How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #7
I feel as I have never felt before, although I have been all my life a dealer in antiquities, and have imbibed the shadows of fallen columns at Balbec, and Tadmor, and Persepolis, until my very soul has become a ruin. (22)
The ancient ruins and fallen pillars symbolize long-dead civilizations, and the narrator draws comparisons to them by suggesting that his soul is no different.
Quote #8
We are whirling dizzily, in immense concentric circles, round and round the borders of a gigantic amphitheatre, the summit of whose walls is lost in the darkness and the distance. (27)
If the whirlpool represents death, then Poe keeps whatever comes after it a mystery. The center of the whirlpool is lost in blackness and while the narrator may find out what lies beyond it, we never do. But that's just how it goes, we guess.