(MC)Read the sentence below and answer the following question: . . . and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening dr
ew 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. —Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher" In the bolded section, what is the benefit of using "I know not…" instead of "I don't know" or another more concise syntax? It emphasizes the means of travel. It establishes an earlier time period. It puts more emphasis on the positive. It suggests an uneducated narrator.
The use of the phrase "I know not" instead of "I don't know" emphasizes the fact that the story is set in a past period of history, and not in modern times. This is clarified in various ways in the excerpt. The author also uses phrases such as "the shades of evening," which give the setting a feeling of the past, as well as an indication of the speaker's character and education.
