What CLASSICS Believe	What ROMANTICS Believe
Reason or Intuition?
People should follow logic and reason. Don’t believe something without solid, logical reasons.	People should follow their hunches; they should believe their intuition, a natural inner perception they thought was independent of reason – and superior to it.
New or Old?
It is usually best to follow traditions. Because traditions have worked for so long, they are likely to work for new endeavors too. Traditions are reliable, tried and true.	Traditions only restrain us to what had already been tried. Trapped inside traditions, we will never meet the extent of human potential.
Nature and Civilization – Good or Bad?
Civilization is the attempt to overcome the brute or animalistic parts of human nature. Nature is the caveman; our goal is to follow reason and do better.	What is natural is good. Nature is the Eden; civilization is the corruption of nature. Our lives would be better if they were not so artificial and we lived closer to nature.
Nature – What to do with it?
We should study nature. Everything in nature can be understood and made useful if only the laws that governed them can be discovered.	We should experience nature. Nature can never be understood; it is mysterious and beautiful.
Art – Skill and Expression
Great art demands both talent and great skill. A great artist, whether a musician or a painter, must spend long hard hours learning his or her art.	Great art is the imaginative expression of the inner person, an outlet of the emotion.
Language
The style of language should match the subject: simple language for simple things; academic language for complicated things; formal language for serious matters.	Use a simpler, more natural language in all things.
Areas of Interest
Social and political reform People they knew Great figures of their time Serious non-fiction or allegories of society.	Nature The inner workings of the mind The irrational, the mysterious.
History & Historical Settings
The great events of the past are those that affected society. The great events from the past should inspire people of the present.	The past is contained in the memories and wisdom of the common people, such as in folk-tales, and these are as important to learn as the kings and generals of political or military history.

Exam Study Sheet

Who was hooked on inspiration?

Who was it that was focused on imagination?

What is intuition and who was interested in it?

Who thought what other group was just conforming and neglected their individualism?

Who is it that thought the individual was supreme, able to overcome almost anything?

Compare the races and genders of writers in the different periods.

Who admired the Greeks and Romans?

Who was interested in the mysterious and bizarre?

Who believed that nature gave humans a source of spiritual, intellectual, and emotional inspiration?

Who believed that nature was entirely impersonal, almost mechanical?

Name two important Romantic poets.

Name three important Romantic prose writers.

What does the word “Gothic” mean?

Know the authors of each of the works we read together in class.

Vocabulary

“Rip Van Winkle“	“The Raven”	“Minister’s Black Veil”
Amiable conscientious fidelity Malleable Obsequious Placid Reiterated scrupulous torpor Vehemently	No vocabulary	Iniquity ostentatious sagacious semblance portend obscurity pensive antipathy plausible resolute

	The Nation During the Neo-Classical Period	The Nation by the End of the Romantic Period
Settlement & Expansion	Beyond the Appalachians is still untamed; beyond the Mississippi is unknown; Lewis & Clark become famed explorers in 1803. 13 states become 16 states: TN, OH, KY,	16 states become 29 states: South is completely settled with firmly established, individual culture; MS, AL, MO, AR, TX, and FL, become states Midwest is settled: IN, IL, IA, WS, and MI become states. Pacific Coast is settled; gold rush is over: Or and CA become states.
Transportation	Almost no roads exist beyond the 16 states; all travel difficult; horse is the best means of transportation. Ships move up and down the coast.	Good roads and rail connects all U.S. East of the Mississippi. Steamboats run on all navigable rivers. The Erie Canal connects the mid-west with the East Coast. Other canals crisscross America.
Technology	Information travels at the speed of a horse – about 35 mph.	Relayed by telegraph, the speed of Information is limited only by the operator's key-hand.
	One-shot flintlock rifles and pistols; bayonets and swords.	The Colt .45 and Remington repeater.
Peoples in the USA	Germans and Dutch in PA, British Rebels, Native American Peoples, Black slaves, a few Spanish from the South.	All of the people at left PLUS immigrants from Eastern Europe, Mediterranean Europe, and Catholics from Ireland.