Thanatopsis And Romanticism Analysis

Romanticism was a movement in the 1770s that focused on the primacy of the individual, inspiration, subjectivity, and the belief in the supernatural. Transcendentalism began in the late 1820s and was influenced by other movements such as Romanticism. Romanticism and Transcendentalism can be seen throughout the poems Thanatopsis, written by William Cullen Bryant, and Song of Myself, written by Walt Whitman, respectively. The tenets of Romanticism can be seen be analyzing Thanatopsis, Transcendentalism and its tenets are shown in Song of Myself, and both can be seen to be very similar.
Thanatopsis is very clearly a Romantic poem. Many, if not all, of the tenets of Romanticism can be seen in the poem. The tenet that is most seen throughout the …show more content…
The first tenet noticed right off the bat is individualism. The speaker starts off the poem by talking about themselves: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me…” (Whitman 428). This quote expresses individualism because the speaker is saying that they are not like anyone else and that they celebrate themselves because of this, that everything they are, “every atom”, belongs to them. The next tenet that can be seen in the poem is to live a full life and a purposeful life. On the same page as the previous quote, after the speaker talks about themself more and about where they came from, as well as where their parents came from, the speaker states, “I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death” (428). What the speaker begins is not known, however it can be seen that the speaker will not stop what they are beginning and this shows that the speaker will life a full life because they do not plan to stop what it is they are doing. This is also a purposeful life because the speaker is devoting the entire rest of their life to this one thing they begin. Another tenet of Transcendentalism is worshipping nature over the materialistic. The speaker explains that they are helping out at a barn and that they are outside. They also explain, “I jump from the crossbeams and seize the clover and timothy, And roll head over heels and tangle my hair full of wisps” (429). The speakers talks about how they “seize” parts of nature. It can also be implied in this quote that the speaker finds joy in being outside in nature, by how they say “and tangle my hair full of wisps”. One would not do that willingingly if they did not enjoy this. To add to this thought, when someone enjoys something enough they tend to worship what it is that causes that joy. Seeing that the speaker talks about the joy of nature and what it has