
Thanatopsis
'Thanatopsis' Summary
When and where Bryant wrote "Thanatopsis" is unclear, and Bryant himself could not remember when he wrote the verse. According to Parke Godwin, Bryant's friend, Bryant wrote the poem when he was seventeen years old in mid-1811, just after he had left Williams College.
Bryant reportedly wrote his first draft of 'Thanotopsis' in Flora's Glen in Williamstown.
In History of American Literature, two dates are stated for the authoring of "Thanatopsis", 1811 and 1816. Bryant's inspiration for "Thanatopsis" came after reading William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads, as well as Robert Blair's "The Grave", Beilby Porteus's "Death" and Kirke White's "Time". After Bryant had left Cummington to begin his law studies, his father discovered a manuscript in Bryant's desk drawer, that contained "Thanatopsis" and a fragment of a poem, which would be published under the title "The Fragment", and later titled "An Inscription upon the Entrance to a Wood". He sent the two poems without his son's knowledge to the editors at the North American Review, where they were published in September 1817. The editors added an introduction to Thanatopsis in a completely different style. The part written by the author begins with "Yet a few days,". The author republished the poem in 1821 in a collection of works called Poems. He replaced the introductory section, made a few minor changes to the text and added more material after the original end of the poem, which was "and make their bed with thee!". Below is the revised version of 1821 which was retained in all later publications of the poem:
Book Details
Authors

William Cullen Bryant
United States
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in p...
Books by William Cullen BryantDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books

The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturleson
Step into the realm of Norse mythology, where gods and goddesses clash, heroes embark on epic quests, and the forces of creation and destruction colli...

Grass by Emily Dickinson
This poem by Emily Dickinson, simply titled "The Grass," explores the cyclical nature of life and death. Through vivid imagery, Dickinson compares the...

Amoretti and Epithalamion by Edmund Spenser
This is a captivating collection of sonnets and a longer lyrical poem that explores the depths of love and devotion. Written by the renowned English p...

Chore Time by Jean McKishnie Blewett
In Jean McKishnie Blewett's captivating poem, "Chore Time," the mundane task of chores transforms into an exploration of childhood memories, family dy...

When I Was One And Twenty by A. E. Housman
'When I Was One-and-Twenty' is a classic poem by A. E. Housman that explores the themes of lost youth, love, and nostalgia. The poem is written in a s...

Past by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox's "The Past" is a collection of poems that explore the complexities of memory and the impact of the past on the present. The poems...

Beauties of Tennyson by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
This book, titled "Beauties of Tennyson" compiles a selection of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's most famous poems. It features works spanning his career, sho...

Broadway by Sara Teasdale
LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 different recordings of Broadway by Sara Teasdale. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of September 23rd,...

Black Riders and Other Lines by Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane's *Black Riders and Other Lines* is a collection of poems that showcases his distinct style and thematic concerns. The poems are often c...

The Recluse by William Wordsworth
In the prefatory advertisement to the First Edition of the Prelude, 1850, it is stated that that poem was designed to be introductory to the Recluse,...
Reviews for Thanatopsis
No reviews posted or approved, yet...