Thanatopsis Vocabulary

William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" Vocabulary and Poem

Vocabulary Needed for Analysis of the Poem

elegy - n. a sad poem about loss; especially a funeral poem

Vocabulary from the Poem

thanatopsis - n. a view of death - a word Cullen made from the Greek words thanatos which means death and opsis which means seeing

communion - n. sharing; experiencing together

eloquence - n. a power; the ability to emotionally move someone

musings -n. thoughts

blight - n. a disease or other cause of destruction

shroud - n. a cloth wrapped around a dead body

pall - n. a cloth covering a coffin

narrow house - adj. + n. grave

swain - n. a young man who lives in the country; here, a farmer

hoary seers - adj. + n. old wise people

sepulchre - n. British spelling of sepulcher - a grave, burial place

vales - n. valleys

venerable - n. old; historic; important

tomb - n. a burial place

abodes - n. places; homes

Barcan - n. an area in east Libya, Africa that is mostly desert

dashings - n. movements

mirth - n. laughter

matron - n. a married woman

scourged - adj. punished

unfaltering - adj. steady

Directions for Pencil and Paper Quiz: Students take out a blank piece of paper. The teacher says each word and students must write each word, spelled correctly. Then teacher says each definition and students write it next to the appropriate vocabulary word. If unsure, students can write the spoken definitions at the bottom of their papers and after hearing all definitions, draw lines to the appropriate word.

Grading: Students take out a pen that is a different color than the one used for taking the quiz and self-grade as teacher reads answers. Those who do not have a pen with a different color ink must exchange papers with another student who will write "Graded by" and then his/her name.

Extra Credit: Use as many of these words as you can in a discussion or paragraph to explain what the Romantics added to humans' understanding of their role in the universe.

Sources:"Cyrenaica." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 19 Nov. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Cyrenaica>.

"thanatopsis." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 19 Nov. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thanatopsis> and

Thanatopsis

William Cullen Bryant

(1794-1878)

O him who in the love of Nature 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. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart;--
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around--
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air--
Comes a still voice--Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourish'd thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix for ever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock,
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.

Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world--with kings,
The powerful of the earth--the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribb'd and ancient as the sun,--the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods; rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, pour'd round all,
Old Ocean's grey and melancholy waste,--
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.--Take the wings
Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound
Save his own dashings--yet the dead are there:
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep--the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest: and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favourite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glides away, the sons of men,
The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man--
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side
By those who in their turn shall follow them.

So live, 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 by his dungeon; but, sustain'd and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

Source: http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/thanatopsis.html