How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
Just before sinking within the turgid sea its central fires suddenly went out, as if hurriedly extinguished by some unaccountable power. It was a dim, silver-like rim, alone, as it rushed down the unfathomable ocean. (7)
Poe uses the color of the sun—and its sudden change in color—to dramatically alter everything around it. If you think about it, the quality of sunlight has a major effect on the way we see the world. And here, Poe's using that power to change the scenery—and reality—for our poor stranded narrator and the Swede.
Quote #2
At times we gasped for breath at an elevation beyond the Albatross—at times became dizzy with the velocity of our descent into some watery hell, where the air grew stagnant, and no sound disturbed the slumbers of the Kraken. (8)
Are the high waves just exaggerations from the narrator… or has he found some world where waves really do rise that high? Either way, it's clear that reality is a slippery fella in this story. These descriptions simply defy the laws of physics.
Quote #3
Concealment is utter folly on my part, for the people will not see. (14)
Either the crewmen or the narrator perceives things differently here. Are one or the other perhaps on a different plane of reality? If not, then why can they both see the ship and the sea?
Quote #4
There is a peculiar character about the wood which strikes me as rendering it unfit for the purpose to which it has been applied. (17)
Poe implies that the wood has been altered or changed. Could it be that it is not wood from any world that we know of? Is it ancient? Has it time-traveled?
Quote #5
Although the speaker was close at my elbow, yet his voice seemed to reach my ears from the distance of a mile. (21)
Space and sound are distorted here. Considering that they're travelling great distances through the ocean, we might assume that they're traveling much, much farther than any normal voyage… or perhaps that it hasn't moved very far at all and they're in some weird time warp.
Quote #6
Although upreared upon the summit of a wave of more than a hundred times her own altitude, her apparent size still exceeded that of any ship of the line or East Indiaman in existence. (9)
There's a bit of a misdirect here. The narrator's talking about the size of the ship… and yet he also says that the waves are a hundred times taller, which (if the narrator is accurate) couldn't possibly be real.
Quote #7
A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul. (13)
New perceptions and feelings could mean madness as much as a new reality. Or maybe Poe's suggesting that the two are essentially the same.
Quote #8
The colossal waters rear their heads above us like demons of the deep, but like demons confined to simple threats and forbidden to destroy. (20)
Poe lends a sense of conscious purpose to the waves, both on their own and controlled by some implied larger force. In this new version of reality, the waves have thoughts, will, even. We could chalk it up to personification, but we think there's more than that going on here. He's trying to up the ante on the terrifying.