The Poe Museum Blog

Eleonora Sub conservatione formae specificae salva anima. Raymond Lully. I am come of a race noted for vigor of fancy and ardor of passion. Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence — whether much that is glorious — whether all that is profound — does not spring from disease of thought — from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and ...

William Wilson. A Tale. What say of it? what say of conscience grim,That spectre in my path?  CHAMBERLAINE’S PHARRONIDA. Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation. This has been already too much an object for the scorn, for the horror, for the detestation of my race. To the uttermost regions of the globe have not the indignant winds bruited its unparalleled infamy? oh, outcast of all outcasts most abandoned! To the earth art thou not for ever dead? to its honours, to its ...

The Conqueror Worm Lo! ’tis a gala nightWithin the lonesome latter years —A mystic throng, bewinged, bedightIn veils and drowned in tears,Sit in a theatre to seeA play of hopes and fears,While the orchestra breathes fitfullyThe music of the spheres. Mimes, in the form of God on high,Mutter and mumble low,And hither and thither fly —Mere puppets they, who come and goAt bidding of vast shadowy thingsThat shift the scenery to and fro,Flapping from out their Condor wingsInvisible Wo! That motley drama — oh, be sureIt shall not be forgot!With its Phantom chased forevermore,By a crowd ...

The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether During the autumn of 18—, while on a tour through the extreme Southern provinces of France, my route led me within a few miles of a certain Maison de Santé, or private Mad-House, about which I had heard much, in Paris, from my medical friends. As I had never visited a place of the kind, I thought the opportunity too good to be lost; and so proposed to my travelling companion (a gentleman with whom I had made casual acquaintance, a few days before) that we should turn aside, for an hour or so, and look through the establishment. To this he ...