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Books about Politics and Current Events in The Radical Academy Bookstore Click Here for New & Used College Textbooks at Discount Prices Click Here for College Education Information & Study Resources Shop Amazon Stores in the Radical Academy Bookstore Magazine Outlet Music Store Classical Music Store Video Store DVD Store Computer Store Camera & Photo Store Computer/Video Games Software Store Musical Instruments Outlet Store Cellular Phones Toys & Games Tools & Hardware Automotive Store Outdoor Living Consumer Electronics Home & Garden Kitchen & Housewares Baby Superstore Apparel & Accessories Gourmet Food Grocery Store Sporting Goods Jewelry & Watches Health & Personal Care Beauty Store		William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant, born in Cummington, Massachusetts on November 3, 1794, was a journalist, literary critic, and public speaker, and the first significant poet in 19th-century American literature. Bryant demonstrated great promise even as a child. He began writing poetry as a young child and published "The Embargo" -- a political satire of the Jefferson administration -- at the age of thirteen. In 1810, at sixteen years of age, he entered Williams College where he studied the classics, language, and literature for two years before leaving to study law. At this time he also wrote his most celebrated poem "Thanatopsis" (Greek for "a view of death"), which would be published for the first time in the North American Review in 1817. His writings symbolize the intense love of nature prominent in the romantic period. Bryant's two best-known poems, composed in 1815, are "To a Waterfowl" and "Thanatopsis," a blank-verse lyric in which death is portrayed as the inevitable absorption into nature. Its metrical form, graveyard theme, melancholy tone, and panoramic imagery make "Thanatopsis" an important document in the history of American romanticism. In 1815 Bryant was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and, following his admittance to the Bar, he practiced law and worked as a justice of the peace for ten years. In 1825 he switched his profession from law to literature and left his native New England for New York City. He began his career in publishing as editor of The New York Review and Atheneum Magazine. He edited the New York Evening Post for 50 years and made it one of the country's most noteworthy liberal newspapers. He supported Andrew Jackson and the Democrats, defended the right of workers to strike, spoke out against slavery, proposed a central park for the city, helped to organize the Republican party, and fought the Tweed ring. His literary criticism showed similar liberal concerns. Byrant wrote several of his best poems during his New York years: "A Forest Hymn" (1825), "The Prairies" (1833), and "The Death of Lincoln"(1865). Bryant died on June 12, 1878. THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM by William Cullen Bryant [1842]   THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM -  Here are old trees, tall oaks, and gnarled pines,   That stream with gray-green mosses; here the ground   Was never trenched by spade, and flowers spring up   Unsown, and die ungathered. It is sweet   To linger here, among the flitting birds   And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks, and winds   That shake the leaves, and scatter, as they pass,   A fragrance from the cedars, thickly set   With pale-blue berries. In these peaceful shades-   Peaceful, unpruned, immeasurably old-   My thoughts go up the long dim path of years,   Back to the earliest days of liberty. -   O Freedom! thou art not, as poets dream,   A fair young girl with light and delicate limbs,   And wavy tresses gushing from the cap   With which the Roman master crowned his slave   When he took off the gyves. A bearded man,   Armed to the teeth, art thou; one mailed hand   Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy, brow,   Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred   With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs   Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has launched   His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee;   They could not quench the life thou hast from heaven;   Merciless Power has dug thy dungeon deep,   And his swart armorers, by a thousand fires,   Have forged thy chain; yet, while he deems thee bound,   The links are shivered, and the prison-walls   Fall outward; terribly thou springest forth,   As springs the flame above a burning pile,   And shoutest to the nations, who return   Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies. -   Thy birthright was not given by human hands:   Thou wert twin-born with man. In pleasant fields,   While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him,   To tend the quiet flock and watch the stars,   And teach the reed to utter simple airs.   Thou by his side, amid the tangled wood,   Didst war upon the panther and the wolf,   His only foes; and thou with him didst draw   The earliest furrow on the mountain-side,   Soft with the deluge. Tyranny himself,   Thy enemy, although of reverend look,   Hoary with many years, and far obeyed,   Is later born than thou; and as he meets   The grave defiance of thine elder eye,   The usurper trembles in his fastnesses. -   Thou shalt wax stronger with the lapse of years,   But he shall fade into a feebler age-   Feebler, yet subtler. He shall weave his snares,   And spring them on thy careless steps, and clap   His withered hands, and from their ambush call   His hordes to fall upon thee. He shall send   Quaint maskers, wearing fair and gallant forms   To catch thy gaze, and uttering graceful words   To charm thy ear; while his sly imps, by stealth,   Twine round thee threads of steel, light thread on thread,   That grow to fetters; or bind down thy arms   With chains concealed in chaplets. Oh! not yet   Mayst thou unbrace thy corslet, nor lay by   Thy sword; nor yet, O Freedom! close thy lids   In slumber; for thine enemy never sleeps,   And thou must watch and combat till the day   Of the new earth and heaven. But wouldst thou rest   Awhile from tumult and the frauds of men,   These old and friendly solitudes invite   Thy visit. They, while yet the forest-trees   Were young upon the unviolated earth,   And yet the moss-stains on the rock were new,   Beheld thy glorious childhood, and rejoiced. -   THE END Academy Showcase Specials Politics Resource Center Main Page Documents Online Index
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