Edgar Allan Poe

Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! — prophet still, if bird or devil!

— Edgar Allan Poe

Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sittingOn the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floorShall be lifted — nevermore!

— Edgar Allan Poe

The skies they were ashen and sober;Of my most immemorial year.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Here once, through an alley Titanic,Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,And tempted her out of her gloom.

— Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,Than to love and be loved by me.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I was a child and she was a child, Coveted her and me.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music, without the idea, is simply music; the idea, without the music, is prose, from its very definitiveness.

— Edgar Allan Poe

But our love it was stronger by far than the loveOf the beautiful Annabel Lee

— Edgar Allan Poe

In her sepulcher there by the sea — In her tomb by the sounding sea.

— Edgar Allan Poe

A poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul.

— Edgar Allan Poe

There neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified — more supremely noble than this very poem — this poem per se — this poem which is a poem and nothing more — this poem written solely for the poem's sake.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is taste. With the intellect or with the conscience, it has only collateral relations. Unless incidentally, it has no concern whatever either with duty or with truth.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

— Edgar Allan Poe

To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

— Edgar Allan Poe

Blood was its Avatar and its seal.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Thy soul shall find itself alone

— Edgar Allan Poe

I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.

— Edgar Allan Poe

We loved with a love that was more than love.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And here, in thought, to thee-

— Edgar Allan Poe

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

— Edgar Allan Poe

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

— Edgar Allan Poe

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I saw thee once - only once - years ago:

— Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been

— Edgar Allan Poe

A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no words written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design. And by such means, with such care and skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction. The idea of the tale has been presented unblemished because undisturbed: and this is an end unattainable by the novel. Undue brevity is just as exceptionable here as in the poem; but undue length is yet more to be avoided.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

— Edgar Allan Poe

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

It was many and many a year ago,

— Edgar Allan Poe

The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

— Edgar Allan Poe

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I Dwelt alone

— Edgar Allan Poe

Even in the grave, all is not lost.

— Edgar Allan Poe

You call it hope — that fire of fire!

— Edgar Allan Poe

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

— Edgar Allan Poe

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

— Edgar Allan Poe

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Other friends have flown before -

— Edgar Allan Poe

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

— Edgar Allan Poe

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

— Edgar Allan Poe

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

— Edgar Allan Poe

A dark unfathom'd tide Should my early life seem.

— Edgar Allan Poe

O, human love! thou spirit given,On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!

— Edgar Allan Poe

Lord help my poor soul.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The happiest day — the happiest hourI feel hath flown.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Years of love have been forgotIn the hatred of a minute.

— Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not beenAnd all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —

— Edgar Allan Poe

And the cloud that took the formOf a demon in my view.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

— Edgar Allan Poe

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.

— Edgar Allan Poe

It is with literature as with law or empire — an established name is an estate in tenure, or a throne in possession.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music without the idea is simply music; the idea without the music is prose from its very definitiveness.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Yes, Heaven is thine; but thisOur flowers are merely—flowers.

— Edgar Allan Poe

If I could dwellFrom my lyre within the sky.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Come! let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung! — A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Vastness! and Age! and Memories of Eld!I feel ye now — I feel ye in your strength.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Thou wast that all to me, love,And all the flowers were mine.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And all my days are trances,By what eternal streams.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And as, in ethics, Evil is a consequence of Good, so, in fact, out of Joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are, have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.

— Edgar Allan Poe

There is then no analogy whatever between the operations of the Chess-Player, and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage, and if we choose to call the former a pure machine we must be prepared to admit that it is, beyond all comparison, the most wonderful of the inventions of mankind.

— Edgar Allan Poe

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

— Edgar Allan Poe

In the greenest of our valleysRadiant palace — reared its head.

— Edgar Allan Poe

While, like a ghastly rapid river,And laugh — but smile no more.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Few persons can be made to believe that it is not quite an easy thing to invent a method of secret writing which shall baffle investigation. Yet it may be roundly asserted that human ingenuity cannot concoct a cipher which human ingenuity cannot resolve.

— Edgar Allan Poe

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Had the routine of our life at this place been known to the world, we should have been regarded as madmen —; although, perhaps, as madmen of a harmless nature.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.

— Edgar Allan Poe

To observe attentively is to remember distinctly.

— Edgar Allan Poe

While the angels, all pallid and wan,And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!

— Edgar Allan Poe

Man is an animal that diddles, and there is no animal that diddles but man.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

— Edgar Allan Poe

By a route obscure and lonely,Out of SPACE — out of TIME.

— Edgar Allan Poe

With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not — they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Thou wouldst be loved? — then let thy heartAnd love — a simple duty.

— Edgar Allan Poe

For the love of God Montresor!

— Edgar Allan Poe

Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The object, Truth, or the satisfaction of the intellect, and the object, Passion, or the excitement of the heart, are, although attainable, to a certain extent, in poetry, far more readily attainable in prose.

— Edgar Allan Poe

To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Can it be fancied that Deity ever vindictivelyMade in his image a mannikin merely to madden it?

— Edgar Allan Poe

Depend upon it, after all, Thomas, Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no seducing me from the path.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

— Edgar Allan Poe

Gaily bedight,In search of Eldorado.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Over the Mountains"If you seek for Eldorado!

— Edgar Allan Poe

Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.

— Edgar Allan Poe

You are not wrong, who deemIs but a dream within a dream.

— Edgar Allan Poe

O God! Can I not saveBut a dream within a dream?

— Edgar Allan Poe

Thank Heaven! the crisis —Is conquered at last.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Keeping time, time, time,Bells, bells, bells.

— Edgar Allan Poe

As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester — and this is my last jest.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I attacked with great resolution the editorial matter, and, reading it from beginning to end without understanding a syllable, conceived the possibility of its being Chinese, and so re-read it from the end to the beginning, but with no more satisfactory result.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Lo! Death has reared himself a throneHave gone to their eternal rest.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!

— Edgar Allan Poe

So blend the turrets and shadows thereDeath looks gigantically down.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And when, amid no earthly moans,Shall do it reverence.

— Edgar Allan Poe

TRUE! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?

— Edgar Allan Poe

Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture — a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees — very gradually — I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? -- now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

— Edgar Allan Poe

If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.'

— Edgar Allan Poe

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!

— Edgar Allan Poe

For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not — and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul.

— Edgar Allan Poe

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence.

— Edgar Allan Poe

The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates — the darkest and most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind; while, from the sudden, frequent, and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself, my uncomplaining wife, alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I have no words — alas! — to tell

— Edgar Allan Poe

It is impossible to describe, or to imagine, the deep, the blissful sense of relief which the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom. It did not make its appearance during the night — and thus for one night at least, since its introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquilly slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul!

— Edgar Allan Poe

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

— Edgar Allan Poe

I

— Edgar Allan Poe

After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

— Edgar Allan Poe

A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this — that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made, not to understand, but to feel, as crime.

— Edgar Allan Poe

If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize at one effort the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment, the opportunity is his own — the road to immortal renown lies straight, open, and unencumbered before him. All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple — a few plain words — "My Heart Laid Bare." But — this little book must be true to its title.

— Edgar Allan Poe

How many good books suffer neglect through the inefficiency of their beginnings!

— Edgar Allan Poe

In reading some books we occupy ourselves chiefly with the thoughts of the author; in perusing others, exclusively with our own.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term "Art," I should call it "the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul." The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of "Artist".

— Edgar Allan Poe

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

— Edgar Allan Poe

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

— Edgar Allan Poe

I have great faith in fools — self-confidence my friends will call it.

— Edgar Allan Poe

That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

— Edgar Allan Poe

True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Sorrow for the lost Lenore — Nameless here for evermore.

— Edgar Allan Poe

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtainThrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing,Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Twas noontide of summer,

— Edgar Allan Poe

I have been happy, though in a dream.

— Edgar Allan Poe

Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore —Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore.

— Edgar Allan Poe

"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore.

— Edgar Allan Poe