Romantic Literature

The Romantics,

Fireside Poets,

and the Dark Romantics

What Romanticism is NOT:

a reaction against

the Age of Reason (Rationalism)

• Romantics believed in ____________ over reason and __________ over fact.

• Looked to the _____ as well as to _______ for guidance and wisdom

• The _______and the ________________ were embraced

• _________ of civilization; rejection of rules

• highly valued the __________ and

_______________

Romanticism was…

IMAGINATION

PAST

EXOTIC

INTUITION

NATURE

SUPERNATURAL

DISTRUST

INDIVIDUAL

NON-CONFORMITY

Origins of Romanticism Started in Germany, spread through Europe and

eventually made its way to the United States

Fulfilled the need for

AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL

INDEPENDENCE from EUROPE

Let’s take a look at some of the authors that put American Literature on the map.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

- Ancestors lived in Salem during the Witch Trials

- Fascinated with Puritans, faith, and sin. Many of his works reflect this.

- Considered a Dark Romantic

Most well known work:

The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Herman Melvillle

• Most well known work: Moby Dick (1851)

the story of Captain Ahab chasing after a big white whale.

Emily Dickinson

She became a recluse in her 20’s and started to dress only in white.

Her poetic genius was not realized in her lifetime. Her poems were published posthumously.

“Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.”

Walt Whitman

Considered the

“quintessential American Poet”

Most famous for his series of poems called Leaves of Grass

Often called the “father of Free Verse”

The Fireside Poets

represent a coming of age

for American Literature

- Wrote poetry that was read around the fire

- Conservative literary style

- Some of the most read and beloved poets

Use FIRE to remember …

F Fantasy

I Idealism & Imagination

R Rejection of Rules

E heightened Emotion & Escapism

The Fireside Poets

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Harvard professor

Popular poet

John Greenleaf Whittier

Quaker

James Russell Lowell

Born to wealth and position

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Poet, physician, unofficial “laureate”

Quick RECALL: 1. Who wrote Moby Dick?

2. Whose poetry was not published until after he/she died?

3. What did Nathaniel Hawthorne write?

4. Who is considered the “quintessential American poet?”

5. What were Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell known as? How did they get their name?

What aspect of Romanticism does this represent?

Emphasis on heightened

EMOTION

What aspect of Romanticism does this represent?

Inspired by Nature

What aspect of Romanticism does this represent?

importance of

INDIVIDUALISM

What aspect of Romanticism does this represent?

Use of the

IMAGINATION

What aspect of Romanticism does this represent?

Rejection of rules/

distrust of civilization

So … are you more a Romantic or a Rationalist?

Imaginative

Intuitive

Nature lover

Questions authority

Not afraid to be different

Logical

Values reason

Persuasive

Problem solver

Romantic Art: Bagram Ibatoulline “From the Foundation Up”

Romantic Art: John Quidor “The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane”

The DARK romantics put a darker spin to the Romantic ideals:

• NATURE connected to it in a relational way, decay &

death, rain during times of sorrow ; “playing God” a topic introduced, yet looked down upon. Settings are often old, dilapidated castles/mansions

• Independence through ALIENATION – characters alienate themselves; man seen as prone to sin and self-destruction.

• the SUPERNATURAL – yes, hauntings and magic

famous DARK Romantic Authors

Washington Irving Edgar Allan Poe

Famous works:

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

“Rip Van Winkle”

Famous works:

“The Tell-Tale Heart”

“The Raven”

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

poetry that refrains from using specific meter patterns or rhyme scheme

FREE VERSE

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

A word that imitates the sound it represents

onomatopoeia

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

Sometimes called half rhyme; includes word pairs like lover and brother

or fish and promise

Slant rhyme

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

a recurring pattern of stressed (accented, or long) and unstressed (unaccented, or short) syllables in lines of a set length. Measured in iambs.

Meter

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

a short poem consisting of five, usually unrhymed lines containing, respectively, two, four, six, eight, and two syllables

OR any stanza of five lines.

cinquain

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

A rhyme created by two or more words within the same line of verse.

EX: “In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud”

internal rhyme

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

From whose eyes a story is told

Point of view

Third person omniscient: a narrator (outside of the action of the story) that is all knowing

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

A direct address of something not physically present

Apostrophe

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

the usually humorous play on words as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word

similar in sound

EX: She is a skillful pilot; her career has really taken off.

pun

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

the use of words that begin with the same sound near one another

as in wild and woolly or a babbling brook

alliteration

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

recurrence or repetition of consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables

mid-word like little and tattle

or at the ends of words ( like stroke and luck )

consonance

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

the use of words that have the same or very similar vowel sounds near one another

ex: as the “i” in “rise high in the bright sky”

assonance

Literary terms for the Romantic Period:

Units of two or more lines grouped together in a poem (like a paragraph)

stanza

The End!

Just for fun …

Create a t-shirt design that embraces an aspect of the Romantic Movement.