Observations placeholder
Poe, Edgar Allen - Men have called me mad
Identifier
001914
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher and other writings
I am come of a race noted for vigour of fancy and ardour of passion.
Men have called me mad, but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence – whether much that is glorious – whether all that is profound – does not spring from disease of thought – from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.
They who dream by day are cognisant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their … visions they obtain glimpses of eternity … they penetrate, however rudderless or compassless into the vast ocean of the ‘light ineffable’