Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
   Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
   Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
   Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
   Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?
   And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
   Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and was educated in the United States and England. Famous as a master of horror and the macabre, he was also a gifted editor, and one of the most influential literary critics of his time. His writings elevated the short story to an art form, and his The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) is acknowledged as the first modern detective story. Other major works include The Tell-Tale Heart (1843); The Pit and The Pendulum (1843); The Fall of the House of Usher (1845); and The Raven (1845).

Previous Featured Poems

Disclaimer, and an Invitation

by Trenton Hickman (Posted May 28, 1999 · Issue 55)

To Music, to becalm his Fever

by Robert Herrick (Posted May 14, 1999 · Issue 54)

Lines Written in Early Spring

by William Wordsworth (Posted April 30, 1999 · Issue 53)

Arboretum

by Mark Featherstone (Posted April 16, 1999 · Issue 52)

The Bass

by John Stone (Posted April 1, 1999 · Issue 51)

The Snake

by Emily Dickinson (Posted March 19, 1999 · Issue 50)