The Philosophy of Composition Revisited, or Why does Modern Poetry begin in the USA

Abstract

The present paper aims at resituating Edgar Allan Poe in the canon of modern poetry. To this intent, a re-reading of the Philosophy of Composition is made, in the context of his prose work, and considering technical details invoked there as pioneering steps in establishing formats that now constitute de facto standards in the entertainment industry. Far from being, as considered by T. S. Eliot, the result of a misunderstanding, the influence of Poe, along with that of the other great American poet of the 19th century, Walt Whitman, have shaped the poetry of the 20th, and, probably, the 21st century.