Unit+III+Romanticism

Dear Students and Parents:

As you know, we have already completed our review of Gothic Literature. This movement stemmed from the movement Romanticism which spanned from 1800 to 1870 in American Literature. The authors we read for this unit of study included Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Our next unit, thank goodness, will cover a happier and far more optimistic time period. The students and I will explore the following authors and their works:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life" (page 258) and "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" (page 260) William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" (page 267)

Transcendentalism: The Seekers (page 384) Ralph Waldo Emerson's from //Nature// (page 388) and from //Self Reliance// (page 391) Henry David Thoreau's from //Walden// (page 402) and from //Civil Disobedience// (page 412)

Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (page 420) and "I heard a Fly buzz -- whn I died--" (page 422) Walt Whitman from //Song of Myself// (page 436) and from //I Hear America Singing// (page 442)

I have a wonderful power point that pairs Walt Whitman with American artist Norman Rockwell. The intent is to modernize the concepts, feelings, and ideals Whitman communicates in the poem, so that the students may better understand and identify with the America Whitman is speaking about:



The following power point includes a wonderful introduction to the literary movement Romanticism:



The following power point will help students better understand the movement of Transcendentalism:

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