Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. “Thanatopsis” is a poem by American poet William Cullen Bryant originally published in 1817 in the North American Review. Written early in Bryant’s life and career, and heavily influenced by Romanticism as well as the Graveyard School of poetry, the poem explores the subject of death and what it means to be mortal—its title, Thanatopsis is derived from the Greek roots Thanatos (death) and Opsis (sight), and thus it means “a view of death.”

Bryant urges his reader to accept death as an inevitability that should not provoke angst or fear, as it is the fate of all humans. The poem instead offers solace—the fact that all people must face the end of their lives should be a unifying and comforting thought.

William Cullen Bryant wrote this poem when he was 19 years old. The poem shows his interest in Deism and his rejection of religious Puritanical conservatism. The poem became an inspiration for Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Structure of Thanatopsis:

William Cullen Bryant wrote this long 82-line poem in a single stanza with no specific rhyming pattern. However, he mostly followed blank verse or unrhyming iambic pentameter for this poem which means that most of the lines contain five sets of two beats, the first of these is unstressed and the second is stressed. Yet, Bryant chose to change the pattern in some instances and hence, in some lines, the iambs become trochees (as in line 30). The stressed syllable is first and the unstressed second. In this poem, William Cullen Bryant used personification, enjambment, alliteration, caesura, imagery, metaphor, and simile.

Summary of Thanatopsis:

Lines 1-8

“To him who in the love of Nature holds

Communion with her visible forms, she speaks

A various 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 mild

And healing sympathy, that steals away

Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts”

The speaker begins by introducing someone who loves nature. This person is a naturalist with an almost holy relationship with nature as he holds ‘Communion’ with the visible forms of nature (like rocks, trees, rivers, natural scenery). The poet uses personification of ‘nature’ and posits nature as a female gender as ‘She’ speaks to him, that naturalist someone, in a voice of gladness.’ Nature smiles, and speaks to him happily with an "eloquence" (smooth and lovely speech) "of beauty." Sometimes, when this nature lover is brooding over depressing thoughts, nature treats him with gentle sympathy, which heals him. She takes away the pain ("sharpness") of his thoughts before he even realizes it. Her presence acts benevolently and charitably.

Bryant used enjambment in lines 2 and 3 as the second line runs into the third without end punctuation. In line 3, caesura has been used. ‘Gladness,’ and ‘glides’ in lines 4 and 5 are examples of alliteration.

Lines 9-17

“Of the last bitter hour 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 grow sick at heart;—

Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature’s teachings, while from all around—

Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—

Comes a still voice—”

Lines 8 and 9 are again an example of enjambment as the line was broken in two without punctuation. In the ninth line, the speaker brings up ‘death’ the main subject of the poem. The speaker says that when this nature-lover at times turns to think about the “bitter hour” of death, it comes “like a blight” over his “spirit”. Thoughts of death consume this person. It acts as a disease, making this person ill. They go into great detail as they dwell on the inevitable. The poet describes death as "stern agony", it is sharp and severe. The speaker further mentions the "breathless darkness" of the grave and the "narrow house" of the coffin. The speaker then mentions nature again and says that when someone is worried about death, they should go back to nature and listen to the calming voice that comes out of the “waters” and the “depths of air”. Nature can soothe the spirit of the nature-lover even in such dark brooding fears like death.

The poet used a simile in line nine, comparing death with blight. In the following lines, he offers a strong imagery of death.

Lines 18-31

“Yet a few days, and thee

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. 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 thou go

To mix for ever with the elements,

To be a brother to the insensible rock

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.”

The speaker continues with the imagery of death while alluding to the absence of light after death as there will be no sun to embrace “Thy image” on his course through the sky. The sun will not penetrate the ground where someone is buried, nor it will reach the depths of the ocean where they have been thrown, and thus, the light will never see your face again, your face will be lost forever.

In the next lines, the speaker contradicts the Puritan notion of the ‘Afterlife’ while exclaiming the superiority of nature. The speaker says that after your death when there will be no sun, your image will “claim Thy growth” and take back everything that it gave. The listener’s body will be used to nourish the earth in return. Once dead, your humanity will be lost. “Each human trace” will vanish and that “Individual being” will be consumed by the elements of the earth. The speaker says that after death our bodies will "mix […] with the elements." We’ll basically be no different from an "insensible rock," unable to feel anything. So, all the touch sight, hearing, and emotion that made us human will be gone, leaving us no different from rocks. But this death will again unite us from nature. We won’t be lonely for long as the roots of the oak will reach us to embrace us. In lines 30-31, the poet used personification of the Oak tree.

Lines 32-46:

“Yet not to thine eternal resting-place

Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish

Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down

With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,

The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good,

Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,

All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills

Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales

Stretching in pensive quietness between;

The venerable woods—rivers that move

In majesty, and the complaining brooks

That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,

Old Ocean’s gray and melancholy waste,—

Are but the solemn decorations all

Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,”

The speaker continues to describe the ‘Afterlife’ and says that although everyone will die and they’re headed into death where they’ll lose their humanity and their body will decay into the earth, they won’t be alone. From the ‘narrow house’ of coffin, the dead will soon be transferred to a "magnificent" and comfy resting place, like a "couch." And they won’t be alone, the “patriarchs” from ages past, kings, and “The power of the earth” will be there to greet you. They are all going to be residing in one “might sepulchre” or tomb. The idea is that when we die we all lie down together in one big grave, that is the Earth, and that is the importance and wonder of the Earth, it is the tomb of Humanity, and all other things are mere decorations. The poet used metaphor while comparing the Earth to a big tomb.

Lines 47-58

“The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,

Are shining on the sad abodes of death,

Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread

The globe are but a handful to the tribes

That slumber in its bosom.—Take the wings

Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,

Or lose thyself in the continuous woods

Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,

Save his own dashings—yet the dead are there:

And millions in those solitudes, since first

The flight of years began, have laid them down

In their last sleep—the dead reign there alone.”

The speaker continues to elaborate on the world after death while explaining that the world after death where everyone is expected to enter isn’t as dark or lonely as one might expect. The planets and the stars “the infinite host of heaven” or sky see us from above on “the sad abodes of death.” There are ages of humanity buried in the earth, far more than ever walked the earth. They “slumber in” the “bosom” of the earth, a very pleasant image. The dead rule this world, one which stretches over the whole of the world. The dead are everyone “you” would want to be. From the dunes of the desert to the river of “Oregon”. It is the world of the dead, no one else reigns there.

Lines 59-73

“So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw

In silence from the living, and no friend

Take note of thy departure? All that breathe

Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh

When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care

Plod on, and each one as before will chase

His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave

Their mirth and their employments, and shall come

And make their bed with thee. As the long train

Of ages glide away, the sons of men,

The youth in life’s green spring, and he who goes

In the full strength of years, matron and maid,

The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man—

Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,

By those, who in their turn shall follow them.”

The speaker mentions the inevitability of death and says that just like the millions who have died before us, we shall accept death and rest. The speaker says that It really doesn’t really matter in the end, how, where, or when one dies. Everyone meets the same fate so the reader should not worry about dying alone or being un-missed. “All that breathe / Will share thy destiny”. These are meant as words of comfort in the face of the unknowable. The speaker further says that after death, the happy will continue to be so as well the depressed continue to be sad. There’s nothing that can change this and one should not attempt to do so. The world of the living is filled with illusions of death, religious explanations, and otherwise. Those who enjoy those illusions will continue to engage with them but in the end, they too shall come and “make their bed with thee”. As time progresses, all of these people from “The speechless babe” to the wise man and woman will be taken to death. They shall be “gathered to thy side” just as everyone else after them will be.

Lines 74-82

“So live, that when thy summons comes to join

The innumerable caravan, which moves

To that mysterious realm, where each shall take

His chamber in the silent halls of death,

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 drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”
In these lines, the speaker is still talking about death but he reminds us of the importance of life and says “So live.” You should enjoy the time you have. Sooner or later you will hear the call ("the summons") of death. You will join the endless train of people leaving this life. We are all headed to "that mysterious realm, where we’re all going to get a room ("chamber") in the quiet "halls of death." One should live in a way that is accepting of death. You don’t want to be burdened by it all of your life and then feel dragged there as if to a “dungeon”. You should be fulfilled by faith that you will rest with the ages of humankind in the ground that nurtured you. If you do live this way, the speaker concludes, then death will come peacefully. It will “wrap” you up as if in blankets and lay you done to “pleasant dreams”.

“Scourged,” “sustained,” and “soothed” in line 79 are examples of alliteration.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.