Customer Reviews

Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and Poetics (American Poets Project)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The introduction gives an interesting perspective of Poe I had not read in other critiques; that Poe's writings about loss and death were intended to serve readers on a spiritual level. The reader is engaged by some kind of attachment, and then that attachment is ripped away by death or loss. What are you left with? The spirit, which goes on. It is an interesting theory and gives a completely different view of Poe's intentions and the depth of his compassion for humanity.

On that, the way the slim book ends is perfectly compiled. Rather than wading through the entire Eureka, we are given only the last third, enough to get excited about the main points about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Poe was a visionary of E=M though he didn't have the constant C2 yet, and a visionary of intelligent design reconciled with string theory's Anthropic Principle (currently being rediscovered by Leonard Susskind). We see the end of this universe, and we feel the loss of all we had been attached to, while seeing the higher purpose as the universe returns to unity. Eureka is then followed by the perfect conclusion statement, the short and fun dialogue, "The Power of Words," in which two angels look back on the Earth after it's destroyed, and chat about knowledge, happiness, creation, creatures, and creativity.

The Intro and the last two poems are worth double the price of the book!