The Soul Selects By Edgar Allan Poe, And Emily Dickinson

When the word “Romantic” is heard, love and affection usually fill the mind. Not in the case of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, where the term “Romanticism” was established. Romanticism can be defined as a literary movement that “marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics from the neoclassicism and formal orthodoxy of the preceding period” (Holman, Harmon 1). Defining aspects of Romanticism include: nature, emotion, individualism, imagination, idealism, and imagination. These main ideas have made countless appearances in poetry, especially that of Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson. The previously discussed poems represent the Romantic movement by way of “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe,
Dickinson explores the fields of Individualism that can be identified as finding and expressing yourself, and seeking the perfectibility of man and society. The beginning of the poem reveals the “soul” is a metaphor for the fact that the speaker chooses her associates and who she wants to know through her values and morals. The speaker “selects her own society-/ Then-shuts the door” (Dickinson 1-2); therefore, she is selecting a perfect society on her own terms. The individualism is thus displayed due to the fact her “perfect society” is characterized by morality similar to that of the speaker. Coupled with this concept is the emphasis placed on finding the speaker’s self, and looking within. Towards the end of the poem, the solitude the speaker needs is apparent. While she spends time with these associates, the speaker finds that she still must “choose one-/ Then-close the valves of her attention” (Dickinson 10-11). In other words, she closes off her heart to them, and focuses on herself. This idea correlates with the quote, “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes” by Henry David Thoreau. He exhibits individualistic traits by revealing the fact he needs to have time to himself, and keep people at a distance. The speaker exhibits this behavior as well by divvying her attention up between herself and her friends, which helps her find herself and reflect, as a result. The individual tenets of Romanticism that are the desire to express and find yourself and seeking a perfect society contribute to the overall debate over which movement the poems can be classified