Edgar Allen Poe has been criticized and ridiculed for the life he lead and his works have been sadly neglected by some, because of this. Poe lived a very disheveled life, and many tragedies befell him starting at an early age. Poe pushed past these constraints and stereotypes and plowed forward with passion and ambition. He may have suffered from the failures and tragedies that plagued him, but it did not stop him from influencing the world and using his talent.
Poe was a ponderer of all things, both beautiful and morose. He took his thoughts, ideas, and beliefs and presented them for the world to see, despite the close-mindedness of the people in his time. He was bold, just as many of the greatest thinkers have been and are.
Poe has had many labels in his life, but never was scientist one of them. Most of us are not even aware that Poe pondered the universe and may have even foreseen things about the universe as it is and will become. I encourage you all to take a look at “Eureka“, one of Poe’s greatest works. For those of you who make an attempt at reading and understanding Eureka, I give you applause. It is very long and full of large ambiguous words. By no means am I saying that it is not amazing work, I am just saying it is a lot to comprehend for someone who is not knowledgeable in science.
On that note, I stumbled upon some wonderful essays dedicated to Eureka and it’s propositions. They can be found at the Poe Decoder. This is a wonderful site dedicated to Poe and the sites name speaks for itself. Here you can find “Eureka” broken down in to old and new propositions, with segments dedicated to each proposition. Juan Lartigue, produced a wonderful essay entitled “Edgar Allen Poe and Science: A Cosmic Poet“. Many other wonderful essays on Poe can be found here as well.
I leave you with a challenge…A challenge to journey in to Edgar Allen Poe’s mind and to return unchanged…
Inside an Irish Mind 