Emigrants Crossing the Plains by Albert Bierstadt 1867

“Emigrants Crossing the Plains” by Albert Bierstadt (1867) National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City

As America developed, cities grew. Between 1820 and 1840, New York City doubled from 124, 000 to 312, 000 people.

In 1830 the first official tenements were built where a bathtub might be shared by 400 people or where 8 or more might live in a single room without furniture.

City streets were foul with droppings from horses. Dead animals were left to die on curbsides where its body may lay for days or weeks at a time.

Disease was rampant. In 1832 one-third of New York City left to escape a cholera epidemic that killed about 100 people per day.

There were 20, 000 homeless children on the streets of New York. They worked in sweatshops, sold newspapers or turned to a life of crime.

Therefore, American romantic writers sought to escape the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thought and move toward the integrity of nature and freedom of imagination.

• Values feelings and intuition over reason • Places faith in inner experience and power of imagination.

• Shuns civilization and seeks unspoiled nature • Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication

• Values individual freedom • Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

• Looks to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress • Finds beauty in exotic locals and the supernatural realm

• Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination • Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture

American novelists looked to westward expansion for inspiration which created subject matter that broke with European tradition.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789 -1851) explored uniquely American settings and characters: frontier communities, Indians, backwoodsmen and the wilderness. Most of all, he is famous for his Leatherstocking Tales.

He created the first American heroic figure: Natty Bumppo (also known as Hawkeye, Deerslayer and Leatherstocking. This set the standard for the classic American hero.

• Is youthful or possesses youthful qualities • Is innocent and pure of purpose • Has a sense of honor based not on society but a higher purpose

• Has knowledge of people and life based on deep intuitive understanding • Loves nature and avoids town life • Quests for some higher truth in the natural world

Another leading novelist of the day was Washington Irving (1783 -1859) who is known for his Sketch Book which contains “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle. ”

During this period, a group of poets emerged who became known as the Fireside Poets or Schoolroom Poets because their poems for many years were often read aloud at home and memorized at school.

Four poets; Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, and Holmes; created poetry about love, patriotism, nature, family, God and religion but was traditional in nature and followed European meter and diction.

Bryant is known as the “father of American poetry. ” Today, his poems are not read as the spiritual counsels they were meant to be but rather as period pieces that reflect their time.

Longfellow’s popularity was based on his appeal to people who were hungry for sermons and lessons. He has become the symbolic figure of the Poet: wise and graybearded.

Whittier wrote poems on homey incidents from rural life, religious faith, and tolerance. His humane convictions and moral example left a permanent mark on his era.

Holmes became a physician because he felt it could teach him about humanity. He is known for his gentleness and humor who, beginning his practice, hung out a sign which read “grateful for small fevers. ”