The Ropewalk: A Poem About Boredom

The Ropewalk by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a poem about the things a man daydreams about while he is at work at a rope factory. He daydreams about the different things the rope he is making might be used for. A swing for girls to swing on, a rope for a tightrope walker to walk across high above an awed crowd, tied to a bucket in a well, and he even muses about the rope being used for gallows. What this poem is really about is escapism. Making rope probably wasn't a fun activity, winding pieces of twine together for hours on end was bound to become tedious. So, what does one do when faced with a boring and mindless task? Why, daydream of course! When you're doing something mundane, don't you let your mind wander as far from where you are as possible? During the Industrial Revolution many people worked in factories such as the one this poem is about, and I'm sure the employees of those factories used daydreaming as escapism. Romantic thought emphasized the power of imagination, and how it could be a useful tool for escapism. Not only is this poem about imagination, you have to use your imagination to read it. Each stanza paints a picture, so the poem is much easier to understand if you use your imagination and envision what Longfellow is trying to say.

"Then a booth of mountebanks,
With its smell of tan and planks,
And a girl poised high in air
On a cord, in spangled dress,
With a faded loveliness,
And a weary look of care."

I definitely had to use my imagination in order to understand what that was all about.

Thanatopsis: We're All Going to Die

Thanatopsis is all about looking at death in a different way. Most people view death as a horrible and scary thing, but with this poem Bryant attempts to portray death as just another part of life and not really something that is that scary at all. Bryant explains that death should not be feared because everybody dies and it's natural. When we die we return to the ground from which we came, it's the circle of life, so to speak. Since the Romantics thought that nature was pretty much the coolest thing around (something heavily exemplified in this poem), becoming part of nature would be considered kinda awesome. Bryant also mentions that when we die we join all the souls that have passed before us, "Thou shalt lie down, With patriarchs of the infant world--with kings, The powerful of the earth--the wise, the good, Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past...", so death is sort of like the great equalizer. This poem is romantic because of the two things I just mentioned. The glorification of nature and the emphasis on the fact that we are all a part of that nature, and the emphasis on death being something that the great, as well as the not-so-great men all have to go through. The common man as well as the king has to die sometime.

Now that's what I call romantic artwork!

This painting is by Eugene Delacroix and is entitled, La Liberté Guidant le Peuple, which means Liberty Leading the People. This is one of my favorite paintings and I think it is a good example of Romantic art. It shows Marrianne, who is Liberty personified and the symbol of the nation, leading a troop of French revolutionaries over rubble and bodies. Delacroix did this painting to commemorate the French Revolution and the overthrow of Charles X. The revolutionaries were a mix of many different people. Bourgeoise, upper class, and lower class all fighting side by side for a common cause. This painting is a celebration of the power of the common man.

Watch Your Head

I read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow instead of Rip Van Winkle, for no particular reason. I liked this story a lot though, it was very witty. It was a bit wordy though... Each sentence was easily three lines long. Part of the reason there were so many words it because Washington Irving is a very, very descriptive writer, which ties in with American Romanticism. Irving used vivid imagery to describe his story throughout the entire text. If you use your imagination when you read Irving's description of Ichabod Crane, you might find yourself laughing out loud. The picture Irving paints is utterly and ridiculously hilarious; "He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat on top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and along snipe nose, so that looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck , to tell which way the wind blew." Obviously this is not meant to be taken literally (I seriously doubt that Ichabod's arms actually stuck a mile out of his sleeves) , it's meant to be read with imagination!
Another example of American Romanticism that is in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the glorification of nature. Irving opens his story with a long and heartfelt description of Sleepy Hollow and the surrounding land. He goes into great detail when he describes the peacefulness of nature, "A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquility." Most of the people living in America at this time were living in filthy cities, so you can imagine how much they would long for a quiet valley like the one Irving describes.
Lastly, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a classic example of the underdog story. Ichabod is somewhat of a loser. If you read the physical description above, you know that Ichabod Crane was not really what I would call a good looking man. Irving compares him to a scarecrow at one point. Ichabod also seems to have limited social skills... Extremely limited. He makes a fool of himself quite a few times and doesn't even notice once. It seemed to me that he was sort of the village idiot. So, in the end of the story after he has been turned down by his lady-love, attacked by the "Headless Horseman", and fled the town never to return, you find out that he is now a moderately accomplished politician. Ichabod might have been unrefined, but he went on to make something of himself anyways. This exemplifies American Romanticism in the sense that Americans were viewed as sloppy and undignified by the English. So with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Irving was saying that even though someone might not be well mannered, doesn't mean that they can't do well.