what would you consider Poe's writing style as? i have to do a project on a poet and i chose Poe... I REEEEAAALLYY need your help!! any will do! thanks a bunch!

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002

Answers

Musicality, brevity and force of emotional effect(transparently ambiguous at times for deep suggestivity and heightening of mystery). Learned and using references for their feel more than their meaning. Restrained descriptions even of characters(despite the wild psychological studies)so that effect stands preeminent. Rhythm, rhyme and poetic devices that in form and use engage the senses toward that effect, so that the word itself becomes a symbol embodying several layers of the same thing, mainly the emotion. Using brief nearly doggerel verse at times conjoined to this symphonic power.

This is a vast question obviously. And then too there is the question of the style of his times and influences if you want to see his uniqueness. Read some of his contemporaries that write- apparently- on the same themes. Byron, Shelley, Thomas Moore,etc. etc.

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002