Abstract

In spite of Mallarmé, for whom ideas don’t make up poems, the geometric treatise on poetics attempt to offer a definitive answer to the ars poetica’s main question: what is a poem? Based upon the theoretic writings of Paul Valéry and Edgar Allan Poe, in which we can find such a geometric stance, this article examines the reach and difficulties of a philosophical reflection in its attempt of comprehending a poetic composition. In any case, it seems the poet’s word keeps its secrets from the philosophical gestures that wish to own such knowledge. What, then, involves the challenge of thinking poetry?