Renowned for his poems and short stories, Edgar Allan Poe is widely considered one of the central figures of literary romanticism movement that occurred, and spread around the United States during the late 1810's. Trademarked for his employment of often dark, gothic, and psychologically unsettling imagery, Poe is hailed by critics and historians as the pioneer, and inventor of detective fiction, along with putting forth rhetorical innovations that would lead to the emergence of science fiction.
Through the years, Poe's continues to leave a profound impact on literature, music, and various mediums of pop culture, with the scope of its influence spanning into cosmology and cryptography. For his efforts, The Mystery Writers of America created an award in his honour -- The Edgar Award -- an accolade designed to honour the very highest accomplishments in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theatre. Here are 5 of the most profound, maddening lines delivered by the founding father of stories grounded in murder and mystery, and one of the first practitioners of the short story form in the United States:
1. "I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
The true horror is not to became insane in search of your sanity, but to go insane by conforming to what others have prescribed as sanity.
2. "I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched."
The our hearts call for our mind to venture forth to discover that which is imperceivable, and unattainable, there is nothing that can rationalize for what it yearns for. Remaining unattained as it remains unperceived.
3. "We loved with a love that was more than love."
One of loves greatest tragedies does not just occur because we were unable to use it to love enough, but that we used it to love too much.
4. "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."
Though much joy, and much love awaits us as much as we desire both. That which makes us smile, and makes us love may render us alone. With the joy of being with that which we love.
5. "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."
The way we perceive others and ourselves is never in the touch with the reality of who we are, and those who surround us in it.
With a legacy of horror and beauty that endures as much as the words that prescribe within it, such that is its beauty and horror, Edgar Allan Poe's words, perched upon bookshelves like ravens awaiting for the dark, and inevitable end that awaits us all, forever linger to drive us insane. But through it, to discover within it, much beauty, and much love--that which no sanity can contain.
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