Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 and passed away in 1882. He was preacher, philosopher, and poet. His first wife died of tuberculosis and he experienced a religious crisis following her death. Emerson was a “crusader for peace and justice, expounded views on the mystical harmonies of man and nature, the essential perfectibility of the human spirit, intellectual and spiritual independence, and a champion of the hounded Native Americans.” Waldo, as he would like to be called, experienced many deaths in his life, as he grew older. His first wife died of cancer, four of his brothers died, one child, his friend Thoreau, his mother, and his Aunt Mary Moody, who had been a profound influence on his moral and intellectual life from childhood.

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was born in 1819 and passed away in 1892. He idealized American leaders and workmen and chronicled Civil War battles. His poems “retained their democratic spirit and faith in the American experiment.” The poems also included the “combining mystical and cosmic utterances with the earthy and common place elements of life and elevating the labors of the common man.” Whitman most influential moment in his life was when he visited the Washington military hospital, “the greatest privilege and satisfaction… and the most profound lesson of my life.”

Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe was born in the year 1809 and passed away in. Poe became an orphan after his mother died and his father left him. He later joined the army and married his thirteen-year-old cousin. Poe was a heavy drinker and rarely had a job that lasted over a year. His work plugged “into the depths of human fears and desires allowing the reality of the stories to fade way and make room for a reality only found within the mind.” He wrote about dreams, subconscious, and nightmares.

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