Romanticism Review

Given the following list of works and traits of Romanticism, label each as Romantic, Dark Romantic, or Transcendentalism.

·         “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”

·         “The Cross of Snow”

·         “The Raven”

·         Walden

·         Nature

·         “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”

·         “The Devil and Tom Walker”

·         Song of Myself

·         “Death of an Innocent”, Outside magazine

·         “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”

·         “A Noiseless Patient Spider”

·         “My life closed twice before its close”

·         “This is my letter to the World”

·         “I tasted a liquor never brewed”

·       Places faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination

·       Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to custom and tradition

·       Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature

·       The physical facts of the natural world are a doorway to the spiritual or ideal world.

·       Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication

·       Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual

·       View of existence developed from the mystical and melancholy aspects of Puritan thought.

·       Reflects on nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

·       Explores the conflict between good and evil, the effects of guilt and sin, and the destructive underside of appearances.

·       Values feeling and intuition over reason

·       Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination

·       Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore

·       Primarily an optimistic view of human nature.

·       Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul.

·       Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination

·       Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress

·       People can use their intuition to behold God’s spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls

·       Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality.

·        Primarily a pessimistic view of human nature.