ROMANTICISM & WALT WHITMAN
Ben Dodson
Romanticism
Time period that focused on the individual insight and creativity within literature. Also known as the Romantic Age, this time period was from about 1800 to 1850, following the industrial revolution. Romanticism was a large category of competing philosophies, agendas, and points of interest. Topics such as the Homeric epics and modern dime novels come from the period of Romanticism. Romanticism saw a steady loosening of the rules of artistic expression that were pervasive during earlier times in America and Britain. One main idea of this topic is to think of ones self as important, someone who matters.
American vs English
Because the United States was a new country with an extremely diverse population, it did not have an established set of literary rules. This lack of a structure encouraged writers to experiment with new forms, genres, and styles. Americans were proud of their freedoms, felt a certain rivalry with Britain, and wanted to prove that they could create pieces that reflected the uniqueness of the American character. American romantic writers focused on American settings and themes where as the English Writings of that time were based on the church and church ideals along with individual freedoms, something that American and English romantics had in common.
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was one of the most famous and influential poets in this time period. He was considered one of the greatest romantics because of his individualistic ideals and poems that expressed those styles of writing, stressing the importance of individuality, God, and nature.
Some of his poems include...
- A Glimpse
- A Song
- A Riddle Song
- A Clear Midnight
- Miricles
- Beat! Beat! Drums!
Mini BIO - Walt Whitman