Romanticism Unit Test
Review Notes
Mrs. Katz
10R
Romanticism
A literary movement that stressed
emotion over reason, celebrated
individuality and creativity, with a
heavy focus on nature, and man’s
place in nature and the world.
 They also focus their writing on
identity and spirituality
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Romantic Authors:
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Washington Irving – “The Devil and Tom Walker”
“The Devil and Tom Walker” – Set in a Puritan village, the Devil takes a human
form and tempts Tom Walker to sell his soul to gain power and wealth in this
world. Tom and his wife are both angry, stubborn and selfish people, and she
tries to tempt the Devil with all of their silver and possessions. She is never
heard from again.
•Tom refuses the Devil’s first offer to become a slave-trader. This shows that
Irving may have supported abolition, or the end of slavery. Tom sees many
trees in the Devil’s swamp that are engraved with names of townspeople that
have made deals with the Devil.
• We see the symbolism as a tree falls, and the person with that name dies.
Finally, after making the deal with the Devil and gaining money and power by
lending money and mortgages, the Devil comes to collect Tom’s soul and we
can assume he takes Tom to Hell. When this occurs, all of Tom’s possessions
disappear or are destroyed. This implies that he never really owned any of
these things; they were temporary and not worth his eternal soul.
Fireside Poets:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”
“The Song of Hiawatha”
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Prologue to “The Song of Hiawatha” Poem focuses on traditional Native
American stories and relies heavily on
imagery of nature. Page 258
“The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” – Poem
focuses on the passage of time and
contrasts the imagery of the ocean with
imagery of people in the town. Note use
of repetition and effects.
William Cullen Bryant – Fireside Poet,
often viewed as Transcendentalist
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“Thanatopsis” – Discusses author’s view of
death, seemingly positive, as we return to
the earth and join all those who have died
before. Our bodies then become a part of
the beautiful and powerful earth.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – Fireside
Poet
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“Old Ironsides” – Written in alternating
lines of iambic tetrameter and trimeter,
Holmes tries to persuade his audience not
to demolish the battleship “Constitution,”
which was used during the War of 1812.
Gothic Literature
Gothic Literature stems from the “dark side” of
Romanticism
Gothic Literature usually has the following
elements:
 Bleak or remote settings
 Macabre (gruesome) or violent incidents
 Characters in psychological and/or physical
torment
 Strong language full of dangerous meaning
Edgar Allen Poe – Gothic Author

“The Raven” – a poem written in the first
person perspective about a man who is
isolated and alone, mourning the loss of
his love, Lenore. He is visited by a Raven,
who serves as a constant reminder of his
sadness and bitterness.
Poe, Continued
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“The Fall of the House of Usher” – a short story about an
unnamed narrator who answers a letter from his
childhood friend, Roderick Usher, to find out that Usher
is very upset because of his sister’s mortal illness.
Usher is very nervous, agitated and depressed as his
sister dies and is entombed. Usher realizes too late that
he has buried his sister alive.
The single effect Poe attempts to create in the opening
description of the house is that of gloom and foreboding.
Ultimately, our narrator realizes that a person cut off
from the rest of the world can quickly become a victim
of his own fears and mental illness.
Poetry Notes – Scansion
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Iambic Meter is the pattern of syllables in which
an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed
syllable:
“Her deck once red with heroes' blood/ Where
knelt the vanquished foe”
Meter is determined by counting the syllables in
a line. Iambic lines are broken into “feet” of 2
syllables each. The kind of meter depends on
how many “feet” are in a line.
Scansion Examples
Trimeter – 3 metric feet per line (6 syllables total)
 “Where knelt / the van / quished foe”
Tetrameter – 4 metric feet per line (8 syllables
total)
 “”When winds/ were hurr/ ying oe’r / the flood”
Pentameter – 5 metric feet per line (10 syllables
total)
 “Of ag / es glide/ away / the sons / of men”