When reading Poe's work, I found myself almost mesmerized by his writing, even his prose. "The Raven" most obviously depicts this rhythmic quality with its repetitive rhyming and alliteration, but I feel that his prose exemplifies this as well. This hypnotic aspect to his writing is what makes his work, at least for me, significantly more enjoyable. Part of this quality to his writing relies on Poe's unique diction and syntax, but I also see this rhythm in the construction of the plots in his stories.
In "The Philosophy of Composition," Poe states, "it is only with the dénouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points, tend to the development of the intention"(720). This reflects many of Poe's plots and how many of his stories end very abruptly near the climax, as we mentioned in class. The escalation that Poe employs captivates the reader, giving his work this enthralling quality that makes his writing so exciting. His use of paranoia to drive many of the plots also allows us to fixate exactly on what the main character usually fixates on himself. We see that similarly to how "The Raven" initially opens up with a slower more monotonous tone, focusing on description, many of his short stories build on this slower introduction until the plot begins to escalate very rapidly, placing the reader in a position to become immersed in the story as the main character becomes immersed in his own obsessions. In contrast to Cooper's work, which employs several long description scenes and only small sporadic bursts of action, Poe integrates a distinctive rhythm to build up to the climax and create a sudden halt that makes his work both hypnotizing and exciting to read. There's a point to his work, and like we discussed in class, there's almost this compulsive need to uncover it.
I love the quote from Poe's "Philosophy of Composition"! In a way, the statement that having the ending constantly in view provides an air of consequence and causation, and reveal a complete intention, is a kind of tautology--it's a circular sort of reasoning. It begs the question of which comes first--the intention or the effect, the ending or the causes that lead to it. And yes, this idea of endings applies really well to "The Raven," where the ending is clear from the beginning in what the raven keeps saying (also the last word of the poem!). But it also doesn't apply very well to some other endings, which don't seem to make sense with the rest of the story--like "William Wilson." Interestingly, in Poe's one novel, the ending makes no sense at all (it appears to be unfinished, though Poe published it as finished), and there is virtually no sense of cause and effect throughout. I guess my point is that Poe seems to understand what effects good stories will produce, and what a good story ought to look like, but he is perhaps not that interested actually in cause and effect, in logic.
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