Poe: the concept of poetry and poetic practice with reference to the relationship between The poetic principle and Annabel Lee

Abstract

This paper begins with the acknowledgment, on the 150th anniversary of his death, of Poe's significance as a great poetic theorist: whatever aesthetic and artistic evaluation the Bostonian Poe's work (1809-1849) may give rise to in the present-day reader, we must agree that his critical judgements of artistic works in themselves and his poetic theories have had far-reaching subsequent repercussions. Starting from this evaluation of Poe as an author of great intellectual lucidity, as the main aim of this work is to make an in-depth study of Poe as a poetic theorist, in order to ascertain to what extent his aesthetic theories are reflected in one of his poems. In order to define the area of reference, I have employed an analytical method which will contrast the basic ideas that appear in The Poetic Principie of 1850, with an earlier poem Annabel Lee written in 1849. Finally, this paper stresses the importance of the creative act as the actual origin, rather than the consequence, of his poetic theses, although Poe's merit lies, above all, in his determination to assign a method to literary creation, that is to say, Poe challenges the Romantic criteria regarding freedom of inspiration, calling for an intellectual and analytical study which would contribute to the rigour of poetic composition.