Poe and Thoreau
Poe and ThoreauRomanticism throughout history, describes a period that connected certain human thought and behavior to individuals and cultures. Rather than analysis and reason, it is a period full of imagination and insight. It is a period that explores a world that is in hope of finding acceptance and new ideas. Henry David Thoreau and Edgar Allen Poe are two relatively well-known authors during the Romanticism period.
Thoreau�s life, in particular, constantly remains in search for truth, beauty, and understanding for a better life for mankind. His beliefs of society, government, and mankind while living under his own disapprobation led to some of his greatest works in literature. Some of these works include Walden, Civil Disobedience, Slavery in Massachusetts and A plea for Captain John Brown. In his essay Civil Disobedience, Thoreau expresses his belief in the power and the duty of the individual to determine right from wrong�
�It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even to most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.� (C.D.)
In addition, Thoreau believed that his greatest skill was to �want but little� (Walden). During his time at Walden, Thoreau determines what is needed for human survival as he learns to take pleasure in a life...
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