William Cullen Bryant

Life

•         Father:  Dr. Peter Bryant
•         Mother:  Sarah Snell Bryant
•         Wife:  Miss Frances Fairchild
•         Daughters:  Fanny Bryant Godwin and Julia Sands Bryant

•         Poet
•         Editor
•         Lawyer
•         Husband
•         Father

• 1794:  born in Cummington, Massachusetts, on November 3
• 1807:  Poem published in the Hampshire Gazette
• 1808:  The Embargo, or Sketches of the Times; A Satire published as a pamphlet
• 1810:  Attends Williams College for one year
• 1815:  Admitted to the bar after three years of preparation.   Composes "To a Waterfowl" and and early draft of "Thanatopsis."
• 1816-1825:  Practices law in Great Barrington, Massachusetts
• 1817:  First important recognition:  "Thanatopsis" published in the North American Review
• 1821:  Marries Miss Frances Fairchild
• 1826:  Delivers Lectures on Poetry to the Athenaeum Society
• 1827:  Joins the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post
• 1829:  Becomes part owner and editor in chief of the Evening Post
• 1832:  Publishes Poems. Travels through Illinois inspires "The Prairies."
• 1834:  Embarks for Europe for the first time.
• 1836:  Evening Post crusades for the right of abolitionism to be heard.
• 1842:  Publishe The Fountain and Other Poems
• 1845:  Travels through Europe
• 1846:  The White-Footed Deer and Other Poems published.
• 1850:  Letters of a Traveler published.
• 1855:  Evening Post supports Fremont and the Republican party.
• 1861:  Evening Post supports Lincoln and the Union Cause.
• 1864:  Thirty Poems published.
• 1866:  Mrs. Bryant dies.
• 1866-1867:  Final voyage to Europe.
• 1870-1872:  Publishes translations of the Iliad and Odyssey
• 1878:  Dies on June 12

Issues and Themes

Bryant's life was spent for many years with the people he loved.  Bryant strived for success, and he achieved that, but he also yearned to be close to his family.  Somehow Bryant was able to live his life surrounded by great achievement and the love of a wife and two daughters, not to mention his brothers and parents.  The death of Bryant's father was very hard for him because he and his father were very close (Johnson 36).   Bryant and his father both shared a great love for poetry, and his father expressed great interest in his son's talents (Johnson 59).

Work

One of Bryant's more well-known poems is "To a Waterfowl."  The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef.....opop.  Albert McLean, author of William Cullen Bryant, notes that throughout this poem Bryant's faith is very apparent and real (32).   In the last paragraph of the poem Bryant seems to be comparing our life with God to that of a Waterfowl.  He says: "He who from zone to zone, / Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, / In the long way that I must tread alone, / Will lead my steps aright."  He is saying that throughout our life wherever we go God is going to be with us guiding us down the right path.  And in times when we think we must go alone, he too will be with us then. He never leaves us long enough for us to fall, just long enough for us to learn from what we do.     

Curtiss S. Johnson, author of Politics and a Belly-full, notes that the reason that Bryant chooses a waterfowl of all animals to write about is because of a special encounter he had on the way to a new job one day.  It seems that Bryant was walking along and noticed that the waterfowl was flying around overhead and that he too seemed to be on a journey alone; then Bryant began to think that he himself was not alone. He realized that the waterfowl seemed alone also, but he too was being guided by some higher being and they both would find their way.(24)
 

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Bibliography

• http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/palmer/lis901/buk/bryant.htm

• Johnson, Curtiss S., Politics and a Belly-full.   Westport, Connecticut:  Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1974.

• McLean, Albert, Jr.  William Cullen Bryant.  New Haven, Connecticut:  College and University Press, 1964.