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AN ENIGMA

by Edgar Allan Poe

(1848)

  • "Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce,
    "Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.
    Through all the flimsy things we see at once
    As easily as through a Naples bonnet-
    Trash of all trash!- how can a lady don it?
    Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff-
    Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff
    Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it."
    And, veritably, Sol is right enough.
    The general tuckermanities are arrant
    Bubbles- ephemeral and so transparent-
    But this is, now- you may depend upon it-
    Stable, opaque, immortal- all by dint
    Of the dear names that he concealed within 't.

    -- THE END --