• Belief in power of imagination, a world of truth beyond fact, an inner and emotional reality. Plays with fantasy (well qualified), superstition-- sees its appeal, charm as opposed to cold world of reality; sleep as entry into a more "alive" world.
• Interest in archetypal themes.
• Nature as wilderness but not frightening (except in a delightful sort of way), as it rejuvenates and excites.
• Allure of nature; strong sense of place, its role in human affairs.
• The motif of freedom, adventure.
• Use of narrator with personality
• Awareness that there is a reader shapes his responses (these romantics are always playing to the reader somehow--maybe a holdover from the Puritan sermon days?)
• Iinterest in art of writing, not its practical effects, moral; no Bryant-like morals here!
• Loitering style--in no hurry to make a point.
• Stories are an experiment in genre (American "embroidery").

Bryant

• Blends emerging romanticism with remnants of Puritanism and neoclassicism.Puritanism: believes that force of nature are expressions of divine power (God's providences)
• Neoclassicism: belief in stoicism, harmony of nature, and that literature should aim at moral perfection of its audience (seen most in "Thanatopsis")
• Hawthorne said that Bryant "fails to stir one's blood." Do you agree or not?
• Consider the differences between sentimentality and romanticismas it relates to Bryant

Romanticism

• Use of primitive American natural scene to show philosophical ideas. Is aware of vanishing wilderness, wants to capture it in words and art quickly. Problems in relation between nature and man--seems unspoiled, away from mankind,but paradoxically must be seen by man and thus is spoiled.
• Has faith in the perfectability of human nature
• Emphasizes individual feeling and imagination
• Concerned with death, the past, freedom
• Experiments with free verse to some degree (breaks 18th century aesthetic rules)

Parallels in Hudson River School of Art

Check out this gallery of Hudson River landscapes

• Both emphasize concepts of harmony in nature; use of vast panoramas to show immensity of nature and puniness of man.
• Similar pictorial devices in Bryant: he takes a distant and elevant perspective, viewing the scene; uses much light and darkness; contrasts diverse aspects of nature to show the unity in variety (man diminished).