William Cullen Bryant 
"Thanatopsis"

· Beginning to move into the Romantic period.

· "Thanatopsis" is a meditation on death. The term comes from the Greek word qanatoV (thanatos, death).

· This poem says that nature tells us different things at different times. When we are having good times, nature attributes to that. When we are having bad times, nature is willing to help us through our problems instead of God.

· "When thoughts of the last bitter hour" - hour of death

· "narrow house" - coffin and the grave

· "Go forth under the open sky, and list / To Nature's teachings" - this is the kind of day when we are despondent of our own doom.

                            while from all around --
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air --
Comes a still voice.

This is reference to Elijah in the bible who goes through fires and a whirlwind and then hears God's quiet voice.
 

The all-beholding sun shall see no more 
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean shall exist
Thy image

Our image will be gone when we have rotted away.

· "Earth that nourished thee, shall claim / Thy growth, to be resolv'd to earth again." We will again be a clod of earth or be dissolved back to the elements of earth. There is no eternal life because earth recycles you. This theme where death is the renewal of life is also found in Walt Whitman's work.

· He describes earth's beauty and says that nature itself decorates our tombstone.

· "All that tread the globe are but a handful to the tribes / That slumber in its bosom." We are assured that we will not die alone because there are more dead than living. The dead are everywhere.

· "and what if thou shalt fall / Unnoticed by the living -- and no friend / Take not of thy departure?" The stoic philosopher said people will eventually forget us and go on. This happens to everyone.

· "Thanatopsis" says death is part of the natural cycle. Most Christians disagree and say that death is not natural but came from man's sin. Irving does not believe in a soul that survives. Many stoic philosophers believe our soul is not personal but is like a drop of water that goes back to its bucket when you die.

· Bryant says we have no choice if we will live or die, but we have a choice of how to die. We can die kicking and screaming or graciously.