Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
In these four lines, Poe sums up the major conflict expressed in this poem: knowledge (brought upon by scientific investigation and discovery) vs. imagination. Here, he frames these two as irreconcilable, since science denies the poet, the imaginative mind, the free pursuit of whatever fancy strikes him. Science forces him/her to stay grounded when he/she wishes to soar through the realm of imagination.
Sonnet—To Science