Poetry
Thanatopsis
William Cullen Bryant · 1817
Opening lines
To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language ; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty,
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
A voice addresses a man darkened by the thought of his own end and advises him to go out and listen to nature, which speaks a varied language. It reminds him that he will return to the earth, brother of the unfeeling rock, pierced by the roots of the oak, and that he will enter a vast bed where kings, sages and children already lie, the hills and rivers serving as the setting for the great tomb of men. All the living will share his fate, and no one will be alone there.
Context
The poem was begun around 1811 according to a late recollection of the author, around 1813 according to a note by his wife on the manuscript, and then reworked over the years. His father found the draft and passed it, without telling him, to the North American Review, which published it in September 1817; one of the editors, Richard Henry Dana, doubted that so young a man could have written it. The 1821 collection gives it a new beginning and an extended ending: this is the version that all editions have used since.
Who it is for
Eighty-one lines of blank verse, in an elevated language with no familiarity. The title, coined from the Greek, means a view of death. No French translation in the BnF catalogue.
Prizes and reception
One of the best-known American poems of the nineteenth century, long learned by heart in schools, and a major stage in the literary history of the country.
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