Eureka: A Prose Poem
A Prose Poem
Edgar Allan Poe 1848
A prose poem blends science and imagination to describe the universe's origin and fate. It pictures all matter spreading from a single point, then returning to unity.
141 pages 2h 44m reading time
- The most ambitious book by a writer best known for his horror stories and poems, and his last major work before his death.
- Argues that intuition and a sense of beauty can lead to truth about nature just as surely as step-by-step logic.
- Suggests that the night sky is dark because light from the most distant stars has not yet had time to reach us, one of the earliest correct answers to that old puzzle.
- Is often cited by scientists and historians as a striking early guess at ideas later found in Big Bang theory, though Poe reached them through imagination rather than evidence.
- Won serious admirers in France, where the poet Paul Valéry praised it in a well-known essay as a bold and beautiful vision of the universe.
Asked for 50,000 copies
Poe urged his publisher to print 50,000 copies, but the publisher printed only 500.
Began as a lecture
Poe first read it aloud in a New York library hall to an audience of about 60 people.
Meant to fund a magazine
He hoped the lecture would raise money to start his own literary magazine, a long-held dream.
Dedicated to a scientist
Poe dedicated it to Alexander von Humboldt, the famous German scientist and explorer.