The Philosophy of Composition - Edgar Allan Poe
[alert-success] The Philosophy of Composition
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[alert-primary] Critical Analysis [/alert-primary]
"The Philosophy of Composition" is a critical essay by Edgar Allan Poe that challenges the romantic notion that poetry arises spontaneously from intense emotions. Prominent poets, driven by their own narcissism, would like others to believe that they craft their poetic works "through a unique combination of sublime insanity and ecstatic intuition." They would tremble violently at the thought of allowing the public to observe their inner workings.
There they would witness the complex and ambiguous mental crudites, the developed fantasies cast aside in despair as unmanageable, the agonizing erasures and the meticulous interpolations that combine to produce the final outstanding creative work. They would provide a cursory examination of the theatrical performer's equipment, including the tackle, oil, paint, feathers, and accessory parts.
Poe believes that a comprehensive account, step-by-step, of the processes through which one of his compositions achieved its highest level of precision would make for extremely engaging reading. Not only do great poets exhibit a profound reluctance to reveal the laborious perspiration, despondent confusion, and agonizing effort that constitute the creation of a work of art.
Poe acknowledges that certain authors are incapable of retracing the exact steps they took to arrive at their destination. However, neither the aforementioned repugnance nor the incapacity exists within Poe.
Subsequently, he endeavors to demonstrate the "process method" through which he assembled "The Raven," one of his personal accomplishments. By demonstrating the progression of the task until its culmination, he would employ the exactness and inflexibility of a mathematical conundrum.
Inspired possibly by his background as a journalist, Poe introduces his essay with a paradoxical statement. Charles Dickens had written to inquire whether he was cognizant of the fact that Godwin had composed "Caleb Williams" in reverse. According to Poe, it is necessary to thoroughly develop each narrative until its resolution prior to committing it to paper. By doing so, a plot can acquire the inexorably weighty quality that it demands.
Extent constituted the initial consideration. Any literary piece that is too lengthy to be read in a single sitting significantly diminishes its cohesive impact. The erosion of such unity is irreparable. Poe argues that Milton's "Paradise Lost" is, in fact, a collection of delicate poetical effects strung together by the prose narrative that comprises the majority of the work. As a result, Poe resolved that his poem ought to consist of one hundred lines. In actuality, it is one hundred and eight.
Next, Poe explains that he was responsible for selecting the intended effect. The axiomatic position that "Beauty is the exclusive legitimate domain of the poem" would be his. Here, Keats' dictum from the conclusion of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" serves as a reminder.
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -that
is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need .to
know".
This contemplation of the beautiful is the
most intense, the most elevating and the purest pleasure. Having decided that
beauty was what he sought in his poe m, Poe chose the tone of its highest manifestation
as one of sadness. Thus, Poe had determined the length, the province and the
tone of the poem he was to write. Poe then wanted a keynote in his poem - a
pivot upon which the whole structure might turn. And he chose the refrain as
the one employed universally. He found however that the refrain used was generally
crude. He wanted to refine the refrain and diversify its use to heighten the
effect.
He saw that such a refrain had to be brief
-a single word. The refrain should form the close of each stanza. He chose the
long O as the most sonorous vowel. The word also had to have a melancholy
import: The first and the most apt word that presented itself was "Nevermore"
Poe had then to find a pretext for a
continuous use of the one word "Nevermore'. It struck Poe at once that a rational
human being repeating that word over and over again would not sound plausible enough.
He had to have a non-reasoning creature capable of speech. He first thought of
a parrot. He then pitched upon the raven as infinitely more in-keeping with the
intended tone.
Poe never lost sight of his object that it
should be a supreme, a perfect, poem in all respects. He had now to choose the
topic of the poem. Here, we cannot help the thought that Poe had placed his
priorities wrong. A creative effort does not begin with the form or extent but with
the embryo or the theme. It is difficult to believe that Poe did not think of
the theme first. We know of Poe's prediction for death as also for tragic love.
It was quite appropriate that this theme, a sad tale of love, should be built
up through the lips of the bereaved lover.
Poe had then to bring together the lover
and the raven. The most natural setting would be a forest but, says Poe, "it
has always appeared to me that a close circumscription of space is absolutely
necessary to the effect of insulated incident." Poe, therefore, chose the lovers
chamber richly furnished and rendered sacred to him by memories of her who had
frequented it. It is late at night and the storm is raging outside. The
raven seeking shelter flutters at the window.
The lover opens the shutters and
the raven flutters in and perches on the bust of Pallas, white in contrast to the
black of the raven. Poe had then to combine the lover lamenting his departed love
and the raven repeating the word 'nevermore'. Poe saw at once that by changing
the questions the sad lover put to the strange visitor, the raven, he would work
up the excitement. He would begin with the common place, even indifferent or
jocular query. Because of the melancholy word, by its repetition and by a
consideration of the ominous reputation of the fowl that uttered it, the lover
got excited to superstition. He poses questions to the raven, half in
superstition and half in that kind of despair, that delights in self-torture.
He experiences a frenzied pleasure in receiving the answer 'Nevermore'. The
answer expresses the most delicious, because the most intolerable, deprivation.
'Here', then writes Poe, 'the poem may be
said to have its beginning at the end. where all works of art 'should begin.'
In the last line he asks the raven whether he shall,
"Clasp
a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore".
He was thus the better able to vary and
graduate as regards seriousness and importance, the preceding queries of the
lover.
The appearance of the bird had first
attracted the lover as somewhat fantastic even a little ridiculous. The lovers tone
soon changes to profound seriousness. He feels the 'fierce eyes' of the raven
burning into his 'bosom's core'.
With the raven's reply, ‘Nevermore’ to the
lover’s final query if he shall meet his beloved in the other world, the poem as
a simple narrative within the bounds of possibility, comes to an end.
The lover understands that the bird has
come in because of the storm outside, that it has learnt only one word
'Nevermore' from a former master. Yet the lover urged by his tragic thirst for
self-torture posses a question to the raven, though he knows well that it would
answer 'Nevermore'. Poe does not want to end the poem there. He saw that there should
be some undercurrent of significance. He therefore added the two concluding
stanzas of the poem. The undercurrent is made apparent in the lines,
"Take thy beak from out my heart and
take thy form from off my door'
Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore'.
It is here the reader first sees the raven
as an emblem - an emblem of mournful and never-ending remembrance. This is
stated clearly and with the force of catharsis in a Greek tragedy in the last two
lines of the poem.
“And my soul from out that shadow that
lies floating
on the floor
Shall be lifted nevermore”.
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