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"Thanatopsis" is an early on verse form past the American poet William Cullen Bryant. Meaning 'a consideration of death', the discussion is derived from the Greek 'thanatos' (death) and 'opsis' (view, sight).^[1]

Groundwork [edit]

A painting of William Cullen Bryant from 1878

William Cullen Bryant was born in 1794 in Cummington, Massachusetts. Bryant grew up in a Puritan dwelling house with his father, Peter Bryant, a prominent doctor. William Cullen Bryant's early didactics came from his father.^[2] In his early on life Bryant would spend a smashing deal of fourth dimension in the woods surrounding his family unit'south New England home, and read of the extensive personal library his father had.^[3] Bryant'south first published poem was "The Embargo; or, Sketches of the Times", a satirical work concerning Thomas Jefferson'due south Embargo Act of 1807. It was released in a Boston newspaper in 1808. In 1810 Bryant was forced to leave Williams College for lack of money. Instead of a formal education, he started studying law, and began learning an eclectic mix of verse, such as the works of Isaac Watts and Henry Kirke White, and verses similar William Cowper'due south "The Job" and Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene".^[4]

When and where Bryant wrote "Thanatopsis" is unclear, and Bryant himself could not call up when he wrote the verse.^[v] 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 Higher.^{[half dozen]}

Bryant reportedly wrote his showtime draft of 'Thanotopsis' in Flora'south Glen in Williamstown.^[7]

In History of American Literature, two dates are stated for the authoring of "Thanatopsis", 1811 and 1816.^[8] Bryant'due south inspiration for "Thanatopsis" came after reading William Wordsworth'southward Lyrical Ballads,^[9] as well as Robert Blair's "The Grave", Beilby Porteus's "Death" and Kirke White'due south "Time".^[10] After Bryant had left Cummington to begin his law studies, his father discovered a manuscript in Bryant's desk-bound drawer,^[xi] that contained "Thanatopsis" and a fragment of a verse form, which would be published under the title "The Fragment",^[12] and later on titled "An Inscription upon the Entrance to a Wood".^[6] 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.^{[13] [5]} The editors added an introduction to Thanatopsis in a completely unlike style. The part written by the author begins with "Yet a few days,". The author republished the poem in 1821 in a drove of works chosen Poems. He replaced the introductory section, made a few minor changes to the text and added more textile after the original end of the verse form, which was "and brand their bed with thee!". Below is the revised version of 1821 which was retained in all after publications of the poem:

Thanatopsis [edit]

To him who in the dearest of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A diverse language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a balmy
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is enlightened. When thoughts
Of the terminal bitter hr come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and abound ill at heart;—
Go forth, under the open heaven, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—
Comes a still voice—Withal a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall encounter no more than
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the comprehend of ocean, shall be
Thy prototype. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt m become
To mix for always with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible stone
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.

Even so non to thine eternal resting-place
Shalt one thousand retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thousand shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant globe—with kings,
The powerful of the world—the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient equally the sunday,—the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness betwixt;
The venerable woods—rivers that motility
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, poured circular all,
Quondam Bounding main'south gray and melancholy waste material,—
Are only the solemn decorations all
Of the neat tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the space host of heaven,
Are shining on the sorry abodes of death,
Through the even so lapse of ages. All that tread
The earth are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.—Have the wings
Of morn, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,
Relieve his own dashings—yet the dead are in that location:
And millions in those solitudes, since kickoff
The flight of years began, accept laid them down
In their concluding sleep—the dead reign at that place alone.

So shalt one thousand rest, and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Have note of thy difference? All that exhale
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When grand art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one every bit before will chase
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall get out
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come up
And brand their bed with thee. As the long railroad train
Of ages glide abroad, the sons of men,
The youth in life'southward green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed human being—
Shall one by one exist gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their plow shall follow them.
And then alive, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His sleeping room in the silent halls of expiry,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the mantle of his burrow
Nigh him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

Disquisitional reception [edit]

Due to the unusual quality of the poetry and Bryant's historic period, Richard Henry Dana Sr., and so associate editor at the N American Review, initially doubted its authenticity, proverb to some other editor, "No one, on this side of the Atlantic, is capable of writing such verses."

"Thanatopsis" remains a milestone in American literary history. Poems was considered by many to be the kickoff major volume of American poesy. Nevertheless, over five years, it earned Bryant only $14.92.^[fourteen] Poet and literary critic Thomas Holley Chivers, who ofttimes accused other writers of stealing poems, said that the only thing Bryant "ever wrote that may exist called Poesy is 'Thanatopsis,' which he stole line for line from the Spanish."^[15]

Appearances in popular culture [edit]

Advertisement for 1922 screening of Bryant's "Thanatopsis" at the Modern and Beacon cinemas, Boston; role of Great American Authors moving picture series

In The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Clarice Starling reveals to Hannibal Lecter one detail of her father's last days in a hospital: an elderly neighbour reading to him the last lines of "Thanatopsis." In Sinclair Lewis' novel Principal Street, the women's study club of Gopher Prairie is the Thanatopsis society.

The experimental band Thanatopsis (featuring Buckethead and Travis Dickerson) was named subsequently this poem. The band's first album, Thanatopsis, was likewise named later this verse form. The electronic artist Daedelus named the final song on the album Exquisite Corpse later the poem.

The Avant Garde film-maker Ed Emshwiller's 1962 brusque film Thanatopsis was inspired by the poem. In the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Last", a portion of the verse form is set to folk music and sung by writer/producer Dave Willis.

In 1934, Scott Bradley equanimous an oratorio, based on Thanatopsis.

In the 1942 motion-picture show Yard Key Murder, the individual railway motorcar where the showgirl is murdered is named Thanatopsis.

The American author of detection fiction Phoebe Atwood Taylor has her hero Leonidas Witherall recount the beginning lines in her 1947 book The Atomic number 26 Clew. The poem is likewise mentioned in Taylor's 1934 book The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern as having been part of an obituary.

The seminal conservationist Aldo Leopold quoted several passages from Thanatopsis in his posthumously published essay "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest."

In T.C. Boyle's 1990 novel East Is East, the writer's colony on the fictitious Georgia bounding main island of Tupelo (virtually Darien) is called Thanatopsis House. Each of the artists in the colony have their ain private studio cabin to work in during the twenty-four hour period. Each studio cabin is named after a famous suicide (example: Hart Crane).

In David Foster Wallace's 1996 novel Space Jest, the E.T.A. students are referred to as 'blackly drunk with thanatoptic fury' while playing Eschaton, Eschaton (disambiguation).

In August Wilson'due south 2003 play Gem of the Ocean, Solly offers the final nine lines of the poem ("And then alive . . . pleasant dreams") equally a toast to ship off Citizen Barlow to the urban center of bones. Eli joins Solly in the recitation, offering his ain estimation of the lines: "Yous die by how you live."

The Acacia fraternity adopted the last stanza every bit their code.

American progressive rock ring Kansas' 2000 studio anthology Somewhere to Elsewhere features a vocal called The Coming Dawn (Thanatopsis). The lyrics are a reflection on a life at its end.

The Algonquin Circular Tabular array of the 1920s had its own poker gild: the tongue-in-cheek-named Thanatopsis Literary and Inside Directly Social club.

Cindy Williams reads from Thanatopsis in Andy Kaufman'southward ABC Television set Special aired in 1979.

In the 2020 motion-picture show Driveways, Jerry Adler quotes the poem equally a sudden retention from his childhood; a sign he has dementia.

References [edit]

1. ^ "Thanatopsis - Search Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com . Retrieved 30 December 2017.
2. ^ Trent 1920, p. 258.
3. ^ Haralson 2014, p. 57.
4. ^ Trent 1920, p. 259.
5. ^ ^{a b} Phelps 1924, p. 7.
6. ^ ^{a b} Bigelow 1890, p. 40.
7. ^ Niles, Grace Greylock (1912). The Hoosac Valley: Its Legends and Its History. G.P. Putnam'southward Sons. p. 488. ISBN1404751912.
8. ^ Phelps 1924, p. 6.
9. ^ Trent 1917, p. 262.
10. ^ Trent 1917, p. 263.
11. ^ Trent 1920, p. 261.
12. ^ "The Fragment" in North American Review, September 1817
13. ^ "Thanatopsis" in North American Review, September 1817
14. ^ Gioia, Dana. "Longfellow in the Backwash of Modernism". The Columbia History of American Poetry, edited by Jay Parini. Columbia University Printing, 1993: 74–75. ISBN 0-231-07836-vi
15. ^ Parks, Edd Winfield (1962). Ante-Bellum Southern Literary Critics. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Printing. p. 175.

Further reading [edit]

• Max Cavitch, American Elegy: The Verse of Mourning from the Puritans to Whitman (University of Minnesota Press, 2007). Includes a affiliate on the poem. ISBN 0-8166-4893-X
• Connie Willis, Ado (Asimov'due south Science Fiction, 1988) A short story about political correctness and religious vigilance run amok on campus mentions this poem.
• Acacia International Fraternity
• Phelps, William Lyon (1924). Howells, James, Bryant, and Other Essays. New York: Macmillan Publishers.
• Trent, William Peterfield Trent (1920). A History of American Literature, 1607-1865. New York: D. Appleton & Visitor.
• Trent, William Peterfield Trent (1917). The Cambridge History of American Literature. New York: M. P. Putnam'southward Sons.
• Bigelow, John (1890). William Cullen Bryant. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
• Haralson, Eric 50. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century. London: Routledge.

External links [edit]

• Works related to Thanatopsis at Wikisource

kesslerseencesoney1961.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanatopsis

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