Walt Whitman and the Romanticism Movement
Walt Whitman and the Romanticism Movement
Romanticism, is a movement in the literature of virtually every country of Europe, United States and Latin America . It lasted from about 1750 to 1870. This epoch is characterized by the reliance on the imagination and subjectivity of approach, freedom of thought and expression and idealization of nature.
This movement was developed everywhere, imagination was praised over the reason, emotions were over the logic and intuition over science. The literature will emphasized a new flexibility of form adapted to varying content, encourage development of complex and fast-moving plots and allowed mixed genres and a freer style. There was an increasing demand for spontaneity and lyricism , it led to a rejection of regular meters, strict forms and other convention of the classical tradition.
The romantic writers replaced the static universal types of classical 18th century literature with more complex, idiosyncratic characters and a great deal of drama, fiction and poetry.
The 18th and 19th century is characterized by the libertarian and abolitionist movements. They were engendered by the romantic philosophy of desire to be free of convention and tyranny and the emphasis of the rights and dignity of the individual. An example is the American Civil War, where the abolitionist fight for the rights of the slaves of the southern part of the United States.
The central interest of the romantic movement is the concern with nature and the natural surroundings. This tradition is absorbed in the literary movement of transcendentalism that is expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. This movement were influenced by Romanticism, specially in the aspects of self-examination, the celebration of individualism, and the extolling of the beauties of nature and humankind.
All the characteristics of this movement, specially the celebration of the individual, of the new creations and thinks, formed the most important author of the 19th century : WALT WHITMAN .
Walter Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in Huntington, Long Island in a working class family. He was the second son of nine children. His father was a carpenter and a farmer, he was also a liberal thinker. Walter had a very special relationship with his mother.
When he was four years, he moved to Brooklyn, near the East River and the ferries. Later in his life this was his inspiration to write the poem called "Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry" where he wrote the experiences...