The fireside poets use very different writing styles than the previous writer's that we have read in our English class. According to our textbook, the fireside poets were a group of highly popular American poets of the 18th century. These poets got their name because people thought that their stories would be good to be told be a fire (Wilhem 210). They were also great at creating vivid pictures of the New England country side. These poets were William Current Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russel Howell. These poets told great narrative poems and had very vivid lyrics. (Wilhem 210).
The oldest writer, WIlliam Current Bryant, was influenced mainly by English Romantic poets. He wrote a lot about wild life. He was the first to talk about the American landscape in words (Wilhelm 210). I find this very interesting. He gets a lot of credit for being the first to do this because a lot of people nowadays write about landscapes and about nature. Since he was the first, he was kind of the most creative for starting it. He started something that is still happening even today. I think that is pretty amazing.
The first writing we looked at was the Puritan writing style. This writing was based on a religion. Another writing we looked at was Rationalism. Rationalism was a time of logic and reasoning. The people in this time period seemed to focus more on the logical reasons of things instead of just blaming everything on religion. It was different than anything that has ever been before because it found logical reason for things. It took more effort to think of a scientific reason for something when you could just say it was because God wanted it to be that way. For example, when I was little my mom told me the sky was blue because that was the color that God picked it to be. Later in my life, I have learned in science classes the real reason why the sky is blue.
Another example involves Benjamin Franklin. Franklin seemed to use logic for everything instead of just blaming things on God. He tried to think of reasons for things, such as reasons for his life to be better (Franklin). He had thirteen virtues which were things that he wanted to improve on with his life. He wrote this and really thought about a plan to make them happen. I think that he truly believe that he would succeed with this because of how much thought he put into it. Even though he planned it out nicely, actually doing all of these virtues were harder than they were thought to be. For example, silence would be a hard virtue to succeed in (Franklin). In this day and age, quiet never happens. People like to talk and hate silence because it can sometimes be an awkward time. It would be hard to keep to yourself unless you are spoken to. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone wants that opinion to be heard. Since we live in a world where everyone's opinion is supposed to matter, silence is not virtued anymore.
The next period (the period after Rationalism) was the Romanticism period, which we are currently learning about. This time period really interests me. It seems to include logic, emotion, and interesting reasons to it. It doesn't just focus on scientific things. It is more of a deep time period. Instead of wanting freedom as a whole, people want more individual freedom.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., and Douglas Fisher. Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 210-111. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
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