Thanatopsis and The Bible
In William Cullen Bryant's early nineteenth century poem Thanatopsis, a collage of imagery and ideas surround a central theme of the cycle of life. Within this poem lies a story of great wonder and hope. The story is that of the afterlife in which Bryant conveys a lot of the same ideas of a majestic and heavenly paradise that are present in the Christian Bible. Since Bryant was schooled heavily in theology, is Thanatopsis based on the ideas that the Christian Bible holds of the afterlife? Bryant immediately introduces his notion of spiritual unity among humans and nature in the first line of the poem. Communion with her visible forms, she speaksA various language; for his gayer hoursShe has a voice of gladness, and a smileAnd eloquence of beauty, and she glidesInto his darker musings, with a mild And gentle sympathy, that steals awayTheir sharpness, ere he is aware (Line 1).From this opening line of the poem the reader is aware of Bryant's use of metaphorical language to describe the bond in which nature holds with man. According to the first book of Genesis, God created all of nature and delegat
This is what Bryant affirms to be the "Communion" in which man holds with nature. Bryant is simply using metaphors and figurative language of returning to the earth and rising to heaven to describe the beliefs and concepts of the Bible. Whatever point of view the reader construes out of this work, the theme is the same. Thanatopsis could possibly be Bryant's take on the cycle of life. Perhaps this was Bryant's intention. He gave humans the promise of protection and forgiveness in return for the service of watching over his creation. The evidence that Bryant based Thanatopsis on the theological teachings of death and resurrection, found in the Bible, is apparent throughout the poem. This is a very strong correlation to the Christian Bible, however it is not the only one that Bryant mentions in Thanatopsis. ed some of his authority over it to the human race. Even though there is enough proof to uphold this theory, one could argue that Thanatopsis has nothing to do with the Bible. Maybe this is a reflection of hope that Bryant used to overcome his own fear of death. Since nature is the circumstance for human existence, humans see it as glorious as well as comforting in times of trouble. He describes the glorious afterworld in a way that would make a man most afraid of death, embrace it with open arms. This alludes to the "circle of life" which is described by the Bible to be the dead rising and living life eternally in heaven.
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