William Cullen Bryant

He tied the nuptial knot with Frances Fairchild in 1821.

He breathed his last in 1878. He died of complications resulting from an accidental fall suffered after participating in a Central Park ceremony honoring Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini. He was buried at the Roslyn Cemetery, in Roslyn Long Island, New York.

Posthumously, several parks, squares, schools and colleges were named in his honor.

William Cullen Bryant was the second son born to Peter Bryant and Sarah Snell in Cummington, Massachusetts. His father was a doctor and a state legislator by profession.

Since an early age, he developed a keen interest in poetry, which propelled under his father’s tutelage. His first published poem was ‘The Embargo’ in 1808 which detailed a savage attack on President Thomas Jefferson.

The publication received positive response from both the critics and the public and became an instant sold out. People marvelled at the young age in which Bryant took to writing.

He studied at the Williams College and later took to studying law in Worthington and Bridgewater. It was in 1815 that he was admitted to the bar. It was after completing his studies that he took to regenerating his passion for poetry.

He took a job as an attorney in the Plainfield, which was seven miles away from Cummington. He would walk to his office and back. It was during one of his walks that he noticed a single bird flying over the horizon. The sight touched his heart and inspired him so much so that he penned the poem, ‘To a Waterfowl’

The exact year as to when did he began to pen his most famous work, ‘Thanatopsis’ is highly speculated. Most people believe that it was around 1813 that he began composing the poem.

During the time of ‘Thanatopsis’ composition, his father submitted some pages of verse along with his own work, to the North American Review in 1817. The poem was so well received by the editors that it was published as a complete verse under the Greek title, ‘Thanatopsis’ or ‘Meditation on Death’. What’s more, mistakenly the poem was attributed to his father.

The success of ‘Thanatopsis’ led him to publish several of his works, including the poem ‘To a Waterfowl’ in 1821.

He did not give up on his legal career completely, as the income generated from literary works was not enough to sustain a living. As such, he continued to practice law until 1825 at the Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He also complemented his income by working at the town’s hog reeve.

This renowned American romantic poet of the 19th century of the ‘Thanatopsis’ fame worked as the editor of New York Evening Post for five decades.