Similarities Between Emerson And Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the two giants of early American professional writing and poetry, while considered bitter rivals and often opposed in mindsets, still held some common beliefs about what poetry and creativity were. Despite Poe’s dark motifs and desire to unearth the deep and hidden emotions of man clashing with Emerson’s desire to speak for all and to make mankind see what it meant to be part of the Whole, the two men were still both poets, and this mix of difference yet similarity persists in their theories on writing and poetry. Their theories on poetry are both different and similar at once.

Emerson makes no secret his thoughts on poetry. His essay “The Poet” clearly and eloquently explains what he believes the meaning of poetry

to be: Poetry is meant to connect mankind to the bigger picture, to make one man feel like every man. As Emerson puts it, “The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the commonwealth” (Emerson). In “The Poet,” Emerson discusses how a poet must be in tune with himself and with the world, so that he might understand the Whole. With this understanding, the poet “re-attaches things to nature and the Whole” (Emerson). A poet is the paragon of mankind, a representative, on par with any priest or prophet. “The poet is the person in whom these powers are in balance, the man without impediment, who sees and handles that which others dream of, traverses the whole scale of experience, and its representative of man, in virtue of being the largest power to receive and to impart” (Emerson).
Poe, on the other hand, had what could be called a more critical and realistic view of poetry.

In his essay “The Poetic Principle,” Poe begins by clarifying the poetry’s purpose is to excite, saying, “I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement” (Poe). He goes on to specify that for a poem to fulfil its purpose, it must not be too long. “But all excitements are, through a psychal necessity, transient. That degree of excitement which would entitle a poem to be so called at all, cannot be sustained throughout a composition of any great length” (Poe). Also, according to Poe, a poem must not bee too short, either. “On the other hand, it is clear that a poem may be improperly brief. Undue brevity degenerates into mere epigrammatism. A very short poem, while now and then producing a brilliant or vivid, never produces a profound or enduring effect” (Poe). Poe’s overall belief was that is was the job of poetry to stir up the thoughts and emotions in people that were not so often stirred. A poem to Poe is a piece of writing which allows an audience to feel something unique, an agent of

emotion.
This said, both Poe and Emerson have their similarity in thoughts. Both agreed that higher powers and Beauty are an important component of poetry, with Emerson saying that “The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty. He is a sovereign, and stands on the centre. For the world is not painted, or adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the universe” (Emerson), and Poe similarly remarking that “It is no mere appreciation of the Beauty before us — but a wild effort to reach the Beauty above. Inspired by an ecstatic prescience of the glories beyond the grave, we struggle, by multiform combinations among the things and thoughts of Time, to attain a portion of that Loveliness whose very elements, perhaps, appertain to eternity alone” (Poe). Both Poe and Emerson acknowledge that poetry is an attempt to touch at something beyond normal human experience, some greater power, whether it be Emerson’s Whole or Poe’s glories beyond the grave or even the Beauty that they both speak of.
In conclusion, Poe and Emerson differed in their beliefs of what poetry was meant to do, but for the most part they were in a agreement as to what poetry drew its power from. While Poe sought to entertain, and Emerson sought to unify, both owed their words of wisdom to inspiration from something greater than them. Emerson often owed it to nature, and Poe often gave credit to the soul, but they both understood that they were merely interpreters of something larger than they were. Perhaps they weren’t so different after all?