Edgar Allan Poe is a name we should all know. Poe is known for his dark, gothic short stories and poems. Poe is also known for his "poetic principle." This principle professes that “through poetry we attain beauty and through prose we attain truth.” Some people disagree with this statement, while I for one agree with it. Even though people assume that beauty cannot be achieved through poetry because beauty is simply an aesthetic thing and that truth cannot be achieved through prose because short stories are just fiction, I correspond with Poe because for me beauty is internal and external and can be achieved. through poetry because poetry gives you a different perspective on how you view the world. I also agree with Poe that truth can be obtained through prose, as most short stories contain a deep moral lesson to be learned. What is beauty? The Merriam-Webster dictionary explains beauty as the quality of being physically attractive and the qualities of a person or thing that give pleasure to the senses or mind. Beauty, as noted above, can be a quality in a person that you find attractive. The Bible says: “Do not consider his appearance or his size, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at what man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. » (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV) This shows that beauty is not only external, but also internal. Poetry can make you beautiful. Poetry gives you a deeper meaning to things you consider too small to be meaningful. For example, in Poe's poem "Annabel Lee", Poe says, "...the wind came out of the cloud at night, freezing and killing my Annabel Lee." » In this example, the wind could be more than just wind; it could be an illness, like...... middle of paper ...... inner interpretation of how you perceive the world; the truth is exposed in prose because of the internal moral lesson to be learned. Works cited: • “beauty”. Merriam Webster. Merriam-Webster, nd Web. November 18, 2013. • “1 Samuel 16:7 (New International Version). » BibleStudyTools.com. Np, and Web. November 20, 2013. .• Hood, David . “Find your creative muse.” Find your creative muse. Np, and Web. November 20, 2013. .• Edwards, Clifford. “Like that, the crow.” Salem Press Inc. unknown (2002): unknown. Print.• Poe, Edgar. “The heresy of didactics.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, nd Web. November 21. 2013. .