With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.
Interpretation
Poe expresses that poetry is driven by his deep love for it rather than a mere goal.
In this quote, Edgar Allan Poe emphasizes the intrinsic value of poetry in his life. He suggests that his engagement with poetry stems from a profound passion, rather than viewing it as a task or objective to be accomplished. This indicates the importance of pursuing one's interests for the joy they bring, rather than for external validation or success.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of arts education, you could use this quote to illustrate the necessity of passion in creative pursuits.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
I know the sag of the unfinished poem. And I know the release of the poem that is finished.
Although I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet.
I do not think writers or anybody would sit down and think they must write about some cause, or theme, or something. If they write about their own experiences, something true is going to emerge.
We are not moving towards some kind of goal. We are at the goal, and it is changing with us. If art has any purpose, it is to open our eyes to that fact.
There are many different styles of, and approaches to, tap. My own leans towards a more intellectual view: tap dancing not just for the sake of entertainment but to educate and spark emotion.
And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else
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