Explain the American literary movement known as “Romanticism."

I think that you can start discussing how the overall
ideas of Romanticism in England were present in its American counterpart.  The overall
stress on emotions and how an emotional frame of reference needs to be embraced were
present in both.  A significant difference between both variations was the role of
egalitarianism, something that was not as present in Europe as it was in America. 
Another significant difference in the American version of Romanticism was its
"newness."  America, in contrast to the setting of European Romanticism, was very new
and its definition was still being sought.  Writers like Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman
were seeking to bring a new definition to America.  Their writing is composed with some
fo this idea in mind, that their work could go very far in providing definition and
giving words to the American experience.  I think that the same tenets of seeking to
inject emotions into daily consciousness, the need to assert individuality over the
realm of conformist society, and to ensure that the subjective can bring out the
objective are present in both European and American Romanticism.