Orientalism in Poe’s Early Poetry

Abstract

“Tamerlane” (1827), “Al Aaraaf” (1829), and “Israfel” (1831) are familiar examples of Poe’s poetic Orientalism, in which the exoticism of the Middle East is used to develop aesthetic ideas central to Poe’s literary career. In addition to its relevance to nineteenth-century Western imperialism, Poe’s poetic Orientalism in these poems relies on ideas of Western European progress that incorporate Islamic religious values as part of the cultural imperialism to which Poe contributes throughout his career. Poe’s Gnosticism in these early poems anticipates his metaphysical and astrophysical claims in Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848).