Sonnet to Science
"Sonnet to Science"[1] (originally "Sonnet — To Science") is an 1829 poem by Edgar Allan Poe, published in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems.
Summary
Poe asks why science preys on the poet. Science is peering, destructive and interested only in cold realities. It will not allow the poet to soar in fantasy or even to sit peacefully dreaming beneath a tree.[2]
Publication history
In mid-November 1829, Poe agreed with the Baltimore firm Hatch and Dunning to publish his second volume of poetry, entitled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. This volume was the first instance in which Poe published his verse under his own name as opposed to his first publication, Tamerlane and Other Poems, which was only attributed to “a Bostonian”.[3]
A later published version of this poem includes the following note, “Private reasons—some of which have reference to the sin of plagiarism, and other to the date of Tennyson’s first poems—have induced me, after some hesitation, to re-publish these, the crude compositions of my earliest boyhood. They are printed verbatim—without alteration from the original edition—the date of which is too remote to be judiciously acknowledged.”[4]
References
External links
- An omnibus collection of Poe's poetry at Standard Ebooks
- Sonnet — to Science public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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- "Tamerlane" (1827)
- "Al Aaraaf" (1829)
- "Sonnet to Science" (1829)
- "To Helen" (1831)
- "The City in the Sea" (1831)
- "The Haunted Palace" (1839)
- "The Conqueror Worm" (1843)
- "Lenore" (1843)
- "Eulalie" (1843)
- "The Raven" (1845)
- "Ulalume" (1847)
- "A Dream Within a Dream" (1849)
- "Eldorado" (1849)
- "The Bells" (1849)
- "Annabel Lee" (1849)
- "Metzengerstein" (1832)
- "The Duc de L'Omelette" (1832)
- "Bon-Bon" (1832)
- "MS. Found in a Bottle" (1833)
- "Berenice" (1835)
- "Morella" (1835)
- "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835)
- "Ligeia" (1838)
- "A Predicament" (1838)
- "The Devil in the Belfry" (1839)
- "The Man That Was Used Up" (1839)
- "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839)
- "William Wilson" (1839)
- "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion" (1839)
- "The Business Man" (1840)
- "The Man of the Crowd" (1840)
- "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841)
- "A Descent into the Maelström" (1841)
- "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" (1841)
- "Eleonora" (1841)
- "The Oval Portrait" (1842)
- "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842)
- "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842)
- "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842)
- "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843)
- "The Gold-Bug" (1843)
- "The Black Cat" (1843)
- "The Spectacles" (1844)
- "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" (1844)
- "The Premature Burial" (1844)
- "The Oblong Box" (1844)
- "The Angel of the Odd" (1844)
- "Thou Art the Man" (1844)
- "The Purloined Letter" (1844)
- "Some Words with a Mummy" (1845)
- "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade" (1845)
- "The Imp of the Perverse" (1845)
- "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (1845)
- "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (1845)
- "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846)
- "Loss of Breath" (1846)
- "Hop-Frog" (1849)
- "Maelzel's Chess Player" (1836)
- "The Philosophy of Furniture" (1840)
- "Morning on the Wissahiccon" (1844)
- "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846)
- "The Poetic Principle" (1846)
- Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848)
- Politian (1835)
- The Conchologist's First Book (1839)
- The Balloon-Hoax (1844)
- The Light-House (1849)
- Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (wife)
- Eliza Poe (mother)
- David Poe Jr. (father)
- William Henry Poe (brother)
- Rosalie Mackenzie Poe (sister)
- Poe Museum
- Poe Cottage
- Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum
- National Historic Site
- The Stylus magazine
- Death
- Edgar Awards
- In popular culture
- Poe Toaster
- Tales of Mystery & Imagination
- Edgar Allen Poe (1909 film)
- The Raven (1915 film)
- The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942 film)
- The Man with a Cloak (1951 film)
- Edgar Allan Poe: Once Upon a Midnight (2004 play)
- The Raven (2012 film)
- The Pale Blue Eye (2022 film)