To Margaret
"To Margaret" by Edgar Allan Poe is a short, tongue-in-cheek poem assembled almost entirely from borrowed lines — Milton, Cowper, Shakespeare, and Pope — each attributed with mock-scholarly precision. The poem poses a sly, self-contradicting argument: that writing is a "foul revolt" from beauty and wisdom, only to close with Pope's paradox that not writing is divine. The result is less a heartfelt address than a literary joke, daring the reader to untangle Poe's own voice from the chorus of borrowed authority.
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