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Silence: A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain. Silence Dot, a fable Edgar
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  Speaker 1: Allan Poe. The mountain, pinnacles, slumber, valleys, crags and caves
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  Speaker 1: are silent. Listen to me, said the damon, as he
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  Speaker 1: placed his hand upon my head. The region of which
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  Speaker 1: I speak is a dreary region in Libya, by the
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  Speaker 1: borders of the rivers Air, and there is no quiet there,
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  Speaker 1: nor silence. The waters of the river have a saffron
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  Speaker 1: and sickly hue, and they flow not onwards to the sea,
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  Speaker 1: but palpitate forever and forever beneath the red eye of
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  Speaker 1: the sun, with a tumultuous and convulsive motion. For many miles.
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  Speaker 1: On either side of the river's Zuzi bed is a
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  Speaker 1: pale desert of gigantic water lilies. They sigh one unto
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  Speaker 1: the other in that solitude, and stretch towards the heaven
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  Speaker 1: their long and ghastly necks, and nod to and fro
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  Speaker 1: their everlasting heads. And there is an indistinct murmur which
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  Speaker 1: cometh out from among them, like the rushing subterene water.
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  Speaker 1: And they sigh one unto the other. But there is
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  Speaker 1: a boundary to their realm, the boundary of the dark, horrible,
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  Speaker 1: lofty forest. There, like the waves about the hebrides, the
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  Speaker 1: low underwood is agitated continually. But there is no wind
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  Speaker 1: throughout the heaven. And the tall primeval trees rock eternally
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  Speaker 1: hither and thither with a crashing and mighty sound, and
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  Speaker 1: from their high summits, one by one drop everlasting dews,
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  Speaker 1: and that the roots strange poisonous flowers lie writhing in
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  Speaker 1: perturbed slumber. And overhead, with a rustling and loud noise,
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  Speaker 1: the gray clouds rush westwardly forever until they roll a
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  Speaker 1: cataract over the fiery wall of the horizon. But there
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  Speaker 1: is no wind throughout the heaven, and by the shores
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  Speaker 1: of the river Zair, there is neither quiet nor silence.
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  Speaker 1: It was night, and the rain fell, and falling it
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  Speaker 1: was rain, but having fallen it was blood. And I
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  Speaker 1: stood in the morass among the tall and the rain
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  Speaker 1: fell upon my head, and the lilies side one unto
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  Speaker 1: the other, in the solemnity of their desolation, and all
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  Speaker 1: at once the moon arose through the thin, ghastly mist
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  Speaker 1: and was crimson in color, and mine eyes fell upon
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  Speaker 1: a huge gray rock, which stood by the shore of
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  Speaker 1: the river, and was lighted by the light of the moon.
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  Speaker 1: And the rock was gray and ghastly and tall, and
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  Speaker 1: the rock was gray. Upon its front were characters and
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  Speaker 1: raven in the stone. And I walked through the morass
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  Speaker 1: of water lilies until I came close on to the shore,
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  Speaker 1: that I might read the characters upon the stone. But
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  Speaker 1: I could not decipher them. And I was going back
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  Speaker 1: into the morass when the moon shone with a fuller red,
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  Speaker 1: and I turned and looked again upon the rock and
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  Speaker 1: upon the characters, and the characters were desolation. And I
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  Speaker 1: looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit
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  Speaker 1: of the rock. And I hid myself among the water lilies,
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  Speaker 1: that I might discover the actions of the man. And
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  Speaker 1: the man was tall and stately in form and was
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  Speaker 1: wrapped up from his shoulders to his feet in the
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  Speaker 1: toga of old Rome. And the outlines of his figure
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  Speaker 1: were indistinct, But his features were the features of a deity.
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  Speaker 1: For the mantle of the night, and of the mist,
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  Speaker 1: and of the moon, and of the dew had left
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  Speaker 1: uncovered the features of his face, and his brow was
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  Speaker 1: lofty with thought, and his eye wild with care, and
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  Speaker 1: in the few furrows upon his cheek, I read the
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  Speaker 1: fables of sorrow and weariness, and disgusted with mankind, and
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  Speaker 1: a longing after solitude. And the man sat upon the
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  Speaker 1: rock and leaned his head upon his hand, and looked
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  Speaker 1: out upon the desolation. He looked down into the low,
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  Speaker 1: unquiet shrubbery, and up into the tall primeval trees, and
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  Speaker 1: up higher at the rustling heaven, and into the crimson moon.
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  Speaker 1: And I lay close within shelter of the lilies and
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  Speaker 1: observed the actions of the man. And the man trembled
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  Speaker 1: in the solitude. But the night waned, and he sat
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  Speaker 1: upon the rock. And the man turned his attention from
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  Speaker 1: the heaven and looked out upon the dreary rivers I ear,
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  Speaker 1: and upon the yellow, ghastly waters, and upon the pale
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  Speaker 1: legions of the water lilies. And the man listened to
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  Speaker 1: the size of the water lilies, and to the murmur
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  Speaker 1: that came up from among them. And I lay close
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  Speaker 1: within my covert and observed the actions of the man.
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  Speaker 1: And the man trembled in the solitude. But the night waned,
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  Speaker 1: and he sat upon the rock. Then I went down
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  Speaker 1: into the recesses of the morass, and waded afar in
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  Speaker 1: among the wilderness of the lilies, and called unto the hippopotami,
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  Speaker 1: which dwelt among the fens in the recesses of the morass.
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  Speaker 1: And the hippopotami heard my call and came with the
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  Speaker 1: behemoth unto the foot of the rock, and roared loudly
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  Speaker 1: and fearfully beneath the moon. And I lay close within
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  Speaker 1: my covert and observed the actions of the man. And
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  Speaker 1: the man trembled in the solitude, but the night waned,
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  Speaker 1: and he sat upon the rock. Then I cursed the
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  Speaker 1: elements with the curse of tumult, and a frightful tempest
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  Speaker 1: gathered in the heaven, where before there had been no wind.
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  Speaker 1: And the heaven became livid with the violence of the tempest,
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  Speaker 1: and the rain beat upon the head of the man,
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  Speaker 1: and the floods of the river came down, and the
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  Speaker 1: river was tormented into foam, and the water lily shrieked
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  Speaker 1: within their beds, and the forest crumbled before the wind,
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  Speaker 1: and the thunder rolled, and the lightning fell, and the
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  Speaker 1: rock rocked to its foundation. And I lay close within
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  Speaker 1: my covert and observed the actions of the man and
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  Speaker 1: the man trembled in the solitude, but the night waned,
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  Speaker 1: and he sat upon the rock. Then I grew angry
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  Speaker 1: and cursed with the curse of silence the river and
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  Speaker 1: the lilies, and the wind and the forest, and the heaven,
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  Speaker 1: and the thunder and the sighs of the water lilies.
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  Speaker 1: And they became a cursed and were still. And the
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  Speaker 1: moon ceased to totter up its pathway to heaven, and the
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  Speaker 1: thunder died away, and the lightning did not flash, and
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  Speaker 1: the clouds hung motionless, and the waters sunk to their
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  Speaker 1: level and remained, and the trees ceased to rock, and
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  Speaker 1: the water lily sighed nome, and the murmur was heard
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  Speaker 1: no longer from among them, nor any shadow of sound
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  Speaker 1: throughout the vast illimitable desert. And I looked upon the
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  Speaker 1: characters of the rock, and they were changed, and the
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  Speaker 1: characters were silence. And mine eyes fell upon the countenance
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  Speaker 1: of the man, and his countenance was wan with terror.
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  Speaker 1: And hurriedly he raised his head from his hand and
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  Speaker 1: stood forth upon the rock and listened. But there was
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  Speaker 1: no voice throughout the vast illimitable desert, and the characters
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  Speaker 1: upon the rock were silence, and the man shuddered and
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  Speaker 1: turned his face away, and fled afar off in haste,
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  Speaker 1: so that I beheld him no more. Now there are
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  Speaker 1: fine tales in the volumes of the Magi, in the
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  Speaker 1: iron bound, melancholy volumes of the Magi. Therein, I say,
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  Speaker 1: are glorious histories of the heaven and of the Earth,
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  Speaker 1: and of the mighty sea, and of the Genii that
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  Speaker 1: overruled the sea and the earth and the lofty heaven.
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  Speaker 1: There was much lore too in the same which were
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  Speaker 1: said by the sybils, and holy holy things were heard
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  Speaker 1: of old by the dim leaves that trembled around Dodona.
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  Speaker 1: But as all aliveth that fable which the Damon told
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  Speaker 1: me as he sat by my side in the shadow
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  Speaker 1: of the tomb, I hold to be the most wonderful
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  Speaker 1: of all. And as the Daemon made an end of
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  Speaker 1: his story, he fell back within the cavity of the
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  Speaker 1: tomb and laughed. And I could not laugh with the Damon,
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  Speaker 1: And he cursed me because I could not laugh. And
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  Speaker 1: the lynx which dwelleth forever in the tomb, came out
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  Speaker 1: therefrom and lay down at the feet of the demon,
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  Speaker 1: and looked at him steadily in the face