In the tomb of my mind, I can still hear the sounding sea. I can still see the death upon her eyes. Oh, author! Oh, raven! Thy beak is still deep in my heart.
Edgar Allan Poe, in a literary career slightly exceeding more than twenty years, introduced the short story as a literary form, perfected the tale of psychological horror, and first articulated the idea of pure poetry. Pure poetry, as defined by Encyclopaedia Britannica, is the ‘message-free verse that is concerned with exploring the essential musical nature of the language rather than with conveying a narrative or having didactic purpose.’ Writers of pure poetry, apart from Poe, include: George Moore (who published An Anthology of Pure Poetry …show more content…
In “The Philosophy of Composition,” Poe outlines how he came to write “The Raven,” detailing his artistic choices. Scholars have pointed out that Poe’s account of writing the poem is vastly idealized and probably untrue, but however disingenuous Poe is about his composition, he’s crystal clear on his philosophy: “Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.... Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all poetical tones....The death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world—and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.” Poe devoted his longest essay on poetics, “The Rationale of Verse,” to an overly complicated view of rhythm and meter, but the importance of sound in Poe’s poems cannot be overstated. A master of rhythm, Poe's syllable-by-syllable approach to sound yielded some of the most memorable lines in American poetry. His ear for mimicry is unparalleled. "The Bells" is an onomatopoetic marathon of tinkling tintinnabulation and clanging, banging bells, bells, bells
Edgar Allan Poe, in a literary career slightly exceeding more than twenty years, introduced the short story as a literary form, perfected the tale of psychological horror, and first articulated the idea of pure poetry. Pure poetry, as defined by Encyclopaedia Britannica, is the ‘message-free verse that is concerned with exploring the essential musical nature of the language rather than with conveying a narrative or having didactic purpose.’ Writers of pure poetry, apart from Poe, include: George Moore (who published An Anthology of Pure Poetry …show more content…
In “The Philosophy of Composition,” Poe outlines how he came to write “The Raven,” detailing his artistic choices. Scholars have pointed out that Poe’s account of writing the poem is vastly idealized and probably untrue, but however disingenuous Poe is about his composition, he’s crystal clear on his philosophy: “Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.... Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all poetical tones....The death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world—and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.” Poe devoted his longest essay on poetics, “The Rationale of Verse,” to an overly complicated view of rhythm and meter, but the importance of sound in Poe’s poems cannot be overstated. A master of rhythm, Poe's syllable-by-syllable approach to sound yielded some of the most memorable lines in American poetry. His ear for mimicry is unparalleled. "The Bells" is an onomatopoetic marathon of tinkling tintinnabulation and clanging, banging bells, bells, bells