Death in Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant Essay

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” (Mark Twain). This quote from the famous American writer is the basis for what became one of the hardest ideas to comprehend, death. Death has always been a complex term, causing one to struggle with what the true definition is. It is also hard to wrap your mind around what does it truly mean to die. These are the questions we long for the answer. Whether we acknowledge it or not, death has always been feared by many. Death remains an impossible question, one that has been unexplained since beginning of time. Even though dying is a natural, we as a human race still fear it. What can be done to defeat this never-ending battle? According to Montaigne’s “To Philosophize is to Learn to Die” and Cory Taylor’s “Questions for Me About Dying” we can overcome this by living to the fullest, living with no regrets, living a legacy, and lastly not fearing the inevitable. If you want to conquer the question of life, live in the moment.

That’s the thing about death: it sneaks up and robs a person of their life, taking away all of their happiness. People indulge themselves in the idea of fearing death rather than facing it. Death is an unknown territory where no survivors have ever came back to share their experience. The US Army Private, Roy Scranton’s article “Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene” shines hope where he explains how fear can be conquered if the idea of dying is accepted. It is fear that paralyzes people from moving toward the idea of death. If people started to embrace the present, they will understand the inevitability of death and start discrediting fear.

Death is the most inevitable and unknown aspect of life. It is unescapable, and by most of today’s population, it is feared in the utmost regard. Our materialistic views and constant desertion of religious ideals has forced our society to view death as an ultimate end. Socrates and St. Augustine’s views on death differ from many views on the subject in 2017, however, for their time, these men had the power to influence a plethora of individuals with their theories. For Socrates, death should never be feared and should be considered a blessing if our souls were to ascend to heaven, or death could be an extensive slumber without any dreaming whatsoever. With

Many people seem to fear death, but philosophers such as Socrates and Epicurus would argue that one has no reason to fear it. Socrates sees death as a blessing to be wished for if death is either nothingness or a relocation of the soul, whereas Epicurus argues that one shouldn't worry themselves about death since, once we are gone, death is annihilation which is neither good nor bad. Epicurus believes that death itself is a total lack of perception, wherein there is no pleasure or pain. I agree with Epicurus because Socrates doesn't give a sound argument for death as a blessing, whereas Epicurus' argument is cogent. I would also argue personally that death is not something to be feared because, like Epicurus, I see no sufficient evidence

This poem talks about nature and death. William Cullen Bryant shares that nature can make death less painful. He says that when we start to think about death, we should go outside, and look around and listen to the natural earth sounds. This is supposed to remind us that when we die, we will mix back into the earth. The poem tells us that when we die, we will not be alone. We will be with every other person that has ever been buried, In the ground, which in this poem is called the “great tomb of man”. It also tells us that even those that are still living will soon die and join in the great tomb of man. This poem is meant to comfort those that are afraid of dying and death in general. At the end of the poem, we are told to think of death as

Chuck Palahniuk once said, “The first step to eternal life, is you have to die.” In William Cullen Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis”, he does not mention eternal life or anything religious, but speaks about death. He tells his readers that death is a natural thing and they should not worry about it. William Cullen Bryant, in his poem “Thanatopsis”, portrays a comforting view of death. Throughout the poem, Bryant encourages his readers by explaining that in death they are not alone, that death, like life, is a natural process, and that they will be among some of the finest people who walked the earth.

The way I percieve death is that it is absoulute and no living thing can ever escape it. Nor should we be afraid of death it is simply a

poem many readers are able to reaffirm their faith of an afterlife, while others are left

Bryant uses phrases such as “stern agony,” “breathless darkness,” “eternal resting place,” and “silent halls of death” to strike fear in the reader. These various phrases also apply a crucial tone to the poem. Death is a dark and distressing part of life. “The all-beholding sun shall see no more / in all his course.” (171). In these lines Bryant states that once man is complete with his course of life, he will no longer see light. This known fact raids a sense of fear of death. This next quotation states that people who die and buried will end in the same burial place, which is the ground. “Thou shalt lie down / with patriarchs of the infant world-with kings, / the powerful of the earth-the wise, the good, / fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, / all in one might sepulcher.” As previously stated, Bryant describes all people as equals. He states that everyone has the same burial place. The ground is the place all dead bodies proceed to after death. The visual form of these words arouses a sense of sadness. Throughout the poem Bryant changes the tone to state although death is a dark part of life people should enjoy life until death calls them. “So live, that when thy summons come to join / the innumerable caravan.” (172). This line supports the point of living life until death calls. Throughout the poem, Bryant uses pathos to elaborate on the elements of death.

By the end of the poem there is another shift in tone. The tone takes on a more hopeful meaning. Now, Bryant uses the spring season to compare to a new age. He mentions, “The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes/ In the full strength of years, matron, and maid,/ The bow'd with age, the infant in the smiles.”(68-70) The rebirth of human life compares to nature in the sense that when nature is reborn in springtime everything turns green. The reader ends the poem with an enlightened sense of feeling instead of the dark and gloomy feeling they felt at the beginning of the poem.

“The fear of death flows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time” By Mark Twain. If a life is lived fully then the owner of the life will be prepared to die at any time. The way a person lives their life determines how accepting they are of death. In The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury the topic of accepting death plays a major role in the characters’ lives.

This is a long variation upon “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Bryant is pointing out how a body returns to nature in death. You shall, upon dying, nourish the Earth that once nourished you. In doing this, he creates a smooth transition between human and nature and then melds the two together.

Many individuals travel through life with a deep feeling of doubt concerning exactly what happens to humanity after death. This reservation is deliberated in further detail in the following sonnet by Emily Dickinson. Similar to many of Dickinson’s poetry works, “This World is not Conclusion” deals with the theme of death. One issue with the theme, however, is that normal sonnets are centered on a form of love. This sonnet focuses instead on having faith in the unseen. The beginning twelve lines expound on the speaker’s belief of life after death and the mysteriousness of the concept that causes a feeling of doubt. As the reader continues to examine the sonnet, lines thirteen through sixteen, the speaker seems to have a change of heart and

People dread about death for several reasons: they hardly know what to expect from death and they fear not finishing certain things in life. Epicurus believes that people no longer exist when they die. Death is not painful now because we are not dead and it will not be painful when it comes because we would not exist to experience it. Thus, death is not an experience to fear about at any point in life.

These feelings or abundance and well-being, according to Mark Bracher, make it quite simple for the reader to look at death calmly and accept their own mortality as consequence of a rich and fulfilling life (Bracher 1990, 634). Bracher accuses the poem of pretence