"Masque of the Red Death"

(Poe, Paragraph 14, Lines 5 & 6)
"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
     This sentence helped me understand the story because it shows me that death will never go away, and no one can help it. No matter who/what you are.

(Poe, Paragraph 5, Lines 1-11)
" It was in this apartment, also. that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and their was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation."
     This sentence was important because it showed what the clock was representing, and what the people thought of whenever remembered of the clock.