Romanticism in American literature

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that

originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It focused on emotions,
possibilities, imaginations, and so on. Romanticism first emerged as a reaction to
Enlightenment. Some characteristics of American Romanticism were imagination and
escapism, individuality, finding spirituality in nature, looking to the past for wisdom
and finding a here in the common man. Until about 1870 romanticism influenced the
major forms of American prose: transcendentalist writings, historical fiction, and
sentimental fiction.
Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious , and political
movement of the early nineteenth century in New England, was led by Ralph Waldo
Emerson. A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature. The
transcendentalists found their chief source of inspiration in nature.
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting located in
the past. Historical fiction transports readers to another time and place, either real or
imagine. Historical fiction was an expression of romanticism in its probings of human
nature and emotions and its romanticizing of the American past and the American
frontier.
The sentimental novel is a major form of American fiction that grew out of the
responses of white writers to the abuses of slavery. Sentimental fiction aimed to
arouse pity for the oppressed and offered a natural form for novelists writing about the
evils of slavery. The most famous and most significant work of American sentimental
fiction is Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

1. Hope is thing with feather

Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems
were published during her lifetime. Her poems are unique for the era in which she
wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well
as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.
Hope is the Thing with Feathers is one of the Emily Dickinson’s most typical works.
It is written in 1862, a prolific year for her poetry, one of nearly 1800 poems she
penned during her lifetime.
It likens the concept of hope to a feathered bird that is permanently perched in the
soul of every human. There it sings, never stopping in its quest to inspire. Hope Is The
Thing With Feathers stands out as a reminder to all - No matter the circumstances
each and every one of us has, hope is always there to help us out, by singing.
In 1st stanza :
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
Feathers are soft and gentle to touch, but strong in flight, even on tiny birds. Hope has
feathers and it can, like a bird, perch in the human soul. It sits on a perch and sings the
whole time, but the song is special as there are no words, no diction. Hope doesn’t
need spoken words. Hope is always there.
In the 2nd stanza:
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
The writer used the Symbolism. The gale and storm symbolize the dificulties and
hardships in life. “abash the little bird” means that these hardships weaken the hope.
Life is hard and the pressure relentless , but Hope still sing the sweetest and help us
overcome the challenges.
In the 3rd stanza:
I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me
The “chillest land ” is the cold, miserable, lonely place and the strangest sea is the
unfamiliar place. However, hope exist even in the hardest of places & in the most
distant lands. Hope asks “a crumbe”, it asks nothing. Therefore, Even when things are
extreme, Hope is still there and never asks for anything.

2. Cat in the rain

“Cat in the rain” is a short story written by American author- Ernest Hemingway. It
was frst published in 1925 in the short story collection “In our time” . The story
describes the relationship between two married American tourists on a vacation in
Italy.
The cold and abandoned cat in the rain symbolizes the American wife's feelings of
loneliness and need of rescuing from her inattentive husband. The American wife says
“I wanted it so much. I don't know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty”.
She cannot figure out exactly why she wants this cat, but it is clear that she feels a
deep sympathy towards it.
Hemingway describes the cat trying to make itself as "tight" and small as possible to
stay dry. The cat is clearly feeling trapped and confined in its distressing environment.
The American wife, too, is feeling trapped in her environment. She is hampered in her
little hotel room and cannot go outside due to the rain. She is isolated from other
people since she does not know anyone in this foreign country, and most importantly,
she is trapped in her marriage, as she is trying and failing to get her husband to notice
her. It is clear that in many ways, the cat's issues of being stuck under a table are same
to the woman's emotional imprisonment and isolation from her husband.
The American wife tells her husband, “I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr
when I stroke her”. Here, the cat symbolizes her longing to be physically held and
emotionally attended to. The fact that hotel-keeper gets the cat for the American wife
is emblematic because if she ever does achieve attention or feel loved, it will be from
another man and from not her husband.
On the tip of the iceberg, this story is just about a woman who wants to rescue a
freezing and wet cat that she sees, but under the iceberg, it is a much more complex
story about the woman, herself, who needs rescuing.

3. The nightingale and the rose

"The Nightingale and the Rose" is a short tragic fantasy story for children by the Irish
author Oscar Wilde. It was first published in 1888 in the anthology The Happy Prince
and Other Tales. There are some significant symbols in this work, and I will analyse
them in this essay.
the nightingale symbolizes goodness, virtue and sacrifice. This is because the
nightingale sacrifices her life so that the student can have the rose which he so
desperately desires. In doing this, the nightingale demonstrates considerable
selflessness: she loves her life, as we see through the phrase "Life is dear to all," but is
prepared to give it up for the happiness of the man she loves.
The next symbol is the student. The student is not a true lover, ignorant of love, not
persistent in pursuing love.When the girl refused him, he said that love was silly, not
haft as useful as logic… he came back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics.
Red-rose is symbol of true love which was formed by sacrifice. This is baecause to
make a rose, the bird had to sing for the night, letting the thorns pierce its chest. It
represents love, must overcome difficulties and challenges. Red roses are traditionally
associated with romance, so it is not surprising that Wilde uses one to symbolize true
love in "The Nightingale and the Rose." Its significance, however, shifts over the
context of the story. At first, the rose appears to represent the Student's love for the
girl, since her refusal to dance with him unless he brings her the flower makes the
flower into a piece of evidence that his feelings are genuine. By sacrificing her life to
bring the Student a rose, the Nightingale further underscores this idea that the flower
is an expression of true love; in fact, the Rose quite literally comes from the
Nightingale's heart, because she uses her blood to stain it red. In the end, however,
neither the Student nor the girl is able to appreciate the rose's symbolic significance.
The girl, for instance, compares the rose unfavorably to the jewels she has received
from another suitor, while the Student reacts angrily when the girl goes back on her
promise to dance with him. This suggests that neither character ever truly saw the rose
as a symbol of love, but rather as a kind of currency to buy someone's affection.
Lizard is a cynic/ pessimist, a person who sees little no good in anything and who has
no belief in human progress.
Thorn is symbol for the difficulties that people have to face when they love someone.
Jewels is symbol for material possessions, greed, power, … they seduce human, make
people greedy, selfish.
"The Nightingale and the Rose" shows us that sometimes it's necessary to make
sacrifices for love. But at the same time, it also shows us that such sacrifices are often
in vain. Love is a very powerful emotion, yet one that must be controlled, lest it lead
to misery and heartbreak.

4. The daffodils
The lyric poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” also known as Daffodils was
written by William Wordsworth. It is one of his best lyric poems in modern
times.
Stanza One
“ I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host, of golden daffodils:
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
The poet was travelling aimlessly just like a cloud over the hills and valleys. At
that time, suddenly he came across a large number of golden daffodils beside
the lake and under the trees. The flowers were ‘fluttering and dancing’ in the
breeze. The poet directly compares himself to a cloud, as he was wandering
without aim, just like the clouds. This is an example of simile. He also uses the
expressions like ‘crowd’ and ‘host’ to mean that he saw a large area covered
with a whole lot of daffodils. In the last line, the poet personifies the flowers by
saying that they were fluttering (like birds or butterflies) and dancing (like
human beings). There is also an indication that it was a breezy day. So we get
an overall idea of the landscape which includes the valleys and hills, the lake,
the trees, the flowers beneath them and the breezy atmosphere.
Stanza 2:
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
Here is another Simile. The flowers are compared to the stars. They stretched
in a continuous line just like the stars in a galaxy like the Milky Way.
Moreover, the daffodils were shining (as they were golden in colour) and
twinkling (as they were fluttering in the breeze) as the stars. This comparison
with the stars may have a greater implication in indicating that the flowers are
heavenly as the stars.
The flowers were visible as far as the poet could see along the shore-line of a
bay. That is why he uses the phrase “never-ending line”. Here ‘continuous’ and
‘never-ending’ may also suggest that the flowers left an everlasting impact on
him.
Wordsworth exaggerates the number of flowers by saying “Ten thousand saw I
at a glance”. That indicates that the poet has never seen so many daffodils at
once. So he is just overjoyed. This type of exaggeration is called hyperbole
(exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally).
The poet also says that the daffodils were tossing their heads as if they were
dancing in happiness. Actually the poet was amazed at the beauty of the
flowers. So, he found everything around him joyful. All these references of
dancing and tossing heads are parts of his personification of the flowers.
Stanza 3:
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
The waves in the bay were dancing and looking gleeful at the atmosphere. But
the flowers outshone the lively waves in their happiness. Having such cheerful
companion like the daffodils, a poet like Wordsworth cannot help being happy.
So he was gazing constantly at the flowers and enjoying their beauty. The word
‘gazed’ is used twice to indicate how moved or charmed the poet was. So he
gazed at them for a long time, forgetting his surroundings.
At that time, he did not think much about the ‘wealth’ that the flowers had
brought to him. The poet realized that later, may be, after a few days. This
‘wealth’ is the happiness and the pleasant memory that he enjoyed for a long
time since the day.
Stanza 4
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
By starting this stanza with ‘For’, the poet continues his reasoning for saying
that the flowers had brought him ‘wealth’. He clarifies why the sight of the
flowers was so important in his life. Whenever he lies on his bed in a vacant or
thoughtful mood, the daffodils flash upon his inner-eye, i.e., his imagination.
The daffodils have become an everlasting memory for the poet, whenever he is
lonely. So, he calls it ‘a bliss of solitude’, a blessing of staying alone.
And whenever he sees the flowers in his imagination, his heart fills with
pleasure and his mind dances with the dancing daffodils.
This shows the poet’s intense feelings. The poet has been able to depict the
landscape and express his mind so vividly in so simple language and form, that
really draws one’s attention. And that is why this poem has been one of the
most read and mentioned subjective poems in the history of English literature.

5. The Power of Love in Romeo and Juliet

Renown writer William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet has been
considered the most famous love story in the whole world. Love, other than
fate, is the play’s most dominant and important theme, as it tells the story of
two young "star-crossed lovers" who fall in lovewith each other through fate
despite the fact that their families have had a long-lasting feudagainst.
Romeo and Juliet majorly focuses on their romantic love, specifically the
intense passion that springs up at first sight between the two, and unfortunately
causes them to take their own lives. Shakespeare illustrates that love is
complex; it is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other
values.
Romeo and Juliet's love is so strong that it causes them to literally disobey their
family's own beliefs. That is to say that in the course of the play, the young
lovers are driven to defy their entire social world, like their families, just so
they can be free to love each other. They wish to deny their own names just for
the sake of their love.
Life without love is not worth living. It is only through death that they can
preserve their love, and their love is so profound that they are willing to end
their lives in its defense. In the play, love emerges as an amoral thing, leading
as much to destruction as to happiness. But in its extreme passion, the love that
Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so exquisitely beautiful that few
would want, or be able, to resist its power. Love stories don’t always end
happily.