I am doing a project on poe's sonnet "To Science". I wanted to know who the "he" is that he refers to in his poem. Also, can you give a critique of this poem? thanks.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001

Answers

Hey there I just wrote a paper on Poe's "To Science" for school. In this sonnet Poe is talking about how evil science is and how the romantic beauty has been taken out of nature since science has come around. He gives many examples to this throughout the sonnet. For example he talks about the "jeweled skies" which are the skies with stars which has to do with the Greek mythology, but stars are no longer viewed in that same way they are now big balls of fire and gas. He also asks science where the Hamadryads have gone and if they have gone to a happier place. The Hamadryads are the nymphs of the trees in Roman and Greek belief. Nymphs are female personifications of various natural objects in Greek mythology. He also asked where the Naiads have gone and if they have been torn from their flood. Naiads are the nymphs of lakes, rivers and fountains. Basically the poem is saying how since science is around now the poets can't escape into their fantasy world while sitting under a tree like they used to be able to do. Hope this helps!

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Hey there again. The "he" refers to the poet and how the poet should love science.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001