Question

Which parts of this excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" bring out a gloomy and oppressive mood?

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible . . .

Answer 1

Almost the entire paragraph brings out a gloomy, oppressive mood. The usage of words like "dull, dark, and soundless day", "the clouds hung oppressively", a sense of insufferable gloom", and the sternest natural images of the desolate and terrible..." help you visualize how the House of Usher looks, and later on the description of the inside of the house, backs up the mood.

Answer 2

 "dull, dark, and soundless day," "when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens," "a singularly dreary tract of country," "the melancholy House of Usher," and "a sense of insufferable gloom." Poe uses words such as dull, dark, dreary, melancholy, and insufferable to show the feeling