Walt Whitmans Relation to the Romantic Period Essay

The time of Romanticism brought upon many trends extending from the idea of individualism as a rebellious separation from the classics, an idealistic outlook and finally to a strong religious base. Most of the writers of the Romantic period followed Pantheism God is everything and everything is God ... the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature (Owen 1971: 74). The idea of Pantheism was that everything in the world worked in unity. In some of the works of the Romantic period the expression of nature and humans are not separate entities, but one in the same. Even though in reality it did not work this way Pantheism was the ideal of most these writers and idealism in itself was yet another trend†¦show more content†¦In the poem he veers from any pattern and words like, abject louse, and maggot, followed his reputation of having an angry diction. His work is completely impulsive which was seen as exotic and passionate, which certainly reflected the period. In his poetry he was said by Norton to stay away from, making any sense or reason, (Saintsbury, 50). Walt Whitman also had a strong emphasis on religion as well. In most of his poetry, including `Faces Whitman tended to speak of sprits and in this particular poem; the Lord and the soul. The Lord advances, and yet advances; Always the shadow in front-always the reachd hand bringing up the laggards. (Whitman, `Faces) The soul is also mentioned earlier in the poem as beautiful, despite the faces he sees which are at most despising, (Whitman, `Faces). Whitman was apparently very much intrigued by the soul, he tried to find a path, to the soul even though he admits that he was not sure what the soul was. However, he was determined he would find a path between reality and their souls, (Allen, 192). Like most of the pantheists of his time he wanted to connect many things, reality and the soul; even individualism and the nation. Whitman quoted, The empowerments of each element of the country individually but at the same time their merger in the collective empowerment of the nationShow MoreRelatedSong of Myself by Walt Whitman2251 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å"I celebrate myself, and sing myself / and what I shall assume you shall assume† (Whitman 1-2). These lines not only open up the beginning of one the best poems of the American Romantic period, but they also represent a prominent theme of one of this period’s best poet, Walt Whitman. In Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Whitman deals with his time period’s most prominent theme of democracy. Whitman tells readers that they must not only observe the democratic life but they must become one with it. AsRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1541 Words   |  7 PagesScarlet Letter follows young adulteress Hester Prynne as she struggles with her sin and subsequent isolation from Puritan society, while Walt Whitman’s Oh Captain! My Captain! chronicles a ship’s bittersweet journey towards a port without its captain. Both texts are products of the American Romantic era, which lasted from the 1830s to 1860s, and characterized a time period of particularly emotional and contemplative literature. Hawthorne and Whitman display a sense of nostalgia for the past by juxtaposingRead MoreAmerican Renaissance (Literature)1541 Words   |  7 PagesMississippi River, was a political unit which agreed on all fundamental policies in connection with cotton culture and slavery. The professional classes and most of the clergy now no longer apologized for slavery but defended it. They insisted that the relations of capital and labour were more humane under the slavery system than under the wage system of the North. However, the old patriarchal system of plantation, with its easygoing methods of personal supervis ion of the slaves by their master, was over