Thanatopsis
William Cullen Bryant published “Thanatopsis” in 1817 when he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer.Thanatos is the Greek word for death, and the poem is a meditation on the subject. As he faced his own certain death, Billy Farrow wrote to his mother: “Read ‘Thanatopsis’… if you want to know how I am taking this.”60 The following is the most well-known excerpt:
As the long train
Of ages glides away, the sons of men
The youth in life’s fresh spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their turn, shall follow them.
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 drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Under the tutelage of my high school English teacher, I studied this poem and memorized large portions of it when I was fifteen. I should not have been surprised to learn that a young airman in World War II found comfort in its thought-provoking lines. Bryant, unfortunately, didn’t elaborate on where his “unfaltering trust” lay. However, Billy Farrow did elaborate by clearly stating that, “My faith in God is complete.”61 With a secure faith in the right place he was able to face the worst possible fate with tranquility, bearing witness to the power of his own unfaltering trust.
O Lord, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, that I may declare your praises.
—Psalm 9:13–14