Philosophy of Composition

One of Edgar Alan Poe’s essays, named “The Philosophy of Composition” is like a movie’s behind-the-scenes footage of his famous poem “The Raven”. He tells how he wrote his poem step by step and which decisions he has taken in the process. He shows that he followed a logical way of writing, and upon reading the essay, my idea of that poets get an inspiration, sit down, take a pencil and write a poem is completely destroyed. It seems writing, even poetry, is a much more systematical, logical and calculated process than most people think.

Before performing an autopsy on the Raven, Poe expresses some of his ideas on the general writing. According to Poe, the shorter the text, the better. He says that a story should be read in one sitting, therefore must be short as much as possible. That is why he gives more credit to short story over novel. Poetry is also must be short as much as possible in his opinion. Another rule he enforces is that if a narration must be unpreventably long, there should be a “unity of effect” which means that a writer should be aware of the ending of the story and write everything else according to it and his main theme. That is why before starting a narration, the ending must be apparent for a writer. He says, “It is only with the dénouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence”. The reader, after giving up breaks from the reading, should be able to continue reading in the same effect.

And then Poe begins to re-construct the Raven. At first, he lists the necessary elements for a good poem: Truth and passion which are shaped in beauty. He states that a poem should both likable to the mind and the heart. Truth is needed for the mind, as without truth, mind cannot accept it. Heart needs a passionate tone to love it. But both of these two elements are nothing without a beauty, according to Poe. He thinks that he primary “province” of the poem is the beauty. Because the soul is fed by the beauty, and probably Poe wants to satisfy soul before anything else. He says, “…but the true artist will always contrive, first, to tone them (truth and passion) into proper subservience to the predominant aim, and, secondly, to unveil them, as far as possible, in that Beauty which is the atmosphere and the essence of the poem”. Poe also states that he wanted his poem to be a something which can be accepted universally. So in the poem, every word, image, object and action are universally understandable and acceptable.

After choosing his poem’s honored guest as the soul, he needed a general atmosphere which can affect soul strongly in his poem. That is why he says that he has chosen a melancholic tone for the Raven. Furthermore, for the sake of his melancholic tone, he selects “the death” as the poem’s theme. He states the death is the most “melancholic” thing for the humankind. Then, to make it beautiful, he killed a beautiful woman, and made the death collide with beauty. He says, “When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world…”.

While taking these decisions, he says that he selected a refrain for his poem to “give an artistic effect and a theatrical sense”.  Then to make it’s refrain brief, he decided to make it a single word, then for a sonorous and susceptibility he wanted to have “r” and “o” in his refrain. At last, he needed to find a word which has these sounds and also be suitable with the theme. That is how, according to Poe, he decided on using the word “Nevermore” as the Raven’s refrain.

Then Poe points out that he required an actor who would repeat the refrain. An actor which can give a Gothic feeling and a melancholic mood. He thought that a human’s repeating a word like a machine would be bizarre, so he picked an animal. At first, he decided on parrot, but to make the poem dark, he had to choose a raven. Here Poe states that a raven can repeat a humanoid word like a parrot in real life. Upon reading it i was surprised as i had not been aware that a raven could speak like a parrots. After a short investigation, i found out that ravens also have the ability to speak and thanked to Poe for another one of his contributions to my general knowledge. Here he also keeps his “truth” element as he had also a chance to select a bat or a supernatural being instead of a raven.

Later, Poe gave “nevermore” both a beauty and a melancholy. It’s effect is an increased sadness on the young man who is talking to the raven, also he got a frenzied pleasure. And he says that every single object is deliberately put into the poem. Such as the bust of Paellas to symbolize the wisdom of the man, and the books he read to show his scholarship. He states that he selected the setting as the young man’s chamber to show that he lives with the memories of his gone lover. To further contribute to the theme, he set the story in a windy night. He put the objects in contrast and also tried to give the main theme from an under-meaning.
Finally, he says that until the last stanza, he climbed the feelings of the reader to the top and slowly bring closer to the resolution which he calls “dénouement”. He thinks that until the last part, everything in the poem is regarded as real, but with the “Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” shout of the young man, the poem reaches to it’s climax. “Beak in a heart” is a metaphor which represents that the raven is an emblem for the young man’s “Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance” of his death lover. And Poe thinks that with this revelation, the reader finally sees what the raven symbolizes.

Among these things, he also reveals that how does he maintains the rhyme, rhythm and meter with detailed calculations. He thinks his way is completely original and artistic. He seems to be very immodest in these parts as he clearly admires his way of writing and originality. Actually the whole purpose of the essay  seems to be a sign of Poe’s self-admiration. He wanted to show everyone how much skilled is he and how much a hard thing he achieved after taking so many difficult steps to write the poem. Of course this might not be the case after all. Maybe he just wanted to teach people with giving the Raven just as an example.

To conclude, The Philosophy of Composition is a remarkable essay which we can see how a great poem can be written. The essay includes some very valuable tips from Poe to all kind of writers. Also it is a great way to understand the Raven’s theme. Poe clearly shows what he wanted to tell with the Raven and how did he tell it. After reading the essay, one can see that writing a long-lasted masterpiece requires much skills, thinking and working. Inspiration is not so effective as we believe it to be. The writing is also like other jobs: You have to first train yourself hard and then work hard to be a writer like Edgar Alan Poe.

(This essay is written by me for a college assignment, please share with credits)