Romanticism Assignment 3: Thanatopsis

As its name implies, the poem is a meditation on death. Instead of handling the subject with a common cold and morbid tone, the writer views it with a sense of unity and return to nature that supported us in our lives, saying that "All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom." Nature is the final resting place of all living things, the poem expresses that it is a thing we can learn from and be influenced by, as if another consciousness, a collection of subtle sleeping intelligences. In this way it focuses not only on death but also life.

This shows Romanticism in its view of death, drawing wholly from the authors thoughts on the subject and not sterile scientific principals. Also the focus on nature, again not scientifically but for its inspiration and insight, almost as a being, displays Romanticism.