Emotions In The Poem Thanatopsis By William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant uses the romantic element of emotion to instill a sense of calm in his poem Thanatopsis.
Although death reigns supreme in the universal fears of man, Thanatopsis reassures the reader that death comes naturally to everyone. William Cullen Bryant uses emotion to reinforce this point. For example, it seems as if fear should be instilled by Bryant’s description, stating “When thoughts / Of the last bitter hour come like a blight / Over thy spirit” (8-10), this fear vanishes quickly when Bryant continues “Go forth under the open sky, and list / To Nature’s teaching” (14-15). Although this paralyzing thought of death washes over many, Bryant argues Nature soothes and calms this fear. Despite these emotions of terror and pain,

Nature shows the truth: death happens to all. Nothing has ever lived that will not die. And when this truth becomes known, the reader can:
Live, [so] that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust. (Bryant 73-79)
Bryant makes the readers fear disappear and replaces it with trust and calm.