American Romanticism 🎈
Her bold original verse stands out for its haunting personal voice and unusual use of punctuation.
Emily Dickinson
This is another name for God among Transcendentalists.
Universal Being, also Over-Soul
T or F: Romantic writers valued city life and industrial progress as the highest achievements of human potential.
FALSE. They preferred untouched nature, individualism, and the wilderness over urban corruption and industrialization.
This man is often seen as the father of Transcendentalist thought.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Transcendentalists emphasized the importance of ___ things over material ones.
spiritual
Some believe this poem features an unreliable narrator due to the hour and circumstances of the narration.
"The Raven"
Ralph Waldo Emerson described this inherent human capacity as a "primary wisdom" and frequently called it "Spontaneity" or "Instinct."
intuition
T or F: Edgar Allan Poe achieved great fame while alive.
True
Walt Whitman
Transcendentalism featured a mistrust for ___.
society, history, government, religion, institutions and organizations
Where did Romanticism originate?
Europe
Dickinson revolutionized punctuation by constantly using this specific, punctuation mark to create dramatic pauses and open-ended meaning.
em dash (acceptable: dash)
T or F: Emily Dickinson achieved great fame while alive.
False
He spent a night in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax.
Henry David Thoreau
What was Emerson's job before he became a famous lecturer? ⛪
minister (pastor) in the Unitarian chuch
Romanticism was an emotional reaction to the Age of ___.
Reason
This poetic form, made famous by Walt Whitman, chooses not to follow regular meter or rhyme at all.
free verse
T or F: Thoreau wrote, "That government is best which governs least."
TRUE. This is the opening statement of his influential essay "Civil Disobedience".
"Civil Disobedience" influenced the later work of this activist.
MLK Jr., also Gandhi
Fill in the blank: "Trust ___, every heart vibrates to that iron string."
"thyself" or "yourself"
This literary offshoot focuses especially on human fallibility and sin. 🧛
Dark Romanticism 🦇
Poe famously wrote on these topics, a word for "dealing with death, especially its grim and ghastly aspects."
macabre
T or F: Poe believed that good literature must teach you something.
FALSE
This writer was probably homosexual.
Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman
This 1854 book by Thoreau serves as a foundational text of nature writing, social critique, and simple living.
Walden