Many romanticists focused on the contemplation of the natural world, but few dared to journey down the road of the unexplainable into the supernatural realms. Only one man, Edgar Allen Poe, crossed the threshold between the real world and the dark and dreary habitat of his mind. Unlike the masses, Poe disregarded the French revolutionary philosophy, humanitarianism, reform, the new interpretation of nature, and exploration of the past. He worked on exploiting the purely imaginative …showed first 75 words of 1132 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1132 total…exceedingly musical (1403)” chiming. The theme of the story is chilling--death cannot be avoided it is internal demon that holds an “illimitable dominion over all (1406).” Edgar Allen Poe explored the dark side of romanticism and made the line between sanity and insanity virtually vanish. His life and literature are best summed up by his own words, “They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who only dream by night (American Romanticism, 145)”