“The Philosophy of Composition”

by Edgar Allan Poe

“The Philosophy of Composition” is an essay written in 1846, whose main aim is to
elucidate the theory of how “good writers write well”. Generally, the essay introduces three of
Poe's theories regarding literature, which are Length, Method, and Unity of effect.
Method: Poe begins his essay by asserting that any literary work should actually start
with the denouement or the conclusion, and then work back to the motivation or causes that led
to that final situation. He dismissed the notion of artistic intuition and argued that writing is
methodical and analytical, not spontaneous. He writes that no other author has yet admitted this
because most writers would "positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the
scenes... at the fully matured fancies discarded in despair... at the cautious selections and
rejections".
Length: The author believed that any work of art should be “brief” and not longer that it
would take to be read in more than “one sitting”, because he states that if two sittings would be
required, “the affairs of the world interfere, and everything like totality is once destroyed”. He
then settles this idea by deciding that the proper length for his intended poem is that of no more
than 108 lines.
Unity of effect: The essay follows with Poe's conviction that a work of fiction should be
written only after the author has decided which emotional response, or "effect", he wishes to
create, which he calls the "unity of effect". Once this effect has been determined, the writer
should decide all other matters pertaining to the composition of the work,
including tone, theme, setting, characters, conflict, and plot. Holding these considerations in
mind, Poe logically decides on "the death... of a beautiful woman" as it "is unquestionably the
most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such
topic are those of a bereaved lover." 
In conclusion, “The Philosophy of Composition” serves as a truly remarkable and quite
heavy manifesto, in terms of the rigid message that is expressed, of Edgar Allan Poe’s conviction
regarding the fact that a true literary work of art is not something that comes by chance or
intuition, but by thoroughly almost statistically thought and analysis of the text to be written.

Quotes:

 “ Nothing is more clear than that every plot worth the name, must be elaborated to
its denouement before anything be attempted with the pen. It is only when the
denouement is constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of
consequence, or causation…”.
 “ the true artist will always contrive, first, to tone them into proper subservience
to the predominant aim, and secondly to enveil them as far as possible, in that
Beauty which is the atmosphere and the essence of the poem.”