Edgar Allan Poe, the master of mystery and macabre, wove grim and ghastly tales that have evoked terror in readers for almost 200 years. No gothic literature collection is complete without his works, and this fall LitJoy has brought readers a new edition of Poe's selected tales to bring horror to their bookshelves once again. One of the best Edgar Allan Poe quotes that express his love of things dark and dreary is from his poem "Romance" when he writes, “And so being young and dipt in folly / I fell in love with melancholy.” Here, we've pulled more of our favorite Edgar Allan Poe quotes that bring out our own desire for melancholy.
Quotes from "The Raven"
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Starting with the poetic masterpiece that essentially launched his career as a poet, writer, editor and literary critic, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was an overnight success because of its ability to invoke feelings of longing, sorrow, and the deep despair of losing something close while using melodic repetition to create an eerie, supernatural atmosphere. |
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”
~unnamed speaker, "The Raven," 1845, opening line
“Darkness there, and nothing more.”
~unnamed speaker, "The Raven," 1845
"And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain/ Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before"
~unnamed speaker, "The Raven," 1845
Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!/ Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”/ Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
~unnamed speaker, "The Raven," 1845
Edgar Allan Poe Quotes about Dreams
Dreams are a recurring theme in Edgar Allan Poe's works. In many ways he plays with the idea that reality is an illusion and the theme of dreams represents that idea.
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,/ Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before"
~unnamed speaker, "The Raven," 1845
Here we have a quote from "The Raven" appearing again to take readers into their dreams...or nightmares!
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
~ unnamed narrator in Poe's short story "Eleonora," 1842
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream"
~unnamed speaker in Poe's poem "A Dream Within a Dream," 1849
Edgar Allan Poe Quotes about Madness
You may have noticed the many unnamed speakers of these quotes by Edgar Allan Poe. That happens to be a stylistic technique of Poe's to place the reader directly into the story to stir emotions, create a sense of terror, and to elicit madness.
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“If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.”~unnamed narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart," 1843 |
“And have I not told you that which you mistake for madness is but an over-acuteness of the sense?”~unnamed narrator, "The Tell-Tale Heart," 1843 |
"Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not?"
~unnamed narrator in "The Black Cat," 1843
“Nemo me impune lacessit.”~Montressor to Fortunado in "The Cask of Amontillado," 1846. Finally, a speaker with a name! This phrase means: "Nobody provokes me without punishment". Montressor claims this to be the motto of the Montressor family found on its coat of arms that shows an image of a foot stepping on a snake, which is in turn biting the heel of the foot. However, this motto cannot be the motto of the Montressor family, because it’s the motto of the Scottish Royal Coat of Arms. Montressor, a constant liar, appropriates it to make a point – a point that is, of course, lost on drunken Fortunato. |
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“I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.”
~Edgar Allan Poe in a letter to Maria Clemm, 1849
Maria Clemm was Edgar Allan Poe's aunt and mother of his wife Virginia. Poe was very close to Maria and often referred to her as "Muddy". His poem, "To My Mother" is actually written for her as his own mother died of tuberculosis when he was only 3 years old.
Edgar Allan Poe Love Quotes
So much of Poe's melancholy and despair was because he was such a deeply feeling and rather passionate man. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that he has so many quotes on love.
“...in the Heavens above/ The angels, whispering to one another,/ Can find, among their burning terms of love,/ None so devotional as that of ‘Mother.'"
~Edgar Allan Poe to Maria Clemm in "To My Mother," 1849
"...but you/ Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,/ And thus are dearer than the mother I knew/ By that infinity with which my wife/ Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life."
~Edgar Allan Poe to Maria Clemm in "To My Mother," 1849
"From childhood's hour I have not been. As others were, I have not seen. As others saw, I could not awaken. My heart to joy at the same tone. And all I loved, I loved alone."
~Edgar Allan Poe to himself in the poem "Alone," written in 1829, but published posthumously in 1879
“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
~the speaker is unnamed, but thought to be Edgar Allan Poe in his poem "Annabel Lee," 1849
Annabel Lee is said to be an attempt at expressing the love for his wife Virgina and the sorrow over her death two years earlier that still consumed him.
"But our love it was stronger by far than the love / Of those who were older than we- / Of many far wiser than we- / And neither the angels in heaven above, / Nor the demons down under the sea, / Can ever dissever my soul from the soul / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee."
~unnamed speaker (Edgar Allan Poe) in the poem "Annabel Lee," 1849
A "fun" fact: "Annabel Lee" was actually first published just two days after Poe's death.
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"There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man."~unnamed narrator in "The Black Cat," 1843 |
“I have no words — alas! — to tell / The loveliness of loving well!”
~Timur (Tamerlane), a Turkic conqueror, to a friar in Poe's poem "Tamerlane," 1827
Here lies another poem of melancholy and of lost love. Poe is nothing if not consistent and quite effective at it, too!
Why is Edgar Allan Poe still celebrated today?
For his ability to create striking works based on
madness, mystery, murder and . . . love (who knew?)
For more gothic literature and macabre,
take a look at our Gothic Horror Classic Book Collection for your next chilling read!
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