The usual grounds are a great way lower down to the southward. wordlist | What does the maelstrom represent? If you have never been at sea in a heavy gale, you can form no idea of the confusion of mind occasioned by the wind and spray together. Even while I gazed, this current acquired a monstrous velocity. I saw our exact position in an instant. The sailor of A Descent is similar to both these characters, and so, before his descent, he seems [column 2:] unaware that as the storys epigraphical quotation from I now tell it toyou and I can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry fishermen of Lofoden., Filed Under: The Poe Museum Blog Tagged With: Poe's Works. descent meaning: 1. the state or fact of being related to a particular person or group of people who lived in the. They say too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed. We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the Strm was in full fury! This was most unusual something that had never happened to us before and I began to feel a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. This is a well-known story by Poe. I could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties we encountered on the grounds it is a bad spot to be in, even in good weather but we made shift always to run the gauntlet of the Moskoe-strm itself without accident; although at times my heart has been in my mouth when we happened to be a minuteor so behind or before the slack. Read 202 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. I was borne violently into the channel of the Strm, and in a few minutes was hurried down the coast into the grounds of the fishermen. And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the afternoon, there was a gentle and steady breeze from the south-west, while the sun shone brightly, so that the oldest seaman among us could not have foreseen what was to follow. It was not going. "We kept the smack in a cove about five miles higher up the coast than this ;and it was our practice, in fine weather, to take advantage of the fifteen minutes' slack to push across the main channel of the Moskoe-strm, far above the pool, and then drop down upon anchorage somewhere near Otterholm, or Sandflesen, where the eddies are not so violent as elsewhere. Which is how I came across. There was another circumstance which tended to restore my self-possession; and this was the cessation of the wind, which could not reach us in our present situation for, as you saw yourself, the belt of surf is considerably lower than the general bed of the ocean, and this latter now towered above us, a high, black, mountainous ridge. contact, The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways ;nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works, which have a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus. The maelstrom, in its supernatural force, is a warning to man that he is helpless in the face of this outer world that can converge upon him at any moment, without warning. About two miles nearer the land, arose another of smaller size, hideously craggy and barren, and encompassed at various intervals by a cluster of dark rocks. See also Trivia | Goofs | Crazy Credits | Alternate Versions | Connections | Soundtracks Did You Know? Each moment added to its speed to its headlong impetuosity. Descent into the Maelstrom and Other Stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Round and round we swept not with any uniform movement but in dizzying swings and jerks, that sent us sometimes only a few hundred yards sometimes nearly the complete circuit of the whirl. We never set out upon this expedition without a steady side wind for going and coming one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return and we seldom made a mis-calculation upon this point. ", home | 3. a passage or stairway leading down. It appeared to grow upon me as I drew nearer and nearer to my dreadful doom. But we were now, in a great measure, rid of these annoyances just us death-condemned felons in prison are allowed petty indulgences, forbidden them while their doom is yet uncertain. The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not asourways; nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works,which have a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus. I must have been delirious -- for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below. descent noun (A WAY DOWN) [ C ] a way down, such as a path, or an act of coming down: A steep descent from the peak brings you to a meadow. The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. See also Trivia|Goofs|Crazy Credits|Alternate Versions|Connections|Soundtracks Getting Started|Contributor Zone After a little while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity about the whirl itself. It had a complete flush deck, with only a small hatch near the bow, and this hatch it had always been our custom to batten down when about to cross the Strm, by way of precaution against the chopping seas. The wind sometimes was not as strong as we thought it at starting, and then we made rather less way than we could wish, while the current rendered the smack unmanageable. She lit up every thing about us with the greatest distinctness but, oh God, what a scene it was to light up! We were now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the whirl; and I thought, of course, that another moment would plunge us into the abyss down which we could only see indistinctly on account of the amazing velocity with which we were borne along. The storm comes Click here for more information I could not help observing, nevertheless, that I had scarcely more difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this situation, than if we had been upon a dead level; and this, I suppose, was owing to the speed at which we revolved. Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water. The ordinary accounts of this vortex had by no means prepared me for what I saw. Rather than one huge whirlpool as described in Poe's story, it is actually a system of whirlpools, currents and cross currents. In this direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed view, from the manner in which the smack hung on the inclined surface of the pool. Now raise yourself up a little higher hold on to the grass if you feel giddy so and look out, beyond the belt of vapor beneath us, into the sea.. The ordinary accounts of this vortex had by no means prepared me for what I saw. The edge of the whirl was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray ;but no particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel, whose interior, as far as the eye could fathom it, was a smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water, inclined to the horizon at an angle of some forty-five degrees, speeding dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion, and sending forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar, such as not even the mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to Heaven. These would have been of great assistance at such times, in using the sweeps, as well as afterward in fishing -- but, somehow, although we ran the risk ourselves, we had not the heart to let the young ones get into the danger -- for, after all is said and done, it was a horrible danger, and that is the truth. When I am reading and a book title is mentioned, I like to check and see if it is a real book. When I find a Poe Im not crazy about, I find my judgement is rather harsh. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. Here the vast bed of the waters, seamed and scarred into a thousand conflicting channels, burst suddenly into phrensied convulsion -- heaving, boiling, hissing -- gyrating in gigantic and innumerable vortices, and all whirling and plunging on to the eastward with a rapidity which water never elsewhere assumes except in precipitous descents. "It could not have been more than two minutes afterward until we suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. Descent TV Movie 2005 PG 1 h 30 m IMDb RATING 3.4 /10 1K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 0:58 1 Video 40 Photos Action Drama Sci-Fi When the Ring of Fire starts heating up with an unprecedented amount of volcanic activity a team of scientists are gathered to prevent a global catastrophe. Inspired by the Moskstraumen, tidal eddies and whirlpools in northern Norway which are real, the story is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb. And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the afternoon, there was a gentle and steady breeze from the south-west, while the sun shone brightly, so that the oldest seaman among us could not have foreseen what was to follow. There was one startling circumstance which went a great way in enforcing these observations, and rendering me anxious to turn them to account, and this was that, at every revolution, we passed something like a barrel, or else the yard or the mast of a vessel, while many of these things, which had been on our level when I first opened my eyes upon the wonders of the whirlpool, were now high up above us, and seemed to have moved but little from their original station. Upon this occasion we should have been driven out to sea in spite of everything, (for the whirlpools threw us round and round so violently, that, at length, we fouled our anchor and dragged it) if it had not been that we drifted into one of the innumerable cross currents -- here to-day and gone to-morrow -- which drove us under the lee of Flimen, where, by good luck, we brought up. The story of how he was caught during a storm in a maelstrom three years earlier with his brothers and how he survived. {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; A Descent into the Maelstrom is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, written in 1841. It was the hour of the slack -- but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane. Director Terry Cunningham Writer Michael Konyves Stars I placed myself as desired, and he proceeded. It's been several years since I read this but I remember it felt flat: Poe simply tells a story and makes no effort to up the terror or to create tension. Overall, I thought this was one of Poe's best stories. "The rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound gulf ;but still I could make out nothing distinctly, on account of a thick mist in which everything there was enveloped, and over which there hung a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and tottering bridge which Mussulmen say is the only pathway between Time and Eternity. This was most unusual -- something that had never happened to us before -- and I began to feel a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. Tim Johnston's newest novel is THE CURRENT (2019, Algonquin). The whole Similarities Between The Black Cat And The Tell Tale Heart The Moskoe-strm whirlpool was about a quarter of a mile dead ahead but no more like the every-day Moskoe-strm, than the whirl as you now see it is like a mill-race. At length, after making several guesses of this nature, and being deceived in all this fact the fact of my invariable miscalculation set me upon a train of reflection that made my limbs again tremble, and my heart beat heavily once more. As it was, I involuntarily closed my eyes in horror. It was mere instinct that prompted me to do this -- which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done -- for I was too much flurried to think. What great skill! I dragged my watch from its fob. Powerful story that makes the whirlpool feel cosmic in its elemental terror. I knew very well that we were doomed, had we been ten times a ninety-gun ship. International delivery varies by country, please see the Wordery store help page for details. When a fishing boat encounters a hurricane it gets thrown off course into the area of the Maelstrom. Even while I gazed, this current acquired a monstrous velocity. I do believe that I blushed with shame when this idea crossed my mind. I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother but, in some manner which I could not understand, the din had so increased that I could not make him hear a single word, although I screamed at the top of my voice in his ear. The lids clenched themselves together as if in a spasm. The first example is that of which explaining the first, high class house when it had began to burn down, as the narrator exclaims, On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. "As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. I'm reading in order so, what the heck! "So it is sometimes termed," said he. I thought at length that he comprehended my design but, whether this was the case or not, he shook his head despairingly, and refused to move from his station by the ring-bolt. By this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself, or perhaps we did not feel it so much, as we scudded before it, but at all events the seas, which at first had been kept down by the wind, and lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains. I have yet to read another writer with the ability to take all my senses into a story and make me live it. At the same moment the roaring noise of the water was completely drowned in a kind of shrill shriek -- such a sound as you might imagine given out by the waste-pipes of many thousand steam-vessels, letting off their steam all together. descent n (physical) descente nf : From the airport, Catherine watched the plane's descent onto the runway. quotes | But for this circumstance we should have foundered at once -- for we lay entirely buried for some moments. I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our company. 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