Light Vs Dark Romanticism

Romanticism is a movement across Europe and America in the 1800s. It focused on emotion and disregarded intellect. Topics such as optimism, freedom, human nature, and the dark side of nature were all expressed in art and literature within this time period. However, Romanticism also was split into two distinct styles; dark and light Romanticism. Dark Romanticism was very ominous and brooding. Light Romanticism, on the other hand, was very optimistic. Light and dark Romanticism may hold a very different viewpoint over human nature, but they both use nature in their own way. When it comes to the topic of human nature, light and dark Romanticism hold conflicting viewpoints. For example, from the essay “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson; “We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents,” (Emerson 184). Emerson, in this quote (and entire essay) is very optimistic about humanity. He believed that humans have

The presence of nature, whether it be a raven, or the symbolism of trees, is prevalent in both forms of Romantic literature works. For instance, in the essay Walden, by Henry David Thoreau: “You only need sit long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all of its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns,” (Thoreau 206). Henry David Thoreau spent two years living by himself in the wild, and was enclosed only by nature, He saw it everyday, and perhaps did a study of this sort- sitting still all day, seeing how many different aspects he could see. Now, in “The Raven,” a poem by Edgar Allen Poe (albeit his most famous poem) nature is used a symbol. “With many a flirt and flutter in then stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore,” (Poe 248). The raven resembles death and grief, but is still a part of nature. As you can see, nature is very closely intertwined with