.TRUE!-NERVOUS-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them. The long sentence gives us a precise description, while the short ones leave us grasping for meaning. (6) Notice how the longer sentence is actually less ambiguous and frustrating than the very short ones. So I opened it – you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily – until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye. (1)Ī web of complications is spun from just thirteen words. Within the ten-paragraph frame of "A Tell-Tale Heart" we see many groups of short sentences, like this:
Stylistically, Poe can be quite maddening, even as we marvel at the precision and at the tightly packed, exquisitely worded, yet curiously rough sentences-each open to hours of debate.
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