The Influence of Poetry and Prose

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Edgar Allan Poe that is a name we all should know. Poe is known for his dark, gothic short stories and poems. Poe also is known for his “Poetic Principle.” This principle professes that “through poetry one achieves beauty and through prose one achieves truth.” Some people beg to differ with this statement, while I for one concur with it. Even though people presume that beauty cannot be attained by poetry because beauty is simply an aesthetic thing and that truth cannot be attained by prose because short stories are nothing but fiction, I correspond with Poe because beauty to me is inside and out and can be achieved through poetry because poetry gives you a different perspective on how you conceive the world. I also agree with Poe that truth can be achieved by prose because most short stories have a deep moral lesson to be learned. What is beauty? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary explicates beauty as the quality of being physically attractive and the qualities in a person or thing that give pleasure to the senses or the mind. Beauty as stated above can be a quality in a person that you find appealing. The Bible states, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the thing man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV) This goes to show that beauty isn’t just outside, but also inside. Poetry can make you beautiful. Poetry gives you a deeper meaning to the things that you believe are too small to be significant. For example in Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee,” Poe says “…the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.” In this example the wind could be more than just wind; it could be a disease, such as t... ... middle of paper ... ...inner interpretation on the ways you perceive the world; truth is exposed in prose because of the internal moral lesson to be learned. Works Cited: • "beauty." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. . • "1 Samuel 16:7 (New International Version)." BibleStudyTools.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . • Hood, David . "Find Your Creative Muse." Find Your Creative Muse. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . • Edwards, Clifford. "Like This the Raven." Salem Press Inc. unknown (2002): unknown. Print. • Poe, Edgar. "The Heresy of the Didactic." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .

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