Romanticism Edgar Allan Poe and Emerson

Romanticism Essay

Romanticism was born circa 1810 . American writers have ingeniously captured the ideologies of their respective time periods. Some have even been trail-blazers doors to new ideas and beliefs that ushered in new eras of American literature. It is through literature and the works of authors that we define each literary period. Edgar Allan Poe and Ralph Waldo Emerson are just a couple of the many writers that molded the Romantic time period through their essays,poems and stories.

Edgar Allan Poe was more of a Dark Romantic Writer. Settlers came in search of new beginnings and soon enough came the beginning of the American literary culture. Writers in this period discussed the ideas of the purification of the church and establishing a pure religious society. “I blest His name that gave and took, That laid my goods now in the dust.” she explains that God gives us these material things therefor they are his and we should let him take them if he pleases. When Bradstreet says, “Yet by his gift is made thine own; There’s wealth enough, I need no more,” she also supports the idea that we shouldn’t be materialistic. In Edward Taylor’s we see a reflection of puritan beliefs and the idea that an individuals identity is shaped by God and that all their thoughts and actions should be used for God’s service and glorification, by using a spinning wheel which is a metaphor for life itself. Taylor asks the Lord to make his spinning wheel complete which is a metaphor for his spiritual experience. Taylor says, “Then clothe therewith mine Understanding, Will, Affections, Judgement, Conscience, Memory, My Words and Actions, that their shine may fill My ways with glory and thee glorify. Then mine apparel shall display before ye That I am Clothed in Holy robes for glory” and he wants us to understand that we will become a complete and fulfilled person when we have been clothed and educated spiritually.

As opposed to Poe’s darker style Ralph Waldo Emerson Was a...