Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The Tell-Tale Heart

Hey guys! Today was just a normal boring day in skool....but in gym we played soccer, & we kicked major buttox against the other team, but I got a bad injury cause the ball got ramed into my ankle, and now it's all swolen & I can barely walk...-_-' just my luck...and I also got the words for Edgar Allan Poe's, The Tell-Tale Heart. It's awesome. So I got all of the words just for you guys! Yay! claps for me!! lol Here it is:
The Tell-Tale Heart
by Edgar Allan Poe

True!-nervous-very, very dreadfuly 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. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily- how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once concieved, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. 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. 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 for ever.
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But yuo should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded- with what never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it- oh, so gently! And then, when I 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. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust in! I moved it slowly- very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the openeing so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha!- would a madman have been so wise as this? And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously- oh, so cautiously- cautiously (for the hinges creaked)- I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights- every night just at midnight- but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelvem I looked in upon him while he slept.
Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night I felt the extent of my own powers- of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps he heard me; for he moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled, Now you may think that I drew back- but no. His room was as pblack as pitch with the thick darkness (for the shutters were closed fastened, through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.
I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fasteningm and the old man sprang up in the bed, crying out- "Who's there?"
I kept quite still and still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, an in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed listening;- just as I have done, night after night, hearking to the death watched in the wall.
Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief- oh, no!- it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosoom, deepening with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had neem saying to himself- "It is nothing but the wind in the chimney- it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or "it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp." Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these supposeitions; but he had found all in vain. All in vain; because Death, in approaching him, had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unpreceived cadow that caused him to feel, although he neither saw nor heard- to fel the presense of my head within the room.
When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little- a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it- you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily- unti, a single dim ray, like the thread of a spider, shot from out the crevice and full upon the vulture eye.
It was open- wide, wide open- and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness- all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.
And now have I told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?- now, I say, there cam to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cottom. I knew that sound welll too. It was the beating of the old man's heart, It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.
But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eys. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder, and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment!- do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me- the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once- once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffiled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes, There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.
If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cutt off the head and the arms and the legs.
I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scatlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye- not even his could have detected any thing wrong. There was nothing to wash out- no stain of any kind- no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all-ha! ha!
When I had made an end of these labors, it was cour o' clock- still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart,- for what had I now to hear? There entered three men, who inroduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they ( the officers) had been deputed to search the premises.
I smiled,- for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search- search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.
The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. The sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct:- it continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness- until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears.
No doubt I now grew very pale;- but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased- and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound- much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly- more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with a violent gesticulations, but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to & fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men- but the noise steadily increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed- I raved- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the borads, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder- louder-louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!- no, no! They heard!- they suspected!- they knew!- they were making a mockery of my horror!- this I thought, and this I think. But any thing was better than this agony! Any thing was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear the hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!- and now- again!- hark! louder! louder! louder!-
"Villians!" I shrieked," dissemble no more! I admit the deed!- tear up the planks!- here, here!- it is the beating of his hidious heart!"

Okay well what did you think? good, huh? It took me almost two hours to copy this all down- word for word- so you better comment! lol jk
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