The title of William Cullen Bryants poem Thanatopsis is Greek for a view of death. In this poem Bryant personifies nature and discusses death from its perspective. The poem begins by talking of the importance and beauty of nature. The original persona used at the beginning of the poem shares with the reader his great appreciation towards nature and the importance to one who appreciates nature to take full advantage of what it offers and learn from it all that they can. The poem continues starting on line 18 by taking on the still voice of nature and through her words comforting he whom listens on her honest view of death. Nature sees the world through all time whereas man is limited to a short span of years, therefore nature observes each death as only what it represents on the full scale of time. She has seen that every living thing dies. No man whether he be as important or wise as a king or a simple infant ends up in the same place; we all go back to nature. In line 73, the poem begins its conclusion by returning to the original persona whose words show that he has heard and heeded the advice of nature and has therefore obtained an attitude of acceptance towards this inevitable fate that is shared by all.Most of the poems intent is presented clearly to the reader by the use personification and imagery. The bulk of the poem is words from Cullens personified version of nature. Nature is referred to with pronouns as a female often in the poem perhaps because the ideas of gentleness and beauty are often associated more with women than men and Cullen intends to portray nature as having such characteristics. Imagery is in constant use throughout the entirety of the poem to convey the relationship of death to nature. An example of this in lines 18-23 nature begins her speech by telling the reader that in due time they will never be seen on earth again. In these lines nature personifies different aspects of herself in comparin...
