Which author wrote the poem Thanatopsis?

Which author wrote the poem Thanatopsis?

• A. John Keats
• B. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• C. William Cullen Bryant
• D. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer: (C)

Thanatopsis invites readers to view death as a natural part of life, finding comfort in the idea that we return to the earth and are part of nature’s larger cycle. This reflective, nature-centered meditation is a hallmark of early American Romantic poetry, and it was written by William Cullen Bryant. Bryant, an American poet from the early 19th century, published Thanatopsis in 1817; the title itself means “a view of death” in Greek. The poem’s calm, dignified imagery—mountains, rivers, the vast sky—helps place individual death within a larger natural order, offering solace rather than fear. Other poets listed are known for different works: John Keats is famous for his English odes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for narrative poems and later American verse, and Ralph Waldo Emerson for essays and transcendental poetry. They did not author Thanatopsis. William Cullen Bryant.

Thanatopsis invites readers to view death as a natural part of life, finding comfort in the idea that we return to the earth and are part of nature’s larger cycle. This reflective, nature-centered meditation is a hallmark of early American Romantic poetry, and it was written by William Cullen Bryant. Bryant, an American poet from the early 19th century, published Thanatopsis in 1817; the title itself means “a view of death” in Greek. The poem’s calm, dignified imagery—mountains, rivers, the vast sky—helps place individual death within a larger natural order, offering solace rather than fear. Other poets listed are known for different works: John Keats is famous for his English odes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for narrative poems and later American verse, and Ralph Waldo Emerson for essays and transcendental poetry. They did not author Thanatopsis. William Cullen Bryant.