American lit Romantic area

Romantic Era Characteristics

This era relied a lot on nature and feelings- Supernatural/Spiritual, Emotion/Feeling/Imagination, Emphasis on the common man

Four major groups

• the Knickerbockers

- New England School/ Fireside Poets

- Transcendence optimist

- Transcendentalist pessimists

Major Genre

- poetry

- Short stories

- Novels

Knickerbocker

- sought to create genuinely American literature

- Primary Authors were Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Collins Bryant

- New york

What did Washington Irving write?

Rip Van Winkle, Sleepy Hallow

Rip Van Winkle

◦ Nature/imagination/emotion

◦ Individualism / common man

Additional details for Rip Van Winkle

• extremely descriptive

How is Rip Van Winkle describers?

• Lazy

• sweet

• falls asleep for 20 years

• hen-pencked

• not taking care of his house

• failed in husbands duties

• has a dog named Wolf

William Cullen Bryant

one of the first poets of the romantic era

Who wrote Thanatopsis

William Cullen Bryant

Washingtion Irving

First american to make it big

Most enduring works are the short stories

Compilation of Washington Irving’s works

DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER History of New York: From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Part of New England school/Fireside poets

what did Henry Wadsworth Longfellow write?

A Psalm of Life, Excelsior, song of Hiawatha

What did Longfellow translate

Divine Comedy

John Greenleaf Whittier

fireside poet

Snowbound

Whittier

Most famous fireside poet

John Greenleaf Whittier

James Russell Lowell

the courtin and was know for his use of vernacular