Romanticism in Thanatopsis

Elements of Romanticism can be seen throughout Bryant's Thanatopsis. One of the elements of Romanticism is imagination. One of the main ways imagination is illustrated is simply in the concept of Mother Nature, and that she speaks to people. Another would be, when referring to Earth, it mentions "the tribes that slumber in its bosom", talking about all the people who have ever died and saying that they now sleep bellow us.

Nature is another important element of Romanticism. Mother Nature is referred to first when it mentions “nature” and “her visible form”. Mother Nature actually speaks the majority of the poem. Other times where nature is referred to are when it talks about going “forth, under the open sky”, as well as “Earth and her waters”.

Common people are also an important element of Romanticism. Common people are pretty much the target crowd of the whole poem. This is evident in the part where it says “thou shalt lie down with patriarchs of the infant world—with kings, the powerful of the Earth”, basically telling the common man that when he dies, it is the same as when someone of a higher class dies.