American Literature

Literature during the Romanticist period has reflected the effects of the French and American Revolutions.  Romanticism may not all the time be talking about love although some literary pieces have dwelt on that theme romantic writers have generally focused on the beauty of the world around them, sympathizing on the obscure, humble and totally underprivileged people. Some writers have focused on the simplicity and ease of the rural life, the common man and the humble lives.

One of the writers who have not failed to infuse the Romantic concepts into his writings is Edward Arlington Robinson in his poem Richard Cory. Robinson compared the life of those who have not tasted luxury and who have everything a poor man could wish for. Some lines from the poem vividly reflect how Robinson views happiness out of simplicity

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king, And admirably schooled in every grace In fine -- we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light, And went without the meat and cursed the bread, And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet in his head

On the other hand, nature was used to capture lifes wonderful principles. Romantic ideas are universal and timely such that the lessons imparted by every Romantic literature are still and will be applicable to modern times. Take for instance the works of Robert frost. Frost was able to infuse the theme of decision-making, of creating a difference and of treading challenging roads ahead of us. He made use of nature as an analogy of how man makes decisions in his life in the poem The Road Not taken. Recognizing mans inability to be master of many trades, the poem instills the importance of pondering over options before deciding.

Generally, Romanticists lifted events in everyday life of an ordinary individual and transformed them into a poetic atmosphere. William Carlos Williams express how man looked into the beauty and charm of innocent women. His admiration to the character in his poem The Young Housewife was expressed in the way the housewife spends her day doing her responsibilities to her husband. It states
Then again she comes to the curb
to call the ice-man, fish-man, and stands
shy, uncorseted, tucking in
stray ends of hair, and I compare her
to a fallen leaf

In the end, he further made use of natural elements like the leaf in order to clearly expose the vulnerability of the woman character.

Romantic writers were able to create masterpieces that could stand the one generation to another, spreading the good within the ordinary and calling it the ultimate of life.