Weeding Out Truth in Poe's "Philosophy"

The footnote to Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition" states that the essay "may or may not be factual," and I'm partial to the belief that it is neither entirely true nor entirely false. There are moments of wonderful explanation in the essay that hopefully one understood from the poem but add interesting meaning nonetheless. For instance, Poe explains that the narrator is conscious of the raven's refrain and therefore, due to a love of self-torture, begins to ask questions to which the answer of "Nevermore" will only bring him sorrow. He also makes a good point that I've often found in my own writing that "a close circumscription of space" or setting works as a frame to the story and concentrates the reader's attention. I also heartily agree with his advice that a writer should know his denouement before he even starts writing, because, even if it changes as you write, knowing the ending allows you to incorporate minute details that seem unimportant but are building toward an end goal.

While Poe gives a lot of useful advice in this essay, I wonder how much of it was decided retrospectively as he looked over his story and tried to understand why he had done certain things. This idea is supported by his pompous, and sometimes illogical, reasoning. For instance he asserts that "melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones," (722) and that "the death, then, of a beautiful woman, is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world" (724). It almost seems that by asserting these things as truth, Poe believes his reader will accept them as such. This style is reminiscent of his writing where he will incorporate unusual words, names of Ancient places, and unknown quotes through which his audience will gather his intelligence, even if the allusions are not so profound after all. Poe's masterful and seemingly logical method of expressing himself allows the reader to almost pass over impossible explanations; for instance that his need of a sonorous, forceful refrain led him to the letters "o" and "r" which naturally made "nevermore" the first melancholy word that presented itself. He also nonchalantly realizes that the difficulty in continuous repetition comes from the assumption that the word must be spoken by a human! OF COURSE! It felt like Poe wrote this essay by starting with his denouement (the poem) and then constructing the fictional path that led him to it.

I loved reading this essay and thought it was both hilarious and insightful. I cannot necessarily pick out the false from the true (perhaps the moments I ridicule are the moments of truth) which makes it almost more enjoyable to decide what you think is real, and whether it's good advice or not.

A small aside, but I especially loved Poe's dig at the "excess of suggested meaning" in the "so called poetry of the so called transcendentalists" (727) coming off of our discussions of Emerson.