William Cullen Bryant. The Life and Works of. Parke Godwin, editor. 6 vols. Vols. I and II, Biography, 1883; Vols. III and IV, Poetical Works, 1883; Vols. V and VI, Prose Writings, 1884–1889. Best single-volume edition is The Household, 1909, and The Roslyn, 1910. His poems appeared originally as follows: The Embargo, 1808; Poems, 1821, 1832, 1834, 1836, 1839, 1840; The Fountain and Other Poems, 1842; The White-Footed Deer and Other Poems, 1844; Poems, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857. A Forest Hymn [1860]; In the Woods, 1863; Thirty Poems, 1864; Hymns [1864]; Voices of Nature, 1865; The Song of the Sower, 1871; The Story of the Fountain, 1872; The Little People of the Snow, 1873; Among the Trees [1874]; The Flood of Years, 1878; Unpublished Poems of Bryant and Thoreau, 1907.

Bibliography

Sturges, H. C. Prefixed to the Roslyn edition of Bryant and also published separately. Also Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 517–521.

Biography and Criticism

The standard life is by Parke Godwin. Vols. I and II of the Life and Works in 6 vols.

Bigelow, J. William Cullen Bryant. 1890.

Bradley, W. A. William Cullen Bryant (E. M. L. Series). 1905.

Collins, Churton. Poets and Poetry of America.

Curtis, G. W. The Life, Character, and Writings of William Cullen Bryant. 1879.

Leonard, W. E. Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. I, Bk. II, in chap. v.

Palmer, G. H. Atlas Essays.

Poe, E. A. William Cullen Bryant. Complete Works. Vol. VIII. 1902.

Stedman, E. C. Genius and Other Essays. 1911.

Stedman, E. C. Poets of America. 1885.

Taylor, B. Critical Essays and Literary Notes. 1880.

Van Doren, Carl. Growth of Thanatopsis. Nation, Vol. CI, p. 432.

Wilkinson, W. C. A Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters. 1874.

Wilson, J. G. Bryant and his Friends. 1886.

Woodberry, G. E. America in Literature. 1903.

TOPICS AND PROBLEMS

Read the early poems of Bryant with reference to the prevalence of death in them and particularly to the unexpected appearance of this idea.

Read them again with reference to the sentimentalism in them.

Read “A Forest Hymn” and the “Hymn to Death” for a comparison of the blank verse with that in “Thanatopsis.”

Read “The Battle Field” and Wordsworth’s sonnet “Written above Westminster Abbey” for the different but sympathetic developments of the same idea.

Compare Bryant’s “Robert of Lincoln” and “The Planting of the Apple Tree” with Freneau’s “The Wild Honeysuckle” and “To a Caty-did.”

Read Bryant’s “Song of the Sower,” Lanier’s “Corn,” and Timrod’s “The Cotton Boll” for evident points of likeness and difference.

Note in detail the relation between Bryant’s journalistic career and the turn of his mind in the poetry of the journalistic period.

Bryant wrote no journalistic poetry in the sense in which Freneau did, or Whittier, or Lowell. For an explanation see his verses on “The Poet.”