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The Poetic Principle
- Author
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrator
- Sam Kusi
- Publisher
- Bookstream Audiobooks
- Publish Date
- 23 January 2026
- Run Time
- 54 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
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Details
- Author
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrator
- Sam Kusi
- Duration
- 54 minutes
- Release Date
- 23 January 2026
- ISBN
- 9783711952172
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bookstream Audiobooks
- Genre
- Classic fiction: literary and general
Synopsis
"The Poetic Principle" is an essay by Edgar Allan Poe, written near the end of his life and published posthumously in 1850, the year after his death. It is a work of literary criticism, in which Poe presents his literary theory. It is based on a series of lectures Poe had given late in his lifetime. The essay argues that a poem should be written "for a poem's sake" and that the ultimate goal of art is aesthetic. He also argues against the concept of a long poem, saying that an epic, if it is to be worth anything, must instead be structured as a collection of shorter pieces, each of which is not too long to be read in a single sitting.
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