I hope you enjoyed reading the works of Anne Bradstreet! This week I am going to look through the poems of William Cullen Bryant.
(1794-1878)
Resources:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/william_cullen_bryant/biography
Biography:
William Cullen Bryant was born in Cummington Hampshire Massachusetts to Peter and Sarah Bryant. At the age of ten he began his literary endeavors by providing writings for the Newspapers. However, at the age of sixteen he enrolled at Williams College where he excelled in Language and Polite Literature. His further studies and practice in law eventually revealed his taste for literature.
The poem I read for today is titled "The Gladness of Nature". In this work, the author gives Nature a human emotion of joyfulness. I think that Bryant is trying to utilize the feelings of nature to provoke certain feelings in a person. It is sort of a new idea to me to think about nature as having a mood. This poem makes me think about the verse in the book of Ecclesiastes that states "For everything there is a season a time to laugh and a time to cry". By the nature's "mood", it is evident that now is the time for laughter and joyfulness. His question at the beginning of the poem "is it time to be cloudy and sad?" begs a further question for the reader; if the earth is happy then why can't I be? It is obvious then that the author is describing a season of warmth and new-life such as spring or summer. Also, it is thought-provoking that the author alludes to a depressed individual and refers to Nature as his mother. It is almost as if "our mother" is the source of our emotions both figuratively and literally.
The Gladness of Nature by William Cullen Bryant
Is this a time to be cloudy and sad,
When our mother Nature laughs around;
When even the deep blue heavens look glad,
And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?
There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren,
And the gossip of swallows through all the sky;
The ground-squirrel gaily chirps by his den,
And the wilding bee hums merrily by.
The clouds are at play in the azure space,
And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,
And here they stretch to the frolic chase,
And there they roll on the easy gale.
There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,
There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.
And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles
On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,
On the leaping waters and gay young isles;
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.
When our mother Nature laughs around;
When even the deep blue heavens look glad,
And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?
There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren,
And the gossip of swallows through all the sky;
The ground-squirrel gaily chirps by his den,
And the wilding bee hums merrily by.
The clouds are at play in the azure space,
And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,
And here they stretch to the frolic chase,
And there they roll on the easy gale.
There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,
There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.
And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles
On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,
On the leaping waters and gay young isles;
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.
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