Late Romantics
Whitman & Dickinson
US Masters (1850 –1890)
1850-1890 was a revolutionary time in US poetry….It expanded ideas,
evolved the form, and provided some of our greatest poems and poets.
WW-ED Essential Question
What role does
individualism and selfreliance play in US society?
Isolation vs. Loneliness,
Voice of Self vs. Voice of the People,
Personal Life vs. American Life
I. Poetic Impact
A. Best examples of US spirit/poetry
1. Led to modern forms
(unique in different ways, both broke traditions)
2. Provided transition to 20th century
(both influenced next generation of writers)
3. Expressed US ideas (like Ralph W. Emerson)
4. Stressed study of people
5. Inspired controversy (alive & dead)
The controversial emotions which surrounded Whitman in life attended his
death: in the same issue that carried his obituary, the NY Times declared he
could not be called…“a great poet," while one funeral speech declared "He
walked…with the majesty of an antique god."
“Poetry is not a turning loose
of emotion, but an escape from
emotion; it is not the expression
of personality but
an escape from personality. But,
of course, only those
who have personality and
emotion know what it means
to want to escape from
these things.”
Emily Dickinson
II. Shared Beliefs:
Isolation=innovation
A. Writing = Writer
(symbolically, metaphorically, not literally)
B. Writing = Self-Expression, not
achievement (fame a bonus, can’t be the goal)
C. True Poetry = From Experience
(You have to live life to write about it.)
D. Success = Breaking Collective Voice
“Now
I see theHolmes,
secret of
the making
of the best
persons.
It is toPeople
grow injust
the
“Longfellow,
Lowell,
and Thoreau
weren’t
impressed.
airfor
andWhitman’s
to eat andintense,
sleep with
the earth.”
Walt Whitman
weren’topen
ready
complex,
and sexually
explicit poems.”
The Complete Idiots Guide to American Literature
“A postfeminist call to arms, most potent celebration of personhood
this side of Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself”’
Entertainment Weekly Review of Beyoncé's “Formation”
III. Personality Differences
A. WW=Poet of celebration / ED=Poet of isolation
B. Wanted fame / Wanted anonymity
C. Served public, involved / Served family, detached
D. Valued variety / Valued uniqueness
E. Social, traveled / Anti-social, stayed home
IV. Style Differences
A. WW published many / ED a few
B. Transcendental / Dark Romantic
C. Free verse / Traditional structure
D. Focused outward / Focused inward
E. Factual, concrete / Emotional, abstract
F. Direct, everyday speech / Subtle, educated speech
G. Sprawling, passionate / Focused, subdued
America’s Literary Progression
Native American Literature
(Nature/Community)

Puritanism
(God/Religion/Faith/Simplicity/Collectivism)

Rationalism
(Logic/Reason/Politics/Patriotism)

Light Romanticism/Transcendentalism
(Imagination/Intuition/Emotion/Individualism/Spirituality)

Dark Romanticism
(Gothic/Psychological/Evil/Symbolic)
Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter), Melville (Moby-Dick), Thoreau (Walden), WW, ED,
Romantics (Light/Dark), and Realists/Naturalists all wrote simultaneously.