What Is The Mood Of The Poem Thanatopsis

William Cullen Bryant wrote thanatopsis in 1811, the events within this time period severely impacted the writing of this poem because at the time there was a lot of very violent deaths going on throughout america. Around the time that thanatopsis was written there was an uprising of slaves who broke free from their owners and ran to freedom., about 400 ran but 66 were captured, killed and their heads mounted on stakes along the streets of the town to warn other slaves of their place. The slaughter of the native americans being one of them was a strong factor within the poem itself. william reveals how the land was in a melancholy state because the the tribes that had once resigned there and now gone and the only thing that remains is the graves …show more content…
At the beginning of the poem he starts out as wandering in the woods overwhelmed by the beauty of nature and how calming it can be. But it doesn't take long for his mind to wander about the dead, “I think of those upon whose rest he tramples. Are they here- the dead of other days?”. even though he seems to have accepted death such as explained is “Thanatopsis” he seems to be haunted by it, as though it's constantly on his mind, constantly wondering who once was alive and the culture that had disappeared with them.”From instruments of unremembered form, gave the soft winds a voice. The red man came- the roaming hunter tribes, warlike and fierce, and the mound builders vanished from the earth.” when thinking about the native americans william seems to be mournful because of the culture and lives that were needlessly lost he understands what was truly lost, they are gone and that they will never return. This is a more detailed account of how desolate the land has become when the native tribes have gone “The gopher mines the ground where stood their swarming cities. All is gone; all- save the piles of earth that holds their bones, the platforms where they worshiped unknown