"The Poetic Principle" is an essay by Edgar Allan Poe, written near the end of his life and published posthumously in 1850 (Poe died in 1849). An essay is usually a short piece of writing It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic, For the game see 1850 (board game. 1850 ( MDCCCL) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link Year 1849 ( MDCCCXLIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common It is a work of literary criticism, and one of the most complete (but still far from being truly complete) discussions of Poe's literary theory. Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of Literature and of the methods for analyzing literature It is based on a series of lectures Poe had given on literary theory late in his life.
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Synopsis
The essay argues that a poem should be written "for a poem's sake" and that the ultimate goal of art is aesthetic. " Art for art's sake " is the usual English rendition of a French Slogan, from the early 19th century l'art pour l'art and expresses a philosophy Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called He also argues against the concept of a long poem, saying that an epic, if it is to be worth anything, must instead be structured as a collection of shorter pieces, each of which is not too long to be read in a single sitting. The long poem is a literary genre including all Poetry of considerable length An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
The essay critiques, sometimes rather sharply, the works of other poets of his time. His most common complaint is against didacticism, which he calls a "heresy". Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in Literature and other types of Art. Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief especially a religion that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief Though Poe is referring to poetry here, it is believed that Poe's philosophy against didacticism extends to fiction. [1]
Origins
The essay was based on a lecture that Poe gave in Providence, Rhode Island at the Franklin Lyceum. The lecture reportedly drew an audience of 2000 people. [2]
See also
References
- ^ Kagle, Steven E. " The Philosophy of Composition " is an Essay written by Edgar Allan Poe that elucidates a theory about how good writers write when they write well "The Corpse Within Us" as collected in Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu, edited by Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, Inc. , 1990. p. 104 ISBN 0961644923
- ^ Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992. p. 384 ISBN 0050923318
External links
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