Thank Heaven! the crisis—
   The danger is past,
And the lingering illness
   Is over at last—
And the fever called "Living"
   Is conquered at last.

Sadly, I know
   I am shorn of my strength,
And no muscle I move
   As I lie at full length—
But no matter!—I feel
   I am better at length.

And I rest so composedly,
   Now, in my bed
That any beholder
   Might fancy me dead—
Might start at beholding me,
   Thinking me dead.

The first writings I truly fell in literacy love with was by him.  I had to learn a poem or speech for my 4th grade class and I picked the Raven. No one was happy about it at all. My mum got called in to see the counselors for it was too heavy for a child of my age; and maybe it was an indication of problems at home. Mum being the gracious woman she is told my teacher to kiss her ass and stop trying to over analyze the workings of a 4th graders brain for it was beyond them. It was terrible!  Anyway The Raven is my first Poe love and here it is.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'