THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION

The Philosophy of Composition is an essay published in 1846 and

written by Edgar Allan Poe. In this essay, clearly linked to poetry,
he discusses the parameters needed to be followed to write a good
literary text, comparing them to his poem “The Raven”. First, he
talks about the extent of a piece of literature. He believes that all
literary works should be short, claiming that there is a distinct limit
to all works of literary art, defined by the single sitting. That is, if a
piece of writing cannot be easily read and consumed in one sitting
it is not worth reading. Secondly, the effect wished to convey. The
decision of an effect must be made before writing can even begin. Once
the decision is made, all elements of the fiction must be selected based
on their ability to elicit this desired emotion He talks about province
of the poem, that is Beauty, the most pure elevation of the soul,
Truth, as the satisfaction of the intellect, and Passion, the
excitement of the heart. Taking in consideration Beauty as a
province, we could say that the tone is one of sadness. Beauty in
its supreme development excites the sensitive soul to tears. These
characteristics serve as a key-note in the construction of the poem.
Third and last, the method. The author of fiction must always keep
the desired emotional response of the reader in his or her mind while
writing .He claims that writing fiction is methodical, almost like a
science. In saying this, he goes against the more popular claim that
writing is based on artistic intuition and spontaneity.

He says a good poem should appeal to both the public and the critics,
and that he has considered every aspect of the poem. In The Raven, no
part of the poem was an accident.Every element was critically
controlled by the poet:the contrast of white bust versus black raven; the
raven personifying “Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance”; the
bust of Palla, the scholar, in relation to the academic narrator; even the
term “Nevermore” is based on the unity of effect by resembling in both
sound and vowels, the name of the lost woman: Lenore