Answer: Poe was a representative of Dark Romanticism - his works were often melancholic rather than philosophical, while he focused on the emotions of a reader. Emerson was a true transcendentalist, and explored themes related to nature and spirituality.
Explanation:
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American writer. Poe was not a part of the Transcendentalist movement, a crucial part of the Romantic movement, as he wanted to affect the emotions of the audience in his work, and not to express certain philosophical ideas. However, with his insistence on creating an emotional effect, he made a large contribution to American Romanticism. Poe's work was quite different from Emerson's or Thoreau's - his poems and tales were frightening, melancholic and full of darkness (as in "The Raven"). This branch of Romanticism is called Dark Romanticism. He explored the topics no one else did at the time: those of death and the supernatural.
As opposed to Poe's Dark Romanticism, Emerson's (1803 – 1882) view of Romanticism was full of themes such as goodness of people and our relationship with nature. Emerson was practically a leader of Transcendentalism, a movement which made a large part of Romanticism. He explored spirituality and included Eastern philosophies in his work (poems "Hamatreya" and "Brahma").
