More handpicked essays just for you.
Poetry analysis essay edgar allen poe
Poetry analysis essay edgar allen poe
Poetry analysis essay edgar allen poe
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Beauty of Poe and Emerson
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As stated in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Poetic Principle," a concept of beauty can only be achieved through the use of emotion, an "excitement of the soul," a necessary element to any worthwhile poem (Poe 8). Poe's fascination with the mystery of death and the afterlife are often clearly rooted in his poems and provide a basis for himself and the reader to truly experience his concept of beauty. Although also a believer in portraying beauty through poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson found beauty to be eminent in nature and all things created by the Oversoul. Beauty for Emerson is not an idea or unknown, it is visible all around him.
To Poe beauty can only arise from "excitement of the soul," and such emotion can only be brought upon by feelings of melancholy.
He reiterates the importance of melancholy in The Philosophy of Composition--"Now, never losing sight of the object supremeness, or perfection, at all points, I asked myself--- "Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?" Death --- was the obvious reply. "And when," I said, "is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?" From what I have already explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious-- "When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: 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 a topic are those of a bereaved lover" (Poe 265).
Melancholy and beauty go hand in hand for Poe. If his goal is to bring about the "excitement of the soul," then that can only be achie...
... middle of paper ...
...mself on the beauty of melancholy and the mystery of the afterlife to the point of extreme emotion, while Emerson relayed beauty through the Oversoul. Both revolutionaries of nineteenth century poetry, their works will continue to place a sense of beauty in all who reads them, and live up to the saying: --beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Each and All." The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. Ed. Jay Parini. New York: Columbia UP, 1993. 95-96.
---. "X. Essays. The Poet." The Harvard Classics. <wysiwyg://48/http://bartleby.com/5/110.html>.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition," The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. II, 1850, pp. 259-270.
---. "The Poetic Principle" (D), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. III, 1850, pp. 1-20.
---. "Annabel Lee." Parini 161-162.
Edgar Allan Poe's view on poetry is that all poems must be a "rhythmical creation of beauty". In his eyes, melancholy and sadness is beautful. He thinks that the death of a young beautiful woman is itself full of beauty. In both "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven", Poe writes about this so-called beauty.
The writing style of Edgar Allan Poe shows the writer to be of a dark nature. In this story, he focuses on his fascination of being buried alive. He quotes, “To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these [ghastly] extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” page 58 paragraph 3. The dark nature is reflected in this quote, showing the supernatural side of Poe which is reflected in his writing and is also a characteristic of Romanticism. Poe uses much detail, as shown in this passage, “The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline. The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lusterless. There was no warmth. Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.” page 59 paragraph 2. The descriptive nature of this writing paints a vivid picture that intrigues the reader to use their imagination and visualize the scene presented in the text. This use of imagery ties with aspects of Romanticism because of the nature of the descriptions Poe uses. Describing the physical features of one who seems dead is a horrifying perspective as not many people thing about the aspects of death.
New York: A.C. Armstrong & Son., 1884. xv-xxvi. EPUB file. Sova, Dawn B. "Poe, Edgar Allan.
Poe, Edgar Allan, Andrew Barger, Harry Clarke and Gustave Dore´. Edgar Allan Poe. [Memphis, Tenn.]: BottleTree Books, 2008. Print.
Cohabitation, over the last two decades has gone from being a relatively uncommon social phenomenon to a commonplace one and has achieved this prominence quite quickly. A few sets of numbers convey both the change and its rapidity. The percentage of marriages preceded by cohabitation rose from about 10% for those marrying between 1965 and 1974 to over 50% for those marrying between 1990 and 1994 (Bumpass and Lu 1999, Bumpass & Sweet 1989); the percentage is even higher for remarriages. Secondly, the percentage of women in their late 30s who report having cohabited at least once rose from 30% in 1987 to 48% in 1995. Given a mere eight year tome window, this is a striking increase. Finally, the proportion of all first unions (including both marriages and cohabitation) that begin as cohabitations rose from 46% for unions formed between 1980 and 1984 to almost 60% for those formed between 1990 and 1994 (Bumpass and Lu 1999).
Ingram, John Henry. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions. New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.
... like in a person. He is strong and appears to be intelligent. He seems to posses a logic that is missing in all the rest of the characters in this novel. I have already discussed the specific qualities that makes Cash the patriarchal center of his family; courage, diligence, and pragmatism. However, we need to realize that he is the only figure who has compassion and real understanding of people. For example, he understands Darl's actions, Anse's slow moving ways (259), Vernon's possessiveness of his mules, and Jewels' hard work at night to buy his horse. The makeup of Cash's personality and person give him the ability to head his family. It is Cash who is the motor that gets things done in the novel. It is as if the family is in a centrifuge and Cash creates the gravity that glues the group together. Cash, not Anse, is the true patriarch and leader of the family.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Edgar Allan Poe: a collection of stories. New York: Tom Doherty associates, LLC, 1994
Spohn, William C., and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead. "The American Myth of Divorce." Santa Clara University - Welcome. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. .
Shulman, Robert. Poe and the Powers of the Mind. Vol. 37. N.p.: The John Hopkins
Fisher, Benjamin F. The Cambridge Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print.
In Poe’s own life no durg could ever fully numb him to the pain of all his loses. His only true solace from his despair was in literature and his writings. Poe believed that visual art allowed the spirit to transcend the plane of reality to which it was stuck. In the Raven the narrator closely resembles Poe in this aspect. The narrator spends many a night reading long forgotten literature in an attempt to forget his own troubles after his loss. This is explained beautifully by Poe with the line “Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had tried to borrow, / From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore.” (Poe 9-10) No matter how hard he tries; however he can shake the crushing despair that has a firm grip on his emotions. One dreary night the narrator gained an unsuspecting visitor. This visitor came in the form of a raven that flew into his window. The raven torments the man reminding him of his insecurities, his flaws, and his loss. The raven accomplishes all these things by rhythmically answering his pleas with but one word, to quote the raven “nevermore.” Just like the narrator will nevermore see the face of his dead love, he too will never be free from his despair. For as long as the man lives much like Poe he
Magistrale, Tony. "The Art of Poetry." Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Westport, Conn. ;London: Greenwood, 2001. 39-41. Print.
United States, having the highest marriage rate, is not surprisingly the leaders in divorce. (NationMaster.com/people/statistics), (Divorcerate.org). One of the leading causes of divorce is unh...
Since the creation of mankind, humans all over the world have fallen in love and believe that they have found “the one.” People get married and realize that it is not always “happily ever after.” A large percentage of couples are unable to maintain their relationship, because of this, they choose divorce. Many spouses, believe that this is the best solution to deal with problems between each other. However, many people think carefully before getting entangled into marriage. Nevertheless, divorce rates still continue to increase to this very day. It certainly looks as if divorces occur more now than they did 20 years ago. There are three causes of divorce: changing of a woman’s household status, financial situations, and lack of communication.