this is my second question hope i receive the answer as soon as possible......thanks you very much!

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2003

Answers

Well, Poe was a notorious recycler but much deeper than that, his entire body of works bears a remarkable and powerful stamp. Themes, figures, descriptivemhods, favored sounds, names and stories repeat and repeat. Plunging deeper Poe for all his wide interests seems very much in pursuit of a singular literary ideal. "Alone" and "The Lake" very much describe the relentless relationship he had with his particular Muse. No scene, no woman, no life event, nothing is more important than his core vision and faithfulness to the experience. Later he symmbolized this mostly from the perspective of the feminine idealization("The Philosophy of Composition").

Around this core Poe built the united punch story and short poem to communicate above all else this strong impression. Self-mockery and satire in other stories still mirror this as does the way he apporaches non-fiction interest like the Dead Sea and South Seas and American west explorations. In this he resemebled the british Romantics yet their works are much wider in scope and type and usually longer than Poe. Poe subordinated nature and place, character and incident, in spare and suggestive form to his singular art.

As you spiral away from this central mystery many repreating things appear that any student can readily group together.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2003