Poes View on Art and Aesthetics as Revealed by His Landscape Tale The Domain of Arnheim

Edgar Allen Poe has long been the head figure of American Gothic author, famously primarily for revolutionizing the short story genre. Beyond the Gothic, Poe is also a poet and critic whose critical theories established an important rational in the realm of fiction. In spite of the fact that Poe was the forerunner of art for arts sick during the mid-eighteenth century as opposed to earlier critics concerns of Moral or ideological generalities (Edgar Allen Poe, 2012). Drawing from the rich English Landscape gardening tradition of aesthetics, in which certain authors contend that landscape garden as an art when done properly could exert a morally elevating effect on its views, Poe composed The Domain of Arnheim as a response. At first glance Poe appears to assert that the role of the Poet is to use his power to create a new paradise by rearranging nature in order to gratify mans sense of aesthetics and consequently will exert an improving effect on man. However, upon closer examination of his story, Poes stance on art for arts sake is firm for he insinuates how easy it is for artists to overlook the destructive power of art, especially in the sense that it steals life from nature and art is rarely enduring or real. Part I: The Fall of Man and expulsion from paradise is one of occurring themes of Poes works, and it holds the key to understanding Poes aesthetic creed in relation to his landscape tales. In his Drake-Halleck Review, Poe states that
Poetry has never been defined to the satisfaction of all partiesbut it is not, therefore, misunderstoodat least, not by all men is it misunderstood. Very far from it. If , indeed, there be any one circle of thought distinctly and palpably marked out from amid the jarring and tumultuous chaos of human intelligence, it is that evergreen and

radiant Paradise which the true poet knows, and knows alone, as the limited realm of his authority---as the circumscribed Eden of his dream (Poe, 1835)

Poe articulates that the poet could achieve the beauty of paradise through his imagination and poetic sentiment, whichhe elaborates on in Poetic Principle may develop itself in various modesin painting, in sculpture, in architecture, in the dancevery especially in musicand very peculiarly, and with a wide field, in the composition of the landscape Garden(Poe 1850 ). Indeed, in The Domain of Arnheim, Poe suggests that under the supervision of a visionary poet with exceptional means, it is possible to create a paradise-like landscape of fantastical beauty that satisfies the emotional needs of man and enables him to live in pure bliss(Jacobs 407). In fact, in The Domain of Arnheim, Poes narrator directly states that the creation of the landscape-garden offered to the proper Muse the most magnificent of opportunities, which is to recreate paradise on earth, thereby fulfilling his (Ellisons) own destiny as poet and the august purposes for which the Deity had implanted the poetic sentiment in man (Poe 219). Poes implication of landscape gardenings advantages in realizing the poets imagination to recreate paradise over other modes of art is clear here. However, it is not surprising given the history and the body of literature written on the subject by the time Poe wrote The Domain of Arnheim. Although landscape art enjoyed great popularity and was profusely commented on in England in the late 18th century, it only gained moment in the 1840s in America due the publication of Andrew Jackson Downings A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, a work that greatly influenced Poes own composition on the subject (Rainwater 30). In his article, Downing wrote on the adaptation of English principles of landscape art to the American

Terrain and society (Jacobs 405). The resemblance in Downings and Poes ideas are irrefutable. For example, on the unattainable ideal, Downing wrote in 1841: And as the first man was shut out from the Garden, in the cultivation of which no alloy was mixed with his happiness, the desire to return to it seems to be implanted by nature, more or less strongly, in every breast. This point is important to note due to the fact that the precursor of The Domain of Arnheim, which was shorter and originally titled The Landscape Garden may very well be written as a response to Downings assumption that natural style of gardening is much better suited in America. In his piece, Poe advocates the merits of artificial garden with his poet-hero Ellison as the master architect. Poe makes his challenge clear by sending his article to The Democratic Review that has recently published Downings piece. Notwithstanding his views on Downings ideas, Poe has had an already established aesthetic tradition to draw on when he attempted to create his earthly paradise without the need to justify why he feels that Landscape Gardening is the best form of art for the task. In the well-established aesthetic principles of landscape gardening that started in England, formal garden was excluded from discussion to make way for the disputes between the superiority of natural gardens and the artificial style(Hess 180). Poe outlines the difference between the two in The Domain of Arnheim. The former style calls for nature to be imitated directly without the artists intervention to modify nature according to his own taste. The result of the natural style of gardening, is seen rather in the absence of all defects and incongruitiesin the prevalence of a healthy harmony and orderthan in the creation of any special wonders or miracles (Poe 223). The artificial style contains a mixture of pure art that is partly pleasing to the eye, by the show of

order and design and partly moral (Poe 223). More importantly, Poe argues for this style that the slightest exhibition of art is an evidence of care of human interest (Poe 223). The reason why Poe chooses the artificial style is that he asserts that a direct attempt to copy natures forms will result in failure. As Ellison the poet questions With her details we shrink from competition. Who shall presume to imitate the colors o the tulip or to improve the proportions of the lily of the valley (Poe 220). Therefore, the only way to improve nature is through composition(Poe 220). In doing so, it would also solve one inherent problem Ellison has observed in nature. He states in the most enchanting of natural landscapes, there will always be found a defect or an excess-many excesses and defects; which are not to be attributed to the mistakes of the Divine design, Ellisons asserts that these excesses and defects is a result of the distance and or the limited Perspective of mortal man, as Professor Jacobs contends(Jacobs 408). The angles do not share the problem seeing as they occupy different time and space from man. To them, when viewed at largein massfrom some point distant from the earths surface/ Our disorder may seem orderour unpicturesqueness picturesque(Poe 221). Poe also implies that earth is meant to be a paradise to man as it appears to be to the angels, but the mortality as a result of mans guilt prevents him from appreciating the full beauty of nature. The narrator puts forth the idea that the primitive intention of nature would have so arranged the earths surface as to have fulfilled at all points mans sense of perfection in the beautiful, the sublime, or the picturesque(Poe 221). It is then, the aforementioned geological disturbances of form and color-grouping that frustrates the plan of God(Poe 221). Ellison offers a more sound and rational solution to the problem by

speculating that the disturbances are caused by the prognostic of death. Earths surface fails to fully gratify mans sense of perfection is explained by the concept of original sin. When man was first expelled from Paradise, he also loses the earthly immortality that was Gods first intention. The disturbances are a consequence of mortality and render the beautiful artistic design of earth unintelligible to man. In one of Poes earlier tales, The Colloquy of Monos and Una, Monos contends that only after the purification of death can nature clothe itself anew in the verdure and the mountain-slopes and the smiling waters of Paradise, and the rendered at length a fit dwelling-place for man... for the redeemed, regenerated blissful, and now immortal, but still for the material man. (Poe 445) Therefore, in order to appreciate the beauty of nature before the inevitable deathly condition, man must interfere directly through landscape gardening, composing the different forms and colors to a more agreeable taste. The job of the landscape gardener then is to introduce art to complement natures loveliness, making it aesthetically pleasing to humans. Nature is still beautiful, but only in bits and pieces and apparent to reflection only. It lacks the obvious force of a feeling and immediacy. Human art, Poe proposes, would add a great beauty to the garden and nature lacked art(Poe 220). In his effort to recreate the new Eden on earth, Ellison, the exceptional poet has chosen the artificial style of gardening just so he could supply art to his garden. Due to Ellisons extraordinary attributes and his unusual pecuniary resources, he is able to strive for his design and to maintain the idea of art or culture and to express novelty of beauty, as to convey the sentiment of spiritual interference(Poe 219) . In this way, the almighty design would feel one step depressedto be brought into something like harmony or consistency with the

sense of human art.(Poe 221) The garden then will have a united beauty, magnificence, and strangeness and thus assume the air of an intermediate or secondary naturea nature which is not God, nor an emanation from God, but which still is the nature in the sense of the handiwork of the angels that hover between man and God. Ellison, the man of genius has chosen to devote his vast fortunes and his unlimited leisure to perfect the art of landscape gardening that would appear to be supernatural in its conception and execution. Being men of taste, the poet is able to adjust nature to gratify the aesthetic sentiment of mankind that will eventually produce a morally elevating effect. A year prior to writing his landscape pieces, Poe developed the idea of taste in his story The Colloquy of Mons and Una. Poe asserts in the story that the earth would be saved from industrialism that would eventually scar the planet unless man surrender to the guidance of taste, or aesthetic sense, which would led us back to beauty, to nature, and to Life(Poe 448). This idea is further developed in The Domain of Arnheim, when Ellison, a man blessed with taste and a fortuitous fortune of fifty million dollars decides to restore the joys of the lost paradise to the guilty world through the construction of his garden. The purpose of art as manifested in landscape gardening to Poe can be then concluded as an intermediate medium that rearranges nature to overcome the limitations of mans perception, enabling humans to comprehend and enjoy paradise as it was originally intended. The newly adjusted nature is an novelty of beauty, not a competition to Gods grand design seeing as the role of the artist is not to directly imitate or try to surpass nature, but through composition and rearrangement. The poet in this sense echoes Shelley sentiment that poets should be the legislators of the world. Further confirmation is found in Poes Poetic Principle

in which he writes that taste from the Moral Sense is separated by so faint a difference that Aristotle has not hesitated to place some of its operations among the virtues themselves(Poe 1850). Taste, which entails art, also attacks vice by displaying the animosity to the fitting, to the appropriate, to the harmonious in a word to beauty(Poe 1850). The articulated sentiment on taste and moral was also discussed by other landscape artists who wrote before Poe. Catherin Rainwater contends that Scottish aesthetician Archibald Alison and philosopher Edmund Burke deem that the cultivation of aesthetic judgment as morally beneficial and The ability to recognize compositions in nature requires the viewers moral neutrality or objectivity, the ability, once acquired, is morally elevating. Human creativity to them lies in the recombinatory powers of the imagination and in its ability to improve fallen nature by rearranging it. In their line of thinking, when nature is represented by the artist, it exerts an improving influence upon human observers.(Rainwater37) Based on the evidence, it would not be far fetched to assume that Poes idea on the moral restorative power is influenced by the picturesque aesthetic tradition before him or that he is commenting on them. The actual paradisaical domain of Arnheim is probably heavily influenced by The Voyage of Life, a series of paintings by Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School. The series is composed of four partsChildhood, youth, Manhood and Old Age; and taking into consideration the explanatory notes on the paintings, it is undeniable that there are significant similarities that run between the paintings, particularly the first two, and Poes Arnheim. Childhood is described as:

A stream is seen issuing from a deep cavern, in the side of a craggy and
precipitous mountain, whose summit is hidden in clouds. From out of the cave glides a boat, whose golden prow and sides are sculptured into figures of the hours: steered by an Angelic Form, and laden with buds and flowers, it bears a laughing InfantOn either hand the banks of the stream are clothed in luxuriant herbage and flowers. The rising sun bathes the mountains and flowery banks in rosy light. The Dark Cavern is emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious past. The close banks, and the limited scope of the scene, indicate the narrow experience of Childhood (Cole 1840)

This passage is significant in that if Poe indeed based Arnheim on the paintings, the Angelic form is symbolic of the artist that creates the earthly paradise. Through his imagination and creativity, the poet liberates mankind from the dark cave. Poes traveler first starts out in the early morning and enters a Gorgealthough the term is somewhat inaccplicablethe walls of the ravinearose to an elevation of a hundred and occasionally of a hundred and fifty feet, and inclined so much toward each other as, in great measure, to shut out the light of the day. The mountains and the riverbanks from Poes Arnheim are also clothed in a drapery of the most gorgeous flower blossoms.(Poe 226) The boat imagery remains for both the paintings and Poes story (Hess 181). In addition, Poes palaces of semi-Gothic, Semi-Sarcacenic is also a feature in the second painting of the Youth, in which the youth, on the verge of Manhood is now alone in the Boat, and takes the helm himself, and, in an attitude of confidence and eager expectations, gazes on a cloudy pile of architecture, an air-built Castle, that rises dome above dome in the far-off blue sky, as Coles notes explains(Cole 1840).

The parallel now becomes apparent between the paintings and Arnheim. Its other significance will be discussed in more detail in the second part.

Part II: Despite the fact that Poe echoes the sentiment of the improving and morally elevating power of art and its capability to deliver man into supernal realms, a closer examination of his landscape tales and its sources would actual reveal that Poes stance is not as clear-cut as it first appearsPoe takes an ambivalent stance on the subject, subtly suggesting that art could be destructive as well. Poe calls his Domain of Arnheim strange and, indeed it proves to be so in every sense of the word. The brainchild of Ellison is no traditional garden. Instead, it features The dome of Pleasure from Coleridges Kubla Khan. The entire sphere is an entirely fantastical place. Cole explains that his dome which could be sources for Poes dome to be the emblematic of the day-dreams of youth Before experience teaches what is the Real(Cole 1840). Reality and fantasy are blurred in this line of thinking; the majesty of the paradise of the Ellisons garden is neither real nor lasting. Everything inside the garden amounts to nothing more than a pleasurable place for Ellison. It is also ironic here that the final product contradicts Ellisons earlier declaration that the grandeur of putting buildings on hill-tops startles, excites-and then fatigues, depresses(Poe 223). The floating domes would actually trump any buildings build on hill-tops. In this sense, the traveler experiences all of these emotions as he goes through the garden. He is at first startled, then excited and the ensuing fatigue and depression are sinisterly implied.

The landscape ideality of Poe is further articulated in Landors Cottage, which he terms to be A Pendant to The Domain of Arnheim, serves as a foil to the former and accentuate its fantastical qualities. Written just four months before Poes death, Landors Cottage represents the ideas on the garden image first introduced in The Domain of Arnheim (Rainwater 38). A guided tour around the cottage reveal a perfectly planned and picturesque residence. The style of the cottage is decidedly natural as apposed to artificial, like its predecessor. It was considered to be the landscape ideal of the 19th century with its inclusion of water and the clean , stately and glossy, namely in Downings writing (Rainwater 39). Poes adherence in this story to the established ideal of landscape gardening can be interpreted as an attempt to establish a valley paradise as aesthetic perfection. Another evidence that should not be missed is that Poe describes the cottage using imagery of Eden. An Eastern Gate separates Eden from the outside world and within the confines of the gate live the friendly animals. The tulip tree, or the pride of the Valley, as Poe terms it, is reminiscent of the Tree of Wisdom. Landors cottage as Eden even has its own Eve in Annie, whom the narrator declares to himself in awe: Surely here I have found the perfection of natural, in contradistinction from artificial grace. (Poe 240) Without reaching the conclusion that Landors Eden is superior to Ellisons Eden , what is beyond contention is that the cottage as the ideal garden sheds a bad light on Arnheim as an artificial grace with fantastical undertones. Arnheim is not from this world if one considers the floating domes, magically floating boat, dream-like tall Eastern trees, and its many fantastical creatures.

Poe even suggests that Arnheim is a fake Eden himself when uses Giles Fletchers Christs Victorie on Earth as the prologue to the story. The Lines read:
The Garden like a lady fair was cut, That lay as if she slumbered in delight, And to the open skies her eyes did shut. The azure fields of Heaven were sembled right In a large round set with the flowers of light. The flowers de luce and the round sparks of dew That hung upon their azure leaves did shew Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the evening blue (Poe 214).

The stanzas Poe used here as the introductory note to the splendor of ARnheim in their original context tellingly describe a false Eden or Fooles Paradise. The grand artificer who engineered the paradise is in fact a clever sorceress VaineGlorie. The idea of short-lived fantastical beauty that really has no business on earth is introduced at the start. This comes as less surprising if one considers that Poe in his Poetic principle compares artists desire for beauty to the desire of the moth for the star, and any attempt to realize that beauty would be doomed as a struggle to attain a portion of that Loveliness whose very elements, perhaps, appertain to eternity alone. (Poe 1838) In this line of reading, the artist is hard pressed to realize the beauty he envisions. If somehow given the means such Ellison has, the poet may at best turn out to be Vaine-Glorie, trying to generate a false Eden. Neither Allison nor the narrator lends confidence that the Arnheim is the Garden of Eden Poe believes that artist could create that would have a morally elevating effect. The narrator appears slightly deluded and certainly worships Ellison. Both of these factors undermine his credibility. At the beginning, the narrator fancies that in Ellison what has been deemed the mere chimera of the perfectionists(Poe 214). The diction used here is interesting in that chimera indicates that Ellison is a fantastical being or it could mean that the narrator

truly believes is perfect in everyway. Ellison has chosen a secluded location that eventually becomes a sense of retirement. This choice of location is similar o the countryside retirement homes that was popular with eighteenth-century English gentlemen. In spite of what he and the admiring narrator says, the Domain of Arnheim is not open to pubic and is not easily accessible. Upon a closer examination, even if one gets into the Domain, it would exert rather violent effect on the visitor rather than an aesthetic gratification of mans senses. In The Domain of Arnheim Poe suggests that art steals life from nature, a theme that he has explored in his famous story, The Oval Portrait. Ellison, the poet who creates the earthly Eden dies just as his monumental project is completed. His death has a sobering effect that true paradise is retained only through death, in which man acquires immortality. It also brings into question if such earthly paradise is to be enjoyed at all. The funeral diction used by the narrator in describing the supernal realm of Arnheim further consolidates the idea that perhaps it may not be possible for paradise to be recreated on earth and that art has can be destructive as well. The narrator who explores Domain of Arnheim at first appears t o be imprisoned in the gorge, the walls of the gorge incline so much toward each other that they shut out the light of the day; while the long plumelike moss which depended densely from the intertwining shrubberies overhead, gave the whole chasm an air of funeral gloom(Poe 230). Perhaps the deathly imagery is also indicative of the demise of nature when man tries to manipulate the grand design. The traveler enwrapt in an exquisite sense of the strange, meaning that he is in a foreign place than he is used to(Poe 230). Although his sensation may not be surprising considering that paradise is supposed to feel strange to man, but there is also a sinister feel to itThe

thought of nature still remained, but her character seemed to have undergone modification: there was a weird symmetry, a thrilling uniformity, a wizard propriety in these her works(Poe 231). Ellison has completely transformed nature to the extent that only a thought of it remained and everything else has become art. Essentially what this means is that the artist is playing God at natures expense and consequently, the character of nature is changed to the degree that it bewilders the eye. Domain of Arnheim is a piece of art in which there is no dead branch or withered leaf. It is a completely artificial conception. Fittingly, it was made possible by money and money itself is also artificial. The seemingly peaceful environment also has a violent force to it in which the travelers find their own will subordinated to the artificial gardens own enchanting power, accentuating the negative side of art. In the early morning, the traveler passes down a river between shores of tranquil and domestic beauty before passing into Ellisons garden. The beautiful country side and winding river with innumerable sheep gazing on the grass soon changes. The narrator remarks that by degrees the idea of cultivation subsided into that of merely pastoral care. It is critical here that the narrator speaks of idea instead of noting the actual phenomena. Catherine Rainwater suggests that this is due to the association theory. She further contends that proponents of association theory assumed that every natural scene elicits a specific idea, or an emotional response peculiar to that scene (Rainwater 40). Since humans tend to undergo the same experience and would therefore have the same response to certain scenes, it is not implausible to arrange or compose landscapes in such a way as to elicit a specific sets of ideas. The theory could be imploying that the artist has

the power to manipulate the responses or the ideas the observers may have by extending his control over the materials of art (Rainwater 40). The association theory may explain what is happening in The Domain of Arnheim. Once the traveler enters Arnheim, he loses all of his power and is controlled by his environment, and by extension controlled by the artist, Ellison. In Ellisons realm, there is nothing that would suggest having the power that could aid in mans understand in Gods work and to gratify mans senses seeing as they are barely recognizable as natural. Instead of revealing the order and design, the environment inArnheim only becomes more dark and confusing. At the start, the stream took a thousand turns, so that at no moment could its gleaming surface be seen for a greater distance than a furlong(Poe 229). Needless to say, that the thousand turns is a wild exaggeration that would in reality prove more confusing than aesthetically pleasing. Within the exaggerated features of Arnheim, the narrator loses all idea of direction in this maze of weird symmetry that bare resembles nature. Given the abrupt ending to the story, what will happen in this artificial, magical kingdom is anybodys guess. Suffice it to say that given the creators death and the funeral imagery used by the narrator, the traveler may end up being trapped in there and worse. Following Thomas Coles Voyage of Life series, the next up after the dome in Youth is Manhood. In this painting, the youth has emerged as an adult, but the boat is damaged and gone. No longer confident and in control, the man must battle against the elements. Cole explains that in childhood, there is no carking care: In youth, no despairing thought. It is only when experience has taught us the realities of the world, that we lift from our eyes the golden veil of early life.(Cole 1840) The story ends when the Arnheim burst into view, this could be

read as representing knowledge of the troubling aspect of the place. The narrator does not quite realize in the previous two phases of the voyage until now. However, Poe masks his intention by abruptly ending the story, leaving a careful reader pondering on the dubious quality of art when the creator is man instead of supernal being. Poe seems to agree with his contemporary landscape aesthetics that when done properly art does wield immense power in that it could help man recreate Eden on Earth and thus have an improving or moral lifting effect as he so states himself in his Poetic Principles. However, a closer examination of The Domain of Arnheim reveals that Poe also believes that Arts immense power cannot be underestimated; as suggested by the dark side of Arnheim, art is not all positive. Another point Poe makes clear is that Art and nature in the artificial style of gardening cannot coexist together because art would steal life from nature. Perhaps Poes landscape stories articulates his dissatisfaction with his contemporaries whose heated academic discussions of Landscape gardening completely ignores the negative impact of art, and the stories are a response to remind the critical theory circle that art could be subversive and destructive as well.

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