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Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and Poetics

Edited by Richard Wilbur

“Poe is so frequently reprinted that another selection can’t possibly seem fresh. Reading him with the guidance of Wilbur, however, helps one think about him again. . . . [Wilbur] appends selections from Poe’s writings about poetics to help understanding of his cosmology and discusses some of Poe’s most intense stories to exemplify his symbolism. The poems, presented chronologically, show again what a young prodigy Poe was, formulating his poetic thought while still in his teens, and what a sonorous Romantic musician he became.”—Booklist

Overview
News & Views
Table of Contents

Overview

Story of the Week Edgar Allan Poe, “William Wilson”
January 17, 2020

Story of the Week Story of the Week: Edgar Allan Poe, “MS. Found in a Bottle”
January 23, 2019

Story of the Week Edgar Allan Poe, “Morning on the Wissahiccon”
March 23, 2018

Richard Wilbur, a former Poet Laureate of the United States and one of the most admired poets and critics of his generation, revisits the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, exploring the philosophical seriousness of verse often identified with its macabre and gothic surfaces.

“Our poetry, in Poe’s view, must specialize in aesthetic transcendence, eschewing the truth, morality, and passion which might entangle it with this present world. The whole movement of Poe’s poetry is away from the material here and now. . . . The poet’s strategy is to accomplish a mock-destruction of earthly things, estranging the reader from material reality and so, presumably, propelling his imagination toward the ideal.”— Richard Wilbur, from the introduction

Richard Wilbur (1921–2017), editor, was Poet Laureate of the United States, 1987–88. Over the course of a distinguished career he was awarded the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Bollingen Translation Prize. Among his many books are New and Collected Poems (1989) and Mayflies (2000).

About the American Poets Project
Elegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today’s most discerning poets and critics.
News & Views

Story of the Week Edgar Allan Poe, “William Wilson”
January 17, 2020

Story of the Week Story of the Week: Edgar Allan Poe, “MS. Found in a Bottle”
January 23, 2019

Story of the Week Edgar Allan Poe, “Morning on the Wissahiccon”
March 23, 2018

Story of the Week Edgar Allan Poe, “The Angel of the Odd”
January 19, 2017

News Edgar Allan Poe’s “extraordinary nonsense” inspires an ingenious modern art exhibition
November 13, 2015
Table of Contents

Introduction by Richard Wilbur

Poems
Tamerlane
Song
Dreams
Spirits of the Dead
Evening Star
“Stanzas”
A Dream
“The Happiest Day”
The Lake—To —
Sonnet—To Science
Al Aaraaf
Romance
To —— (“The bowers whereat”)
To the River —
To —— (“I heed not that my earthly lot”)
Fairy-Land
“Alone”
“To Isaac Lea”
Elizabeth
An Acrostic
To Helen (“Helen, thy beauty is to me”)
Israfel
The Sleeper
The Valley of Unrest
The City in the Sea
Lenore
To One in Paradise
Hymn
Enigma (“The noblest name in Allegory’s page”)
Serenade
The Coliseum
To F——s S. O——d
To F——
Bridal Ballad
Sonnet-To Zante
The Haunted Palace
Sonnet-Silence
The Conqueror Worm
Dream-Land
Eulalie-A Song
The Raven
A Valentine to —— —— ——
To Miss Louise Olivia Hunter
To M. L. S——
To —— —— —— (“Not long ago”)
Ulalume—A Ballad
An Enigma (“‘Seldom we find’”)
The Bells
To Helen (“I saw thee once”)
A Dream Within a Dream
For Annie
Eldorado
To My Mother
Annabel Lee
Scenes from “Politian”

Selected Prose
Prefaces
     Tamerlane and Other Poems—1827
     Poems—1831 (Letter to Mr. —— ——)
     The Raven and Other Poems—1845
Writings on Poetics
     from The Poetic Principle
     from Review of Orion, by R. H. Horne
     from Review of Alciphron by Thomas Moore
     from A Chapter of Suggestions
     from Marginalia
from Eureka: A Prose Poem
The Power of Word

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ISBN: 978-1-931082-51-8 204 pages

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