Edgar Allan Poes

The Poetic Principle

Published as an essay in 1850, the year after Poes death
Based on lectures he had given throughout his life
Is a discussion of Poes aesthetic and literary theories.
 Edgar Allan Poes
The Poetic Principle
The purpose of a poem is to elevate the soul.
Beauty, which humans naturally desire and strive for,
should be the aim of a poem.
A poem should be short enough to draw the soul to the
beautiful and yet long enough to be profound.
There is no such thing, really, as a long poem. A long poem
is just a collection of short poems.
A poem should have unity
 Edgar Allan Poes
The Poetic Principle
Imagination should be controlled by thought. Thought is
the activity in which people are most like God.
The purpose of a poem is not to pursue truth; the demands
of truth are too severe for poetry.
A poem which is just a poem, and not trying to teach
anything, is the most dignified kind.
The most intense sense of pleasure comes from
contemplation of beauty.
 Edgar Allan Poes
The Philosophy of Composition
This first appeared in the April 1846 issue of Grahams
Magazine, not long after The Raven was published in
1845.
It explains Poes aesthetic theories and, trading on the
success of The Raven, describes the way he composed
it.
 Edgar Allan Poes
The Philosophy of Composition
Americans are too busy to read long novels.
It should be possible to read any literary text (except a
novel) in one sitting.
Everything in a literary composition should be
contemplated step-by-step with the precision of a
mathematics problem.
This is the antithesis to the idea that poets write purely
out of intuition or inspiration which was a common
Romantic conceit)
 Edgar Allan Poes
The Philosophy of Composition
A writer should predetermine the final outcome of the
composition and ensure that everything in the
composition moves toward that ending.
There should be no word in a composition that is not
meaningful to its purpose.
The brevity of a work should have a direct relationship to
the intensity of the intended effect, although a certain
amount of length is necessary.
 Edgar Allan Poes
The Philosophy of Composition
The tone of the highest manifestation of beauty is
sadness. Melancholy is the most legitimate of poetic
tones.
The most melancholy topic is death. Because death
becomes poetical when it is aligned with beauty, the most
poetic topic is the death of a beautiful woman.