Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Edgar Allan Poe

1. “All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”
2. ”All my days are trances, and all my nightly dreams.”
3. “And neither the angels in Heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the Beautiful Annabel Lee.”
4. “At midnight, in the month of June,
I stand beneath the mystic moon.
An opiate vapour, dewy, dim,
Exhales from out her golden rim,
And, softly dripping, drop by drop,
Upon the quiet mountain top,
Steals drowsily and musically
Into the universal valley.”
5. “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”
6. ”Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.”
7. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
8. “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
9. “If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.”
10. “If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.”
11. “I have great faith in fools, self-confidence my friends call it.”
12. "It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream."
13. “It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma... which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.”
14. “I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.”
15. “Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.”
16. “Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.”
17. “Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.”
18. “Take this kiss upon the brow! / And, in parting from you now, / Thus much let me avow- / You are not wrong, who deem / That my days have been a dream; / Yet if hope has flown away / In a night, or in a day, / In a vision, or in none, / Is it therefore the less gone? / All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream./
I stand amid the roar / Of a surf-tormented shore, / And I hold within my hand / Grains of the golden sand- / How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep, / While I weep- while I weep! / O God! can I not grasp / Them with a tighter clasp? / O God! can I not save / One from the pitiless wave? / Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?”
19. “Thank Heaven! the crisis -- The danger, is past, and the lingering illness, is over at last --, and the fever called "Living" is conquered at last.”
20. “That holy dream--that hold dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.”
21. "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night"
22. “We loved with a love that was more than love.”
23. “With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.”
24. “Yes, I now feel that it was then on that evening of sweet dreams- that the very first dawn of human love burst upon the icy night of my spirit. Since that period I have never seen nor heard your name without a shiver half of delight, half of anxiety. For years your name never passed my lips, while my soul drank in, with a delirious thirst, all that was uttered in my presence respecting you.”