The poetic principle

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The poetic principle (The Poetic Principle) is a posthumously published essay by Edgar Allan Poe . It first appeared in the American Home Journal on August 31, 1850 . In addition to the essays The Rationale of Verse (1843) and the 1846 published The Philosophy of Composition ( The Philosophy of Composition it provides) Poe's last significant especially for poetry view to contributing to literary criticism.

content

In terms of content, the essay is based on lectures that Poe gave from 1848 to 1849 until shortly before his death. Similar to Poe's other contributions to literary theory, he developed a theory of “good poetry” based on many contemporary examples (Byron, Willis, Bryant, Shelly and others). A “long poem” is a contradiction in terms and simply does not exist, whereas a poem that is too short becomes just an epigram that cannot produce a lasting effect. Bad poetry is characterized on the one hand by this "epic mania" ("epic mania"), but on the other hand by "heretical didacticism" ("heresy of the didactic"). Poe defines poetry as "The Rhythmical Creation of Beauty". In this sense, it should not moralize, but primarily create aesthetics and beauty.

Effect and criticism

EA Poe's literary theory achieved particular impact only in France. Charles Baudelaire , who translated and greatly appreciated Poe's work, can be seen as the initiator of this development. Often criticized Poe's partly polemical nature as well as the predominant dominance of the external form in his theory, which often makes the content seem insignificant. Occasionally, Poe was also accused of trying to hide the cause of the failure of his early long poems ( Al Aaraaf and Tamerlane ) with his theory.

German translations (selection)

Web links

Wikisource: The Poetic Principle  - Sources and full texts (English)
List of the works of Edgar Allan Poe


Poems

Tamerlane (1827) • Song (1827) • Dreams (1827) • Spirits of the Dead (1827) • Evening Star (1827) • Imitation (1827) • Stanzas (1827) • A Dream (1827) • The Happiest Day (1827 ) • The Lake (1827) • Sonnet — To Science (1829) • Al Aaraaf (1829) • Romance (1829) • To - - (1829) • To The River - (1829) • To M— (1829) • Fairy -Land (1829) • To Helen (1831) • Israfel (1831) • The Sleeping Woman (1831) • The Valley of Unrest (1831) • The City in the Sea (1831) • Enigma (1833) • Serenade (1833) • To - (Sleep On) (1833) • Fanny (1833) • The Coliseum (1833) • To One in Paradise (1834) • To Elizabeth (1835) • To Mary (1835) • Bridal Ballad (1837) • To Zante ( 1837) • The Haunted Palace (1839) • Sonnet - Silence (1840) • The Conqueror Worm (1843) • Lenore (1843) • Dream-Land (1844) • Eulalie (1845) • The Raven (1845) • Impromptu. To Kate Carol (1845) • To - (1845) • The Divine Right of Kings (1845) • Stanzas (1845) (1845) • A Valentine (1846) • To ML S— (1847) • Ulalume (1847) • To Marie Louise (1848) • An Enigma (1848) • The Bells (1849) • A Dream Within a Dream (1849) • For Annie (1849) • Eldorado (1849) • To my Mother (1849) • Annabel Lee (1849) • O, tenses! O, Mores! (1868) • Alone (1875)

Volumes of poetry

Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) • Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829) • Poems (1831) • The Raven and Other Poems (1845)

Stories

Metzengerstein (1832) • The Duc de L'Omelette (1832) • A Tale of Jerusalem (1832) • Loss of Breath (1832) • Bon-Bon (1832) • MS. Found in a Bottle (1833) • The Appointment (1834) • Berenice (1835) • Morella (1835) • Lionizing (1835) • The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall (1835) • King Pest (1835) • Shadow - A Parable (1835) • Four Beasts in One - The Homo-Cameleopard (1836) • Mystification (1837) • Silence - A Fable (1837) • Ligeia (1838) • How to Write a Blackwood Article (1838) • A Predicament (1838) • The Devil in the Belfry (1839) • The Man That Was Used Up (1839) • The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) • William Wilson (1839) • The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion (1839) • Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling (1840) • The Business Man (1840) • The Man of the Crowd (1840) • The Double Murder on Rue Morgue (1841) • A Descent into the Maelström (1841) • The Island of the Fay (1841 ) • The Colloquy of Monos and Una (1841) • Never Bet the Devil Your Head (1841) • Eleonora (1841) • Three Sundays in a Week (1841) • The Oval Portrait (1842) • The Mask of the Red Death (1842 ) • The Landscape Garden (1842) • The Secret of Marie Rogêt (1842) • The Pit and the Pendulum (1842) • The Treacherous Heart (1843) • The Gold Beetle (1843) • The Black Cat (1843) • Diddling (1843) • The Spectacles (1844) • A Tale of the Ragged Mountains (1844) • The Premature Burial (1844) • Mesmeric Revelation (1844) • The Long Box (1844) • The Angel of the Odd (1844) • Thou Art the Man (1844) • The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq. (1844) • The Stolen Letter (1844) • The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade (1845) • Conversation with a Mummy (1845) • The Power of Words (1845) • The Imp of the Perverse (1845) • The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (1845) • The Facts in the Waldemar Case (1845) • The Sphinx (1846) • The Amontillado Barrel (1846) • The Domain of Arnhem (1847) • Mellonta Tauta (1849) • Hopping Frog (1849) • Von Kempelen and His Discovery (1849) • X-ing a Paragrab (1849) • Landor's Cottage (1849)

Other works

Maelzel's Chess Player (1836) • The Daguerreotype (1840) • The Philosophy of Furniture (1840) • A Few Words on Secret Writing (1841) • The Rationale of Verse (1843) • Morning on the Wissahiccon (1844) • Old English Poetry (1845) • The Philosophy of Composition (1846) • The Poetic Principle (1846) • Heureka (1848) • The Balloon-Hoax (1844) • The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) • The Journal of Julius Rodman ( 1840) • Politian (1835) • The Conchologist's First Book (1839) • The Light-House (1849)