To Margaret
Who hath seduced thee to this foul revolt } Milton Par. Lost. Bk. I
From the pure well of Beauty undefiled? } Somebody
So banished from true wisdom to prefer } Cowper’s Task, Book I
Such squalid wit to honourable rhyme?
To write? To scribble? Nonsense and no more? } Shakespeare
I will not write upon this argument } do.Troilus & Cressida
To write is human — not to write divine. } Pope Essay on Man
Edgar Allan Poe
This poem was never published during Poe’s lifetime
The text on the right refers to the source from which the line is derived from