Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe began his career as a poet, and collected or corrected poems throughout his career. A quality of enjoyable sounds can be found in poems that readers also consider serious. However, these elements can also exist with themes that are more typical of the Romantic Movement, such as dreams and nightmares Poe handled this through images designed to show undecided states of awareness represented as lakes, seas, waves, and vapors.

Nearly all Poe's criticism on poetry was written for the magazines for which he worked. Although the pieces were published occasionally, they reflect a remarkably logical, self-conscious view of poetry and of the creative process. Poe wrote "The Philosophy of Composition" to explain how he composed "The Raven." The essay went up against the romantic guess that the poet works in an emotion of pure inspiration. Instead, Poe wrote a carefully planned description of poetic creation. The essay analyzes the central role of the conscious choice of an emotional atmosphere that is more important than events, characters, and the lyrics. Poe also offered his famous statement "the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world." In "The Poetic Principle" (1850), Poe claimed that poetry works to achieve "an elevating excitement of the soul," an emotional state that could not be long sustained. He further declared that a "long poem" is a contradiction in terms.

Poe believed that a poem's emotional impact was cam up with by music or sweet sounds. He then devoted most of his attention to techniques of the lyrics or rhymes.

Although it has exaggerated effects and flaws, "The Raven" which was written in 1845 is Poe's best-known poem and one of the most famous works in American literature. It treats his favorite theme, the death of a beautiful woman. This theme also appears