Edgar Allan Poe – Enigma

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“The noblest name in Allegory’s page,
The hand that traced inexorable rage;
A pleasing moralist whose page refined,
Displays the deepest knowledge of the mind…”
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“Enigma” is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published on February 2, 1833 in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. It was later reprinted as “Enigma [On Shakespeare]”.

The text of “Enigma” references a series of famous historic persons, and therefore the entire poem is a set of riddles. As indicated by the last two lines, the solutions to the riddle in the poem form an acrostic. The solutions are given at the bottom of this page.

This article features a complete, embedded, mobile-friendly version of “Enigma“ by Edgar Allan Poe as well as a text version below.

Enigma – PDF

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Enigma – Mobile Friendly

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Enigma
by
Edgar Allan Poe

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The noblest name in Allegory’s page,
The hand that traced inexorable rage;
A pleasing moralist whose page refined,
Displays the deepest knowledge of the mind;
A tender poet of a foreign tongue,
(Indited in the language that he sung.)
A bard of brilliant but unlicensed page
At once the shame and glory of our age,
The prince of harmony and stirling sense,
The ancient dramatist of eminence,
The bard that paints imagination’s powers,
And him whose song revives departed hours,
Once more an ancient tragic bard recall,
In boldness of design surpassing all.
These names when rightly read, a name [[make]] known
Which gathers all their glories in its own.

Solutions to Enigma

line – author:

1 – Spenser

2 – Homer

3, 4 – Aristotle

5, 6 – Kallimachos

7, 8 – Shelley

9 – Alexander Pope.

10 – Euripides

11 – Mark Akenside

12 – Samuel Rogers

13, 14 – Euripidies

15, 16 – William Shakespeare

The names of the authors referenced form an acrostic spelling ‘Shakspeare’.