Eureka: A Prose Poem

Eureka (1848) is a lengthy non-fiction work by the American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) which he subtitled "A Prose Poem", though it has also been subtitled "An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe". Adapted from a lecture he had presented, Eureka describes Poe's intuitive conception of the nature of the universe, with no antecedent scientific work done to reach his conclusions. He also discusses man's relationship with God, whom he compares to an author. Eureka is dedicated to the German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859).^[1][2]

Though Eureka is generally considered a literary work, some of Poe's ideas anticipate 20th-century scientific discoveries and theories.^[3] Analysis of Eureka's scientific content shows congruities with modern cosmology, stemming from Poe's assumption of an evolving Universe.^[4][5]

In Poe's day, Eureka was received poorly and was generally described, even by friends, as absurd. Modern critics continue to debate the import of Eureka, and some doubt its seriousness, in part because of Poe's many incorrect assumptions and his comical references to historic thinkers. Poe calls Eureka a "poem", whereas many critics compare it with his fiction works, especially his science fiction stories such as "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". Poe's attempts at discovering the truth follow his own tradition of "ratiocination", a term he had used in his detective fiction tales. His suggestion that the soul continues to thrive even after death parallels his writings in which characters reappear from beyond the grave, as in "Ligeia". The essay contains aspects of transcendentalism, despite Poe's disdain for that movement.

Poe considered Eureka his greatest work and claimed that it was more important than the discovery of gravity.