American Literature

Poets have always drawn inspiration from elements of life around them for their works of poetry. Ancient poets wrote long pieces in praise of ancient gods and goddesses or documenting the travails and triumphs of war heroes of the day. Romantic poets filled volumes with odes to the woman that was the object of their desires, composing entire poems in praise of one single aspect of her being. Some of the most famous poems of all time have been written about love, the relationships between men and women, nature, war, civilization, industry, crime, historical events, and simpler themes like farming, children playing, and flowers growing. The common aspect of all poetry, regardless of the time it was written, the style it was written in or the subject of the poetry, is that the poet reached deep within themselves to capture the emotional and mental essence of that subject and bring it to life. Poets are able to express feelings and viewpoints towards these commonly shared human experiences and make the reader feel as if their own feelings are being expressed, brought to life and understood.

 A poets inspiration for their poems is often the element that defines their most famous works long after the poet has died or passed into obscurity. Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Browning are two great poets that wrote at roughly the same time, but in different countries and from very different perspectives. Though at first glance the resulting poems are very different products of each poets respective environment, influences and opinions, there are key elements that tie the two together. Browning and Poe both wrote about love, loss, and the effect that the decisions of mankind had on humanity, but both had very different styles and views on the subjects.

Robert Browning is perhaps best known for his dramatic works and poems about the effect that years of war had on his native England, as well as his accomplished poems about the women he loved and the aspects of love itself. Brownings most famous works include, Love Among The Ruins, a poem that combines the hopeful feeling of going to meet a waiting lover and the despair of a country in ruin after years of war, and, My Last Duchess, a work that juxtaposes admiration for the grace and beauty of a noblewoman in a portrait with disgust at her lust for wealth and her wanton way of living. Browning often combined differing opinions like this in his works while still maintaining a very proper, polished, and formal style of writing. Brownings poetic form inspired many a British poet after him, and the influence of this style and mixing of themes line by line can be seen in some of Edgar Allan Poes poetry like The Haunted Palace.

One of the recurring themes in Brownings poetry is love for women and an admiration for the female form. In My Last Duchess Browning praises, that spot of joy into the Duchess cheek (1) and in Porphyrias Lover, he writes of the beauty of, her smooth white shoulder bare (8). But in these same poems, Browning also denounces the negative aspects of femininity, namely vanity and weakness. The Duchess is beautiful, but she is vain about her appearance and seeks approval and admiration from every man that passes her Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, wheneer I passed her, but who passed without much the same smile (2). This correlates with Brownings feeling that English society was too obsessed with wealth, status and power. Browning felt that the English monarchy of his time was letting the country fall into ruin because it was so focused on becoming a more powerful country and winning wars. The Duchess and her need for approval is representative of that. Porphyria is also ruled by vanity Too weak, for all her hearts endeavour, to set its struggling passion free from pride, and vainer ties dissever, and give herself to me forever (8). In this poem, she ends up being strangled by a lover that cant tolerate her vanity and inability to admit her true feelings. In Love Among the Ruins, Browning again decries the war ambitions of his countrys leaders and laments what it has done to the beautiful English countryside Now the country does not even boast a tree (27). He describes how the historical sites, trees and grass have all been sacrificed for the ambitions of men, while in the same poem describing the young lover that is waiting for him there, once again combining his exploration of love with his admonishing of greed and ambition.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet and writer who embraced many of the same themes as Browning. Like Browning, Poe felt that his native country placed too much emphasis on wealth. Poe thought that industry and advances in machinery and engineering were taking away the humanity of America. Many of Poes poems mentioned this loss of human compassion and greed for material things, but Poe also wrote extensively about love. One of Poes most well-known poems, Annabel Lee, is about his grief over the death of his beloved. Many of Poes poems included themes of death or murder, causing him to become known as a morbid or macabre writer. But in reality, Poe was exploring the themes of death and loss that many poets could or would not.

Poe focused on aspects of love and beauty like Browning, but viewed women as saving graces more than weak creatures. He rarely spoke of women negatively, choosing instead to write about how a woman can change a mans life, as he did in Eulalie And my soul was a stagnant tide, till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride (51). Instead, Poe often admonished mankind in general for being proud and greedy instead of focusing on gender-specific traits like Browning did. He speaks of, the mad pride of intellectuality in To - - (4). His themes of death and mortality are often written from his perspective and mention the loss of a beloved female like Annabel Lee or Lenore, but his statements about dying are mostly universal and non-gender specific. In this way, Poe made it clear that death is the universal fate that will befall every person, no matter how rich, lovely, or desolate they are. In another poem entitled, To   Poe says, I mourn not that the desolate are happier, sweet, than I, but that you sorrow for my fate who am a passer by (3). Poe is stating that the same fate will befall us all, regardless of our status or station.

Browning focused on the negative character traits for both gender  vanity for women and pride for men. Poe focused more on the fates that tie us all together  loss of love and ultimate mortality. Each was influenced by the current events happening in his country at the time that he was writing, and each saw these themes that they focused on as a major influence for his work. In this way, Poe and Browning were similar even though an ocean separated them. Both saw fault in the way that their societies were focusing in unimportant, superficial elements of life and taking for granted the simpler and more enduring things like love, nature and life. Poe and Browning both took the events of their day in their native countries and used them to write some of the greatest poetry of all time.