An Enigma
An Enigma - form Summary
Playful Sonnet About Secrecy
Poe’s "An Enigma" is a compact sonnet that satirizes Petrarchan sentiment and popular sonnet conventions. A speaker, Solomon Don Dunce, derides most sonnets as flimsy, bubble-like and transparent. Yet the poem claims its own permanence by revealing that its worth lies in concealing "dear names" within. The final turn reframes the piece as a playful riddle: its lasting value depends on hidden personal references rather than grand ideas.
Read Complete Analyses“Seldom we find,” says Solomon Don Dunce, “Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet. Through all the flimsy things we see at once As easily as through a Naples bonnet - Trash of all trash!- how can a lady don it? Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff - Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it.” And, veritably, Sol is right enough. The general tuckermanities are arrant Bubbles- ephemeral and so transparent - But this is, now- you may depend upon it - Stable, opaque, immortal- all by dint Of the dear names that he concealed within ‘t.
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