Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. J. H. Whitty), “Dedication and Preface to the Poems,” The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911, pp. 3-5


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[page 3:]

DEDICATION TO THE EDITION

OF 1845

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 5:]

PREFACE TO THE POEMS

EDITION 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.

NOTE. — In the J. Lorimer Graham copy, Poe struck out in the third line after going “at random.” He also transposed the sentence, “If what I have written is to circulate at all, I am naturally anxious that it should circulate as I wrote it,” to read as above. The word “upon” in the seventh line was changed to “on”; a comma after “say” was erased, and a comma inserted after “excited.”

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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[S:0 - JHW11, 1911] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Dedication and Preface (ed. J. H. Whitty, 1911)