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Recommended: The role of nature in modern literature
Dan Blouin
Mrs. Bernard
Period 2
March 12, 2014
The Guide For Humanity
Nature can be described as being odd, it can even be described as being distracting. Nature can be used to help with things in life such as medicine, but William Cullen Bryant uses nature in a different way that people usually do not see it. He uses nature to guide humanity through some of his darkest hours. In William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” and “To A Waterfowl”, Bryant promotes extended metaphors in order to show nature as being a guide for humanity.
In “Thanatopsis” Bryant gives nature a healing sympathy towards humanity when he needs it most. When humanity is having bad thoughts about death nature tries to help him feel better about it. Bryant wrote "She glides/ Into his darker musings, with a mild/ And healing sympathy" ("Thanatopsis" 5-7). The dark thoughts that he has nature tries to get into his mind to make him forget about those thoughts and just live his life. Nature also wants humanity to feel happy and to not worry about things such as death. Nature tells him that death is apart of life and to not worry. Bryant wrote "Approach thy grave/ Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch/ About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams" ("Thanatopsis" 79-81). When it comes for humanity to approach its grave he will lie down with nothing but pleasant dreams of its life that just passed and nature will take care of him while he is in his resting place. Nature cares for humanity and she does not want him to have dark thoughts and worry about death because it is natural for living things to die.
In “To A Waterfowl” Bryant uses a bird as a symbol of hope for humanity. The bird helps humanity know that even though he has dark thoughts he will be okay in th...
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... a teacher like figure for humanity rather than a friend. Nature shows humanity that the dark thoughts he encounters should be ignored and he should just live life to the fullest.
In William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” and “To A Waterfowl”, Bryant promotes extended metaphors in order to show nature as being a guide for humanity. Nature guides humanity to show him that the dark thoughts are normal. Nature also shows him that death is a natural thing and that when it happens he will not have to worry because he will be safe.
Works Cited
Huff, Randall. ""Thanatopsis"." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Mar. 2014 .
Netishen, Jessica and Brenna Rose, ed. American Literature from Colonialism to Modernism. Burlington: Burlington Public Schools, 2013. Print.
Perkins, Geroge, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th ed. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
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,
Metaphor is an underlying element used in this memoir to depict the relationship between family and nature, and the profound understanding of oneself, through the sequence of life and death, and the rebirth that proceeds. Using metaphoric references, Williams explores the continual unpredictab...
Perkins George, Barbara. The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
Meyer, M. (2013). Bedford introduction to literature: Reading, thinking, writing. Boston: Bedford Bks St Martin’s.
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 137-147. Print.
In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, there are many themes, symbols, and motifs that are found throughout the novel. For my journal response, I have chosen to discuss nature as a prevalent symbol in the book. The main character, Montag, lives in a society where technology is overwhelmingly popular, and nature is regarded as an unpredictable variable that should be avoided. Technology is used to repress the citizens, but the oppression is disguised as entertainment, like the TV parlour. On the opposite end of the spectrum, nature is viewed as boring and dull, but it is a way to escape the brainwashing that technology brings. People who enjoy nature are deemed insane and are forced to go into therapy. Clarisse says “My psychiatrist wants to know why I go out and hike around in the forests and watch the birds and collect butterflies,” (Bradbury 23) which shows she is a threat to the control that the government has put upon the people by enjoying nature.
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York:
...s as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way’ painting a very vivid image in the readers mind, the poet find joy and comfort in nature, he explains ‘And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.’ Mary Shelly in ‘Frankenstein’ illustrates the relationship between man and nature through the character Dr Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelly explores man’s endeavours to dominate nature and has concluded through the actions of Victor that nature is irrepressible and spontaneous and man should not try to control something which is not theirs to control. Instead man should work in coherence with nature, both giving equal respect. Overall, McCarthy, Wordsworth and Shelly all display the importance and prominence of nature to mankind, which we should work alongside nature to improve our quality of life and minimize the negative impact on nature.
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.
Through the ingenious works of poetry the role of nature has imprinted the 18th and 19th century with a mark of significance. The common terminology ‘nature’ has been reflected by our greatest poets in different meanings and understanding; Alexander Pope believed in reason and moderation, whereas Blake and Wordsworth embraced passion and imagination.
Bryant went through many hard times throughout his life; from losing family members to being socially isolated. He lost many family members and close friends. The one death that hurt him the most was his father’s. Bryant’s father was a very important part of his life; his father taught him many things throughout his lifetime. His father submitted five of his poems into the North American Review, one of those were the first version of “Thanatopsis”. It is said that Bryant mourned his father’s death and that his death is what gave him the emotional passion to write with.
“A Bird came down the Walk,” was written in c. 1862 by Emily Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. This easy to understand and timeless poem provides readers with an understanding of the author’s appreciation for nature. Although the poem continues to be read over one hundred years after it was written, there is little sense of the time period within which it was composed. The title and first line, “A Bird came down the Walk,” describes a common familiar observation, but even more so, it demonstrates how its author’s creative ability and artistic use of words are able to transform this everyday event into a picture that results in an awareness of how the beauty in nature can be found in simple observations. In a step like narrative, the poet illustrates the direct relationship between nature and humans. The verse consists of five stanzas that can be broken up into two sections. In the first section, the bird is eating a worm, takes notice of a human in close proximity and essentially becomes frightened. These three stanzas can easily be swapped around because they, for all intents and purposes, describe three events that are able to occur in any order. Dickinson uses these first three stanzas to establish the tone; the tone is established from the poet’s literal description and her interpretive expression of the bird’s actions. The second section describes the narrator feeding the bird some crumbs, the bird’s response and its departure, which Dickinson uses to elaborately illustrate the bird’s immediate escape. The last two stanzas demonstrate the effect of human interaction on nature and more specifically, this little bird, so these stanzas must remain in the specific order they are presented. Whereas most ...
In William Wordsworth’s poems, the role of nature plays a more reassuring and pivotal r ole within them. To Wordsworth’s poetry, interacting with nature represents the forces of the natural world. Throughout the three poems, Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey, and Michael, which will be discussed in this essay, nature is seen prominently as an everlasting- individual figure, which gives his audience as well as Wordsworth, himself, a sense of console. In all three poems, Wordsworth views nature and human beings as complementary elements of a sum of a whole, recognizing that humans are a sum of nature. Therefore, looking at the world as a soothing being of which he is a part of, Wordsworth looks at nature and sees the benevolence of the divinity aspects behind them. For Wordsworth, the world itself, in all its glory, can be a place of suffering, which surely occurs within the world; Wordsworth is still comforted with the belief that all things happen by the hands of the divinity and the just and divine order of nature, itself.