In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Imp of the Perverse (1845), the narrator is a murderer who has succumbed to influences he tried to repress. In discussing what led him to murder, he considers the nature of things you shouldn’t do and thoughts you shouldn’t have and how to respond to them, using unwanted inner music as an everyday (and relatable) example:
‘It is quite a common thing to be thus annoyed with the ringing in our ears, or rather in our memories, of the burthen of some ordinary song, or some unimpressive snatches from an opera. Nor will we be the less tormented if the song in itself be good, or the opera air meritorious.’
Cited in network member Philip Beaman’s 2018 article:
Beaman, C. P. (2018). The Literary and Recent Scientific History of the Earworm: A Review and Theoretical Framework. Auditory Perception & Cognition, 1(1–2), 42–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/25742442.2018.1533735