Two of my classes have crossed paths at exactly the same point in the semester: Literary Criticism and English Romanticism. In the latter class, we have learned that Romanticism involved a breaking of artificial edifices in the name of reason. Such reasoning led to revolution against the status quo and the view of writers as apart from the culture. Emerson writes "The Poet" almost fifty years after the albeit fuzzy inception of the Romantic movement (the start of the French Revolution in 1789). However, his sentiments still interact with Romantic ideals.
The theme of isolation occurs in his writing when he admits that the poet's quest for the representation of beauty, but he states that eventually others will become attracted to this truth and art. His emphasis lies in the adequate expression of beauty, not in Neoclassical wit. He defines the poet as one who can best translate transcendent beauty into words. Through all of this, he supports the Romantic spirit of revolution by preferring the new to the old, and I could definitely see glimpses of his views concerning the Oversoul that he mentions in his other essays. In addition, he mentions Nature time and time again, saying that the poet's duty lies in "re-attaching things to Nature and the Whole," and this, too, reflects the Romantic preference for the natural and the rural over the smog of the city. He lauds the imagination. Finally, he declares that "poets are thus liberating gods," a statement that falls into line with the Romantic political and emotional spirit.
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Ok, Karen a good start on your blog. Don't use it to just summarize what you see the writers saying. Speculate, free associate, recreate, make connections, ask questions and imagine answers.
Re. the specific questions of romanticism, Romanticism occurred somewhat later in the United States that in Europe. So Emerson's expression of it is actually the height of romanticism in the United States rather than being a latecomer.
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