William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
http://www.georgetown.eduibassrlheathisyUabuildJiguidelbryant.htm I
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
Contributing Editor: Allison Heisch
Classroom Issues and Strategies
Most of the Bryant selections in the anthology are ruminative poems about the nature of
life and the nature of nature. Some students reaJly like this sort ofthing, but substantial
numbers are allergic to it.
The most effective strategy I have found is to provide visual back-up in the form of a
Hudson River School slide show. A fancy version would paraJlel English Romantic
poets (especially Gray, Cowper, and Wordsworth) and painters (e.g., Constable and
Turner).
Bryant is a fine example of a writer who was not only popular but famous in his day. He
can be used to open a discussion of the social and historical implications of such
popularity (why it comes and why it goes), the essentially political character of
anthologies (yes, even this one), and the idea of "fame" in connection with
contemporary poets and poetry.
For students (and they are many) who do not naturally respond to Bryant, the questions
generally run to "Why are we reading this?" Or, more decorously, "Why was he so
popular?" Yet, they do respond to him as an example of how the American high culture
invented itself. In an altogether different vein, the personal philosophy expressed in
"Thanatopsis" has some enduring appeal.
Major Themes, Historical Perspectives, and Personal Issues
Bryant is very useful as a means of demonstrating the imitative mode through which
New Englanders of an intellectual bent sought to establish an acceptable American
literary voice. This is easily demonstrated by pairing his poems with comparable
English productions. He can also be linked to the Transcendentalists--though with great
caution, since much more is going on.
Significant Form, Style, or Artistic Conventions
Again, he should be shown in connection with his English models. It's useful to point
out the self-conscious regularity of these poems both in connection with their
particularly derivative subject matter and in contrast with the form and subjects of those
contemporary poems and songs (well represented in this anthology) that were not
informed by the dominant English literary culture.
Original Audience
I have usually talked about Bryant's audience in connection with the expansion of
publishing in nineteenth-century America--especiaUy magazines and newspapers.
Ordinarily, students have no idea what a nineteenth-century newspaper would have
looked like or contained. They never expect them to contain poetry. To demonstrate the
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William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
http://www.georgetown.eduibassrlbeath/syUabuild/iguidelbryant.html
probably contemporary audience, I have found it useful to collect and read
commercially-produced greeting cards.
Comparisons, Contrasts, Connections
Freneau's "The House ofNight" may be read with "Thanatopsis" to demonstrate both
the imitation of dominant English poetic fonns and transatlantic lag-time in creating
them for American audiences. Obviously, Bryant may be read with Emerson and
Thoreau as a pre- or proto-Transcendentalist. It is interesting to contrast Bryant's
earnest view of nature with Emily Dickinson's ironic one. Bryant's poem on Abraham
Lincoln against Whitman's ("When Lilacs Last. .. Bloom'd") makes a memorable
contrast between Anglophile American poetry and poetry with a genuine American
accent.
Questions for Reading and Discussion! Approaches to Writing
1. (a) Based upon what you can glean from these poems, what sort of religious and
philosophical outlook does this writer have?
(b) Compare the view of nature in poems such as "To a Waterfowl" and "The Yellow
Violet" with that in "The Prairies."
2. Bryant's "Thanatopsis" is often read as a proto-Transcendentalist poem; yet it was
discovered and rushed to publication by Bryant's father, who by all accounts was a
Calvinist. Some options:
(a) Provide a Calvinist "reading" of "Thanatopsis."
(b) Locate, compare, and explain potentially "Transcendental" and "Calvinist" elements
in the poem.
(c) Argue that it's one or the other (very artificial, but effective).
Bibliography
Brown, Charles H. William Cullen Bryant. Scribner, 1971.
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Bryant Biography
http://www.vcu.edulengweb/eng372lbrybio.htm
William Cullen Bryant, by Wynn Yarborough
William Cullen Bryant was our" first American writer of verse to win international acclaim." (Tomlinson,
30) Bryant was considered a child-prodigy, publishing his first poem at age ten and his first book when he
was thirteen, a political satire of an embargo policy of Thomas Jefferson. Bryant studied both Latin and
Greek and had access to a library full of the classics, which explains many of the classical allusions in his
poetry. Dr Bryant, his father, was a physician and interceded in many points of Bryant's life. He pushed
Bryant towards the legal profession, helped critique and even sent his poems, without his son's approval,
to literary magazines, and helped to publish his first book, Embargo.
Bryant's early poetry was published in the early nineteenth century. He published poems in the North
American Review. In fact this is where we first find Thanatopsis. This early poetry seems to be written
before and submitted much later, Bryant was known for editing his work for quite some time before
submissions. He also published essays in which he called for a" ... robust American literature."
(Tomlinson, 33) He wanted poetry praised for its' merit not its' "American-ness". He was very interested in
technique, publishing "On the Use of Trisyllabic Feet in Iambic Verse" in 1819. His combination of
freedom and form is not seen as paradoxical:" His poetic theory and practice, founded upon romantic
principles of emotional expression, naturalness, simplicity, spontaneity, irregularity, and freedom, set him
squarely in the romantic movement which he anticipates in America by over a decade." (Jelliffe, p. 134)
He practiced law, supporting a wife and family, and wrote very little between 1818-1825. Most of the
material published during this period was previously written poems now submitted. His newest poem of
that period, The Ages, resulted from delivering the Phi Beta Kappa poem at the Harvard commencement.
Bryant's first book of poems was published following the warm reception ofthis poem. It appears that this
is when he made a change that would alter his prominence and affect his art, profoundly. He became
assistant editor to the New York Evening Post, after giving up the drudgery of practicing law. While he
would make more money as ajoumalist, his output ofpoetry was greatly reduced thus directly reducing
his placement in literary history according to critics.
The New York Evening Post was a paper established by the Federalist Party stalwart, Alexander Hamilton.
Bryant was a proponent of "Laissez-Faire", hands-off, economic policy. He opposed tariffs of any kind, as
we saw in his earliest book where he satirizes the embargo of U.S. goods to the European ports. He was
against slavery, endorsing the Free-Soil party, the Republican party, and Lincoln. His influence from the
editorial desk of the New York Evening Post was great. He published poetry, but his first collected edition
included only five previously unpublished poems.
Bryant received great praise for his poetry, but the critics did not give him unconditional laurels, due to
the absence of a full range of poetry, such as epics, elegies, and verse drama. In short, as we have seen, he
didn't publish enough. He looked at art as something demanding time and reflection, something not
afforded to him on his travels or by his work at the paper. He did publish The Letters ofa Traveller in
1850, a series ofletters he had written to the Evening Post, describing his tours of Europe, Mexico, Cuba,
and South America.
In 1866, after the death ofhis wife, Bryant resumed translating the Iliad and subsequently the Odyssey. He
took up translation and editing anthologies as he did less and less with the newspaper. He published a
collected edition, a final one, in 1876. He died after attending the dedication ofa bust of himself in New
York that same year.
Bryant's place in literary history is not altogether secure. He is regarded as falling somewhat short of his
potential. Although he published little as he became immersed in the journalistic life, he was extremely
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Bryant Biography
http://www.vcu.edulengweb/eng372lbrybio.btm
popular in his time and even one time was named as a candidate for President.
Paper for graduate course in American Literature, Fall 1994 for Dr. Ann Woodlief, Virginia
Commonwealth University.
Go to course home page
(c)1996 - Virginia Commonwealth University
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The Death of the Flowers
THE melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere. Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread; The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day. Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood? Alas! they all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours. The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again. The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow; But on the hills the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood, Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen. And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come, To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home;. When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still, And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill, The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore, And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more. And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died, The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side. In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the leaf, And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief: Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend of ours, So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers. -William Cullen Bryant
Questions over "The Death of Flowers"
1. In the first stanza, what season of the year has it become?
2. Does Bryant seem to describe it in a cheerful manner? What sort of emotions does it
seem to provoke in him?
3. In the next two stanzas, how does he treat the death of flowers? Does it seem
comparable to the death of humans? What clues do you have?
4. In the fourth stanza, what other personification of a natural element can be found?
5. In the last stanza, it becomes apparent why Bryant gave the flowers a human quality
(i.e. to make the death of his child friend parallel to the death of the flowers). What are
some of the words and phrases he has used to make the girl like a flower?
Questions over ''Thanatopsis''
1. What does Bryant mean by holding "communion with [nature's] visible forms?"
2. What is nature's ''various language" and how does it speak to man during his happier
hours?
3. What does nature say to you during thoughts of death? Does it try to make you forget
about death? Explain.
4. Who does the speaker say will join the reader in death?
5. And what are the decorations for ''the great tomb of man?"
6. In the last stanza, what are the speakers final words of advice?
To a Waterfowl
WHITHER, midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy so litary way?
Vainly the fowler's eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong
As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.
Seek'st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sing
On the chafed ocean side?
There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-­
The desert and illimitable air-­
Lone wandering, but not lost.
All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.
And soon that toil shall end;
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.
Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.
He who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.
- William Cullen Bryant
I.
Name
-----------------­
Test over Bryant and Poe
Short answers worth 6 pts each.
"Thanatopsis"
1. What is nature's "various language" and how does it speak to man during his happier
hours?
2. Who does the speaker say will join the reader in death?
3. In the last stanza, what are the speakers final words of advice?
"The Death of Flowers"
4. Does Bryant seem to describe the changing of seasons in a cheerful manner? What sort
of emotions does it seem to provoke in him?
5. Read the third stanza ofthe poem. What two things are being compared in the line
"Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men."
6. Also from the line above, and considering the theme of this poem, why do you suppose
he makes that comparison?
Name
-----------------­
Edgar Allan Poe
Listed below are events from Poe's life. Read or skim through "The Raven," "The Fall of
the House of Usher," and "The Tale-Tell Heart" to find passages which might have been
influenced from these events in his life. Quote the passage on this piece of paper, then put
the number beside it which corresponds to one of the events from Poe's life. You may use
any event any number of times. There are some or many events you may not even use at
all. Find at least ten passages. (worth 2 pts each)
1. Poe's father leaves the family. 2. Poe loses his mother to tuberculoses after watching her cough up blood for many months. 3....is taken in by a foster family. 4....attends the University of Virginia and soon quits. 5 . ... falls in love with his cousin and is married to her for over 10 years. 6. ...loses the only love of his life--also to tuberculoses. 7....starts drinking heavily. 8. ...experiments with opium--an addictive, hallucinogenic drug. Vocabulary for William Cullen Bryant
1. sere
2. rustle
3. eddying
4. gloomy
5. meek
6. unmeet
7. perish
8. commuruon
9. musing
10. surrender
11. nourish
12. sluggish
13. shroud
14. pall
15. sepulcher
16. pensive
17. venerable
18. quarry
19. scourged
Name----------------
Vocabulary
Place a letter in the appropriate blank on the left. (worth 2 pts each)
1. sere
a. die
2. rustle
b. having more than one meaning
3. eddying
c. dry; barren
4. perish
d. whipped
5. pensive
e. weak;: frail
6. scourged
f moving against the stream; swirling
- - -7. meek
g. quick shuffling sound
8. equivocal
h. sorrowful; thoughtful and serious
9. anomalous
1.
10. communion
J. the taking of a religious sacrament
not normal
Bonus Questions (worth 5 pts each)
There is a word in "The Fall of the House of Usher" which means "something
nightmarishly burdensome." What current alternative band has this word as their band
name?
I discussed a scene in a movie that illustrates the vocabulary word "eddying." What movie
was it and what was occurring during the scene?