Thanatopsis

Thanatopsis wasn't an exciting poem by any means.  It was very depressing and said with nothing happy happening in it anywhere.   The poem talked about death and what happens to the body after you are buried.  I thought that it was confusing from the old English style writing and different words that were used that we don’t normally use in everyday speaking.  After reading the literary criticism though, it all made a lot more sense and I understood it a lot easier.  It helped because it went through the entire poem and analyzed it piece by piece giving descriptions and examples of each part.  These two things helped a lot but what I enjoyed the most was how Bryant wrote in regular English and didn’t use any fancy words like thy, thee, adding –ith to the ends of every other word, etc.  My thoughts on how gloomy and death oriented this poem was make so much sense now.  From reading the online literary reference I learned that “Thanatopsis” translates from Greek to “view of death” in English (Barney and Paddock).  I also noticed that this poem was written in the early to mid 1800’s.  That would explain why all of the written text is in old English instead of something more modern.


To an extent, Bryant was trying to prepare the reader for death.  He talked about what it was like and what happened after death as if he was trying to explain that they should not be scared and that everyone will eventually die.  He looks at the positives to death instead of the negatives which can really change a persons outlook on things.  Bryant says that you can die at any time, if your "life's green spring" or a "gray headed man" (Bryant lines 68-70).  Regardless of how old you are you could die any second.  He tries to convince the readers to believe in what they want because there end could be near.


Reading this poem really made me realize how much we take life for granted.  I am shocked to think that I expect to wake up every morning and don't treat my days as gifts like I should.  I need to pay more attention to what I believe in and how I show that because I am not on the right track.  I need to figure things out and use this poem to help me.  My big problem is how I say I do one thing and act like it, but when people aren't looking I don't always represent that.  And since I believe in God, I believe that he can see me reguardless of where I am and if everyone else in the world can't.  I have always struggled with this and think that many people do.  I would like  to meet someone that hasn't.  I believe that my God will forgive me when I ask for is as long as I promise to try my best to stop doing whatever I'm doing wrong.  This poem has really been an eye opener for me and I am glad I actually read it and didn't skim through it and just get the necessary stuff from it.  I am glad I took the time to analyze it and understand what is going on.


Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. "'Thanatopsis'."Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 7 Dec. 2011.

Bryant, William Cullen. "16. Thanatopsis." Bartleby.com. Web. 7 Dec. 2011.