Romanticism: The Balance Between Individuality And Society

American Romanticism was a literary movement that started in the 19th century. American Romanticism shares a lot of similar qualities with transcendentalism. Walt Whitman wrote about similar topics as Emily Dickinson, although they lived two very different lives. Walt Whitman was a transcendentalist who lived in New York and did journalism. Emily Dickinson was a romanticist who fell in love with a married man and then continued to spend most of her life in seclusion. Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson both focus on individuality. Although, Walt tends to seek balance between Individuals and the Society that revolves around it, while Emily Dickinson rejects society completely. Walt Whitman was a transcendentalist poet who commonly wrote about the balance that is needed between individuality and society. For Example, in “I Hear America …show more content…
They crossed paths in their views of society with “O’ Me, O’ Life” and “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”. In “O’ Me, O’ Life, Whitman takes a very negative stance about society and how it is constructed of materialistic, lackluster human beings, while Emily Dickinson seems to have already acknowledged that and has removed herself from them in “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”. The two poems follow the same construct throughout most of them, but in the end of “O’ Me, O’ Life”, Whitman says that if you want to have meaning in your life, then you need to play a part in it and fulfill your role and pursue what you’re good at, while Emily has now confirmed that she will never come out of her seclusion from society. While Emily never changed in her stance on society, Walt took on many different aspects. In “I Hear America Singing”, Walt takes a different stance in which he praises society, and praises individuality. Both of these poets believe that individuality is very important, but they differ in their ideas of how life has meaning when tied to