Quote#Poetry
With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the…
Quote byEdgar Allan Poe · 1809–1849
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Raven and Other Poems (1845), Preface.
English (original)
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
More from Edgar Allan Poe
A dark unfathom'd tide Of interminable pride — A mystery, and a dream, Should my early life seem.
O, human love! thou spirit given, On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!
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 —
Come! let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung! — An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young — A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.
If I could dwell Where Israfel Hath dwelt, and he where I, He might not sing so wildly well A mortal melody, While a bolder note than this might swell
The happiest day — the happiest hour My sear'd and blighted heart hath known, The highest hope of pride and power, I feel hath flown.