Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Longfellow was and is still a very well known American poet. His poems are especially known for showing romanticism. He is known to have written poems about his two late wives and his feeling toward their deaths and his love for them. 

Individualism:“The heart, like the mind, has a memory.
And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.” This Longfellow quote can be an example of individualism because he is saying that yes everyone has a heart and mind, and we are all the same in that, but if you look deeper into the meaning you could see that yes we may have similar minds and hearts but ht experiences and ideas and feeling are very different and no one is the same on the inside.

Optimism:“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!” Longfellow said this, and it is an example of optimism because it is showing th good and pure of this world. He is positive and cheerful for such a small thing like bells. Also he may be sad or unhappy but this sound and holiday remind him to be happy and cheerful, because there is good in this world and it is better to look at the good then the bad. He is also he not focusing on the poor things in life, only to good and peaceful things. He is optimistic in the ideal of man, and the idea that there is still peace in our world.
Nature: "For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.” This quote could fit into the ideal of nature because it is talking about rain, and relating the rain to your life, and a major part of romanticism is that nature has impact on your life and sometimes it means something other that the basic definition. For example the rain in the quote does not necessarily mean rain that falls from the sky, but more of the message it is going, the message of letting things happen that you cannot control, and wait for it to clear up before doing something drastic and unnecessary. 

Intuition:"If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." This quote can be an example of Intuition because many peoples intuition is to judge a person at first glance, but sometimes we need to look deeper into the person and we need to know more about their past to really know them and have a fair opinion on them. But it is also an instinct to not share personal information with strangers so we are unable to get to know our enemies because their intuition does not tell them to share their past struggles and difficulties.