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Literature Annotations

Poe, Edgar Allan Sonnet - to Science

	On-Line Text
Genre	Sonnet
Keywords	Alternative Medicine, Medical Education, Psycho-social Medicine, Science
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.
Commentary	The poem has two primary, linked interpretations. According to the first, science is "bad," destroying man’s ability to dream. It reduces everything to observable facts. The second interpretation is guided by Poe’s works as a whole. Poe believed that poetry or fantasy was not in opposition to science and its reading of reality. Rather, poetry uncovered another level of reality. Science is one way to find one kind of truth; fantasy is a way to find a different kind of truth that has as much claim to reality as scientific fact.
Source	Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Edition	1956
Editors	Edward H. Davidson
Place Published	Boston
Miscellaneous	First published: 1830
Annotated by	Moore, Pamela
Date of Entry	08/08/94
Last Revised	01/09/07