“Thanatopsis”

1. What religious implications does the use of the word “communion” have?

2. How is Nature personified?3. What should you do when you fear death?4. What are the numerous reasons to not fear death?5. Bryant’s conservative ancestors believed that only a select few

were predestined to go to Heaven. How would the message of this poem be different if it had been written by one of Bryant’s ancestors?

6. The contemporary writer Edwin Way Teale has written “In nature, there is less death and destruction than death and transmutation.” What does this mean? How does this connect to Bryant’s poem?

T: “Thanatopsis”A: William Cullen BryantG: pre-transcendental poem

What religious implications does the use of the word “communion” have?

• The speaker in this poem begins by explaining that when a person communes with nature’s “visible” forms, s/he will hear nature speak to him/her. One can not help but make the connection to Holy communion where a person takes the body and blood of Christ. Bryant may be suggesting that a communion with nature is a spiritual experience by alluding to this religious rite.