Poems (1821) is the first collection of William Cullen Bryant, published in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A slim book of eight poems, it contained the revised Thanatopsis and To a Waterfowl, and established Bryant as the leading American poet of his time.
The book
The little volume, published after Bryant read his poem The Ages at Harvard in 1821, contained eight poems, among them The Ages, To a Waterfowl, The Yellow Violet and Thanatopsis.
Bryant later enlarged it in many editions, also called Poems, in 1832, 1836 and after.
Thanatopsis
In the 1821 version Bryant added an opening and a conclusion to the poem first published in 1817. Nature consoles man with the thought that the dead join the great company of all who have lived.
Written in blank verse, the poem is considered one of the first major poems written in the United States.
To a Waterfowl
Bryant wrote To a Waterfowl in 1815, walking to Plainfield to look for work as a lawyer, after watching a bird flying alone at sunset.
The English poet and critic Matthew Arnold is said to have called it the most perfect brief poem in the language.
Anecdotes
An English edition
In 1832 Washington Irving arranged for an edition of Bryant's poems in London, which made him known in Britain.
A long life for a teenage poem
Bryant wrote the first version of Thanatopsis at about seventeen and revised it more than once; it remained his most famous poem throughout his long career.
Frequently asked questions
What does Poems (1821) contain?
Eight poems, including Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl and The Ages.
What does Thanatopsis mean?
'View of death', from Greek.
What did Matthew Arnold think of To a Waterfowl?
He called it the most perfect brief poem in the language.