William Cullen Bryant

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William Cullen Bryant
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William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878)

• Described as, as quiet, as cool, and as
  dignified as a smooth, silent iceberg.
• Bryant was one of the great personalities of his
  age who provided leadership in both cultural and
  political life.
• As a writer he was known as disciplined and
  precise. He made acute observations of nature
  and wrote about the American experience.

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• Born in western Massachusetts at the foot of the
  Berkshires.
• He was greatly influenced by his father who was a
  naturalist and avid hiker.
• A huge point of inspiration in his life was
  reading Lyrical Ballads by British Romantics
  Wordsworth and Coleridge.
• He attended Williams College for one year.

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• Bryant began writing poetry at age 9 and his
  first book of poetry was published at 14.
• The first draft of his most famous poem,
  Thanatopsis, was written at age 18.
• In addition to writing, Bryant practiced law,
  held a political office, wrote as a critic, and
  owned and edited a newspaper.

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Chillin like an iceberg late in life
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Themes

• Bryants persistent themes include
• Religion
• Nature
• Reform
• Morality
• Idealism

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Romanticism

• Preferred
• freedom to formalism
• Individuality to authority
• Imagination over rationalism
• Nature over industrialization
• Believed in the intuition of the human heart,
  relied on the subconscious, and had a profound
  interest in psychology

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Transcendentalists

• A subset of Romanticism
• (and an -ism that actually named themselves!)
• Nature spirituality (pantheistic ideals)
• The mind communes with the Oversoul of the
  universe!
• Focused on questions of morality with values
  based on individuality, reform, simplicity
• Idealistic!!!

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Kindred Spirits, a picture of William Cullen
Bryant and Thomas Cole by Asher B. Durand (1849)
of the Hudson River School of painters. Original
at the New York Public Library.
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"The Course of Empire The Savage State," by
Thomas Cole, oil on canvas, 1858