BEST ENGLISH STORIES

Listen to "The Landlady", a short horror story by Roald Dahl. It's a horror story with gradually building tension, leading to a shocking conclusion. The story was first published in The New Yorker magazine in 1959, and has since appeared in many anthologies of Dahl’s stories.

Listen to “Lenore”, a haunting poem in which Edgar Allan Poe speaks on themes of mourning and loss. He explores true sorrow and what it looks like. It was first published in 1831 under the title ‘A Paean.’ It was at that time an eleven quatrain poem that was told from the perspective of a bereaved husband mourning the death of his wife. It was not until the re-publication in February of 1843 that the name “Lenore” was included in the text. The poem depicts the death of a beautiful young woman. It contains a dialogue between an opinionated mourner and the would-be-husband of the young, lost bride, Lenore. Summary: The poem begins with a mourner asking Guy De Vere, the intended husband of the dead Lenore, why he isn’t weeping. This person does not understand, asking if De Vere has seen Lenore’s dead body and really understood she is not coming back. De Vere reacts violently to the assertion that he doesn’t care. He calls the mourners “Wretches” who did not really care for Lenore. The mourner tries to soothe De Vere by explaining they have all sinned but that doesn’t mean he should get so upset. It is time, the mourner states, for the songs to be sung and for Lenore’s “dead eyes” to be recognized. The poem concludes with De Vere stating that he will not mourn for his lost bride because she has escaped from the “damnéd” earth to sit alongside God. Structure: The poem has four stanzas, alternating between the poet/narrator and the voice of Guy de Vere. In the first stanza, the narrator mourns that the young woman has died so young and calls for an anthem or dirge to be sung on such a tragic occasion. He also questions why the bereaved fiancee is not crying as befits the death of his young love. The second stanza is de Vere's answer. He accuses the assembled mourners of pretending to love the young girl simply for her wealth when they actually hated her. In fact, he suggests that their hatred may have brought on her early death. The narrator returns in the third stanza to again focus on the proper way to mark the occasion. All should sing a Sabbath song and remember that the dead go before us into heaven and will be waiting there to welcome us. Finally, in the last stanza, de Vere claims that he will not mourn but is so confident of being reunited in the afterlife that he sees only triumph in death. The poem: Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever! Let the bell toll!--a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river; And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear?--weep now or never more! See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore! Come! let the burial rite be read--the funeral song be sung!-- An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young-- A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young. "Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride, "And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her--that she died! "How shall the ritual, then, be read?--the requiem how be sung "By you--by yours, the evil eye,--by yours, the slanderous tongue "That did to death the innocent that died, and died so young?" Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel so wrong! The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride-- For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies, The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes-- The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes. "Avaunt! avaunt! from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven— From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven— From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven! Let no bell toll, then, lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth, Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damnèd Earth! And I!—to-night my heart is light!—no dirge will I upraise, But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!"

Listen to “Annabel Lee”, a Gothic romance created by Edgar Allan Poe as his way to preserve love lost after death. The poem combines the macabre with the supernatural while still remaining relatable to those who share the experience of heartache and loss. Poe manages to create a poem that is both haunting in context and beautifully woeful, conjuring a feeling that resembles painful nostalgia in remembering that which is gone. The poem was published in the New York Tribune in 1849 just two days after Poe’s death. The poem was considered to be the last complete poem before his death in 1849. The poem has sparked debates as to whom Poe is referring to in the poem. And, based on his life history, many believe that there is evidence suggesting that it was written in the memory of his wife Virginia. “Annabel Lee” tells the story of a love of two people. Both were so in love with each other it caused the heavens themselves to become envious and punished the lovers with death. However, the poem shows that even if the lovers are separated their love will never die. The poem is structured in six stanzas each with a different number of lines. Each stanza has a slightly different rhyming pattern as well. Throughout the poem there are repeated uses of the words “sea, Annabel Lee, and me.” The poem centers around a story of a girl named Annabel Lee and her relationship to the narrator. The poem tells of how they both lived in “a kingdom by the sea.” The narrator explains that both have loved each other since they were children. However, it quickly changes when the narrator explains that the angels in heaven were envious of their love and they sent those who were related to her to take her away. The poem continues by stating that they took her away and put her in a cave by the sea and later killed her. The speaker goes on to say that even though she is dead their souls will always be connected. The poem then concludes with the narrator going to her and laying down next to her.