Comparing Edgar Allan Poe and Ralph Waldo Emerson "I had but escaped death in one form of agony, to be delivered unto worse than death in some other." Tormented throughout his life by painful loss, bitterness, and depression, Edgar Allan Poe found escspe in writing stories and poems, in which he portrayed haunted lives even darker than his own. There were differences in views on religion, nature, and philosophy between Edgar Allan Poe, who was an Anti-Transcendentalist, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was a Transcendentalist. Edgar Allan Poe had a pessimistic outlook on life, and had o