The Age of Romanticism gave birth to a generation of creators, who understood the very basis of wonder and fear. From painter to poet, from pianist to politician, the works of the Romantic era catapulted the rare and exciting—those who offered bare emotion. Like any age, Romanticism was not wholly sound; war, strife, and poverty still existed. And so, it was tragedy and misery that produced the sensitivity and “problems of the heart.” Two of the greatest men to be born out of the Romantic era are Edgar Allan Poe and Frédéric Chopin—each gods of their individual art. Being born just a year apart, these men both died in their early forties. However, their struggle through life lied on opposite ends of the world—Chopin in Poland and France, …show more content…
Poe traditionally stuck to short stories and poems, primarily fiction. He dabbled in a variety of genres such as dark romanticism, horror, pseudoscience, satire. However, one distinct aspect of his compositions and idealogy behind writing was that for art to be art, it must have a clear motif, but not as clear as public pool—rather a film of mystery or the unknown lying just above the meaning of a story. For with too clear a meaning, to him, that work ceases to be art, but, too muddied, and it is useless nonsense. He said, “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” On another hand, his works were the work of either the most insane, tormented man of all time or an omniscient, intense man challenging the mantra of life, the unending enigma of earth. In a letter, he stated, “I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.” Edgar Allan Poe wrotes tales of simple topics, but entwined them in his words’ artistry and his mind’s complexities, yet leaving no room for empty thoughts or extra …show more content…
Chopin composed music primarily for the piano, but, like Poe, gravitated towards shorter pieces such as mazurkas, nocturnes, etudes, and preludes—though he did write a few sonatas and concertos. Chopin’s expression in music was founded on Romanticist ideals with the same subtlety of Poe. He never wrote a confusing motif. Instead, he used simplistic melodies, but dramatized and harmonized and developed those melodies with such gentle gusto that every note was needed. He, like Poe, noted simplicity as key, “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” As Poe wrote with his aching blood, Chopin composed on keys of crimson and darkness. His work was oft inspired by a longing for his homeland, Poland. To diminish his ache, he wrote in styles and forms of Polish folk music, heard in many of his compositions. Every note written is powerful in emotion and creates the same, painfully evident albeit a bit confusing feeling of passion that Poe could induce with his writing. He used this pain admittedly, “I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.” His view of art and how it should be created parallels with
Edgar Allan Poe once said, “With me, poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.” When stressed, writing was his coping mechanism, and through observation, many grasp how much death encompassed Poe. Although not appreciated during his era, he revolutionized mystery with mesmerizing story plots that yield suspense, but also makes readers question his stability. Most importantly, unlike those famous during his lifetime who are now forgotten, Poe’s legacy will live on forever. Moreover, throughout life, Poe experienced catastrophe, and because of this, writing became his creative outlet.
The life of Edgar Allan Poe is not a tale of ease. Poe’s life was full of personal and fiscal disaster. These disasters help to mold some of the most ominous and intellectually challenging poetry ever written. For the short duration of Poe’s life, he was seen as a literary critic rather than an author. To the modern generation his unbeknown status seems bafflingly inconceivable, considering his now acclaimed publications. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing was very much dictated by his life. The mournful tone of Edgar Allan Poe’s life created his literature; death and all his friends narrated Poe’s life. Edgar Allan Poe shows his life’s constant despair through his poetry and short story writings.
Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be the father of the short story by many. Over the course of his life, he wrote hundreds of short stories and poems. His writing style is unique and influenced by the tragedies that occurred over the course of his life. In fact, he is most well known for writing morbid stories and gruesome, dismal poems. Indeed his writing habits were heavily influenced by his life. His life was full of depression, angst, and woe. Many of the people he cared for fell victim to deadly plagues and diseases. To cope with this pain, Edgar Allan Poe sought comfort in the bottom of a bottle. In his times of depression he would drink heavily and become sick for days at a time.
Edgar Allan Poe manifested his life into what he wrote; the melancholic effects from living in poverty and his beloved wife dying, created hints of somberness that emanates throughout his work. Poe was an accomplished writer of many works such as The Tell Tale Heart and The pit and The Pendulum. Poe’s life pushed him to the limits of sanity as well as advancing his creative thinking processes to the fullest. Throughout the years of his young adult life, he suffered hardships that would shape the rest of his career as a promising writer.
With a life marred by tragedy at the very young age of three with his parents death, thus leaving him an orphan, his works reveals his darkly passionate sensibilities—a tormented and sometimes neurotic obsession with death and violence and overall appreciation for the beautiful yet tragic mysteries of life. Poe’s creations illustrate a powerful faculty for both the technical and abstract beauty linked with an inveterate inclination toward nocturnal themes.
The deadly sin of pride has been a plague on humanity for generations. It is the poison that brings out people’s innate sense of superiority from within them. Writers often reflect this part of human nature in their works. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado,” (1846) Fortunato tries to prove his ability to judge wine which directly leads to his death, while in Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby,” (1892) Armand Aubigny’s total disregard for his wife and son leads to their death and a shocking revelation about himself. While society often encourages confidence, an overabundance of confidence can lead to hubris. By using tragic flaw, irony, and characterization, Poe and Chopin show that pride can lead to one’s downfall.
The life of Edgar Allan Poe 's was short and mysterious - just like the lives of the heroes of his stories. And like his fictional heroes, Poe was passionate about painful, strange, gloomy existence of the human soul. The contradictory and unstable, inclined to extravagant whims and binges, he seemed to have decided to match the romantic stereotype of the suffering hero, taken prisoner of self-destruction.
The words people use and how they use them holds so much power within themselves. It seems that, people are always searching for the right words to express their true emotions towards a certain subject. Artists and authors manage to make a living off of knowing how to use the right words to reach through to their platform. Though within his time, Edgar Allan Poe did not have an established platform and was seen as estranged; he still dabbled as an author and has made many famous short stories and poems that we enjoy to this day. Poe uses tone, diction, imagery, symbolism, elements of the supernatural, and allusions to illustrate his themes of sorrow, madness, revenge, and uses these to project and give refuge to his inner
Edgar Allan Poe, the remarkable, 19th century writer, who had an appalling life. Poe became extremely famous for his terrifying works of literature after he passed away, but it was Poe’s tragic life that influenced his writing(Edgar Allan Poe). From childhood all the way to adulthood, Poe experienced terrible things in his life that would mentally scar any person. This is shown in three of his most famous writings by having those experiences that he encountered from childhood to adulthood reflect on the different qualities that are shown in works of literature.
The Romantic Period is characterized as an artistic and intellectually stimulating literary movement. Writers of this genre and time are considered to be those who fused the elements of romance in their writings to enhance the human experience. Edgar Allan Poe, known as the father of the modern short story, epitomizes this notion in his writings. In “Annabel Lee,” and “The Oval Portrait,” Edgar Allan Poe uses romance to illustrate the essence of death and misery and to illustrate elements in which the reader can actually feel that was is happening in the story is happening to them.
Edgar Allan Poe. A sinister and mysterious writer yet caring and giving husband, Mr. Poe lived his short forty years of life in a seemingly state of disarray and torment. We all know his famous works for their perverse styles and gruesome detail but what caused his limitless collection of murder, insanity, and longing for a lost love that is found within his pages?
Edgar Allan Poe’s life works are a reflection of who he is may it be crazy, depressing, or frightening. His background is what makes him a unique writer, all the horror he writes about is real and he has faced. He takes the main idea from his own life and adds details to describe how he feels making his story realistically horrific because it is real. Many authors just take ideas out of their brain which is great but writing book and poems from your own life, things that really happen is taking it to the next level making it exciting and
In ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’Tell-Tale Heart,‘ and ‘Annabel Lee,’ Edgar Allan Poe utilizes vivid imagery and dramatic syntax to captivate the reader into the suspenseful mood of his piece. Poe consistently writes in a thrilling genre. After creating many astounding works based on his past experiences, including being an orphan, his mother and wife dying tragically before him, and his time as an alcoholic, the world of literature considered him as one of the writers that started it all. He was born on January 19, 1809 and died on October 7, 1849. Poe’s first collection of poems was published in 1827, when he was 18. He used his influence to portray a writing style that no one had ever done before. Entranced by this alternative style, his audience
Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent writer during the era of Romanticism, but Poe’s poems focused primarily on the Dark Romanticism, developed under Romanticism. The era of Romanticism was commonly described as showing raw emotion, but there was still a conflict in the story. The purpose of Romanticism was for the writer to feel free; there were no rules when it came to this form of writing. Dark Romanticism was looking at the gothic side of stories rather than the heroism stories, which focused more on death, and the flaws of humans. Dark Romanticism also focused on the evil aspect of writings rather than the heroic part to stories. Edgar Allan Poe’s poems are shown more in this type of writing rather than the typical Romantic writings. When looking more into Dark Romanticism readers are able to see how Poe could have connected his personal turmoil to his poems. The University of Delaware’s library says, “Suffering for offenses against God, man and Nature, the hero-villains wander the earth, alone and misunderstood. Their personal torment in a vast universe is emphasized by desolate settings of icebound seas, jagged mountains and bottomless abysses: imagery that would inspire artistic, literary, and musical compositions,” (Dark Romanticism). This quote shows readers that writers during the Dark Romanticism era used their own sufferings in order to make the stories seem more dramatic and almost human. Looking into the poems “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven”, readers are able to see
The vision of the mind is easily portrayed through the art of literature, painting a picture with the stroke of words. The natural inspiration that influences the creation of these works is derived from the life and the experiences of the creator. For some, these tales become stories and those stories become novels, but for one man it meant so much more. The works of Edgar Allan Poe became his life; he expressed every feeling and every moment of his existence through ink and paper. Poe involved his entire life in his writing, leaving no element of the story untouched by his trademark of a past. His work became so unique and unorthodox, yet it did not lack the attention it deserved. The American critic, Curtis Hidden Page, suggested that