Poetry Explication

William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" is a reflection about death. In this poem, the narrator uses a gentle and reassuring voice, on death. Thus, tells us that we should not fear death but rather consider it path to better things. Instead if wasting time worrying about death we should look to nature and discover a positive outlook about it. The poet tells us that we can learn from "Earth and her waters, and the depth of the air" (Bryant 16). The poet is addressing those who are particularly troubled by death, knowing and fearing that one day they will see the "all-beholding" sun (18) and the "Earth that nourished thee, shall claim/They growth, to be resolved to earth again" (22-3). The poet is suggesting that when we look to nature, we can find consolations to death.

“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...” (1-5).In these lines the poet is talking about nature and the way she looks or makes us feel when we feel sad, happy, mad. For example, the poet is saying go forward and see what mother nature has for you to learn and take in all the information you can cause afterwards the image in you of mother nature will disappear. Moreover, “ In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, Where thy pale form was laid, with many.....good Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, All in one mighty sepulcher” (19-37). In the lines 19-37 the poet is trying to say that the earth in which you grew up on will collect from you as you did from it when u pass away and will give our body like we expected every other specie which passed to do the same thing. Basically he is talking about going to heaven or to the other world in which the dead go he says you will not be alone they're kings and farmers in the same place so don’t think that you are leaving and you will be the only one their. Here he describes the worlds different settings the woods, rivers, oceans and mountains the earth is a great big tomb for you and me. Everyone and everything are looking at the good things of death and we don’t see what they are but the gods do.