Edgar Allan Poe (c. 1809-1849)
“With me poetry has not been 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.”
- From Edgar Allan Poe’s preface to The Raven and Other Poems (c. 1845) in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Works(JKL Classics, 2017).