American Literature / Unit 8 AML 0703 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"The Philosophy of Composition"
Captions available
The idea
In this essay of eighteen forty-six Poe claims to reconstruct how he wrote "The Raven", beginning with the effect he wanted and working backwards to length, refrain and subject. Whether or not the account is honest, it is the period's clearest statement that a poem is engineered.
In practice
Effect chosen first, then the poem built.
Where people slip
It may be performance, not method.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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