Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878) [Last lines of Bryant's poem Thanatopsis]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06631.02 Author/Creator: Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph quotation signed Date: 21 January 1878 Pagination: 1 p. ; 16.4 x 12.8 cm. Order a Copy
"So live, that when thy summons comes to join/ The innumerable caravan which moves/ To that mysterious realm where each shall take/ His chamber in the silent halls of Death,/ Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,/ Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed/ By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave/ Like one who wraps the draping of his couch/ About him and lied down to pleasant dreams." Copied 12 January 1878; originally written between the years of 1811 and 1821.
Bryant worked as a lawyer in Northampton, Plainfield, and Great Barrington, Massachusetts until 1825 when he married and moved to New York City. He worked for the New York Review and then the New York Evening Post. First an associate editor, he later became editor in 1829 and remained in that post until his death. As the driving force of this liberal and literate paper, he was strongly anti-slavery.
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