Personification In Thanatopsis

750 Words3 Pages
Everybody who has died are a part of nature. The poem, “Thanatopsis”, written by William Cullen Bryant explores the controversial question of death. Although “Thanatopsis” comes from the Greek and means “a view of death” it can also be referred as the observation of nature. Within the lines Bryant compares the inevitable question of death with the unending cycle of life. Bryant uses imagery, personification, and similes to convey the message that people shouldn’t be afraid of death. Throughout the poem Bryant creates images of death and sleep. The reader will see very early on that Bryant uses these words constantly. In the second stanza he writes, “All that tread the globe are but a handful to the tribes that slumber in its bosom.” Instead…show more content…
Everyone can feel when reading the poem, the sorrow emotion of what the inescapable result will be. In many places throughout the poem he refers to death with other words, such as “slumber.” There are examples of this use throughout the poem. For instance, in line eighty one, Bryant writes, “Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch. About him and his lies down to pleasant dreams.” This quote explains that people should be filled with soothing thoughts and content dreams. Although during this quote says a different perspective which says, “Of the last bitter hour come like a blight.” This is a simile comparing someone’s final hours of death to a deadly disease. Somebody is not going to die “like the quarry slave at night scourged to his dungeon but, by sustained and soothed.” People must trust fate and be soothed and comforted by death. In the end having all your loved ones waiting for the people they miss in heaven makes being frightened of death…show more content…
This literary device is called personification. By creating an idea like nature into a woman, with the persona of life with a voice to speak, Bryant makes Nature more comforting and she breathes life back into people. Woman bring warmth, comfort and, kindness. The poem illustrates the impression of a woman named Nature to pacify people’s fears. In line one it says that, “To Him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms she speaks.” It is saying that Nature speaks to people of all languages who loves nature appreciate all the landscapes. Nature “has a voice of gladness, and a smile and eloquence of beauty, and she glides.” (5) It tells the reader that Nature has an alluring voice, and she is sensitive to people’s feelings and needs. She "glides" into somebody’s depressing thoughts and revitalizes them once again. Again, Nature’s not a rock or a mountain. She is a person who cares and to guide each person on a journey. She’s there to soothe someone if they are scared of dying and she is there to drive them away. Basically, Bryant’s advice, when somebody is feeling troubled, is to go outside and listen to Nature’s voice. It’s this "still voice", (17) that is supposed to fill the reader with peace and calmness and that it’s going to be alright. Nature is soothing people’s unnecessary fears about dying by making your burial ground
Show More
Related

  • Peaceful Death: Thanatopsis By William Cullen Bryant

    711 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lindsey Pope C.Smith- Instructor English 251 Essay II Outline Peaceful Death Many people who read “Thanatopsis” can interpret that it is a poem about death from the beginning down to the very last sentence. William Cullen Bryant’s poem discusses how people from across time have dealt with the feeling of death. Bryant also discusses how he views death from many different angles and the many different methods to help someone feel better when it comes to dealing with death. He also discusses

    Read More

  • Romanticism Vs Transcendentalism

    911 Words  | 4 Pages

    Transcendentalists, who believe in letting a higher power guide them through life. With Romanticism, there is a sense of spirituality, sometimes seen in the form of a divine being like God, and other times through the personification through nature, such as in William Cullen Bryant’s Thanatopsis, “To him who in the love of Nature holds/Communion with her visible forms, she speaks.” When Nature became something more than a construct, when it took on a pronoun and even spoke, it morphed into something otherworldly

    Read More

More about Personification In Thanatopsis

Open Document