Background
William Cullen Bryant was born on 3 November 1794, in Cummington, Massachussets His well-established New England family was staunchly Federalist in politics and Calvinist in religion. His father was a physician of wide learning.
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(This supreme collection of William Cullen Bryant's poetry...)
This supreme collection of William Cullen Bryant's poetry includes his original works, his unique translations of several classic poems, plus an anthology of little-seen verses he composed in later life. A highly regarded poet of the romantic era, Bryant was rarely out of the American public's eye. For many years he served as editor of the popular newspaper the New York Evening Post, as well as contributing poems and essays to several other magazines and periodicals, Bryant's name was synonymous with the USA's fledgling artistic expression and literature throughout much of the nineteenth century. Bryant's most famous poem, Thanatopsis, was subject to much surprise in that many assumed it had been plagiarized, or at least ghost-written, by a European poet. When it was published in the early nineteenth century, there had been little romantic poetry of such quality produced by an American. After William Bryant had published a number of well-received works, praise from esteemed figures such as Edgar Allan Poe was forthcoming. Much of Bryant's poetry is enshrined in an atmosphere of peace and solitude, contemplating nature and life in a meditative and calm manner. Never trying for popularity or moved by trends, Bryant's style changed but little throughout his life, although some critics have noted his melancholy became more pronounced as he aged. By old age William Cullen Bryant and his verses were held in national regard, and he was frequently depicted in popular art and portraiture of the era. He used his prominence to influence civic development in New York, and notably was instrumental in encouraging the development of what is now Central Park. Following his death, several places and educational institutions were named after him.
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(" This book has been prepared with the aim of gathering i...)
" This book has been prepared with the aim of gathering into a single volume the largest practicable compilation of the best Poems of the English Language, making it as nearly as possible the choicest and most complete general collection of Poetry yet published."
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(The ancestry of William Cullen Bryant might have been inf...)
The ancestry of William Cullen Bryant might have been inferred from the character of his writings, which reflect whatever is best and noblest in the life and thought of New England. It was a tradition that the first Bryant of whom there is any account in the annals of the New World came over in the Mayflower, but the tradition is not authenticated. What is known of this gentleman, Mr. Stephen Bryant, is that he came over from England, and that he was at Plymouth, Massachusetts, as early as 1632.
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(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
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(William Cullen Bryant wrote short stories? Indeed he did,...)
William Cullen Bryant wrote short stories? Indeed he did, and this volume collects and evaluates them for the first time. During the seven years before the 1832 British publication of Poems firmly established his reputation as a poet in the U.S., Bryan became a key figure in New York City's circle of fiction writers. His tales compare favorably with those of his contemporary Washington Irving, and his varied experiments in a new genre anticipate future developments by half a century and more. Gados previous book presented Bryant as a major exponent of American literary nationalism and the prime antecedent of Whitman and Frost; here, he retrieves a body of short fiction from the fringe of oblivion and both shines a light on the neglected decade preceding Poe and Hawthorne and examines Bryants tales as part of that history. "Frank Gados first-rate selection of William Cullen Bryants poetry and prose and his persuasive essays on Bryants contribution to American prosody and culture restore him to his rightful place in American literary history as the philosophical poet too long overlooked. An essential volume." Brenda Wineapple, White Heat and Ecstatic Nation
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(This book, "The Talisman for", by Bryant William Cullen, ...)
This book, "The Talisman for", by Bryant William Cullen, is a replication. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible. This book was created using print-on-demand technology. Thank you for supporting classic literature.
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(Simply stated, this book will introduce the surprising li...)
Simply stated, this book will introduce the surprising literary figure behind a familiar name. Though a mere vestige of William Cullen Bryants fame survives through inclusion of Thanatopsis and perhaps one or two other poems in school anthologies, the nineteenth century celebrated him as one of its great men. He not only deserved that acclaim, but he was actually a more important writer than his century recognized. Half of this volume consists of a Bryant showcase. Three dozen poems chosen from the hundreds he produced reveal him as a revolutionary of prosody seeking refuge from Calvinism in a pantheistic God. Extracts from his criticism are a homily promoting the prospects for American literary nationalism. Also included here is a pair of his tales which, although almost totally unknown, are among the best work in the genre written before the Civil War. The other half of this new volume presents a concise biography and, of special interest, three groundbreaking new critical studies. Gado argues that Bryant is the Founding Father of American poetry. As a poet of nature, Bryant played a literary role comparable to the influence on art exercised by his good friend Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School. But perhaps even more important was the example Bryant set for Walt Whitman in a relationship explored here for the first time. A much briefer piece discovers the consistent philosophical belief addressed by a lifetime of poems. The third essay is unique in its consideration of Bryants short fiction, which has never before received attention. William Cullen Bryant: An American Voice is a landmark publication.
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William Cullen Bryant was born on 3 November 1794, in Cummington, Massachussets His well-established New England family was staunchly Federalist in politics and Calvinist in religion. His father was a physician of wide learning.
William Cullen Bryant, after just one year at Williams College hoped to transfer to Yale, but a talk with his father led to the realization that family finances would not support it. He began to study law in Worthington and Bridgewater in Massachusetts. Bryant was admitted to the bar in 1815.
In 1811 Bryant wrote the first draft of his best-known poem, "Thanatopsis" (literally, view of death), reflecting the influence of English "graveyard" poets such as Thomas Gray.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of "Thanotopsis" is its anti-Christian, stoical view of death. There is no heaven or hell beyond the grave; death ends life, and that is all.
Published in 1817, the poem was a marked success. It was reprinted in 1821 in the final, revised version familiar today.
A few years later Bryant modified his attitude to death in "To a Waterfowl, " in which a "Power" (God) is omnipresent and beneficent. The later English poet Matthew Arnold considered this to be the finest short poem in the English language.
As the 1876 poem "The Flood of Years" makes clear, Bryant held this view of death to the end of his life. Shortly after Bryant wrote the first draft of "Thanotopsis, " he came under the influence of the romantic British poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
In the opening lines of "Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood", Bryant conveyed a love of nature that he retained throughout his career.
However, like Wordsworth and other romantics, Bryant saw the world of nature less as an escape from the evils of life in the city than as a positive, vital force in itself. He explored this idea in other poems of this period, such as "The Yellow Violet, " "I Cannot Forget with What Fervid Devotion, " "Green River, " and "A Winter Piece, " and later in "A Forest Hymn, " "The Death of Flowers, " and "The Prairies".
From 1816 to 1825 he practiced law in Great Barrington, Massachussets He also kept up his literary activities, writing poetry and essays. In 1821 he published his first volume, Poems, and read his Phi Beta Kappa poem "The Ages" at Harvard.
In 1826 Bryant became assistant editor of the liberal New York Evening Post and in 1829 editor in chief. He served in this capacity for 50 years.
Bryant formulated his poetic theories in a series of four lectures on poetry, which he delivered in 1826 before the New York Athenaeum Society (they were published in 1884).
Models from the past which the poet chooses to follow should be used only as guides to his own originality. While acknowledging that America's historical and cultural past was not as rich for the creation of poetry as England's, Bryant nevertheless felt that when America did produce a great poet he would draw on the best the young country had to offer.
As an editor espousing liberal causes, Bryant had considerable impact on the life of New York and of the nation. Typical of his editorials was "The Right of Workmen to Strike" (1836), in which he upheld the workers' right to collective bargaining and ridiculed the prosecution of labor unions.
Similarly, Bryant was firmly committed to many other liberal causes of the day, including the antislavery movement, the "free-soil" concept, and free trade among nations.
Bryant published nine volumes of poetry from 1832 on. He also translated the Iliad (1870) and the Odyssey (1871 - 1872). He died in New York City on June 12, 1878.
Though he was not a great poet, his poems were much admired in his own time, and a number of them are eminently readable today. As the guiding force of the Evening Post, he left his mark not only on the city his liberal paper served but on the nation as well.
(" This book has been prepared with the aim of gathering i...)
(This supreme collection of William Cullen Bryant's poetry...)
(The ancestry of William Cullen Bryant might have been inf...)
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(William Cullen Bryant wrote short stories? Indeed he did,...)
(Simply stated, this book will introduce the surprising li...)
(This book, "The Talisman for", by Bryant William Cullen, ...)
(Poems)
Encouraged to write poetry by father, Bryant reflected in his earliest poems his family's political and religious attitudes.
Bryant's Federalist satire on Thomas Jefferson, The Embargo, or Sketches of the Times (1808), by a "Youth of Thirteen" was published through his father's influence.
In later years the liberal, democratic, Unitarian Bryant understandably wished to forget this youthful indiscretion, and he did not reprint it in any of his collections.
Bryant also helped in the formation of the new Republican party in 1855.
Quotations: "Thine individual being, shalt thou go/ To mix forever with the elements, / To be a brother to the insensible rock/ And to the sluggish clod. .. .", "Thou wilt find nothing here [in nature]/ Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men, / And made thee loathe thy life", "The most beautiful poetry is that which takes the strongest hold of the feelings. .. . Important, therefore, as may be the office of the imagination [and of understanding, as well] in poetry, the great spring of poetry is emotion", "Can any thing be imagined more abhorrent to every sentiment of generosity or justice, than the law which arms the rich with the legal right to fix . .. the wages of the poor? If this is not slavery, we have forgotten its definition".
Century Association, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard University Phi Beta Kappa Society
On 11 January 1821 Bryant married Frances Fairchild.