The poem recited by Roderick Usher in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is “The Haunted Palace.”
Poe first published “The Haunted Palace” as a separate 48-line poem in April 1839. He later incorporated it into the 1839 short story as a song performed by Roderick Usher, whose failing mental state mirrors the poem’s imagery of a once-glorious palace overtaken by evil.
The poem’s palace can be read both literally and psychologically. Its threatened halls suggest the decaying Usher family home, while Poe explained that the verses were meant to evoke a mind haunted by phantoms. The song therefore foreshadows the story’s collapse without being a separate work written by the fictional Usher.
Readers often confuse it with “The Raven,” “Lenore,” or “Annabel Lee,” all associated with Poe. “The Raven” is a separate 1845 narrative poem, while “Annabel Lee” and “Lenore” do not appear as the song Roderick performs in this story.