William Cullen

I am an american
poet, journalist, and
editor.
I was born on
November 3, 1794 in
Massachusetts.
My most famous
poem was
Thanatopsis
I belong to the
Romantic Movement

I grew up in a Puritan home with

my father, Peter Bryant, who was
a prominent doctor.
My early education came from my
father.
All the years of my childhood, I
spent a great deal of time in the
woods surrounding my family's
New England home, reading all the
books of the extensive personal
library that my father had.

My first published poem was "The

Embargo; or, Sketches of the
Times", a satirical work
concerning Thomas Jefferson's
Embargo Act of 1807.
It was released in a Boston
newspaper in 1808.
In 1810 I was forced to leave
Williams College for lack of
money.
I started studying law at

Thanaptosis
"Thanatopsis" starts by talking about
nature's ability to make us feel better. The
speaker tells us that nature can make pain
less painful. It can even lighten our dark
thoughts about death. He tells us that, when
we start to worry about death, we should go
outside and listen to the voice of nature. That
voice reminds us that we will indeed vanish
when we die and mix back into the earth.
The voice of nature also tells us that when
we die, we wont be alone. This idea is meant
to be comforting, and the poem ends by
telling us to think of death like a happy,
dream-filled sleep.

holds
Communion with her
visible forms, she speaks
A
various language; for his gayer
hours
She has a voice of
gladness, and a smile
And
eloquence of beauty, and she
glides
Into his darker
musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals
away
Their sharpness, ere he
is aware.