Death Of The Flowers Poem Analysis

In the poem “The Death of the Flowers” the author William Cullen Bryant expresses his thoughts toward winter and how it relates to the death of his daughter. He uses winter as an overall metaphor for her death and how everything is cold but the winter (she) will always be beautiful. He uses poetic elements like metaphors and personification to present how he feels. Bryant says, “Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood/In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood”(7-8). He compares the fair young flowers to a beauteous sisterhood talking about how close they are and how hard it is to separate them. He both figuratively and literally means sisterhood because his daughter was apart of her own sisterhood

He seems nostalgic at his past, which is obvious because he reminisces on the time with his daughter and misses her dearly. He says, “Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men,/And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen”(17-18). He uses diction like “cold” and “plague”, and phrases like “their smile was gone” to convey a tone that nobody in the poem is happy about the weather, and neither is he. He does not talk about the winter as if it is a beautiful time of the year, but instead talks about how death is in the air in winter, which is fitting because the death of his daughter is always lingering in his thoughts. The mood that is conveyed is similar, it makes the reader feel sad and dark. Talking about winter in a negative connotation while discussing death does not put one in an upbeat mood, however he describes it in a way that makes the reader feel calm. It is like Bryant is at peace with his daughter’s death, and it is conveyed in the mood of the poem. He writes, “So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers”(30). While he is talking about a dark and tragic topic, he uses words like “gentle” and “beautiful” as ways of making the reader know that even though she is gone, he is alright. He conveys multiple emotions through his writing; at many points he makes the reader feel dark and dreary, while in other places makes the reader feel at

This is the prevailing theme because throughout the whole story he (Bryant) is metaphorically talking about the death of his daughter then finally at the end he mentions her in a positive light even though she is gone. He relates the cold and darkness of winter to the cold and darkness he feels inside but then talks about the beauty and grace of his daughter, which also means he found beauty and grace in winter and in nature. He writes, “And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow”(14). This represents the theme because he speaks about death as something quiet, slow and sad, while talking about the grace of the summer and how even in his darkest time, there is beauty in life (and death). One can always find beauty even in distress. This poem is an Early Romantic poem. This is obvious because the author was an Early Romantic poet (living in the time period and writing other American Romantic poems), and he does not focus on social reform, or living simply which rule out Transcendentalism and Fireside Poets. He does however focus on feeling intense emotions, and the individual spirit. Bryant focuses on emotions like nostalgia, sadness, and sentimentality and longing. He says, “The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain/Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again”(11-12). This can be interpreted as Bryant saying