We are in full bloom, fertilizing the American soil rich with nutrients of intellect and imagination. Shouting our 19th Century American voice far and wide for all to hear. Appealing to most, offensive to others, yet engrossing the minds of future generations to come. We see an era where literary greats are being sparked creatively as a result of their own personal struggles and simultaneously realizing this is a time of endless potential, a time of excitement for all the human possibilities and a time of transformation. The themes: love, beauty, escapism, nature, individuality and emotion are ever so abundant. They saturate the earth and all who inherit it with their forceful nature. Their makers are the storm and their works leave a residue not previously seen. Flourishing from this sudden outpour is Nathaniel Hawthorne's preoccupation with guilt, sin and secrets. Although a probable festering resentment towards his condemning ancestry, we also do see him turning away from himself and challenging his audience to look inside themselves to ask who they are. We see Edgar Allan Poe's infatuation with death. As if spawned from years of love lost in his own life, he is but deemed as one of America's most romantic writers. And then we have Herman Melville, whose plight with individuality does not allow for others to dictate his future, thus permitting him to act on his own free will, in pursuit of that ultimate dream. We are a new world fertile with newfound emotions, fruitful with feelings of passion and partial to an equalitarian society...we are the New America!
             Beauty and their love for it; ever so reminiscent as seen amongst Poe's "Ligeia" and Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" (from Children of Adam I Sing the Body Electric). Their detailed depiction of the human body is virtually exhausting, yet lyrically diverse in nature. The similarity almost plagiarizing yet unique to it's own...