Dark Romantics

The term dark romanticism comes from both the pessimistic nature of the literature and the influence it derives from the earlier Romantic literary movement. Some writers, including Poe, Hawthorne and Melville, found Transcendental beliefs far too optimistic and egotistical and reacted by modifying them in their prose and poetry—works that now comprise the genre that we call Dark Romanticism.
Finally, whereas Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.
His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin.
Dark romanticism is a literary subgenre
that emerged from the Transcendental philosophical movement in nineteenth-century America. Works in the dark romantic spirit were influenced by Transcendentalism, but did not entirely embrace all its ideas. Such works are notably less optimistic about mankind, nature, and divinity than Transcendental texts. American authors considered most representative of dark romanticism are Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.
Secondly, while both groups believe nature is a deeply spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does Transcendentalism. For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish.
"The Philosophy of Composition" puts forward a theory about how good writers write when they write well. He concludes that length, "unity of effect" and a logical method are important considerations for good writing. He also makes the assertion that "the death... of a beautiful woman" is "unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world". Poe uses the composition of his own poem "The Raven" as an example.
Firstly, Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion that perfection is an innate quality of mankind, as believed by Transcendentalists. Subsequently, Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom.
On October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore delirious, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849, at 5:00 in the morning.
One evening in January 1842, Virginia showed the first signs of consumption, now known as tuberculosis, while singing and playing the piano. Poe described it as breaking a blood vessel in her throat. She only partially recovered. Critics often suggest Poe's frequent theme of the "death of a beautiful woman" stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his wife. Poe began to drink more heavily under the stress of Virginia&l elements of Poe's philosophy of composition are: Length Poe believed that all literary works should be short. "There is," he writes, "a distinct limit... to all works of literary art - the limit of one sitting." Method Poe dismissed the notion of artistic intuition and argued that writing is methodical and analytical, not spontaneous. "Unity of effect" Poe says a work of fiction should be written only after the author has decided how it is to end and which emotional response, or "effect," he wishes to create. Once this effect has been determined, the writer should decide all other matters pertaining to the composition of the work, including tone, theme, setting, characters, conflict, and plot. In “The Raven”, Poe decides on "the death... of a beautiful woman" as it "is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover."
POE’S WORKS
Poe's best known fiction works are Gothic. His most recurring themes deal with questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of the dead, and mourning. He referred to followers of the Transcendentalist movement as "Frogpondians" after the pond on Boston Common, and ridiculed their writings as "metaphor-run", lapsing into "obscurity for obscurity's sake" or "mysticism for mysticism's sake.“