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Quotes from The Poetic Principle — Edgar Allan Poe

1809–1849 United States

← All quotes by Edgar Allan Poe

4 quotes

A poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul.

The Poetic Principle (1850)

I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement. But all excitements are, through a psychal necessity, transient.

The Poetic Principle (1850)

There neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified — more supremely noble than this very poem — this poem per se — this poem which is a poem and nothing more — this poem written solely for the poem's sake.

The Poetic Principle (1850)

I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is taste. With the intellect or with the conscience, it has only collateral relations. Unless incidentally, it has no concern whatever either with duty or with truth.

The Poetic Principle (1850)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edgar Allan Poe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.