A fool, for example, thinks Shakespeare a great poet . . . yet the fool has never read Shakespeare. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
A poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
Boston: Their hotels are bad. Their pumpkin pies are delicious. Their poetry is not so good. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
The generous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire, And taught the world with reason to admire. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
Let us dismiss, as irrelevant to the poem per se, the circumstance ... which, in the first place, gave rise to the… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“The esteemed Reverend Rufus Griswold is everything I aspire to be, though I fear I shall never soar so quite as high… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music, without the idea, is simply music; the idea, without the music, is… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but i feel… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
He must be theory-mad beyond redemption who ... shall ... persist in attempting to reconcile the obstinate oils and waters of Poetry and Truth. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
As a poet and as a mathematician, he would reason well; as a mere mathematician, he could not have reasoned at all,… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
A poem in my opinion, is opposed to a work of science by having for its immediate object, pleasure, not truth. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
The word "Verse" is used here as the term most convenient for expressing, and without pedantry, all that is involved in the… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life, As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife Of semblance with reality, which brings To the… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“Not altogether a fool," said G., "but then he's a poet, which I take to be only one remove from a fool."… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“I have not always been as now: The fever'd diadem on my brow I claim'd and won unsurprisingly- Hath not the same… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is taste. With the… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“And here, in thought, to thee- In thought that can alone, Ascend thy empire and so be A partner of thy throne,… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
The Merchant, to Secure His Treasure The merchant, to secure his treasure, Conveys it in a borrowed name: Euphelia serves to grace… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“ The Lake In spring of youth it was my lot To haunt of the wide world a spot The which I… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“From childhood's hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“Shadows of Shadows passing... It is now 1831... and as always, I am absorbed with a delicate thought. It is how poetry… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“Twas noontide of summer, And mid-time of night; And stars, in their orbits, Shone pale, thro' the light Of the brighter, cold… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“I Dwelt alone In a world of moan, And my soul was a stagnant tide, Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
I hold that a long poem does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, "a long poem," is simply a flat contradiction… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
As a poet and as a mathematician, he would reason well; as a mere mathematician, he could not have reasoned at all. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were—I have not seen As others saw—I could not bring My passions from a common… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night. — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish experiment—that of looking down within the tarn—had been to deepen the first singular… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
And all my days are trances, And all my nightly dreams Are where thy dark eye glances, And where thy footstep gleams-- In what… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“Other friends have flown before — On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.” Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.” — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
“To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors ... on account of the hideousness of mysteries which will not suffer… — Edgar Allan Poe Copy Share Image
