Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
— Edgar Allan Poe
He surely had an important influence, but MAN, that guy also was a blabbering wuss.
Lol. That’s definitely one way to look at it. He certainly wasn’t the most stable individual, and sometimes his themes weren’t as endearing as people like to make them out to be today, so I can see where you’re coming from.
The value I put in Poe is primarily his incredible structure. The way he uses rhyme is impeccable, and he also had impressive alliteration and varied metrical style. In broad terms, I guess that could be said of any notable poet, but I am admittedly biased. The Raven and Annabelle Lee were the first two poems I ever memorized.