THE SPHINX (1846)

In this trifle Poe returns to the image of the "death's head moth" that he'd used in THE GOLD BUG. An overly nervous and superstitious narrator, while staying in the company of a more level-headed, logical friend, imagines that he sees a huge monster. Eventually the friend explains how the narrator perceived this illusion, which came from viewing an ordinary moth with the death's-head image.