Poe's Thesis In The Philosophy Of Writing By Edgar Allan Poe

1. What is Poe’s thesis? How do you know?

Edgar Allan Poe’s thesis in his piece of literature, The Philosophy of Composition, is, “Nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its denouement before anything be attempted with the pen.” (1). This is the thesis, because it is at the beginning of the writing and throughout the rest of the piece Poe gives the step by step process of how and why he wrote The Raven, the way he did, like a big literature equation. Poe works out every step until he reaches the end of the poem, before he truly turns his poem into a poem. That is exactly what the thesis said that the rest of the literature piece would be about.

2. Describe the compositional formula Poe rejects. Why does he reject it? What is Poe’s first step?

Poe rejects the compositional formula of writing a story in order, from beginning to

Overall details in a work of writing are details that make the “unity of effect”. Poe writes, “For this reason, at least, one-half of the “Paradise Lost” is essentially prose a succession of poetical excitements interspersed, inevitably, with corresponding depressions the whole being deprived, through the extremeness of its length, of the vastly important artistic element, totality, or unity of effect” (2). The “unity of effect” is missing from Paradise Lost, because it is too long with too much unnecessary information for a single impact.

8. (Compositional Rule #6: Establish the denouement and work backwards from there). Does this last step seem backward to you? What causes the “natural termination” of the narration? Why are complexity and suggestiveness key components of a piece of literature—in this case, a poem, but consider also other pieces of