William Cullen Bryant
American Romanticism Writer
Biography Of William C. B.
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Born in Cummington, MA; November 3rd, 1794.
Son of Peter Bryant; a doctor and later a state legislature.
In 1812, he entered the study of law, but later quit in three years because the subject didn’t
retain his interest.
Wrote his first poem, “Thanoptosis”, at age nine; regarded as a prodigy.
At the age of 13 he wrote a satirical article about the Jefferson party which caught the eye
of many.
At the age of 16, he attended Williams College in Williamsburg, MA.
In 1821, he presented “The Ages” to Harvard University’s Fraternity.
In 1825, he was appointed assistant editor to the New York review, which was the top
selling newspaper at the time.
He became known for his literary works in America and also in England.
With growing interest studying abroad, he moved to the countries of France, Italy, and
Germany, spending several years there.
William C. B. died in 1876 from a fall.
William C.B.
• William C.B was before his far beyond his time. He wrote over 30
poems and short stories all of which were regarded as literary
genius. His writing were rarely about American heroes and idol for
which his people were to follow. His writings were from a more
philosophical, and natural stand-point. He wrote so well people
began to question whether or not he was American. William C.B.
Paved the way for many other literary artists to make their own path
in the line of history.
Poems by William C.B.
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Thanatopsis
Artic Lover
Future Life
Mutation
Song of Marion's Men
June
The Murdered Traveler
Summer wind
The Living Lost
The Strange Lady
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The Skies
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The West Wind
The Yellow Violet
To a Cloud
To a Waterfowl
The Gladness of Nature
November
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Spring In Town
Hymn to death
Love and Folly
Spring in Town
The Death of Lincoln
The Death of Flowers
Consumption
After a tempest
Consumption
Song of Pitcairn's Island
Hymn of the City
October
Mutation
By: William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
They talk of short-lived pleasure--be it so-Pain dies as quickly: stem, hard-featured pain
Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go.
The fiercest agonies have shortest reign;
And after dreams of horror, comes again
The welcome morning with its rays of peace.
Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain,
Makes the strong secret pangs of shame to cease.
Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase
Are fruits of innocence and blessedness:
Thus joy, o'erborne and bound, doth still release
His young limbs from the chains that round him press.
Weep not that the world changes--did it keep
A stable changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.
Interpretation:
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This poem briefly explains the idea of someone having to let go before the pain
become to much that ones consciousness can not bear.
• It says that the only way a person can be without these feelings of remorse is
only if their own mind is clear secrets that would belittle their own name.
• Saying that the world doesn’t stop because one person is feeling down, and
that it will move on without you.
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Acknowledge the thing that is making you sad and move on without it.
William Cullen Bryant
Brittani Chasity Danielle Joy Philip Sam
Table of Contents
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Biography
• Thanatopsis analysis
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Lit. Book Questions
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Significance of Bryant’s Poems in American Romanticism
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(Sonnet) To the American Painter Departing for Europe
• Poem analysis
Biography
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Born: November 3, 1794
Died: June 12, 1878
American poet, newspaper editor
first exposed to poetry in father’s library
(father was physician)
Keen observer of nature while growing up in N.E. countryside
Wrote number of poems before age 21
Considered a child Prodigy
Works include: Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl, Inscription for the
Entrance to a Wood, and The Yellow Violet
• Works reflected Eng. Romantics, included own simplistic style.
Biography (continued)
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Spent a year in private study at Williams
Practiced law in Great Barrington, Mass. Until 1825
Moved to New York City, already known as a poet and a critic
1826: becomes associate editor of New York Evening Post
1829-death: part owner and editor in chief of New York Evening
Post
• Among these things he also was a defender of human rights, an
advocate of free trade and of the abolition of slavery.
Biography (continued)
• Earliest American theorist of poetry
• Delivered and published series of critical essays such as
“Lectures on Poetry”
• Essays stressed value of simplicity, original imagination,
and morality
• Later career: traveled abroad and made many public
speeches
• also wrote more poems: The Death of the Flowers, To
the Fringed Gentian, and The Battle-Field
Biography (extra notes)
• First American writer of verse to win
international acclaim
• His father was a physician
• 1866 after the death of his wife, Bryant
resumed translating the Iliad and
subsequently the Odyssey
Thanatopsis Analysis
• Thanatos: personification of death in Greek Mythology
• Opsis: sight or appearance
• “Thanatopsis” : meditation upon death
• half poem was written when Bryant was 17, other half written when
he was in his 60s
• generally considered first important American poem
Romantic Qualities of
Thanatopsis
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shuns artificiality of civilization, seeks unspoiled nature,
contemplates nature’s beauty as path to spiritual and
moral development, finds beauty and truth within exotic
locales
looks to nature for lesson about life and death
nature explains cycle: life, death, rebirth
listen to nature’s teachings, contemplate nature’s beauty
contemplating surroundings allows for development
spiritually and morally
“everything returns from whence it came”
Bryant explains to reader that he feels he must live life
to the fullest to not have any regrets when he dies
Romantic Qualities (continued)
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poem offers comfort to reader in that when one dies,
he/she also lies down “with kings… the wise, the good”
basically everyone is going to die eventually
reader is able to learn this fact through the
contemplation of nature’s beauty, which then allows one
to gain a better understanding of life and death
uses imagery and nature
TRUTH CAN BE FOUND IN THE UNSPOILED
BEAUTY OF NATURE
(Sonnet) To the American Painter
Departing for Europe
Thine eyes shall see the light of distant skies:
Yet, Cole! thy heart shall bear to Europe's strand
A living image of thy native land,
Such as on thy own glorious canvass lies.
Lone Lakes--savannahs where the bison roves-Rocks rich with summer garlands--solemn streams-Skies, where the desert eagle wheels and screams-Spring bloom and autumn blaze of boundless groves.
Fair scenes shall greet thee where thou goest--fair,
But different--every where the trace of men,
Paths, homes, graves, ruins, from the lowest glen
To where life shrinks from the fierce Alpine air.
Gaze on them, till the tears shall dim thy sight.
But keep that earlier, wilder image bright.
Analysis
This poem was written to Thomas Cole,
Bryant's frequent walking companion. Here
is a painting of the two men ("Kindred
Spirits" as painted by Asher Durand). In this
Poem Look at the kind of wild American
landscape which can be seen here and in
his other pictures, and consider how that
image of wildness (and American quality) is
imprinted into this poem. Since Cole is a
landscape painter, the first line is even more
significant.