William Cullen Bryant Thanatopsis and Other Poems

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Bryant began to make verses in his eighth year, one of his earliest efforts being a paraphrase of the first chapter of the Book of Job, and another, a poetical address before his school. In his thirteenth year he surprised his family and the public with a political satire of over five hundred lines, which was published at Boston under the title, The Embargo, or Sketches of the Times; a Satire, by a Youth of Thirteen. It appeared in a second edition the following year, together with several other poems of a political character. More than forty pieces of verse were written before he was sixteen years old - odes, elegies, satires, songs, and translations: but they are little more than mocking-bird rhymes, in manner echoing Pope, whose influence was still dominant, and in matter rehearsing the political sentiments of the times; more over, they contain not the slightest hint-of the characteristics of his later poetry.