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T.S. Eliot once quipped that Edgar Allan Poe "had the mind of a gifted adolescent...before puberty."
So, to be fair, I'm posting a Poe poem. The fact is that Eliot knew that Poe was one of the most important American Poets & that he was both modern & scholarly & did it all before Modern Poetry & so Eliot took a cheap shot since some of Poe's writings are pulpy & sensationalistic to an extent because he felt threatened by Poe's genius.
A Dream Within a Dream
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?
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