Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. John H. Ingram), “Author's Preface to the Poems,” The Works of Edgar Allan PoeVol. III: Poems & Essays (1875), 3:vii


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[page vii, unnumbered:]

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE POEMS.

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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 at randomthe 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 upon 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:

In the Poe's original, this text is not set in italics. The use of italics is entirely a choice of the editor or publisher of the Ingram edition.

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[S:0 - JHI, 1875] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Author's Preface to the Poems (J. H. Ingram, 1875)