poe’s poetic principle

8/9/2019 Poes Poetic Principle

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Poes Poetic

PrincipleAP a.g. bawang


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Thou wast all

that to me,love,For which my

soul did pine...


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Darkness andDecay and the

RedDeathheld illimitabledominion over

all.


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The boundaries whichdivide i!e !rom Deathare at best shadowyand vague. "ho shallsay where the oneends, and where the

other begins#


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TR$%& ' nervous' very, verydread!ullynervous ( hadbeen and am) butwhy will you say

that ( am mad#


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*nce upon a midnightdreary, while (pondered, weak andweary...

+uoth the Raven,-evermore.


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ike most poets, ( have o!ten tried tocome up with a good de/nition o! theart o! poetry.

"hat ( have !ound is this0 To me, poetryis the rhythmical creation o! beauty.

(n contemplating that beauty, ( believe

the soul can arrive at a pleasure that isthe most pure, the most elevating, andthe most intense, all at the same time.


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*n length And here, in the beginning, permit me

to say a !ew words in regard to asomewhat peculiar principle, which,

whether right!ully or wrong!ully, hasalways had its in1uence in my owncritical estimate o! the poem. ( hold thata long poem does not e2ist.

( maintain that the phrase, a longpoem, is simply a 1at contradiction interms.3


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*n the other hand, it is clear that a

poem may be improperly brie!.

$ndue brevity degenerates into mereepigrammatism.

A very short poem, while now andthen producing a brilliant or vivid,

never produces a pro!ound orenduring e4ect.3


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*n Purpose

... under the sun there neither e2ists nor cane2ist any work more thoroughly digni/ed, moresupremely noble, than this very poem, this poemper se, this poem which is a poem and nothingmore, this poem written solely !or the poem5s

sake.3 Poe thought that a poem should not be written to

teach people how to live their lives.

(n teaching people about the morals they should

live by, Poe said, writers needed to use simplelanguage in an unemotional way.

Poetry, he says, is 6ust the opposite.


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The heresy o! the didactic3

the ultimate goal o! art isaesthetic and he complains

against didacticism7 a philosophy that emphasi8esinstructional and in!ormative

9ualities in literature and othertypes o! art : which he calls aheresy


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*n Poetic %4ect ;e who shall simply sing, with however glowing

enthusiasm, or with however vivid a truth o!description, o! the sights, and sounds, and odors, andcolors, and sentiments which greet him in commonwith all mankind ' he, ( say, has yet !ailed to prove his

divine title.3


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...and e9uallyis it beyond

doubt that thelips best suited!or such topicare those o! a

bereaved lover.


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The Philosophy o! =omposition

The three central elements o! Poes philosophy are0 ength0 all literary works should be short0 the

limit is o! one sitting.


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>?>?


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Poe

Poe can beconsidered the

!ather o! the modern

horror story,in1uencing writerssuch as @tephen

ing and Anne Rice


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Poe e2plored the darkand o!ten irrationalside o! the humanmind B;awthornee2plored the dark sideo! the human heartC

;is stories o!ten are/lled with a sense o!an2iety have adreamlike 9uality


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Along with -athaniel ;awthorne, Poe

per!ected the modern short story

Poe stressed a single dominant e4ect in hisshort stories

The Premature

Eurial


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othic iterature


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The words oth and othic describe theermanic tribes Be.g., oths, Gisigoths,*strogothsC which sacked Rome andalso ravaged the rest o! %urope in thethird, !ourth, and /!th centuries.

Ey the eighteenth century in %ngland,othic had become synonymous withthe


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A ! thi


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A !ew more gothic

conventions Damsel in distress B!re9uently !aints inhorrorC

@ecret corridors, passageways, or rooms Ancestral curses

Ruined castles with graveyards nearby

Priests and monks

@leep, dream, death:like states


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-ote the !ollowing metonymies thatsuggest mystery, danger, or the

supernaturalwind, especially howling sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds

rain, especially blowing clanking chains

doors grating on rusty hinges gusts of wind blowing out lights

footsteps approaching doors suddenly slamming shut

lights in abandoned rooms craed laughter

characters trapped in a room baying of distant dogs !or wol"es#$

ruins of buildings thunder and lightning


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Thus, the othic perspective conceives o! thehuman condition as a parado2, a dilemma o!duality'humans are divided in the con1ictbetween opposing !orces in the world and inthemselves.

The othic themes o! human naturesdepravity, the struggle between good and evilin the human soul, and the e2istence o!

une2plainable elements in humanity and thecosmos.


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@upernaturalHoth

ic iterary


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The Double or Doppelganger Berman !or double:goerC0

"a second self or alternate identity, sometimes, but not always,

a physical twin.

The Doppelganger in demonic form can be a reciprocal or lower

bestial self or a Mr. yde.


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Forbidden nowledge or PowerH Faust


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DreamsHGisions0

Dreams in #othic literature e(press the dar,

unconscious depths of the psyche that are repressed by

reason)truths that are too terrible to becomprehended by the conscious

mind.

@ignsH*mens0


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@ignsH*mens0

*eveal the

intervention ofcosmic forces and

often represent

psychological or

spiritual conflict

+e.g., flashes of

lightning and violent

storms might parallelsome turmoil within a

character$s mind.


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othic -ovels

Rebecca by Daphne Du


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*ther othic

"riters Anne Rice

Ioyce =arol*ates

@tephen ing

@tephenie


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othic in


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@%AR=; F*R A

*T;(==;ARA=T%R


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poe’s poetic principle

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