Walt Whitman And Romanticism Essay

At the end of the18thcentury, Europe was facing major changes through French Revolution (1789) and Industrial Revolution (1750s-1830). Upon these big historical events, many Europeans became skeptical about how they used to think, which was to focus on intellect, reason and enlightenment of human being. And they started to emphasize more on individual, true emotion and nature. It affected on overall culture such as philosophy, economy and arts. Literary, of course, was one of them. We call this movement of art Romanticism. Romanticism is an artistic, literary, musical movement that originated in Europe from the end of 18th century and lasted about 50years.

Furthermore there were some changes also in America. After the War of 1812, as New York became more popular city, establishing new railroads and canals, a huge number of Europeans immigrants came to NY, America. Also, the Romantic Movement reached America. With NY as the center of literal movement, the Romanticism quickly spread. Like the Europeans, American Romantics demonstrated a high level of moral enthusiasm, commitment to individualism and unfolding of the self, and rejected rationalism and religious intellect. Yet American Romanticism is distinctive, since Romanticism in America coincided

In 1819, he was born in a country, West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island. He was the second boy of a family interested in Quaker. And his father, Walter Whitman, named his sons after American leaders like Andrew Jackson, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. It shows that Walt grew up in a kind of patriotic atmosphere. He started to go to school when he was 6, but 5 years later he had to stop studying at school because his family’s poverty. So he had to get a job earlier, and he worked for many years in printing field through his life. Also he worked as a military nurse for a while to take care of his younger brother,