brief view of Romanticism, Transcendentalism and their characteristics.

1. Romanticism
and Transcendentalism

2. Romanticism as defined by the Oxford Companion to
American Literature:
"Romanticism is a term that is associated with
imagination and boundlessness, . A romantic attitude
may be detected in literature of any period, but as an
historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th
centuries. The most clearly defined romantic literary
movement in the U. S. was Transcendentalism.

3. • Nature
• Sublime
• Rebellion
• political liberalism
• celebration of natural
beauty and the simple
life
• introspection,
psychology, and
supernatural concepts
common man
• interest in the
picturesque past
• interest in remote places
• individualism
• morbid melancholy
• historical romance
Characteristics of the Romantic movement in American
literature are:

4. How and why?
American Romanticism was influenced by European
Romanticism.
Influential European artists and writers broke away
from formalities and rationalities of the
Enlightenment/Age of Reason.
Philosophers, artists, and writers were concerned with:
continuing decay of urban life
possibilities for workable democracy
a middle class frustrated with a government which
brought them little in the way of additional power

5. In the arts, Romanticism promoted a popular
taste for wild landscapes, ominous skies,
ancient ruins, picturesque rusticity, and
other settings for intuitive inspiration.

6. Transcendentalism

7. What does
“Transcendentalism” mean?
0 Transcendentalism comes from the Latin
word transcendere, which means to "climb over or
American transcendentalism movement were indeed
beyond" traditional empirical thinking. Ralph Waldo
transcendentalist, summed up the beliefs of
said, "What lies behind us, and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

8. Where did it come from?
0Ralph Waldo Emerson gave German
philosopher Immanuel Kant credit for
popularizing the term “transcendentalism.”
0It began as a reform movement in the
Unitarian church.
0It is not a religion—more accurately, it is a
philosophy or form of spirituality.
0Emerson first expressed his philosophy of
Transcendentalism in his essay Nature.

9. Basic Premise #1
An individual is the
spiritual center of the
universe, and in an
individual can be found
the clue to nature, history
and, ultimately, the
cosmos itself. It is not a
rejection of the existence
of God, but the idea that
God exists differently in
each individual.

10. Basic Premise #2
The structure of the
universe literally
duplicates the structure
of the individual self—
all knowledge,
therefore, begins with
self-knowledge. This is
similar to Aristotle's
dictum "know thyself."

11. Basic Premise #3
Transcendentalists
accepted the
concept of nature as
a living mystery, full
of signs; nature is
symbolic.

12. Basic Premise #4
The belief that individual virtue and
happiness depend upon self-
realization—this depends upon the
reconciliation of two universal
psychological tendencies:
1. The desire to embrace the whole world—
to know and become one with the world.
2. The desire to withdraw, remain unique
and separate—an egotistical existence.

13. Who were some of the most
influential
Transcendentalists?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Margaret Fuller

14. Ralph Waldo Emerson
01803-1882
0Unitarian minister
0Poet and essayist
0Founded the Transcendental Club
0Popular lecturer
0Banned from Harvard for 40 years
following his Divinity School
address
0Supporter of abolitionism

15. Are you able to define Romanticism and
Transcendentalism?
Could you identify some notable authors of the time
period?
Could you explain how historical change affected the
literature of the time period?
What do you know?

16. Romanticism :
Poetry and Prose
MADE BY : TEHREEM AMJAD

17. Poetry written in Romantic
Era
Topics Poets
0 The significant literature in
this period mainly consists
of poems.
0 The poetry was written on
the themes relation to
nature.
0 Moreover, the tension
between nature and the
individual self, or violation
of natural order were also
discussed in poetry.
0 The poems were lyrical in
the form of ballads.
0
0 Prominent poets of this era
are:
0 William Wordsworth
0 William Blake
0 John Keats
0 Percy Bysshe Shelley
0 Mary Shelley
0 Samuel Taylor Coleridge

18. William Wordworth(1770-
1850)
0 Words worth is most famous poet of this era.
0 He along with Coleridge helped to launch Romantic age in literature
with their joint publication Lyrical Ballad.
0 Significant Works:
0 The Solitary Reaper: the poem is a ballad written to praise the beauty
of music and its fluid expressive beauty and spontaneous overflow of
emotions. This poem was inspired by the poet’s and his sister’s stay at
village of Strathy. The poem was published in 1807 in two volumes.
0 The Tables Turned: the poem was written in 1798, mainly highlighting
the importance of nature as a teacher which teaches us all about
humans’ evil and good.
0 Peter Bell: this is a long narrative poem written in 1798 but was not
published until 1819. the poem starts with description of poet as hard-
hearted sinner and followed by the softening effect of nature on him.
0

19. William Blake(1757-1827)
0 His most renowned works in poetry is Songs of innocence and of
experience(considered one of the leading poetic works of this era)
0 Significant works:
0 The Lamb: Published in 1789 the poem is regarded as poem on
Christianity. The lamb is metaphor for Jesus which is also called “the
lamb of God”. The tone of poem is innocent, simple and reassuring
0 The Tyger: published in 1794.The poem focuses on subject of creation
who could have made such a terrifying beast as the tiger.
0 London
0 A Poison Tree
0 The Chimney Sweeper
0 The Sick Rose

20. John Keats (1795-1821)
0 The poems mainly focuses the themes of nature.
0 Significant works:
0 Two Autumn : Three to eleven stanzas on the scene
of fall season .
0 On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer : First
mature poem of Keats.
0 Hyperion
0 Ode Of Psyche
0 Lamia
0 Ode on a Grecian Um

21. Samuel Taylor
Coleridge(1772-1834)
0 His poetry was mainly inspired by his childhood
experiences .
0 Significant works:
0 Frost At Midnight: The poem focuses on the negative
experiences of poet’s childhood and emphasizes the
need to be raised up in countryside. More over
portrays nature as the physical presence of God’s
words.
0

22. Percy Bysshe Shelly(1792-
1822)
0 The finest lyric and philosophical poet in English
language.
0 Significant works:
0 Ozymandias
0 To a Skylark
0 The Cloud
0 Mutability

23. MARY SHELLY(1797-1855)
0 She adopted to write about nature mainly in the forms
of short stories and novels.
0 Novels:
0 The Last Man
0 Frankenstein
0 The Ludore
0 Short stories:
0 A Tail of the Passions
0 The death of Despina
0 The Liberal
0 The Pole

24. Prose written in Romantic Era
0 TOPICS
0 The prose was mainly
written on following
themes:
0 Revolution and
democracy
0 Transcendence
0 Psychology and extreme
mental issues
0 Nature
0 WRITERS
0 Mary Shelly
0 Percy Bysshe Shelly
0 Victor Hugo
0 Jane Austen

25. CHARACTERISTICS OF
ROMANTICISIM MADE BY: ASIF SHAH
0 There are several characteristics
of Romanticism such as :
 Experimentation with poetic
forms.
 Fascinated by Nature.
 Rebellious against
industrialization.
 Interest in Greek and Roman
antiquity.
 Focus on individualism and
subjectivity.
 Sensitive about Emotions.
 Salient features of Escapism.
 Influence of French revolution.

26. Experimentation with poetic
forms0 During this period poets were
experimenting new forms of
poetry, they were using
ordinary speech but still that
was beautiful.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,
that is all you know on earth
and all you need to know on
earth.
0 Poets wanted to make poetry
conversational, like Samuel
Coleridge, William
Wordsworth and William
Blake.

27. 0 This was the big project of
Lyrical Ballads, collection
of poetry of William
Wordsworth and Samuel
Taylor Coleridge.
0 Examples of conversational
poetry are:
i. The marriage of
Heaven and Hell by
William Blake.
ii. The nightingale by
Samuel Coleridge

28. Fascinated by Nature
0 Romantics had a huge crush
on nature, they loved trees,
flowers, mountains, clouds,
birds and even seasons.
0 Romantics found inspiration
for their poetry, wisdom and
happiness in nature.
Come forth into the light of
things, let nature be your
teacher. William
Wordsworth.
Nature never did betray the
heart that loved her. William
Wordsworth

29. Scenery is fine but human
nature is finer. John Keats.
0 Romantics were writing about
nature because people were
going away from nature and
were attracted toward
industrialization.
0 Romantics found beauty in
nature, they wrote a lot in the
praise of nature such as:
0 Ode to autumn by John
Keats.
0 Ode to the west wind by Percy
Bysshe Shelley.
0 Ode to Nightingale by John
Keats.
0 Poems of William Wordsworth
like THE DAFFODIDLES.

30. Rebellious against
Industrialization
0 Romantics were rebellious in
nature, it means they went
against the flow, people were
attracted toward materialistic
life style, toward industries
but they were attracted
toward nature, imaginations,
feelings etc.
0 They rebel against the social,
political and economic
situation of society.
0 It can be seen in the poem
LONDON by William Blake.

31. Interest in Greek and Roman
antiquity
0 Romantics were interested in
the ancient past especially in
Greek and Roman ruins.
0 That’s the reason why some of
the romantics traveled to
Greece and Italy-sites of these
two civilizations.
0 Even three of the famous
romantics: John Keats, Percy
Bysshe Shelley, died in these
two countries.
0 Ode on a Grecian Urn by
John Keats, and Ozymandias
by P.B Shelley, these are the
living example of their love for
ancient past and ruins.

32. Focus on Individualism and
Subjectivity
0 Individualism is one of the basic
characteristic of Romanticism,
instead of norms of society their
focus was on individual’s
feelings, their freedom and
importance of an individual.
0 Ralph Waldo Emerson
emphasis to stay true to
ourselves in his essay Self-
Reliance, his focus was on
individuality.
0 Similarly Herman Melville in
novel Moby-Dick has projected
individuality through a character
Captain Ahab.

33. Sensitive about Emotions
0 Emotion was the basic
element of romanticism and
was the centre element of
their writing.
0 Emotion was in opposite to
reason, which was at peak
during Enlightenment as P.B
Shelley said “reason respects
the difference and imagination
the similitude of things”.
0 They talked about emotions
like love, anger, fear as well as
feelings.

34. 0 There are some quotes of
famous romantic writers
which will clear your concept
about emotions and feelings
0 A thing of beauty is joy
forever. John Keats.
0 Love is my religion I could die
for it. John Keats.
0 Poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of feelings. William
Wordsworth.
0 To be angry is to revenge the
faults of others on ourselves.
Alexander Pop.

35. Salient features of
Escapism
0 Romantic writers were mostly
escapist which means they were
living in their own world of
imagination.
0 John Keats in one of his ode, Ode
to Nightingale wanted to fly
away with nightingale.
0 Similarly William Wordsworth in
his poem THE daffodils compare
himself with clouds.
0 A famous saying of John Keats
“My imagination is a monastery
and I am its monk” explains
escapism in a better way.

36. Influence of French
revolution
0 Romanticism was greatly inspired
by French revolution especially
from its ideas like freedom,
individual rights, voice against
slavery.
0 Different romantic writings reflect
these ideas such as:
0 William Blake’s poem London is
about injustice and inequality.
0 William Blake’s poem The chimney
sweepers criticize child labor.
0 William Wordsworth’s poem
Perfect woman describes women
qualities.