From Romance to Modernity: Poe and the Work of Poetry Author(s): Joan Dayan Source: Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Fall, 1990), pp. 413-437 Published by: Boston University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25600853 Accessed: 21-09-2017 15:38 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Boston University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in Romanticism This content downloaded from 129.59.95.115 on Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:38:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms JOAN DAYAN From Romance to Modernity: Poe and the Work of Poetry What is Poetry??Poetry! that Proteus-like idea, with as many appellations as the nine-titled Cocyra! ?Poe, "Letter to B-" Poe beganquestioned his the writingidea of poetry, career worried as about A poet, defining and it, andthroughout by his his life he own admission, failed to write poems "of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself."1 And yet, what Poe and his subsequent critics recognize as failure demands further consideration. The problem of Poe's poetry is nothing less than a demonstration of what happens when the lyric of feeling confronts the demands of a form more public and less pure than that celebrated in "The Poetic Principle.