He is, as you say, a remarkable horse, a prodigious horse, although as you very justly observe, a suspicious and untractable character.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the complexity of character and the duality of perception in evaluating someone or something.
In this quote, Edgar Allan Poe highlights the intricate nature of character by presenting a horse that is remarkable and exceptional yet also exhibits suspicious and unmanageable traits. This juxtaposition serves to remind us that appearances can be deceiving, and individuals may possess both admirable qualities and challenging flaws, prompting deeper reflection on how we judge others.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about famous athletes who have both gifted performances and controversial pasts.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
We have been so successful in the past century at the art of living longer and staying alive that we have forgotten how to die. Too often we learn the hard way. As soon as the baby boomers pass pensionable age, their lesson will be harsher still.
Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our antimaterialist, otherworldly, New Age, spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu, and seaweed slime.
We are a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice.
Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.
He whose intellect overcomes his lust is higher than the angels; he whose lust overcomes his intelligence is less than an animal.
Although it is difficult to pinpoint the physical base or location of awareness, it is perhaps the most precious thing concealed within our brains. And it is something that the individual alone can feel and experience. Each of us cherishes it highly, yet it is private.
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