Exploration Of Beauty In Edgar Allan Poe's Later Poetry

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is known as a famous storyteller, literary critic and poet in the 19^th century America. He was not wholly accepted by the American literati until the 20^th century, whereas he was seen as a forerunner of Symbolism and Aestheticism under the introduction of Baudelaire and Mallarmé. Poe has become one of the most influential writers in the world literature.The bifurcation in different assessments comes from Poe's aesthetics. He emphasizes Beauty other than morality as the sole province of poetry, and the latter is the legitimate theme in literary works in his own time. Poe's aesthetic ideas scatter in many of his literary critiques, but the systematic presentation is contained in Eureka, in which Poe shows his aesthetics of Beauty under the veil of cosmology. Through textual analysis of Eureka, this thesis brings forward Poe's cosmology with the essence of Beauty, and then tries to explore the qualities of Beauty, such as purity, harmony and soul-elevation in his later poetry.Chapter 1 The source of Beauty. This chapter interprets the cosmology contained in Eureka, pointing out that Poe's cosmology implies his aesthetics of Beauty. Under the mathematical foundation of science, Poe builds up a material and spiritual universe which is created by God's volition. Such universe moves with a tendency toward its original state, nothingness. Poe sees such truth of universe as Beauty, which decides his composition of poetry. Beauty is represented in three aspects in Poe's later poetry.Chapter 2 The mathematical music of Beauty. This chapter mainly focuses on the first aspect of Beauty, which is the poetic music. In Poe's aesthetic system, music plays as "body," with a power harnessing a whole poem toward the unity of form. Furthermore, the harmonious tone penetrating in music unifies the emotional feelings.Chapter 3 The Heterogeneity of Beauty. This chapter explains the second aspect of Beauty in Poe's later poetry, which is image, functioning as the "spirit" of Beauty. The images in Poe's poetry are with uneven qualities of death, chaos and darkness which is known as heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity in image produces a power that brings readers to be conscious of their spiritual world. It is a returning process from the material universe to a spiritual one.Chapter 4 The ultimate harmony of Beauty. The last aspect of Beauty concerns the ultimate harmony, from which Poe's poetry is originated and elevated. It is realized through the elevation of soul, which impels people to pursue the everlasting supernal Beauty in spiritual level.This thesis tries to explore Beauty in Poe's later poetry, with his cosmology as a start point. This attempt, on the one hand, is useful to clear Poe's aesthetics covered by cosmology and the world of poetry he creates; on the other hand, it helps us in the exploration of Poe influence on Symbolism and Aestheticism, as well as in the investigation of the development of the literature both in America and in this world.