Unit 2: Vocabulary from Readings 1

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.

It was not a groan of pain or of grief—oh, no!—it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe.

But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall.

If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.

In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.

My mother’s face, usually sternly set, changed with the varying nuances of her emotion, its planes shifting, shaped by the soft highlights of the sanctuary, as she progressed from a subdued “amen” to a loud “Help me, Jesus” wrung from the depths of her gaunt frame.

My mother’s face, usually sternly set, changed with the varying nuances of her emotion, its planes shifting, shaped by the soft highlights of the sanctuary, as she progressed from a subdued “amen” to a loud “Help me, Jesus” wrung from the depths of her gaunt frame.

We sought education feverishly—and, for most of us, futilely, for the sum total of our combined energies was required for mere brute survival.

On graduation night our cabin (less crowded now) was a frantic collage of frayed nerves.

Joining the throngs of people that saunter Lenox Avenue late afternoons, I headed for Charley’s apartment.