Poe, Edgar Allen. "Sonnet—To Science".

Summary

The speaker addresses science as the one who alters all the things and prays why it aims to attack the poet's heart. He asks how a poet could love science: points out Diana (a Roman goddess of the moon) who was dragged from her car by science, a dryad (a nymph who lives in and perishes with a tree) who was driven from the wood by science, and a nymph living in fountains who was driven out of there, too.

The science also deprived the speaker of a pleasant summer dream beneath shrubbery.

Analysis

- a poem in the Romantic vein

- the speaker perceives science as an enemy of beauty, fantasy, and myth

- the speaker obviously prefers Romantic ignorance to scientific knowledge