The poetical works of Edgar Allan Poe, with original memoir. Illustrated by F. R. Pickersgill, R.A., John Tenniel, Birket Foster, Felix Darlay [and others]

IT would be well for all poets if nothing more were known
of their lives than what they themselves infuse into their poetry.
Too close a knowledge of the weaknesses and errors of the inspired children of Parnassus, cannot but impair, in some degree,
the delicate aroma of their songs. The inner life of the poet, the
secrets of his inspiration, the mysterious processes by which his
pearls of thought are produced, can never be made known, and the
accidents of his daily life have but little more interest than those
which fall to common men. Under all circumstances the poet is
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