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Edgar Allan Poe: 252 quotes199 likes

“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

Marginalia http://www.easylit.com/poe/comtext/prose/margin.shtml (November 1844)

“I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone —
And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —”

Edgar Allan Poe

" Alone http://gothlupin.tripod.com/valone.html", l. 1-8 (written 1829, published 1875). Context: 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 spring — From the same source I have not taken My sorrow — I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone — And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone

“I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule —
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE — out of TIME.”

Edgar Allan Poe

"Dreamland", st. 1 (1845).
Context: By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule —
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE — out of TIME.

“Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine —”

Edgar Allan Poe book To One in Paradise

"To One in Paradise", st. 1 (1834).
Context: Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine —
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.

“Thy grace, thy more than beauty,
Shall be an endless theme of praise,
And love — a simple duty.”

Edgar Allan Poe

" To Frances S. Osgood http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/595/" (1845). Context: Thou wouldst be loved? — then let thy heart From its present pathway part not! Being everything which now thou art, Be nothing which thou art not. So with the world thy gentle ways, Thy grace, thy more than beauty, Shall be an endless theme of praise, And love — a simple duty.

“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 book Berenice

"Berenice".

“Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.”

Edgar Allan Poe

"To Helen", st. 1-2 (1831).
Context: p>Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.</p

“By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,”

Edgar Allan Poe

“All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”

Edgar Allan Poe

Source: báseň A Dream Within a Dream

“Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart — one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Black Cat

Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgement, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
The Black Cat (1843)

“Years of love have been forgot
In the hatred of a minute.”

Edgar Allan Poe

To M——— (1829), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

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

Edgar Allan Poe Tamerlane

"Tamerlane", l. 177 (1827).

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

Edgar Allan Poe book Hop-Frog

"Hop-Frog" (1850).

“And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted — nevermore!”

Edgar Allan Poe The Raven

Stanza 18.
The Raven (1844)

“One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Black Cat

The Black Cat (1843)

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

Edgar Allan Poe

Marginalia http://www.easylit.com/poe/comtext/prose/margin.shtml (November 1844) Variant: If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

“And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
Context: 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.

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,”

Edgar Allan Poe The Raven

Stanza 1.
The Raven (1844)
Context: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee; —”

Edgar Allan Poe Annabel Lee

St. 1.
Annabel Lee (1849)
Context: It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee; —
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

“I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my Annabel Lee —”

Edgar Allan Poe Annabel Lee

St. 2.
Annabel Lee (1849)
Context: I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my Annabel Lee —
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.