Author: Edgar Allan Poe

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Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise?
Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jeweled skies,
Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?
And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

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Type of Poem: Sonnet

Date Written:

Date Published:

Language: English

Keywords: Public Domain

Source: Public Domain Collection

Publisher:

Rights/Permissions: Public Domain

Comments/Notes: The poem presents a profound meditation on the tension between the domains of science and poetry, or more broadly, between reason and imagination. The speaker personifies science as a predatory vulture and a true daughter of Old Time, suggesting its invasive, relentless nature and its connection to the passage of time and progress. In contrast, the poet is depicted as a dreamer, seeking treasure in the jeweled skies, indicating the poet's imaginative, aspirational tendencies.

The tone of the poem oscillates between accusatory and plaintive, revealing the speaker's conflicting emotions towards science. The poet accuses science of stripping away the mystique and magic from the world, symbolized by figures from mythology like Diana, the Hamadryad, and the Naiad. The structure of the poem, composed in a single stanza, mirrors the unbroken stream of the speaker's thoughts, emotions, and accusations. The use of rhetorical questions throughout the poem serves to underscore the speaker's disbelief and disappointment with science's encroachments. The poem, therefore, posits an age-old debate on the reconciliation of empirical knowledge with the mystique of human creativity and imagination.