Thanatopsis William Cullen Bryant

In the poem “Thanatopsis” William Cullen Bryant describes the mayor theme of death, which is a characteristic of the Romantic Movement. Bryant, being deeply affected by this movement, presents death but with his own differing characteristics. The most important difference in Bryant´s death is the fact of, when dying, becoming part of the nature. Getting back to nature creates an harmony in the world and it is sort of a promise of a great afterlife and equality among all species.

Nature speaks to us and describes how our death will occur. Nature tells us that what nature created (you) will be claimed back at the time of your death. “ Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim/ Thy growth, to be resolv´d toe art again.” (Bryant, 22-23)With this idea of conservation Bryant presents an ideology of a perfect harmony among all creatures. What we are made now could have been a particle of a tree a million years ago; this idea makes us think that we are all equal and made up the same particles.

Bryant not only presents this equal harmony, but also promises us that we shouldn´t be afraid of death. In our afterlife we will not be alone; we will unite with everything on earth in order to make this harmony. “Yet not to thine eternal resting-place/ Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish/ Couch more magnificent.”(Bryant,31-33) Here Bryant explicitly says that afterlife will be very comfortable and you definitely will not be alone. Given the harmony, we cannot discard the fact that your body will decay and be part of nature. The elements of your body will spread and be necessary for life, in other words, you will live comfortably in nature.

Bryant also talks about living, but the mayor theme of the poem is death considering the amount of poem dedicated to death and the fact that the section of the poem dedicated to living is a consequence of the ideas on death. Bryant tries to teach us a lesson of equality in our life: we are all interrelated and therefore everything gets the same degree of importance. Bryant also teaches another lesson, the most important of the poem: living your life without fear of dying because we all die and its unnecessary to worry if he promises such a perfect afterlife.

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