The Passion of Edgar Poe

"His definition of poetry as "the rhythmical creation of beauty"
emphasizes his hunger and thirst for a loveliness
beyond that of this earth."
-Professor Harry Gilbert Paul

Almost a smile, albeit melancholy?
Or the sneer of a seasoned cynic?
Edgar Allan Poe
January 19, 1809-October 7, 1849

Mid-19th century American poet

Romance, who loves to nod and sing,

With drowsy head and folded wing,

Among the green leaves as they shake

Far down within some shadowy lake,

To me a painted paroquet

Hath been-a most familiar bird-

Taught me my alphabet to say-

To lisp my very earliest word

While in the wild wood I did lie,

A child-with a most knowing eye.

Of late, eternal Condor years

So shake the very Heaven on high

With tumult as they thunder by

I have no time for idle cares

Through gazing on the unquiet sky.

And when an hour with calmer wings

Its down upon my spirit flings-

That little time with lyre and rhyme

To while away-forbidden things!

My heart would feel to be a crime

Unless it trembled with the strings.

"Romance"

Edgar Allan Poe

* Poe first published this poem in the 1829 volume of

his verse and greatly enlarged it two years later.

Afterward he restored it to nearly it's original form.

The first stanza offers an interesting picture of Poe's

life of dreams, while the second early emphasizes his

statement that with him poetry was a passion.

*Excerpt from the Golden Key Series

 "Poe's Poems and Tales"

Edited by Harry Gilbert Paul

Associate Professor of English

University of Illinois

Copyright 1918

D.C. Heath and Co.

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