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Annotated by:
- Moore, Pamela
- Date of entry: Feb-22-1999
- Last revised: Jan-09-2007
Summary
Poe asks why science preys on the poet. Science is peering, destructive and interested only in cold realities. It will not allow the poet to soar in fantasy or even to sit peacefully dreaming beneath a tree.
Miscellaneous
First published: 1830
Primary Source
Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin
Place Published
Boston
Edition
1956
Editor
Edward H. Davidson
Commentary
The poem has two primary, linked interpretations. According to the first, science is "bad," destroying man’s ability to dream. It reduces everything to observable facts. The second interpretation is guided by Poe’s works as a whole. Poe believed that poetry or fantasy was not in opposition to science and its reading of reality. Rather, poetry uncovered another level of reality. Science is one way to find one kind of truth; fantasy is a way to find a different kind of truth that has as much claim to reality as scientific fact.