“And thus when by Poetry, or when by Music, the most entrancing of the poetic moods, we find ourselves melted into tears, we weep then, not... through excess of pleasure, but through a certain petulant, impatient sorrow at our inability to grasp now, wholly, here on earth, at once and forever, those divine and raptorous joys of which through the poem, or through the music, we attain to but brief and indeterminate glimpses.”

American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. He is best known for his poetry and short stories, especially his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure in American Romanticism and Gothic fiction, and as an important voice in early American literature. His work is most closely associated with suspense, darkness, and the unsettling edge of the imagination.