William Cullen Bryant

1481 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: William cullen bryant beliefs

William Cullen Bryant was an American poet, born on November 3, 1794, in the rural town of Cummington, Massachusetts, to encouraging and supportive parents. He was widely recognized as child-prodigy, for the publication of his first poem in the Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Massachusetts at the age of twelve(Byam and Levine, 491). It was no more than a year later that he wrote the long anti-Jefferson poem, The Embargo, that was printed as a pamphlet by his father. In the year 1810, Bryant was admitted into Williams College but stopped attending after his father could no longer afford the expenses. Despite this, Bryant continued to write poetry as he prepared for a legal career by working in a law office and was admitted into the bar in 1815. Unlike poets such as Poe, Emerson, and Whitman who poetic manifestos in celebration of their individual approaches to poetry, Bryant quietly published his works without making claims of its importance (Byam and Levine, 491).
William C. Bryant unable to support himself as a poet, opened a law partnership in 1816 into the the 1820s as a lawyer. In 1821, he was wedded to Frances Fairchild and fathered two daughters. Within the same year, the reading of his poem, “The Ages,” on the progress of liberty at Harvard College, stimulated him to publish his “Poems” later that year. In addition to being a lawyer, he was also the editor of the New York Review and Atheneum Magazine in New York City. In the peak of his success, Bryant traveled within the country and abroad, writing essays on his experience traveling and also published a number of volumes of poetry between 1832 and 1876. The publication of his collected of his poems in 1876 placed a crown on his career. In 1878, Bryant died after giving...

... middle of paper ...

.... “Review of Complete Poetical Works of Wm. C. Bryant.”
Godey's Lady's Book, Vol 32. No 4. Apr. 1846: 182-186. http://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/glb46041.htm. Web. 9 Dec 2013.
--- “Critical Notices.”
Southern Literary Messenger. Vol 3. No 1. Jan 1837: 41-49. http://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/slm37bw1.htm. Web. 9 Dec 2013.

Ringe, Donald A. “Bryant, William Cullen 1794-1878.”
American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies Supplement 1. Ed. Leonard Unger.
Vol 1 (1979): 150-173. Gale Virtual Reference Library. 3 Dec 2013.
Sturges, Henery C. “The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant”
Roslyn Edition. New York and London. D. Appleton and Company. (1920): 1-240. Google Scholar. Web. 5 Dec 2013.
Unknown. “The Genesis of Thanatopsis.”
William Cullen Bryant, II. The New England Quarterly. Vol 21. No 2. (Jun., 1948): 163-184. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Why the United States Entered World War Two

    1648 Words  | 4 Pages

    11 Arnold A. Offner, p. 134. 12 Hamilton Fish, p. 133-139.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried in The Great Train Robbery and The Things They Carried

    1746 Words  | 4 Pages

    N. p. Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. Print. The. Bryant, Jeffrey Michael.

    Read More

  • Q&A: Studs Lonigan

    1653 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Newberry Library. Inventory of the James T. Farrell-Cleo Paturis Papers, 1909-2006. Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections. Retrieved on May 13, 2009 from http://www.newberry.org/collections/FindingAids/farrellpaturis/FarrellPaturis.html#d0e163

    Read More

  • The Magician of Drollery: Ogden Nash

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ogden Nash is a great American author, best known for his “pithy and funny light verse” (“Ogden Biography” 1). New York Times refers to him as America’s “best-known producer of humorous poetry” due to his buffoonery verse style. Born in the August of 1902 in Rye, New York as a child he moved often due to his father’s exporting-importing company (1). After completing high school at St. George’s School he attended Harvard University unfortunately quitting a year later. Reflecting on better times, Nash taught at his previous high school but left less than a year later, with little success in establishing another job (2) (“Ogden Nash” 1-2). Nash tried many different careers throughout the next decade finally finding success as a poetic advisor at Doubleday publishing house. Advertising gave him the opportunity to explore various styles of writing where he eventually came up with his own unique style. During this period he moved to Baltimore, the place he ultimately considered his home, married Francis Leonard and promoted from the market department to the editorial department at Doubleday (“Ogden Nash” 1-3).

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes's I, Too and Countee Cullen's Incident

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    2496 Words  | 5 Pages

    Leavis, Q. D. “Hawthorne as Poet.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.

    Read More

  • Longfellow

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unlike writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Longfellow’s poems were “overly optimistic and sentimental” (Kinsella 256). He stood out amongst any other writer of his time. While most authors wrote dark, gothic works and stories, Longfellow’s were happy, positive and encouraging due to his wonderful childhood. He was inspired by his hometown, Portland, the sea, poets like Sir Walter Scott and Samuel Rogers, literature and music were all inspirations to him (Arvin 8/9). These parts of his childhood along with the new, exciting ideas of Romanticism are what shaped Longfellow’s style of writing. This is what drew in his audience because his poems were relatable and were written from the heart. Even though Longfellow went through some hard times with the loss of two wives and suffering from vertigo and peritonitis, he never allowed these complications affect his writing or his calmness (Kunitz 5). His control over his mind and body helped create some of the most beloved p...

    Read More

  • Theme of Good vs. Evil in “Sweat”

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    Masson, Davis. Essays Biographical and Critical: Chiefly on English Poets. La Vergne, Tennessee: Lightning Source, Inc., 2007.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in the Short Story "Everyday Use"

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall 2004.

    Read More

  • Examining Conflict in I Stand Here Ironing

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003. 600-605.

    Read More

  • Nature and Faith in To a Waterfowl by Cullen Bryant

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Chopin’s The Story of an Hour

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Works Cited “American Literature 1865-1914.” Baym 1271. Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.

    Read More

  • Life and Death in Poetry

    2084 Words  | 5 Pages

    Frost, Robert. New Enlarged Anthology of Robert Frost's Poems. New York: Washington Square Press, 1971.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of the Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun and Harlem

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    of the book. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28. Mullen, Edward J. & Co.

    Read More

  • Criticism In Whitman's Leaves Of Grass By Walt Whitman

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    This list of qualities that define the greatest poet maintain that the poet does not know “pettiness or triviality” which creates an image in which the actions and work of the writer is defined through it’s importance in the subjects that are presented within their works. Whitman’s act of categorization creates a definition of the poet that portrays him as being wholly good and possessing the most important qualities that can be found in an individual. This is broadened to describe the American poet specifically in that they are known for their “generosity, affection, and for encouraging competitors” which reinforces the argument that they represent the icon of moral uprightness in

    Read More

More about William Cullen Bryant

Open Document