I'll tell you a plan for gaining wealth,
Better than banking, trade or leases —
Take a bank note and fold it up,
And then you will find your money in creases!
This wonderful plan, without danger or loss,
Keeps your cash in your hands, where nothing can trouble it;
And every time that you fold it across,
'Tis as plain as the light of the day that you double it!
This poem was funny, which is highly unusual for Edgar Alan Poe. There were a couple of “depressions” during Poe’s time, nothing as serious as the 1930s, but for that time period just as bad. So Ed Poe was trying to make a serious joke, which I think for the master of morbid, this works really well. Poe did not invent the epigram, to my knowledge, but he sure makes nice work of it for this particular piece. It’s also true.