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Eureka: A Prose Poem (Literary Classics)

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This work is most accurately described as an essay. Poe writes on its pages a Cosmogony, that is to say, he gives an explanation of how and why the Universe began, the way it evolved to its present condition, and what will happen to it in the end. This is no simple work, and contains not only his view of the Universe, but presents Poe's concerns with beauty, aesthetics, eternity and infinity. The essay has scientific speculations and methaphysical discussions, but Poe himself wanted it to be judged as a poem, perhaps synthesising in his wish the contradictory character of this strange, beautiful and profound work.

Written in 1848, Eureka, one of Edgar Allan Poe's last works, propounds his theory of the creation of the material and spiritual universe. In his preface, Poe says "...it is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged after I am dead." However, a reader would find it hard to consider Eureka a poem of any sort when the author spends three-quarters of the work expounding, through philosophical proof, a scientific belief in an essay format. Poe's belief is that "Gravity exists on account of Matter's having been radiated, at its origin, atomically, into a limited sphere of Space, from one, individual, unconditional, irrelative, and absolute Particle Proper, by the sole process in which it was possible to satisfy, at the same time, the two conditions, radiation and equable distribution throughout the sphere-that is to say, by a force varying in direct proportion with the squares of the distances between the radiated atoms, respectively, and the Particular centre of Radiation."

As a scientific or philosophical discourse on astronomy, Eureka is a work ahead of its time. Poe went step by step using undeniable comparisons, similar to a geometric proof, to conclude with the aforementioned statement. He begins by proposing his theme that "In the Original Unity of the First Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of their Inevitable Annihilation." He means that through the only Ultimate Principle-the Volition of God, the Universe was created. Within this creation there is an inherited yearning to return to the Original Unity. Poe further explains his theory which is extremely similar to the Big Bang Theory. During creation, the Will of God produced a reaction within a finite space, causing the Original Unity to separate and disperse (or radiate). After the force of creation, "Gravity", an equal but opposite force began to exert itself. This force, proven through Newtonian experimentation, is now contracting the universe back into the "One" or "Original Unity." That is how Poe explains the existence of Gravity along with the dispersion of galaxies, stars, planets, and moons.

But as a literary piece, most readers would drop the book within the first ten pages. Poe's diatribe succeeds in alienating the modern reader through his references to seemingly unknown astronomers and physicists from the 18th and 19th centuries such as Laplace, Comte, Dr. Nichol, Mädler, Lord Rosse, and many others. The usual motifs found in his short stories and poems are missing within the pages of Eureka. What is retained is his compounded clause sentence structure and his sense of self-worth. In many instances, Poe describes scientists' discoveries as being correct, but driven by instinct instead of reason, unlike his own. Interestingly, throughout his essay, he uses the words Divine and God very often. It leads one to believe that since this is written at the end of his life, that maybe he has begun to fear what is to come. Yet this uncharacteristic Poe disappears in the last page in which he states that "Man will at length attain that awfully triumphant epoch when he shall recognize his existence as that of Jehovah." Here Poe, the short story writer, returns as the curtain falls, letting us all know that there is no God but the Unity of ourselves, which of course includes himself.

The opening pages of "Eureka" seem designed to appeal specifically to my Inner Nerd; Poe conjures a letter from the future (2848 AD, to be exact) discussing the historical influence of philosophers Aries Tottle and Hog (i.e. Aristotle and Francis Bacon), including a passing reference to "one Kant, a Dutchman, the originator of that species of Transcendentalism which, with the change merely of a C for a K, now bears his peculiar name." The alleged letter manages to toe the line between clever and downright loopy.

After this auspicious opening, however, Poe's short "Prose Poem" is a pretty tough slog, with a few curious and exceptional passages towards the end. Part of its difficulty is its datedness, not to mention Poe's attempt to create a Grand Unified Theory that somehow integrates mesmerism, the "hypothesis of Gravitation," the formation of the planets (the nebular hypothesis), and the shape of the Milky Way. In a page torn from modern cosmology, Poe envisions a universe that expands, then contracts, constantly renewing itself; the theory itself is still afloat today, but Poe's suppositions are based more on philosophy than on the science of Hog. To Poe, the story of the universe is like a plot of a novel: every incident relates to the other, and the Universe is simply the perfect plot.

Poe's analysis doesn't get much better than that. The scientific descriptions here can cause eyes to roll, minds to spin, and heads to ache. Still, there are surprises. One of the best passages (conceptually useful even today) is Poe's vivid description of the immensity of the universe. But his conclusions are what earned him notoriety among contemporary critics, theologians, and scientists. It's a short walk from an abstract discussion of the interrelatedness of everything to an argument for the equivalence of all, and Poe blithely saunters down that path: he proposes a pantheism that elevates humanity (and, of course, Poe) to the Divine; "each soul is in part, its own God--its own Creator." More explicitly, "this Heart Divine--what is it? It is our own."

As a work of science or of theology, then, Poe's arguments and his conclusions are strained. "Eureka" is more useful for understanding a literary cosmos; it's as if he were drafting an early vision of the universe imagined by Lovecraft or Borges.