Elevating Emotions Pt. 1

Thoughts About Poetry from Edgar Allan Poe's Essays

Hi! Let me start you off with a poem...

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A Pre-Introduction to This Letter

I’m two days late this week
—I must confess— Because I am afraid
Of the menace to my face
That failure represents today

The failure to express
With beauty and with excellence
The thoughts I wish to share
With you, my friends,
Who would still love me anyways

And yet today, I find no other way
To start this letter to you,
Readers from a future time,
Than to apologize in verse
For the prose I cannot write

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That being said, welcome back! It’s a pleasure to write to you again.¹ Two weeks ago, I shared with you a goal of mine: to find the poetic elements which transcend theatrics. This week, I’d like to share a discovery I made on the matter— Edgar Allan Poe’s essays. Namely, Philosophy of Composition and The Poetic Principle. This is part one of my takeaways on Poe’s essays in which I’ll share with you said takeaways. Next week I’ll write to you about how to put those into use…

Poetic Effect

It’s tricky to discern what exactly it is that poetry does to us when we read it. Does it communicate emotions? Yes, but that’s not all it does. Does it communicate truths? It could, but it doesn’t seem to be the most suitable medium for that purpose. So what does it do? It’s actually quite simple. Poetry elevates our emotions. It excites us.

Poe believes this to be a definitive quality of poetry.

“It is needless to demonstrate that a poem is such, only inasmuch as it intensely excites, by elevating, the soul”
— E.A.P²

And I agree. This, the elevation of our emotions, is what Poe calls the “effect” of poetry.

Beauty

Now the question all of us (I) ask ourselves is, how are our emotions, then, elevated? In short, through beauty.

“[The] pleasure which is at once the most intense, the most elevating, and the most pure, is, I believe, found in the contemplation of the beautiful.”

It’s remarkable that a poet known for his melancholy wrote such a statement. He regarded pleasure as an emotionally elevating experience, and beauty the most elevating of pleasures. He had the discernment to see that…

“When, indeed, men speak of Beauty, they mean, precisely, not a quality, as is supposed, but an effect — they refer, in short, just to that intense and pure elevation of soul — not of intellect, or of heart”

This blew my mind. Think of anything (or anyone) beautiful. You could say there are features or elements that make said thing beautiful, yet is is not any feature in particular that holds the quality of beauty, nor do any grouping of features hold said quality, but rather it is the impression — the effect — that is elicited in us that qualifies any set of features to be, in their sum, beautiful.

Poe, dear Poe… I get it. (photo: Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images)

However, this is Edgar Allan Poe we are talking about, so there is an unfortunate caveat: the tone of beauty in its highest form.

“Regarding, then, Beauty as my province, my next question [concerns] the tone of [beauty’s] highest manifestation — and all experience has shown that this tone is one of sadness. Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones.”

Poetry, then, elevates beauty to an extent that is unreachable. Perhaps, if I’m allowed to add to Poe’s analysis of beauty, we will never reach a state in which we could experience the beauty to which poetry appeals. It is something we instinctively grieve, for we have seen a glimpse of it here on earth: the object of our poetry. Thus, poetry, as Poe suggests, ultimately elevates our emotions to melancholy, the “most legitimate of poetic tones.”

I’d like to expand on this a tad bit. Beauty is most often associated with desirability. Naturally then, it can be jarring to assign beauty to undesirable subjects such as grief, sadness, anger, etc. Beauty, however, is not any quality in particular — such as desirability in this case. Rather, it is a word we use to describe the elevation of one’s soul. A funeral, therefore, along with a heartbreak song and sweet revenge served cold, can be beautiful things.³ They elevate and excite our emotions.

Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem
—E.A.P

Truth in the Poe-etic Landscape

Allow me to comment on something I mentioned earlier in this letter.⁴ Poetry is not concerned with truth.

I have claimed that ambiguity is not a poetic value, but neither is pinpoint accuracy. There must be a negotiation between the unknown and that which is determined. It is in this paradox where interpretation breads meaning with possibility.

However, there is space for truth in poetry just as there is space for ambiguity. But for the sake of all beauty, don’t over-do it!

“Truth, in fact, demands a precision … which [is] absolutely antagonistic to that Beauty which, I maintain, is the excitement, or pleasurable elevation, of the soul. It by no means follows from any thing here said, that passion, or even truth, may not be introduced, and even profitably introduced, into a poem — for they may serve in elucidation, or aid the general effect … — but the true artist will always contrive, first, to tone them into proper subservience to the predominant aim, and, secondly, to enveil them, as far as possible, in that Beauty which is the atmosphere and the essence of the poem.”

This quote was too good to shorten further, but I’d like to focus on one point. Truth, if used in a conscious and purposeful way, can clarify a poem. That is the nature of truth, so it follows that in poetry, it is a tool for the negotiation between the unknown and that which is determined. A tool in favor of specificity.

So… what is a poem?

I don’t know, but I’ve learned a few things, obtained a few clues, if you will. First, a poem elevates emotions. It is the basic effect of poetry. Second, a poem is concerned with beauty. It is the only matter that can truly elevate our emotions to the extent we desire.

It has been wonderful to share with you these things. Thank you for reading them. I very much look forward to writing to you again next week. Until the, I wish you all the best in all your endeavors.

With much love and appreciation,

Matias C. Vasquez

However melancholic the true province of poetry might be, poets need not be themselves melancholic

1. Before launching Poetría, I thought I’d make this an investigative sort of publication, but I don’t think that’s a good approach for me. I describe that Poetría as a journal. That is more accurate to what I want now. I want to write for the sake of writing, for the sake of processing, and for the sake of sharing. Thus, perhaps, it’s a better approach to write letters to my readers, my friends, telling them (you) about stuff. Shout out to Jo for inspiring this idea, and shout out to Malcolm Guite, who inspired me to use a welcoming introduction today rather than the beloved “hook” we have all been taught (watch this video to see what I mean). He is truly the platonic ideal of a man.

2. Every quote in this post comes from Philosophy of Composition, and are, therefore, all by Edgar Allan Poe (E.D.P)

3. Let me tell you, seeing my friends fall magnificently is most certainly a beautiful thing.

4. I think I like thinking of these posts as letters. I think I’ll even sign this one with love.