Who Is Bryant's Poem Thanatopsis

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Bryant makes it known to all American literature writers that there is only one way to be original and that reason is to pay more attention to the nature that is surrounding him (Branch). Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis” discusses a topic that people of the nineteenth century era did not exactly favor or speak of, death. Bryant repeatedly uses American nature as a cultural source for his poetry because he believed it would help prevent replication. In lines 1-2 of “Thanatopsis”, “To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language” (Levine). Bryant uses the word communion, an act of receiving a religious Eucharist, to reveal a “holy” relationship this man has with nature. Branch mentions in his