Representation of Romanticism in Edgar Allen Poe’s Poetry

Edgar Allen Poe is a well-known writer, editor, and critic. Edgar is best known for his stories and poems. He wrote many of them around the idea of romanticism. He is one of the main authors known for Romanticism in American Literature.

The Enlightenment era took place during the 18th century in Europe. The main focus of the Enlightenment era was being reasonable and focusing on the scientific components behind everything. The Enlightenment era and Romanticism are viewed as opposites. Romanticism became an insurrection to the Enlightenment’s political norms and rationalism. Enlightenment sought for order and concord, however, Romanticism valued emotions, wonder, and individuality. Romanticism sparked the people’s thoughts and then transformed society.

Romanticism was a newer concept and had a completely different meaning. It gave people a new perspective into thinking. People stopped thinking everything had to be rational or had to have a scientific reasoning behind it. People started to use their emotions and feelings, which gave them a new outlook on life. Without Romanticism, individualism would have not been relevant in that time period. Romanticism changed the mindset of people for the better. Edgar’s writings express Romanticism’s mains points.

Edgar’s stories portray the focus of emotions throughout the time period. One of his focuses was the psychology of the mind and how it interprets different emotions. His relation to romanticism was expressing different sides of human emotions and expressions through his poems. Overall, the light and dark aspects of romanticism have shown contrasting point of views especially from himself. Both Edgar and romanticism have a sense of individualism when being evaluated even if the naked eye cannot see it. Characteristics of romanticism such as the past, love, emotions, etc. have been represented in his work

The mourning poem of “Annabel Lee” tells a story about the author reminiscing about his loved-filled past with his wife; then coping with his wife’s sudden death. “But we loved with a love that was more than love”. The narrator cherished their love and does not want their love on this “kingdom by the sea” to send. After the author looked back, he realizes the angle’s jealousy could have contributed to the death of his wife. The angels played a huge part, while heaven represented celestial powers, they grew spiteful of the narrator and Annabel Lee’s love. Although the narrator is in grief, he still realizes that even though his wife is deceased, their love will never end and will always be cherished. Here is when Romanticism comes in, the individualism of love has taken over any grief or death. Even though the author loss Annabel Lee physically, his spiritual love will forever be connected and be felt between heaven and earth. “Love never dies” shows the qualities of Romanticism and contributes the authors personal connection.

“The Raven” is a poem that starts off with the narrator in a bedroom mourning a death of a woman name Lenore, it then focuses on a Raven repeating over and over “Nevermore”. The poem starts off during a dark night. The narrator opens his door, due to tapping. While upon opening the door, Edgar describes darkness is nothing more. He then opens his window and lets in a dark raven. The narrator starts to have dark thoughts and feels trapped inside the raven’s shadow. Throughout the poem, the raven would say “Nevermore” and make Edgar have no hope in anything and would even cause Edgar frustration. The raven would taunt Edgar and mock him saying that he would never see Lenore again. Edgar uses his imagination to see the raven as the devil or as a supernatural being. Edgar shows individualism through his loneliness which is experienced in his deep reflection and emotional trauma.

These two poems by Edgar fit into the Romanticism category. Romanticism can be conveyed through symbols in Edgar’s work. Annabel Lee is full of Romanticism such as love, emotion, beauty and so on. Edgar paints a tragic love story while explaining the motions of a man who lost the love of his life. “The Raven” also talks about the mourning of woman and how his trauma causes him pain. Edgar uses his imagination and dark thoughts to see a raven as a supernatural being. Edgar wrote about love, passion and the natural world which convey the idea of Romanticism.

The overall goal of Romanticism is to capture the literature processes of individualism, inspiration, emotions, and to capture those of different perspectives. Edgar Allan Poe can convey different emotions through different works, which is an overall demonstration of Romanticism. The individuality of both poems conveys the emotions and feelings both narrators went through and make an overall suggestion about Edgar. Edgar’s personal experience in his life is grief, love and the perception of reality that he sees it to be. The individuality within his works are not ordinary, but they surface as the reader dives deeper into his works. Different aspects of this author have shown that Romanticism has also had a tie between the contrasting themes and the unlikely events that have happened. The contrasting between grief and love both tie into the diversity of Poe’s mindset and the reasoning behind why his foreshadowing and use of unlikely symbols tie into one theme that shows who his inner individual is showing through literature. The beauty and passion stated before has grown and built into the conclusion of Romanticism.