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I
POEMS
TO THE NOBLEST OF HER SEX
TO THE AUTHOR OF
“THE DRAMA OF EXILE”
TO MISS ELIZABETH BARRETT BARRETT
OF ENGLAND
I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME
WITH THE MOST ENTHUSIASTIC ADMIRATION
AND WITH THE MOST SINCERE ESTEEM.
E. A. P.
THESE trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a view to their redemption from the many improvements to which they have been subjected while going “the rounds of the press.” I am naturally anxious that, what I have written should circulate as I wrote it, if it circulate at all. In defence of my own taste, nevertheless, it is incumbent on me to say that I think nothing in this volume of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself. Events not to be controlled have prevented me from making, at any time, any serious effort in what, under happier circumstances, would have been the field of my choice. With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence; they must not — they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.
E. A. P.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:1 - SW94, 1895] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - General Dedication and Preface (ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, 1895)