What Made Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Part of the Romantic Movement?

1783-1830 was the period of the literary movement of Romanticism which was originated in Europe (wiki). The Romantic Movement was partly aroused as a reaction from the Industrial Revolution. Romanticism appeared as a movement which aimed to reject many subjects such as spirits, souls, and instincts from the previous Enlightenment movement and discuss subjects associated with liberalism, radicalism, and nationalism (Nichols, A., 2005). This movement emphasizes on the sources of aesthetic experience, emotions, beauty and sublimity of nature. One of the most obvious principles in this literary movement is the freedom of the poets to express themselves and their feelings. It was considered that in order for poets to express their true feelings, they have to be creative, imaginative and isolated. And the second obvious principle in this literary movement was the principle of genius, which means creation from nothingness, and that was the key of this movement (Waterhouse, 1926; Smith, 1924).

The Romantic Period in American Literature was a time period characterized by self-awareness, symbolism, fascination with nature, and interest in supernatural themes. Romanticism began in Europe and quickly spread to the United States. The era peaked from approximately 1800 to 1850. Some of the most noted American authors from this time period were William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Edgar Allen Poe. These authors had unique writing styles but shared many common themes in their writing styles.

As America sought to create their own literary voice following the Revolutionary War, the transition from the Colonial Era to the Romantic Era was a notable one, changing the voice of our country throughout the 19th century. Marked by themes of individualism, idealism, and being in touch with nature, Romanticism altered both the art and writing of the time and has certainly left a lasting impact to this day.

Emily Dickinson is a poet who was much unknown during her time but is very well known for her profound use of syntax. She is very well recognized in the 21st century because of her obsession with death and immortality in her poems. Emily Dickinson is viewed as a morbid poet because of her fascination with death and the afterlife but this could be due to the fact that she lost several of her closest friends in 1880 or because of her religion and notions about god. I believe Emily wrote about death and immortality because she had an understanding of what it felt to lose people you care about. Emily became fascinated with it and gave readers a new insight in a topic that many people aren’t very comfortable with in her poem “Because I could not stop for death” Emily personifies death as a companion and not a freighting fate that we all have to face.

During the years leading up to 1800, America had gained its political freedom from England. Establishing a cultural independence was just beginning. American Literature while closely tied to English literary influences was finding its own voice known as American Romanticism. Romanticism as a literary movement originated in Europe at the end of the 18th century. From this early stage, Romanticism quickly spread to England in 1789 with Wordsworth’s publication of Lyrical Ballads and jumped almost immediately to America. Some of the Romantic elements featured individualism, nature-worship, philosophic idealism, religious mysticism, opposition to political authority and social convention, and a continuing interest in the supernatural. It was

American romanticism was big in the time period 1800-1860. Two of the things we learned about were Paul reveres ride and how people romanticism things in today's world.

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are almost too different to be able to compare them to one another. Whitman wrote his poems to be heard while Dickinson wrote hers for herself, and only herself. The two poets Whitman and Dickinson’s opinions and perceptions shape how those poems are written. Walt Whitman was born into a somewhat economically unstable family, did not originally desire to become a poet. Whitman started working for a newspaper then became a teacher, neither of which he was very fond.

The Romantic Movement, which originated in Germany but quickly spread to England, France, and beyond, reached America around the year 1820. Romantic ideas centered on art as inspiration and spiritual movements. (IIP Digital)

The romantic literary movement is a time period from the late 1700's to the mid-1800's. Romanticism took place as an effect to the frustration people felt with the ideas after the French Revolution of 1789. The literary movement is focused on passion rather than a reason, and imagination overruled logic. Romanticism was built on the expression of the emotions such as love, jealousy, compassion, etc. Romantics yearn for the infinite and viewed nature as a free spirit that had no restraint or order. Which

Emily Dickinson published only a few poems during her time. Her work was only truly discovered after her death of kidney disease in 1886 at the age of fifty-six. Upon her death her sister Lavinia Dickinson found hundreds of poems tied into a book stitched together by Emily. People claim that she is the most original 19th Century American Poet and is now considered one of the towering figures of American literature. Although She is known for her unconventional broken rhyming meter, creative use of metaphor, and overall innovative style. At times she characterized a heartbroken introvert or abnormal fear in her poetry. Emily Dickinson work is also sometimes depressing, joyous, and celebratory. This can be seen in two of her works: “A Route of Evanescence” and “Because I could not stop for death.”

Romanticism was a literary movement that swept through virtually every country of Europe, the United States, and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 to 1870. This period included philosophy, art, music, literature. Romantics believed that men and women should not be guided by rules placed on them by society but led by warm emotions that promoted a sense of freedom. William Blake was one of the poets that began the Romantic Age who promoted self-expression but was weighed down by the importance and standards of religion. (Forward, 2014) Literary work during Romanticism had a strong emphasis in implementing nature, emotion over logic, imagination over reason, and no division between art and literature. These works placed focus on human personality affected by political and social causes. These became dominant themes in romantic poetry which made literature much more complex. (Wartz "The Romantic Era" 1999)

Romanticism defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterised chiefly by a reaction against neo-classicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms”. The Romanticist literary period began in the mid 1700 it was a period where a whole new chapter of writing was created. “Romanticism witnessed a steady loosening of the rules of artistic expression that were pervasive during earlier times”(Rahn). Romanticism was a completely new outlet of literature. It created many famous writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe.

American Romanticism was during the 1800s. It brought ideas of individuality, creativity, and imagination to society. American Romantic poems were interesting ones, and they impacted lots of poets in that period of time. Emily Dickinson was a poet around 1830s. Her poems had a big effect to society in that time, her poems usually discuss death, love, nature, beauty, God, and knowledge. Death and Loss is one of the themes that Emily Dickinson commonly wrote about. “If I were coming in the Fall” and “Because I could not stop for death” were well-known poems with that theme. Emily expresses her inner thoughts of death and loss in different ways, as in some poems she was hopeless, constantly waiting for her love, but he never came, and in other poems she explains how Death came to her, as she showed hints of hope, even though Death was really closeted. Through those poems, she can express herself through her words.

The romantic period was an intellectual movement originated in Europe during the late 17th century. William Wordsworth is considered to be as the father of romantic period in one hand, on the other hand William blake is called the father of romantic period. The romantic period was basically a response to industrial revolution. In this period, the writers wrote about nature, personal experiences, showed the negative side of city life and put more importance on imagination. Metaphors, symbols are quite common in this period of writing.

The expression Romantic gained currency during its own time, roughly 1780-1850. However, the Romantic era is to identify a period in which certain ideas and attitudes arose, gained the idea of intellectual achievement and became dominant. This is why , they became the dominant mode of expression. Which tells us something else about the Romantic era which expression was perhaps everything to do with them -- expression in art, music, poetry, drama, literature and philosophy. Romantic ideas arose both as implicit and explicit criticisms of 18th century Enlightenment thought. For the most part, these ideas were generated by a sense of being