Quotation by Edgar Allan Poe

I exacted the most sacred oaths, that under no circumstances they would bury me until decomposition had so materially advanced as to render farther preservation impossible. And, even then, my mortal terrors would listen to no reason—would accept no consolation. I entered into a series of elaborate precautions.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), U.S. author. The narrator, in "The Premature Burial," Dollar Newspaper (1844).

The aborted confession, the major theme in Poe's writings, symbolized by burial alive.
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