American Romanticism
Approximate years:
1790-1860
Romantic Escapism
Two Types of Romantics in
America
Type II: Natural Romantics
• Consisted of Romantic Poets, James
Fenimore Cooper and Transcendentalists
• Typical romantic poem: speaker focuses on
some object in nature which brings about some
insight for the speaker
• Cooper introduces the American Romantic Hero
• Transcendentalists were philosophers who
believed Nature was the doorway to the spiritual
world
Fireside Poets
• Wanted to prove that American
poets were as capable and
sophisticated as European poets
• Proved this by copying European literary
traditions
• Used English themes, meter and imagery
Who were the Fireside Poets?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf
Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James
Russell Lowell
Fireside Poets
• Most popular group of poets in
American History
• Traditionalists who relied on past
literary forms
• Subject Matter of Poetry?
• Love, patriotism, nature, family and
religion
• Why called Fireside Poets?
• Poems were read aloud at the fireside
for family entertainment
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
1807-1882
• Most popular American Poet of the
1800s
• Experimented with adapting
traditional European poetic forms to
uniquely American topics
• Ex: “Song of Hiawatha”, “Paul Revere’s
Ride”
• Idealized America’s early history and
democratic ideals
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
• “The Song of Hiawatha”
• Long, narrative poem (tells a story) based
on the legend of the Ojibway Tribe
• Historically, Hiawatha was an Iroquois chief
who helped to unite the Iroquois
• Contains over 20 sections telling of the
adventures of Hiawatha
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
•
Literary Devices
• Meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of
poetry
• Foot: basic unit of meter; consists of one stressed syllable and one or more
unstressed syllables
− Iamb—one unstressed syllable, followed by one stressed syllable
u
`
u `
– Be/hold; de/stroy
− Trochee—one stressed syllable, followed by one unstressed syllable
` u
`
u
– Ha/ppy; dou/ble
•
•
•
•
•
•
One stressed syllable per line=monometer
Two stressed syllables per line=dimeter
Three stressed syllables per line=trimeter
Four stressed syllables per line=tetrameter
Five stressed syllables per line=pentameter
What is the meter in “Song of Hiawatha”?
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
• The meter of a poem can affect the
mood of the poem
• Mood: the emotional quality that a reader
feels when reading a poem
• How does the meter (trochaic tetrameter)
add to the intensity of the poem?
• Trochees create a drum like rhythm, which
reflects Native American subject
Oliver Wendell Holmes
1809-1894
• Descendent of first American
poet, Anne Bradstreet
• During medical school, wrote
“Old Ironsides”—saved USS
Constitution from destruction
• Wrote poetry for fun; worked as
a physician
Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Content of his poetry
• Generally light and comic
• Commentaries on social and
intellectual shortcomings of other
poets
• Literary devices
• Apostrophe: a direct address to an
object or to someone who is not
present
William Cullen Bryant
1794-1878
• Inspired by European Romantic
Poets William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Also inspired by Deist belief
that God can be found in Nature
• Wrote “Thanatopsis” at age 16,
after the death of a friend
William Cullen Bryant
“Thanatopsis”
• Subject: the natural cycle of life—
birth, growth, death, rebirth
• Title origins
• Thanatos—Greek for death
• Opsis—Greek for seeing
William Cullen Bryant
“Thanatopsis”
• Original poem was only lines 17-72
• Lines 1-17 and 73-81 were added 10 years
after original publication
− Lines 1-17: Address the subject of death and
tells how the reader can find the answers
− Lines 17-30: Speaker changes—THE VOICE OF
NATURE: those who die become part of
nature's rebirth
− Lines 31-72: we are not alone in death; our
resting place will be magnificent; and we will
lie down with the great of past generations
− Lines 73-81: returns to original speaker who
advises the reader to live life so that they will
be able to accept death