Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry), “Dedication and Preface to the Poems,” The Works of Edgar Allan PoeVol. X: Poems (1895), 10:1-4


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[page 1:]

I

POEMS

[page 3:]

TO THE NOBLEST OF HER SEX

TO THE AUTHOR OF

“THE DRAMA OF EXILE”

TO MISS ELIZABETH BARRETT BARRETT

OF ENGLAND

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME

WITH THE MOST ENTHUSIASTIC ADMIRATION

AND WITH THE MOST SINCERE ESTEEM.

E. A. P.

[page 4:]

PREFACE TO THE COLLECTION OF 1845

THESE trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a view to their redemption from the many improvements to which they have been subjected while going “the rounds of the press.” I am naturally anxious that, what I have written should circulate as I wrote it, if it circulate at all. In defence of my own taste, nevertheless, it is incumbent on me to say that I think nothing in this volume of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself. Events not to be controlled have prevented me from making, at any time, any serious effort in what, under happier circumstances, would have been the field of my choice. 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.

E. A. P.

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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[S:1 - SW94, 1895] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - General Dedication and Preface (ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, 1895)