“ The impulse of genius is to guard the secrets of its creative hour. ”
Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven (1845). copy citation
| Author | Edgar Allan Poe |
|---|---|
| Source | The Raven |
| Topic | genius impulse |
| Date | 1845 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17192/17192-h/17192-h.htm |
Context
“that its author then saw how it might be perfected, giving it the final touches described in his chapter on Composition, and that the latter, therefore, is neither wholly false nor wholly true. The harm of such analysis is that it tempts a novice to fancy that artificial processes can supersede imagination. The impulse of genius is to guard the secrets of its creative hour. Glimpses obtained of the toil, the baffled experiments, which precede a triumph, as in the sketch-work of Hawthorne recently brought to light, afford priceless instruction and encouragement to the sincere artist.”
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