William Cullen Bryant

Early life and education

Bryant was born on November 3, 1794, in a log cabin near Cummington, Massachusetts, a site now marked with a plaque. He was the second son of Peter Bryant, a physician and later a state legislator, and Sarah Snell, whose genealogy traces back to Mayflower passengers including John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. Bryant was the nephew of Charity Bryant, a Vermont seamstress whose relationship with Sylvia Drake was described by Bryant as a union no less sacred than marriage; they are buried together in Weybridge, Vermont.

He entered Williams College with sophomore standing but after one year hoped to transfer to Yale; a talk with his father revealed the family could not afford it. His father advised him to pursue law, and Bryant began studying law in Worthington and Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Admitted to the bar in 1815, he practiced in nearby Plainfield, walking seven miles from Cummington daily. During one such walk in December 1815, he saw a single bird on the horizon and wrote 'To a Waterfowl'.

Career

Bryant's most famous poem, 'Thanatopsis', may have been worked on as early as 1811. In 1817, his father submitted pages from his son's desk to the North American Review; the editor read a poem to associate editor Richard Henry Dana Sr., who exclaimed it could not have been written in America. Someone at the Review joined two fragments, gave them the Greek-derived title 'Thanatopsis', and mistakenly attributed the work to the father. After authorship was clarified, Bryant's poems appeared regularly in the Review.

On January 11, 1821, he married Frances Fairchild. Soon after, he was invited to speak at Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa commencement, for which he wrote 'The Ages', a verse panorama of civilization culminating in the United States. He published 'The Ages' in a volume titled Poems, adding lines to 'Thanatopsis' that changed the poem. From 1816 to 1825, he supported his family through law practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, then moved to New York City for a literary career.

With encouragement from the Sedgwick family, he entered New York's cultural life. By 1832, after an expanded Poems was published in the U.S. and, with Washington Irving's help, in Great Britain, Bryant was recognized as one of his generation's greatest poets.

Critical response

Bryant is typically included among the fireside poets, along with Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes Sr., whose writing entertained families at home. His poetry has been described as 'of a thoughtful, meditative character, and makes but slight appeal to the mass of readers. Edgar Allan Poe praised Bryant's poem 'June' in his essay 'The Poetic Principle,' noting its melodious rhythm and the pleasurable sadness it evokes. Bryant's poetry is described as tender and graceful, pervaded by contemplative melancholy and a love of solitude.

Though raised to admire Pope and imitated him early, Bryant was among the first American poets to shed his influence. He had an interest in science, especially geology, and was a friend of Thomas Cole; both considered the geological structure of Volterra in Italy. He met Charles Lyell in England in 1845.

Legacy

Though born in New England, Bryant spent almost all his life as a devout and influential New Yorker. He helped conceive the idea of a large park in Manhattan, leading to Central Park, and was a leading proponent of creating the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was among the founders of New York Medical College and the Century Association, and had close affinities with the Hudson River School, being a close friend of Thomas Cole. In 1884, Reservoir Square at 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue was renamed Bryant Park in his recognition.

In 1915, a statue of Bryant by sculptor Herbert Adams was among the 'Eminent Americans' statues at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. The William Cullen Bryant Memorial in Bryant Park includes a bronze of the same work. The William Cullen Bryant Preserve in Roslyn Harbor, New York, is on land he formerly owned. The Bryant Library in Roslyn, New York, is named for him, as is the William Cullen Bryant Viaduct between Flower Hill and Roslyn.

Other locations named after him include a neighborhood in Seattle; Bryant Woods in Columbia, Maryland; Cullen Bryant Park in Toronto; the Bryant Free Library in Cummington, Massachusetts; and Bryant House at Williams College. Several schools bear his name, including William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City, New York. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted Bryant in his speech 'Give Us the Ballot,' saying 'Truth crushed to earth will rise again.'

Did You Know?

• Bryant died of complications from an accidental fall after participating in a Central Park ceremony honoring Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini.