Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-02
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
ELEONOnAs
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE.

CEdgar Allan Poe, lsos-is4s. was ar
EThe Raven. THE Gold Bug THE Pur:
Aoined Letter" 1.-THE FAN Of the House o.
Usher" etc.)
ara come Of a race noted for vigol
bf fancy and ardor of passion. Men
have called me mad, but the question Is
not yet settled whether madness is OF
Is not the loftiest intelligence, whether
much that is glorious, whether all tina;
is profound, does not spring from dis
ease of thought, from moods of mind
exalted at the expense of the general
intellect. They who dream by day are
aware of many things which escape
those who dream only by night.
We will say, then, that am mad:
tinct conditions of my mental existence
She whom I loved in youth, and OF
whom now calmly and distinctly pen
these remembranceS, was the sole
daughter of the only sister of my
mother long departed. Eleonora was the
name of my cousin. We had always
dwelt together, beneath tropical sun,
In the Valley Of the Many-colored
Grass.
No unguided footstep ever came upon
Chat vale, for 1t lay far away up among
b range Of giant hills that hung betting
about 1t, shutting out the sunlight from
its sweet recesses. No path was trodden
in its vicinity, and to reach our happy
home there was need of putting back
with force the foliage of many thou
sands of forest trees and of crushing to
death the glorieS of many millions of
fragrant flowers. Thus it was that we
lived all alone, knowing nothing of the
world outside the Valley. and my
cousin and her mother.
Hand in hand about this valley, for
Is years, I roamed with Eleonora before
love entered within our hearts. It was
one evening at the close of the third
lustrum of her life, and Of the fourth of
my own, that we sat locked in each
others embrace, beneath the serpent
like trees, and looked down within the
waters Of the river at our images there
In. We spoke no words during the rest
pf that sweet day, and our words even
upon the morrow were tremulous and
few.
We had discovered love, and we felt
that he had enkindled within US the
fiery souls Of our forefathers. The pas
6ions which had for centuries distin-
guished our race came thronging with
the fancieS for which they had been
equally noted, and together breathed
o delirious bliss over the Valley of the
Many-colored Grass.
A change fell upon all things
Strange, brilliant flowers, star-Shaped
burst upon the trees where no flowers
had been known before. The tints OF
the green carpet deepened. and when
one by one, the white daisies shrank
eway, there sprang up in place of them
10 by 10 Of the ruby-red asphodel. And
life IN he fHnA fo1
a1amingo, hitherto unseen, with all gay
glowing birds, Haunted his scarlet plum.
hge before us.
The loneliness Of Eleonora was that
Of the angels, but she was q maiden
hrtless and innocent as the brief life
she had led among the flowers. Nc
guile disguised the fervor Of love which
animated her heart, and she examined
with me its inmost recesses IS we walk.
I'd together In that valley.
At length, having spoken one day, II
tears, Of the last sad change which mus
befall humanity, she thenceforwart
dwelt only upon this one Sorrowfu
theme, Intervening 1t into all our con
verse, as, in the songs Of the bard o.
Schiraz, the same images are found oc
curing again and again.
She had seen that the finger Of dealt
was upon her bosom-that she had beef
made perfect in loneliness only to die
She grieved to think that, having en-
tombed her in the Valley of the Many
Colored Grass, would quit forever Il
happy recesseS, transferring the Low
which now was so passionately her oWl
to some maiden Of the outer and every
day world.
Then and there threw myself hur
riedly at the feet of Eleonora, and Of
fered up VOW to herself and !