William Bryant's poetry often leads to thoughts on nature, the meaning of life, and death. Meditation on death is the Greek translation for 'Thanatopsis' which is one of his poems. The body of the poem speaks of everything that lives must die but also of how death is natural. This argues against Orthodox Christianity. The introduction and the conclusion of the poem promise something that the body does not fulfill. The beginning talks about those who 'Hold communion' with nature and how she has 'Various languages' for the changing of one's moods. How 'For gayer hours/ She has a voice of gladness' and 'She glides/ Into his darker musings, with a mild/ And healing sympathy'. This side of nature promises healing and consolation. However, the lines 'The venerable woods-- the rivers that move' In majesty, and the complaining brooks/ That make the meadows green: and, poured round all,/ Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,--/ Are but the solemn decorations all/ Of the great tomb of man' show nature as merely a decoration not something in which you can 'Hold communion.' Also in the body it talks of the people of the earth, no matter what their station, will all be buried together, 'All in one mighty sepulchre.' The romantic notion of communication between man and nature is missing in the body of Bryant's 'Thanatopsis.' Although the notion is missing in the body it returns in the conclusion. Now the author tells us that 'By unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,/ Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch/ About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.' This goes back to the idea of nature being more than just the decoration that the body speaks of.
             In Bryant's poem 'Yellow Violent' the narrator becomes changed by nature. 'The yellow violet's modest bell/ Peeps from th...