“Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant
Thanatopsis is a word Bryant coined by joining two Greek words: thanatos, “death” and opsis, “sight.”
The new word is defined by the poem as a way of looking at and thinking about death. Bryant crafted
this poem as a sixteen-year-old. Despite his youth, or perhaps because of it, he tackled the most serious
questions a poet can explore: What happens to us after we die, and how should we feel about death?
Bryant’s answers to these questions represent the theme of this poem—its central insight into human
experience.
1. Consider the first stanza. What does Nature do for those who communicate with her?
2. In the second stanza, Nature begins to speak. Sum up her advice to those who think sad
thoughts of death.
3. Describe the SHIFT in tone that occurs in line 31. After reading line 37, consider that a sepulcher
is a burial place. What does Nature say to those who fear the solitude of death?
4. What decorates the tomb of man?
5. What examples does the speaker use to explain that the dead are everywhere?
6. What comfort does Nature offer in lines 58-72?
7. In lines 73-81, the speaker’s voice resumes. Sum up the speaker’s message in these lines.
8. How would you state the poem’s theme, the central insight it offers into human experience?
9. How does Bryant’s attitude toward death differ from Longfellow’s?