Sonnet: To Science By Edgar Allan Poe

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Sonnet To ScienceByEdgar Allan Poe
A Presentation by Neeta Dixit (Roll No. 06D02016)
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About the Poet

• Edgar Allan Poe (1809 1849) was an American
  poet, short-story
• writer, editor and literary critic, and is
  considered part of the
• American Romantic Movement.
• Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary,
  and intellectual
• movement that originated in the second half
  of the 18th century
• in Western Europe, and gained strength
  during the Industrial
• Revolution. It was partly a revolt against
  aristocratic social and
• political norms of the Age of Enlightenment
  and a reaction
• against the scientific rationalization of
  nature, and was
• embodied most strongly in the visual arts,
  music, and literature.

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Sonnet To Science
Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art! Who
alterest all things with thy peering eyes. Why
preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart, Vulture,
whose wings are dull realities? How should he
love thee? or how deem thee wise? Who wouldst not
leave him in his wandering To seek for treasure
in the jewelled skies, Albeit he soared with an
undaunted wing? Hast thou not dragged Diana from
her car? And driven the Hamadryad from the
wood To seek a shelter in some happier star? Hast
thou not torn the Naiad from her flood, The Elfin
from the green grass, and from me The summer
dream beneath the tamarind tree?
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First published in 1829,it was written while Poe
was in the Army. This is considered the best of
his early poems written in the Army. It is
symbolic of an important transformation in Poe's
style and attitude. It's sonnet form shows Poe's
poetic maturity and discipline. The subject
matter reveals that Poe was entering the world of
science, which he would later master. Before, his
education and attention had been in classics and
history.
Importance of the work
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Structure
Sonnet The term "sonnet" derives from the
Provencal word "sonet" and the Italian word
"sonetto," both meaning "little song". A sonnet
now is a poem of fourteen lines that follows a
strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. The
conventions associated with the sonnet have
however evolved over its history. Following the
tradition of the English sonnet, this poem
contains three quatrains and a concluding
couplet. The first quatrain,condemns Science
as a true daughter of Old Time and as a
Vulture that preyest . . . upon the poets
heart The second quatrain, poses rhetorical
questions asking how a poet could like, respect,
or join Science .
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Structure

• The third quatrain, accuses Science of
  spoiling some beautiful myths, such as that of
  Diana and the Hamadryad.
• Finally, the concluding couplet reveals the
  reason for the personas lament here, with the
  poems only first-person pronoun, the persona
  focuses attention on himself, accusing Science of
  depriving him of his reverie.

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Theme

• Under the traditional Shakespearean sonnet
  structure, Poe expresses nontraditional
  accusations of science. It is spoken through the
  vision of a passionate man mourning the slaughter
  of mythology, fantasy, art by its alleged arch
  enemy, Science. Science is portrayed as evil and
  words like "preyest," "Vulture," and "torn" are
  used to describe science's impact on mankind.
• Poe does not see science and scientific
  development as a good thing , rather he feels
  that science "alterest all things with thy
  peering eyes." This vision of science grows
  stronger and appears in virtually all of Poe's
  later tales and stories.

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Theme

• He implores Science as to why she must
  impose her dull realities on the hearts of
  poets like himself, squelching their wandering
  minds. He questions the desertion of imagination
  by the objective force of science.
• He is inclined to avoid logic in his
  argument, although the classic sonnet structure
  implies his own attempt to rationalize his own
  thoughts. Perhaps the structure contrasted with
  such feelings further insinuates humanity's
  paradoxical need for organization in every field
  of thought.

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Meanings and References

• Science daughter of Old Time vulture the
  "thee" of "How should he love thee?" the "who"
  of "Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering".
• Poet "he" of "How should he love thee?"

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• Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
• Who alterest all things with thy peering
  eyes.Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's
  heart,Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
• He calls science, a true daughter of Old Time
  who changes all things by looking at them with
  peering eyes and inflicts emotional damage upon
  the vulnerable poet and a vulture, focused on
  dull reality.
• Here Poe compares science to a true daughter
  of Old Time and a Vulture. Both comparisons
  help make a case against science and cast it in a
  negative light. The reference to time reminds
  the reader of death and decay, both of which come
  with time. Without time, after all, there would
  be no reason to worry about deadlines and
  responsibilities, and one could devote oneself
  completely to reverie. The reference to a
  vulture, similarly, conjures up the connotations
  of death and decay while completing the image in
  the previous line of science devouring the heart
  of the poet.

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• How should he love thee? or how deem thee
  wise?Who wouldst not leave him in his
  wanderingTo seek for treasure in the jewelled
  skies,Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
• He questions that why should a poet love
  Science and the reason why he should think of it
  as wise when it does not permit him to indulge in
  imagination, even though he, the poet, perseveres
  it with undaunted courage.
• This image of the poor brave poet with his
  heart being preyed upon as he is simply trying to
  enjoy the beauty of the stars presents a
  victimized character to the reader.

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Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?
In Roman mythology, Diana was the hunting
goddess, and an emblem of chastity. Here car
indicates Dianas chariot.
Now science has vanquished the hunt, leaving
Diana aimless and lost.
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• And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
• To seek a shelter in some happier star?
• Hamadryad Greek Roman Mythology
• -A wood nymph who lives only as long as
• the tree, of which she is the spirit,lives.
• Now with the advent of science, The Hamadryad
  
• does not tend to the old forests but science
  
• explains the cycle of photosynthesis.

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• Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood
  

In Greek mythology, the Naiads were a type of
nymph who presided over fountains, wells,
springs, streams, and brooks.
Now instead of the Naiad, nymph of fresh water,
being the source of the flood, science can come
up with dreary explanations involving weather
patterns.
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• The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
• The summer dream beneath the tamarind
  tree?

The term "Elfin" (relating to or suggestive of
an elf) is actually an adjective, but Poe uses
it here as a noun. Science has brought about the
termination of the poets summer dream readers
have no choice but to understand that there are
immense differences in the meanings of the words
he meticulously chooses.

• The wood nymph Hamadryad, the water nymph
  Naiad, and
• Diana, goddess of wild animals, all conjure up
  notions of magic,
• beauty, and imagination.

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• Sciences crime of destroying these beautiful
  myths is made all the worse by the poems harsh
  language. The vulture has not just nudged the
  mythical figures out of the picture, but has
  dragged Diana from her car and torn the Naiad
  from her flood.

• Thus through its sonnet structure, metaphor,
  allusions, diction,
• and alliteration, Sonnet To Science laments
  the effects of
• science on poetry and imagination.

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• Alliteration plays a role here, as well. While
  some of the poems alliterationthe repetition of
  gs in green grass and of ts in tamarind
  tree, for examplemay serve only to create
  pleasing aural effects or to unify lines, others
  provide an aural complement to a violent image.
  The repetition of ps in preyest and poets ,
  for instance, suggests the thumping one might
  expect to hear from a vulture pecking at a
  carcass, and the repetition of ds in dragged
  Diana mimics the thrashing of a woman being
  pulled from a carriage against her will.

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• Thank You!