What does it mean to call someone Romantic?

1. What does it mean to call someone Romantic? • Describe a Romantic encounter in detail. It can be personal experience, or what you would imagine to be the most Romantic moment. This should be 5-7 sentences—you will turn it in 

2. What does it mean to call someone Romantic?

3. Romanticism: • An American Literary movement that elevated the individual, the passions, and the inner life. It stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom from classical correctness in art forms, and rebellion against social conventions.

4. Some famous American Romantics: • Washington Irving • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • William Cullen Bryant • Oliver Wendell Holms • Edgar Allan Poe • Emily Dickinson • Walt Whitman • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau

5. Washington Irving • “The Devil and Tom Walker”; “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”; “Rip Van Winkle” • First American writer to achieve an international reputation • Spent quite a bit of time abroad; people question his patriotism; however, Irving’s writings and personal feelings are clearly American

6. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Voices in the Night published in 1839 • First American poet to reach a wide audience and create a national interest in poetry • Translated foreign poetry, which inspired him. • Romanticized America’s early history and democratic ideals. • Criticized for being to optimistic and sentimental—ironic b/c that’s what made him popular in the first place.

7. William Cullen Bryant • “Thanatopsis” (about nature) • Journalist and political activist • Defender of human rights and freedoms—for women and slaves • First American poet to win world=wide critical acclaim

8. Oliver Wendell Holms • Descendent of Anne Bradstreet • Contributed to literature and medicine as a medical researcher • Saved a battleship planned for destruction with his poem “Old Ironsides”

9. Edgar Allan Poe • “The Raven”; “Fall of the House of Usher”; “A Tell Tale Heart”; “The Bells” • Troubled life: father deserted him, mother died, gambling debts at school, expelled for academic violations at USMA—Westpoint, estranged from stepfather et. • Accepted as the inventor of the detective story; psychological thrillers are still imitated today • Remains popular even today

10. Emily Dickinson • Wrote over 1775 poems but only published 7 before her death due to insecurities • Asked her family to destroy her poems—they didn’t • Lived as a recluse, isolated from society; she dressed only in white and only her family was allowed to see her. • Died in the same house she was born in

11. Walt Whitman • Widely recognized as one of the greatest and most influential poets the US has ever produced • Leaves of Grass was published in 185 and critics attacked his unique style and subject matter; but he constantly revised, reshaped and expanded this work till his death. • Philosophy grew out of Transcendentalism

12. Transcendentalism • “The Seekers” • A “division” of Romanticism • Flourished in the 1830s and 1840s believed the individual was at the center of the universe, more powerful than any institution, whether political or religious • Emphasizes the importance of nature

13. Ralph Waldo Emerson • Considered the father of Transcendentalism • Struggled with his faith so much, that he began questioning his own beliefs and establishing his own philosophy • Wrote Nature

14. Henry David Thoreau • Emerson’s protégé • Wrote Walden • Lived on Walden Pond outside of Concord for 2 years alone in a one room cabin and helped provide him with material for his one major work • Abolitionist; believer in civil disobedience

15. Read pages 242-253 and answer questions on page 1 Read “The Devil and Tom Walker” and complete pages 3-4 by Monday page 258