Caspar David Friedrich – Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

RomanticismA new way of thinking, painting, writing, etc.

Nationalism

• American Revolution•Louisiana Purchase – 1803 – doubled the size of the country

• War of 1812 gave Americans confidence

•1849 – California Gold Rush• transportation improved – canals & trains

Basics of Romanticism• Values feeling and intuition over

reason• Places faith in inner experience and

the power of the imagination• Shuns the artificiality of civilization

and seeks unspoiled nature• Prefers youthful innocence to

educated sophistication• Champions individual freedom and

the worth of the individual

Romanticism, continued• Contemplates nature’s beauty as a

path to spiritual and moral development

• Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress

• Finds beauty and truth in exotic locals, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination

• Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and old culture

Thomas Cole – The Voyage of Life: Youth

“Light” side of Romanticism

• nature teaches lessons, enhances understanding• close study of everyday objects• look inside yourself for truth and answers

Francisco de Goya – The Third of May, 1808

“Dark” side of Romanticism

• fantastic and supernatural aspects of human experience•“dark” side of human nature•Historic and/or exotic settings

Romantic Authors

“Light” side (mostly poets)

• William Cullen Bryant• Oliver Wendell Holmes• John Greenleaf Whittier• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow• James Russel Lowell

“Dark” side (all sorts)

• Washington Irving• James Fenimore Cooper• Edgar Allan Poe• Nathanial Hawthorne• Herman Melville

The Fireside PoetsAmerica’s First Literary Stars

We watched the first red blaze appear,

Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam

On whitewashed wall and sagging beam,

from Snow-bound, John Greenleaf Whittier

• First group of American poets to rival British poets in popularity in either country.• Preferred conventional forms over

experimentation.• Often used American legends and

scenes of American life as their subject matter.

The Fireside Poets

Who were the Fireside Poets?• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow• Oliver Wendell Holmes• John Greenleaf Whittier• James Russell Lowell• William Cullen Bryant?*

Lasting Impact• Longfellow: the most popular

American poet for decades. The first American poet to be immortalized in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner

• Took on causes such as the abolition of slavery, which forth that issue

• Paved the way for later Romantic writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman.