Romanticism Unit Test

1
Romanticism Unit Test

• Review Notes
• Mrs. Katz
• 10R

2
Romanticism

• A literary movement that stressed emotion over
  reason, celebrated individuality and creativity,
  with a heavy focus on nature, and mans place in
  nature and the world.
• They also focus their writing on identity and
  spirituality

3
Romantic Authors

• Washington Irving The Devil and Tom Walker

• The Devil and Tom Walker Set in a Puritan
  village, the Devil takes a human form and tempts
  Tom Walker to sell his soul to gain power and
  wealth in this world. Tom and his wife are both
  angry, stubborn and selfish people, and she tries
  to tempt the Devil with all of their silver and
  possessions. She is never heard from again.
• Tom refuses the Devils first offer to become a
  slave-trader. This shows that Irving may have
  supported abolition, or the end of slavery. Tom
  sees many trees in the Devils swamp that are
  engraved with names of townspeople that have made
  deals with the Devil.
• We see the symbolism as a tree falls, and the
  person with that name dies. Finally, after making
  the deal with the Devil and gaining money and
  power by lending money and mortgages, the Devil
  comes to collect Toms soul and we can assume he
  takes Tom to Hell. When this occurs, all of Toms
  possessions disappear or are destroyed. This
  implies that he never really owned any of these
  things they were temporary and not worth his
  eternal soul.

4
Fireside PoetsHenry Wadsworth Longfellow The
Tide Rises, The Tide Falls The Song of
Hiawatha

• Prologue to The Song of Hiawatha - Poem
  focuses on traditional Native American stories
  and relies heavily on imagery of nature. Page 258
• The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls Poem focuses
  on the passage of time and contrasts the imagery
  of the ocean with imagery of people in the town.
  Note use of repetition and effects.

5
William Cullen Bryant Fireside Poet, often
viewed as Transcendentalist

• Thanatopsis Discusses authors view of death,
  seemingly positive, as we return to the earth and
  join all those who have died before. Our bodies
  then become a part of the beautiful and powerful
  earth.

6
Oliver Wendell Holmes Fireside Poet

• Old Ironsides Written in alternating lines of
  iambic tetrameter and trimeter, Holmes tries to
  persuade his audience not to demolish the
  battleship Constitution, which was used during
  the War of 1812.

7
Gothic Literature

• Gothic Literature stems from the dark side of
  Romanticism
• Gothic Literature usually has the following
  elements
• Bleak or remote settings
• Macabre (gruesome) or violent incidents
• Characters in psychological and/or physical
  torment
• Strong language full of dangerous meaning

8
Edgar Allen Poe Gothic Author

• The Raven a poem written in the first person
  perspective about a man who is isolated and
  alone, mourning the loss of his love, Lenore. He
  is visited by a Raven, who serves as a constant
  reminder of his sadness and bitterness.

9
Poe, Continued

• The Fall of the House of Usher a short story
  about an unnamed narrator who answers a letter
  from his childhood friend, Roderick Usher, to
  find out that Usher is very upset because of his
  sisters mortal illness.
• Usher is very nervous, agitated and depressed as
  his sister dies and is entombed. Usher realizes
  too late that he has buried his sister alive.
• The single effect Poe attempts to create in the
  opening description of the house is that of gloom
  and foreboding.
• Ultimately, our narrator realizes that a person
  cut off from the rest of the world can quickly
  become a victim of his own fears and mental
  illness.

10
Poetry Notes Scansion

• Iambic Meter is the pattern of syllables in which
  an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed
  syllable
• Her deck once red with heroes' blood/ Where
  knelt the vanquished foe
• Meter is determined by counting the syllables in
  a line. Iambic lines are broken into feet of 2
  syllables each. The kind of meter depends on how
  many feet are in a line.

11
Scansion Examples

• Trimeter 3 metric feet per line (6 syllables
  total)
• Where knelt / the van / quished foe
• Tetrameter 4 metric feet per line (8 syllables
  total)
• When winds/ were hurr/ ying oer / the flood
• Pentameter 5 metric feet per line (10 syllables
  total)
• Of ag / es glide/ away / the sons / of men