Fireside Poets

The Fireside Poets' style of writing was much different than the previous periods of Rationalism and Puritanism. The Fireside Poets wrote in the Romantic time period where their writing was of family, patriotism, nature, love, and religion ("Fireside" 211). As opposed to Rationalist writers who were Deists and believed in reason, logic, and self- improvement, the Romantic writers valued feelings and instinct over logic and reason (Boucquey). They believed that nature was something to be cherished and loved, not something to study and find out how it works. The Romanticism period was nothing like the Puritan period where God and the Bible were the models for all the writing. Romantic writing was about inner experiences and faith in oneself, not in God and the Bible. Puritan writing was also traditionally formal and avoided figures of speech or any instance when their writing could be interpreted in a different way (Divine). Romanticism writing was often poetry where the stanzas could be taken in many different ways, figuratively and literally ("Fireside" 210).

The Romantic heroes were not always educated (or focused on education as Puritan stories empathized), as Puritan protagonists were in the stories, nor was their any emphasis on education, just on discovering things through personal journey or experience ("Fireside" 211). Romantic heroes also "avoid town life" which would have outraged Puritan writers who believed that the community (at least of the elect) was essential to having a good relationship with God, in sickness or in heath, for better or for worse (Divine). The subject of Rationalist writing was not necessarily a hero, but normally just the author in a journal, diary, speech, pamphlet, or essay (Boucquey). The Rationalist writers wrote about scientific experiments, God's clockmaker like relationship with the humans on Earth, and how to better themselves (Boucquey). The Puritans wrote about how God interacted with their everyday lives and if they were one of the Elect, as well as one of the Damned, how they ran their lives to be a living embodiment of what God created humans to be and to be a good Christian soul (Divine). Many of the Romanticism period writings had subjects that were not human ("Fireside" 211). William Cullen Bryant portrayed "the American landscape in words", but still managed to make his poems as interesting to read as a poem with a human hero ("Fireside" 210). Romanticism heroes were common folk who became legends as the stories were told around fires and taverns throughout America ("Fireside" 211).

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem in 1863 that is still quoted in 2011, "Listen my children and you shall hear/ Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,/ On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;/ Hardly a man is now alive/ Who remembers that famous day and year." (Longfellow). The poem brings about a sense of patriotism and love for America. None of the previous literature periods had that sense of love for our country. The Puritan period showed love for God, compassion toward others to show that one was an Elect, and a sense of companionship as they prayed together and lived in a community with everyone interconnected (Divine). The Rationalism period brought about the love of science and all things involving reason and logic. While these things did bring about change for the better for America, there was not any pride of the country associated with it. The Romanticism period changed that. America was loved for the first time in literature and everyone found a sense of pride for their country when reading works from this period.



Boucquey, Thierry, gen. ed. "Rationalism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 14th through 18th Centuries. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web 22. Nov. 2011.

Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "Paul Revere's Ride." The EServer. Iowa State University. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.

"The Fireside Poets." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 210-211. Print.