Poetry Slam!: "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant wrote this poem when he was only seventeen years old. The word thanatopsis means "view of death" in Greek. Read the complete text here.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. communion
    sharing thoughts and feelings
    Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
  2. eloquence
    powerful and effective language
    And eloquence of beauty; and she glides
  3. blight
    a state or condition being devastated or run-down
    Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
  4. stern
    not able to yield, relent, or forgive
    Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
  5. shroud
    burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped
    Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
  6. nourish
    provide with sustenance
    Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
  7. insensible
    incapable of physical feeling
    To be a brother to the insensible rock
  8. rude
    socially incorrect in behavior
    And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
  9. swain
    a young male suitor
    And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
  10. abroad
    far away from home or one's usual surroundings
    Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.
  11. patriarch
    the male head of family or tribe
    With patriarchs of the infant world -- with kings,
  12. vale
    a valley
    Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, -- the vales
  13. pensive
    deeply or seriously thoughtful
    Stretching in pensive quietness between;
  14. venerable
    impressive by reason of age
    The venerable woods -- rivers that move
  15. majesty
    impressiveness in scale or proportion
    In majesty, and the complaining brooks
  16. abode
    any address at which you dwell more than temporarily
    Are shining on the sad abodes of death
  17. lapse
    pass by
    Through the still lapse of ages.
  18. slumber
    an inactive or dormant state
    That slumber in its bosom.
  19. reign
    rule or have supreme power
    In their last sleep -- the dead reign there alone.
  20. chase
    the act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture
    Plod on, and each one as before will chase
  21. phantom
    apparently sensed but having no physical reality
    His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave
  22. mirth
    great merriment
    Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
  23. matron
    a married woman who is staid and dignified
    In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
  24. innumerable
    too many to be counted
    The innumerable caravan, which moves
  25. caravan
    a procession traveling together in single file
    The innumerable caravan, which moves
  26. mysterious
    beyond ordinary understanding
    To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
  27. quarry
    a person who is the aim of an attack by a hostile influence
    Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
  28. scourge
    punish severely; excoriate
    Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
  29. soothe
    cause to feel better
    Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
  30. unfaltering
    marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
    By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Created on Thu Feb 07 15:19:11 EST 2013 (updated Fri Oct 20 14:48:07 EDT 2017)

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