Poe Fortnightly Farewell and Poe: A Dream Within A Dream

A closing message and a poem.

Hello everyone, Shawn the Edgar Allan Poe Fortnightly Guy here.

The Main News:

As I announced here at the start of January, I am leaving Substack and closing down Poe Fortnightly. This link from Platformer is a good explanation about why many writers and publishers are leaving Substack.

Because Edgar Allan Poe Fortnightly is a thing I do for fun, I’m not continuing it as an email list elsewhere. This was a great two years, but it’s a hobby, and this part at least is ending.

We will be continuing to read every Edgar Allan Poe story ever, slowly every two weeks, on the official Poe Fortnightly Discord server. Join us if you’d like to chat with other Poe fans.

For the handful of Paid Subscribers to Poe Fortnightly: because of how Substack handles payments, I have paused Paid Subscriptions, but I need to wait until next month to turn them off permanently. I’ll do this as soon as possible, and none of you should get charged again. Thank you for your support, I hope you enjoyed your nonexistent perks!

A Personal Note:

I’d like to thank all of you who have read Edgar Allan Poe Fortnightly (or Poe Daily back in 2022) over the last two years.

If you’ve been here for years or if you read one poem, I hope that you read something new to you that was enjoyable or interesting.

In 2023 we read a lot of stories that I had never read before this year, and it’s been very cool to go on this Edgar Allan Poe Deep Dive with all of you.

On Substack:

I’ve been hesitant about Substack for a minute, and won’t rehash all of that now. But I’m not going stick around and wait until they turn into The X Formerly Known As Twitter but worse.

I won’t be deleting Poe Fortnightly, as I think the archive is of value to random future readers. I’ve personally unsubscribed from every other Substack I was following, and aside from some admin stuff I won’t be using Substack again.

(If you’re subscribed to my long neglected other Substacks - Dear People of the Future and In A World of Darkness, expect final emails from them this week.)

If you are a publisher here, I’m sure you’ve looked at leaving, I think you should and I hope you find the best option for you. If you’re a reader here, I’d suggest following your favorite mailing lists to wherever they go.

Poe Fortnightly Discord Users - we live in a society, so if you stay subscribed to other classic literature mailing lists I am not going to be a jerk about it. I still use YouTube and Amazon and exist within the United States of America, so I’m not going to hold folks to a Substack purity test, especially considering how every single person joined the Poe Fortnightly Discord. But consider leaving.

One Last Poem

This is a repeat, first emailed to you in July, 2022. I considered a few options, but this is my personal favorite Edgar Allan Poe poem.

Don’t read too much into this poem as a comment on the ending of this mailing list, my options were Love Poem or Depressing Poem (or Depressing Love Poem), and I’m a Gen-X goth, so of course my favorite poem is the saddest one.

Once again, thank you everyone who has read these classic Poe stories and poems the past two years. I wish you all every happiness, and I’ll see some of you on Discord.

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A Dream Within A Dream

Edgar Allan Poe

First published in 1849

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Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow—
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone ? 
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand—
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep—while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

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Coming Next:

Edgar Allan Poe Fortnightly will continue as the Edgar Allan Poe Fortnightly Book Club, on Discord!

If you’d like to continue reading every Edgar Allan Poe story ever, slowly every two weeks without the convenience of emailed stories, Join the Poe Fortnightly Discord.