2. Poe’s Argument on Long vs. Short
Poetry
• Poe thinks that the nature of poetry is
supposed to be short, as it aims to transmit a
transient feeling of emotions of the poet.
• Poe criticizes that long poems have violated
the essence of the poetry itself
• He argues by comparing some short poems (a
song by Pierre Jean de Beranger, a poem by
Willis) and one long poetry (Paradise Lost)
3. Discussion
• According to Poe, due to the length of the
Paradise Lost, people might not feel the transient
poetic ideas conveyed in the literary work if they
read the Book I and Book II respectively.
However, if people directly jump to Book II (the
shorter one), this transient poetic ideas might be
better perceived.
• The weakness of Poe’s idea: The evidence is only
based on his sense of preference to the poems.
