American Romanticism The romantic era began as a movement in Europe in the late 1700s and soon spread to the United States. With its emphasis on nature and the individual, romanticism was a reaction to the strict rationalism of the age of reason. Writers and philosophers of the age of reason embraced rational and well-reasoned ideas that could help them define the world in an orderly manner. These writers focused on traditional forms of writing, often using formal language in their work. The romantics rebelled against what they saw as constrained thinking. They celebrated emotion, creativity, and the mystery and grandeur of nature. Many romantic writers also explored new forms of writing. They often wrote about nature and the everyday experiences of individual men and women. Although it eventually gave way to realism, romanticism stretched into the late 1800s. Philosophers, artists, and writers, such as George Holmes Howison, John Singleton Copley, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, all contributed to this era of intellectual and emotional expression Characteristics of Romanticism Some notable characteristics of romantic literature include the importance of the individual over society and an appreciation and respect for nature. The theme of the individual versus society can be found in works by Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Their writings could be characterized by a speaker’s visceral internal monologues. For example, in Longfellow's poem "My Books," the speaker relates his surroundings to his own feelings: So I behold these books upon their shelf, My ornaments and arms of other days; Not wholly useless, though no longer used, For they remind me of my other self, Younger and stronger, and the pleasant ways In which I walked, now clouded and confused. This focus on the individual exemplifies the idea among romantics that a person derives significant meaning from the individual, rather than society. While the speaker of the poem comments on the books in his study, his focus is on the memories that they bring to mind, rather than the importance of the books themselves.
