Romanticism Vs. Transendentalism Dialogue

Romanticism and Transcendentalism

James Li

The cold winter descended once again ever so slowly upon the revolutionizing world as the clock strikes eleven. On the eleventh of November, the lord’s year 1842, three literary giants Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Cullen Bryant, and Edgar Allan Poe by coincidence or by fate, met in a small book store in Hartford Connecticut. Having previously made acquaintance of each other, they decide to sit down and discuss literary and philosophical ideals together. The topic of death naturally became the subject of the discussion as it weighed heavily upon both Poe and Emerson. Poe’s alcoholism and pessimistic attitude has recently ascended to a new height as his beloved wife Virginia suffered and nearly died from tuberculosis earlier that year. During the same year, Emerson lost his first son Waldo to scarlet fever, and grief still plagues his soul.

Bryant: The topic of death should not be one to be avoided. Death is a natural part of life as stated in my poem “Thanatopsis”, which by the title of the poem it self means the perspective of death, titled after the titan Thanatos, who was the personification of death it self, drawing a classical allusion to Greek Mythology. Death is nothing more than a part of life, and thus is inevitable. Minds should be put to ease as death simply means the deceased has finally found eternal peace. Gentlemen, all that exist has to come to an end, the will of God wishes so when he created law and order. One should live life to the very fullest as it is precious, but do not grief death as natural process. I conveyed this idea as the theme of “Thanatopsis”, as I stated “So live, that when thy summons comes to join/ The innumerable caravan, which moves/ To that mysterious realm, where each shall take/ His chamber in the silent halls of death” (ll. 73-76).

Emerson: I lost my son to scarlet fever earlier this year; his death has made significant impact on my ideals as a transcendentalist. After conducting extensive research, I have discovered that along with the Christian ideals and philosophies I learned at Harvard Divinity School, I was able to obtain much comfort the Hindu religion. Not to be confused with Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, my poem “Brahma” is derived from the supreme Hindu god Brahman, who is the embodiment of infinite, static, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all things in this universe. I believe that in order to transcend, or reach a state of being that is dependent of physical existence can only be achieved through an individual’s own intuition.

Poe: Perhaps you should introduce me to the Hindu ideals Mr. Emerson; the rapidly declining health of my wife has instilled great fear within my heart.

Emerson: As an introduction to Hinduism and its deals, we should start with my poem “Brahma”. In my poem, I used paradoxes such “Far or forgot to me is near/ Shadow and sunlight are the same” to attempt to express the infinite powers of Brahman (ll. 5-6). In the presence of such power that is beyond the grasp of space and time, death is but a vague concept that stands nearly meaningless. Logic, emotions, and reasoning do not possess the power to comprehend such reality, as it can only be reached through spiritual intuition.

Bryant: Very finely stated Mr. Emerson, death does not need to be accompanied by fear, but rather be accepted as a due process of nature.

Emerson: Nature created by divine entities beyond the comprehensive abilities of humanity, and thus to humans, the unknown. The fear of death is nothing more than the fear of the unknown; it is when we learn to embrace the almighty and abandon the hopes of avoiding our eventual demise, can we achieve true ideal of transcendentalism.

Poe: