Eureka

"Eureka" is Poe's last major piece and his longest non-fiction work. It has its origins in a lecture Poe presented in 1848, titled "On The Cosmography of the Universe", at the Society Library in New York. Eureka describes Poe's intuitive conception of the nature of the universe with no scientific work done to reach his conclusions. He also discusses man's relationship with God, whom he compares to an author. Though it is generally considered a literary work, some of Poe's ideas anticipate discoveries of the 20th century. Indeed a critical analysis of the scientific content of Eureka reveals a non-causal correspondence with modern cosmology due to the assumption of an evolving Universe, but excludes the anachronistic anticipation of relativistic concepts such as black holes.