Entry 27: More Thanatopsis

In "Thanatopsis," Bryant expresses his views on both the process of life and the nature of individual lives. In the space below, write a paragraph describing Bryant's views on individual lives. Support your ideas with details from the poem. What connections can you find between Anne Bradstreet or Sor Juana's poems and "Thanatopsis" in regards to what is permanent, what is transient, and how human life fits into the overall scheme of the universe? What are your own view points on nature, mortality, and the universe?

• In his poem "Thanatopsis," Bryant describe the process of life saying that all people should not be said even if they know that they will die eventually, and that they will rejoined with the Earth and with the elements.  Bryant then goes on to further emphasize that no one is alone concerning the topic of death. There have been other people, the people in the past, as well as present, who have died and rejoined with the Earth and with the elements. I believe that one of the connections with Anne Bradstreet's poem is that both of them have the theme that material wealth is not that important, and they people will eventually lose it. In Bryant's poem, he implies that since human beings die and rejoin with the Earth, so does the material wealth that people own. In Bradstreet's poem, she states that material wealth is not important, that the only important thing is going to heave, the eternal house. Sor Juana's poem is similar with Bryant's poem in that both poems also talk about knowledge. The former says that knowledge is more important than material wealth, while the latter says that knowing this knowledge will make people feel better.