Blank Verse. Blank verse is unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter. (An iambic pentameter line consists of five feet, each containing two syllables, the first weakly stressed and the second strongly stressed.) As you read “Thanatopsis,” pay attention to this regular pattern in the poem.
Elaboration. Elaboration, or amplification, is a writing technique in which a subject is introduced and then expanded upon by means of repetition with slight changes, the addition of details, or similar devices. As you read “Thanatopsis,” try to find an example of elaboration.
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Bryant probably began “Thanatopsis” in 1811, when he was only sixteen years old. The subject and moral outlook of the poem owe much to Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” The first version of the poem consisted of the present poem’s lines 18–66. Bryant’s father submitted this poem and another on the subject of death to the North American Review in 1817, and the two were mistakenly published as a single work.
In 1821, Bryant completed “Thanatopsis,” framing the original lines with an introduction (lines 1–17) and a conclusion (lines 66–82). In the earlier version, the central lines had been in the poet’s own voice; in the later version, the speaker is a romanticized and personified Nature. The ideas in the three parts of the poem betray the changes in the poet’s thinking over the ten years of its composition. Nevertheless, the beauty of the poem’s language and the grandeur of its images immediately established Bryant’s literary reputation and helped to create pride in the ability of Americans to match the literary creations of the British Romantic school.
When do you see nature as beautiful and generous, and when do you see it as violent and cruel?
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