William Cullen Bryant

“Thanatopsis”

Author: William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878)

Widely acknowledged as father of American poetry

Outspoken advocate for women’s rights

Wrote “Thanatopsis” as a teenager

Fought to ensure industrialization did not obscure America’s democratic values

P. 264

Thantos Thantos (Greek) = Death Opsis (Greek) = SeeingThanatopsis = Looking at death– a way of

viewing itPoem presents the poet’s thoughts on death

and its links to natureWhen people think of death, nature teaches

them that everyone must die and become part of earth again

Death need not be feared or despised

“Thanatopsis”

A systematic arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

The basic unit of meter is the foot, which usually consists of one stressed and one or more unstressed syllables

The type and number of feet in the lines of a poem determine its meter

Mark the stressed and unstressed syllables in these lines:So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdrawIn silence from the living, and no friend.

Meter

The feeling created in a reader by a literary work or passage

Also known as atmosphereSetting, tone, subject or events can influence mood

Note the differences in mood from these lines of the poem:And breathless darkness, and the narrow house, Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart-

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couchAbout him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

Which set of lines is happier?

Mood

Giving an inanimate (non-living) object human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, physical gestures and speech

Personification

The author is the person who wrote the poemThe speaker is from who’s point of view the

poem is writtenThe author and the speaker are not always

the same

Speaker

Read pages 267-269Animated reading of “Thanatopsis” 4:47Annotate the poem with this guidance Summarize the poem

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