To Margaret Poem

To Margaret Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Who hath seduced thee to this foul revolt : Milton Par. Lost. Bk. I
From the pure well of Beauty undefiled? : Somebody
So banished from true wisdom to prefer : Cowper’s Task, Book I
Such squalid wit to honourable rhyme?
To write? To scribble? Nonsense and no more? : Shakespeare
I will not write upon this argument : do.Troilus & Cressida
To write is human — not to write divine. : Pope Essay on Man

From 1827. To the right of each line, Poe gives the source from which it was adapted. The reference of Cowper applies to the line marked and the following one.