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William Cullen Bryant - Thanatopsis - Review
William Cullen Bryant - Thanatopsis - Review
William Cullen Bryant - Thanatopsis - Review
Thanatopsis
I. Facts about Thanatopsis
discovered it, recopied the poem and submitted it to The North American Review, where it
The title “thanatopsis” means “a meditation upon death”. It is a combination of the Greek
word “Thanatos” – the personification of death in Greek Mythology, and the Greek suffix
The title presents the poem as a way of seeing death. The question of the death is rather
controversial. Readers can either reassure that their faith of the life after the life is true, or on
the other hand, some of the readers can be confused because of this strange possibility.
He was influenced by Romantic poets of Europe, so when the Thanatopsis was published in
North American Review some writers and poets doubted whether it was the product of an
American.
´…no one on this side of the Atlantic is capable of writing such verses.´3
Marvelous indeed it was that one so young could rise to such lofty thought and find such
impressive phraseology for its expression; and no less wonderful that this youth, roaming the
1
Lauter, P. The heath anthology of american literature, fifth edition – William Cullen Bryant,
<http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/early_nineteenth/bryant_wi.html>
(April, 2006)
2
Wikipedia®, Thanatopsis, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanatopsis> (April, 2006)
3
Lauter, P. The heath anthology of american literature, fifth edition – William Cullen Bryant,
<http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/early_nineteenth/bryant_wi.html>
(April, 2006)
woods alone, should command such skill in the use of blank verse, the resonant voice of
Blank verse is written in unrhymed (“blank”) lines of iambic pentamer. Iamb = unstressed +
stressed syllable, pentameter = five feet in a line. (Pokrivčák, A. & Pokrivčáková, S. 2004)5
II. My interpretation
Throughout the all poem we can see the relationship between death and life and the eternal
cycle of nature.
Man is in the communion with the nature and loves her, and SHE speaks to him. She can
make him smile and happy, but he is a bit afraid of her, because he knows that death is a part
…When thoughts
When the thoughts of the death appear in you mind, don’t be afraid! ´Go forth´(line 14), ´…-
4
Simonds, E. PhD, Chapter III – The beginning of the nineteenth century - IV. William Cullen Bryant: 1794-
1878 – Thanatopsis, <http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/Simonds/SHAL/p4-chap3.html> (April, 2006)
5
Pokrivčák, A. & Pokrivčáková, S. (2004), Focus on literature – introduction to literary study, Nitra: UKF
The nature nourishes your during your life ´…Earth, that nourished thee,…´ (line 22)
but after your death ´And, lost each human trace,…´(line 24)
you will become a part of the nature ´To mix forever with the elements,´(line 26)
and your body will nourish the nature. ´…The oak shall send his hoots abroad, and pierce thy
mold.´(lines 29-30)
The nature seems to be “rude” (rude swain, line 28) when she uses your body as a source of
The flight of years began, have laid them down (lines 54-56)
Death is something natural and irreversible. We have to die form the time of the beginning of
the world.
Your soul will enter the world where the dead and Death reign. ´In their last sleep – the dead
It is a place where the spirits of your ancestors and patriarchs are. ´… Thou shalt lie down
It is very old world, which exists along with our real world and very beautiful one.
… The hills
The lives of other people will continue after your death ´…All that breathe will share thy
destiny. The gay will laugh when thou art gone, …´(lines 61-62)
but they know that their lives will come to the end and enter the world of the Death too. ´…
yet all these shall leave, …, and shall come and make their bed with thee…´(lines 64 – 66)
Bryant speaks about the ´long train´(line 66), which means that life flows. He speaks about
the cycle of the life: spring - ´speechless babe´(line70), ´youth´(line 68), fall - ´gray-headed
´So live…´(line 73), live your life, but be prepared to join that world without fear. Live your
life like there will be no tomorrow. When that day comes you will ´approach thy grave
´(line79) like someone who ´lies down to pleasant dreams´(line 81). And you can also say: “I
We can find lots of romantic symbols in the Thanatopsis, and long descriptions of the nature
We can see also the connection to a religion - the faith of the life after the life.
The recurring theme of death seems to be quite constant throughout the genre of
Romanticism. Bryant attempts to make death a comfortable feeling, referring to the word
couch (line 80) as something you can simply curl up and feel good in. (www.eliteskills.com)6
But if we look deeper into the meaning of the poem, we can see also the transcendental ideas
Man is in the communion with the nature and loves her. Then she speaks to him. The
conclusion is that man is a God via the relationship with nature and his soul, which are
created by God. Now we know the answer to the question how the author knows all the
details about the world, where your soul will go after your death. He is God.
Sun (lines 18, 38) = symbol of life; life after the death
River (line 48) – water flows in a river, which evokes the cycle of a life and death
Resources
6
eliteskills – unknown guest, Thanatopsis, < http://www.eliteskills.com/c/1390> (April, 2006)
Lauter, P. The heath anthology of american literature, fifth edition – William Cullen Bryant,
<http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/early_nin
Nitra: UKF
Simonds, E. PhD, Chapter III – The beginning of the nineteenth century - IV. William Cullen
<http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/Simonds/SHAL/p4-chap3.html>
(April, 2006)