Editing End Poem (section)

== Reception ==
An early impression by Eric Limer in ''[[The Mary Sue]]'' was sharply critical, calling the End Poem "nothing but a bunch of text that scrolls down the screen excruciatingly slowly for an excruciatingly long time", which "reads like a stereotypical [[JRPG]] ending mashed up with some stuff written by a highschooler who just discovered post-modernist literature."<ref name="limer" /> Subsequent commentary leans more favourable: Kevin Thielenhaus in ''The Escapist'' calls the poem "mysterious, and kind of weird, and probably not what most of us were expecting from a ''Minecraft'' ending".<ref name="thielenhaus" /> ''[[The Atlantic]]''{{'s}} James Parker calls it "a goofy/beautiful metaphysical text".<ref name=parker>{{Cite web |last=Parker |first=James |date=2014-05-22 |title=''Minecraft'': The Most Creative Game Ever Made |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-game-that-conquered-the-world/361615/ |access-date=2023-05-01 |website=[[The Atlantic]] |language=en |archive-date=2 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502010808/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-game-that-conquered-the-world/361615/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Ted Litchfield in ''[[PC Gamer]]'' describes it as "warm and humanistic" and compares it to the 2015 video game ''[[Undertale]]'' and the 2017 multimedia narrative ''[[17776]]''.<ref name="litchfield" /> Gough himself has called the work an "oddity" and "peculiar".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gough |first=Julian |authorlink=Julian Gough |date=2021-05-20 |title=Another Day, Another Riot, another world: Julian Gough on Toasted Heretic 30 years on |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/another-day-another-riot-another-world-julian-gough-on-toasted-heretic-30-years-on-1.4567481 |access-date=2023-05-01 |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |language=en |archive-date=2 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502012310/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/another-day-another-riot-another-world-julian-gough-on-toasted-heretic-30-years-on-1.4567481 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:End Poem tattoo (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A tattoo quoting from the poem, set in a font similar to ''Minecraft''{{'s}}. Gough used an image of the same tattoo when discussing the poem's impact.<ref name="gough-2022" />|alt=A pale white arm, tattooed with the quote "and the universe said I love you because you are love", all lowercase and in a Minecraft-like font.]]Jason Anthony in ''[[gamevironments]]'' and Matthew Horrigan in ''[[Acta Ludologica]]'' both highlight the End Poem's comparison of video games to dreams;<ref name="anthony" />{{rp|pp=10–12}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Horrigan |first1=Matthew |date=2022 |title=Nulltopia: Of Disjunct Space |url=https://actaludologica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AL_2022-5-2_Study-4_Horrigan.pdf |journal=[[Acta Ludologica]] |language=EN |publisher=[[University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=58–70 |access-date=1 May 2023 |archive-date=2 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502013816/https://actaludologica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AL_2022-5-2_Study-4_Horrigan.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|p=17}} Anthony also discusses the poem's relevance to the theological implications of ''Minecraft'' players' ability to create and destroy worlds.<ref name="anthony" />{{rp|pp=10–12}} Jacob Creswell in ''[[Comic Book Resources]]'' also analyses the poem's commentary on dreams and its reference to life as "the long dream" in comparison to "the short dream of a game".<ref name="creswell" /> Creswell notes the dissimilarity between the lengthy poem and the minimalist game, but concludes that they fit well together, writing that "[t]he poem disagrees with the idea that the player is nothing compared to the grand scale of the universe" and that "[t]he game's code creates a world that players invest time and care into, much like their real lives".<ref name="creswell" /> Similarly, in ''[[MIT Technology Review]]'', [[Simon Parkin]] observes that most players will never encounter the poem in-game, but finds that the two share a sentiment of creation through dream, which Parkin views as revealing the game's "somewhat evangelical" nature.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parkin |first1=Simon |author1-link=Simon Parkin |title=The Secret to a Video-Game Phenomenon |journal=[[MIT Technology Review]] |date=July 2013 |volume=116 |issue=4 |pages=79–82 |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/06/14/177798/the-secret-to-a-video-game-phenomenon/ |access-date=4 May 2023 |id={{EBSCOhost|88370119|dbcode=a9h}} |archive-date=4 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504034122/https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/06/14/177798/the-secret-to-a-video-game-phenomenon/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The ''[[Irish Independent]]'' describes the End Poem as revered by the ''Minecraft'' community.<ref name="moloney" /> A number of fans have tattoos of excerpts, particularly from the "and the universe said" portion,<ref name="moloney" /> which Gough has described as "beyond moving".<ref name="gough-2022" />