American Romanticism/

American Renaissance

1828-1865

Romantic Roots

• A Reaction against Neo-Classicism and the Industrial Age.

• Emphasized the individual, subjective, irrational, imaginative, and emotional.

• Began with Wordsworth’s declaration that poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling.”

Romantic Movement In America• Self examination

becomes a vehicle for the study of humanity.

“Every atom of me belonging to me as good belongs to you”

- Walt Whitman Song of Myself

American Renaissance

• An era in which American literature became an expression of national pride.

• Dominated by well-educated writers and professors interested in developing an American tradition of literature.

• Saw the emergence of Transcendentalism,

a belief in the innate goodness of mankind, which prized insight over logic.

Kindred Spirits:

This 1849 painting, by Asher Durand, depicts William Cullen Bryant and Thomas Cole in Kaaterskill Clove.

To an American Painter Departing for Europe

1 Thine eyes shall see the light of distant skies:2 Yet, Cole! thy heart shall bear to Europe's strand3 A living image of thy native land,4 Such as on thy own glorious canvass lies.5 Lone lakes--savannahs where the bison roves--6. Rocks rich with summer garlands--solemn streams--7 Skies, where the desert eagle wheels and screams--8 Spring bloom and autumn blaze of boundless groves.9 Fair scenes shall greet thee where thou goest--fair,10 But different--every where the trace of men,11 Paths, homes, graves, ruins, from the lowest glen12 To where life shrinks from the fierce Alpine air.13 Gaze on them, till the tears shall dim thy sight,14 But keep that earlier, wilder image bright.