"The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones...."See in text(Text of the Poem)
The unnerving stillness of the scene is disrupted when the buildings seem to sink and “settle” downward. The waves glow redder and hell rises up to meet the condemned city, presumably to honor its wickedness. Due to this, Poe’s poem possibly implies that humans are innately evil, given that all people—“the good and the bad and the worst and the best”—end up in a city that sinks into hell, suggesting that how people live their lives does not matter since hell is unavoidable.
