Romanticism

Romanticism is a literary and artistic movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that placed value on emotion or imagination over reason, on the imagination over society. Some sources say Romanticism started in reaction to neo-classicism, or the Enlightenment. The most important result of romanticism was the emphasis laid upon the supernatural. Some writers during this time period were Mary Shelley with Frankenstein,

Edgar Allen Poe with various poems and selections, such as The Raven,

The TellTale Heart, and The Pit and The Pendulum. One person who had a

great effect on the Romantic era was Washington Irving. Some called Irving

the first real American writer.

Washington Irving was born April 3, 1783, in New York City. He was the

eleventh child of Sarah William Irving. His father was a strict man, a

merchant and deacon in the Presbyterian Church. He started school at the

age of four, but he never took it seriously. Even when he was older, he did

not really care for school. He did not impress any of his teachers as

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Many people were very anxious to meet

him. While much

Romantic writing dealt with love and the struggles endured due to love, there was also emphasis

placed on isolation, as seen in the emotions of Smith's speaker and also in the setting on the work. During these years he turned to variety of pursuits. In this sonnet,

it is again apparent how influential and prevalent nature is.

His interests in the arts and in the theater were obvious in his works. For some years after the success of his book, his life seemed to him

more or less aimless. He signed his articles

"Jonathon Oldstyle".

Nature, in many Romantic sonnets, is in direct parallel with the emotions being conveyed. " The Romantic era was one that focused on the

commonality of humankind and, while using emotion and nature, the poets and their works shed

light on people's universal natures. Later he joined his brother William and his friend Jim

Paulding in making a humorous magazine called Salmagundi. Despite this fact, some say Irving could

be seen as a lesser man than his predecessors. This book

established Irving as a talented writer , one whose elegant good taste

seemed to come instinctively.

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