Romanticism

1800-1860

Characteristics of American Romanticism

• Values feeling and intuition over reason.

• Places faith in the inner experience and the power of the imagination.

• Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature.

Characteristics of American Romanticism, continued

• Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication.

• Champions of individual freedom and the worth of the individual.

Characteristics of American Romanticism, continued

• Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development.

• Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress.

• Finds beauty and truth in exotic locations, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination.

Characteristics of American Romanticism, continued

• Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination.

• Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture.

Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero

• Young or possesses youthful qualities

• Innocent and pure of purpose

• Sense of honor based on a higher principle, not on society’s rules

Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero,

continued• Knowledge of people and of life

based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning.

• Loves nature and avoids town life

• Quests for some higher truth in the natural world

American Romantic Poetry (Fireside Poetry)

• These poets wrote for a family audience and usually about subjects of general appeal: patriotism, home, family, nature, and religion.

• They also gave moral lessons through poetry.

• These poets were very popular in their time, but they were not very innovative. They borrowed their style from the Europeans. However, many consider them the most popular poets.

Examples:• Oliver Wendell Holmes

• John Greenleaf Whittier

• James Russell Lowell

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow