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Diction In Thanatopsis

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Thanatopsis Essay William Cullen Bryant’s poem Thanatopsis, Bryant writes a beautiful story about life and death. Bryant explains what death is about and how a person should not be afraid of death. This poem explains how beautiful death is and how to respect it. Bryant also explains how death is feared by many but he offers comfort to the people that do fear it. Bryant tells the readers about death in a way no poet has said before. Bryant gradually tells the reader more and more about death in each stanza. In “Thanatopsis,” Bryant uses diction to describe death, details to describe how death takes place, and organization to help show the different levels of how people feel about death. In “Thanatopsis, Bryant uses diction to describe death. Bryant describes death in a beautiful way in Thanatopsis. Bryant describes death as a “to be brother to the insensible rock”. Bryant describes death in many ways and talks about how people should be accepting of death and not becoming resilient to death. Bryant wants people to be brothers to the insensible rock. Bryant uses diction here to tell the reader after dying they become one with the earth. Bryant also used diction here to show the reader they won’t go to waste after they have passed. Bryant shows …show more content…

Bryant uses details to explain very well how death takes place by using details from different things. Bryant uses details to help the reader what death is like. Bryant uses details to describe death when he says “lost each human trace, surrendering up”. Bryant describes here that in death people surrender themselves and die. Bryant uses details to describe that in death people will leave their bodies and then will go up and surrender the entirety of the body. Bryant does a great job of using details to help the reader better understand death. Although Bryant uses details to describe death he also uses other things to describe

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In William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis,” Bryant speaks of death, saying that it is just a part of nature, as if he is trying to tell us that we should not be afraid of dying. When analyzing Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”; I find that there are many different ways that Bryant’s poem can be interpreted, and I can see that the shift, attitude, connotation, and meter are all big factors in his poem. Bryant’s “Thanatopsis,” is very much about death, and how it is closely related with nature. In the beginning Bryant acts as if death is something scary and sad, “…last bitter hour come like a blight…” (line 9) and “… the all beholding sun shall see no more…” (line 18), then towards the end he changes, acting as if he has come to peace with it, and accepted that everyone will die, “Yet not to thine eternal resting-place shalt thou retire alone…” (lines 31-32) and “… like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”

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She considered it all a part of the circle of life. Bryant’s work Thanatopsis, has a quote with a similar significance. “Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.” This quote demonstrates how every individual should live life to its fullest, so that when death comes, they are ready to go. Bryant recommends a noble acceptance in the face of death, because it is an inevitable event that every living thing must undergo.

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