Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-04-06
uRYANT,s RIOGItAPIty.
His Early life and Strugglcs---Aiinost
Incredible stories OF His Nouthtul
preCpCIgy.

The long expected biography of Will
liam Cullen Bryant by his sOn-in-law,
Parke Goodwin, is interesting as the life
of one of Americas first and foremost
men of letters, and because in relating
the history of that life the history of the
formation period of American letters is
given. When Mr.. Bryant was young
man American poets werc scarce, and the
appearance of a new ono, and such one
as this lad from Massachusetts,, was a red
letter day in our literature. The first
chapter of the work is an autobiography
found among Mr.. Bryant's papers, and
was written in 1874 5. When Mr.. Bry-
ant was born, 1894, the region around
Cummington was new one, and his fam
iIy were among the early settlers. His
father, Peter Bryant, was n physician,
and man who delighted in poetry. In
his library were the works of the most
eminent English poets. He wrote verses
himself i'll English and Latin, and played
the violin. He was very ingenious with
tools and made brass viol, on which he
is said TO have played. As might be i'm
agined he was not much of II business
man, and his patients paid him what they
pleased. The mother Of Mr.. Bryant was
n writer of decided character and as
public spirited as she was domestic. 81
was thought to be precocious child, y"
writes her son. "On my first birthday
| there is q record that | could already go
alone. and on the 2Sth Of March, 1876,
when but few days more than sixteen
months old, there is another record that
knew all the letters of the alphabet. In
both these instances it is probable that
my mother finding ..me rather docile, took
pleasure in bringing me forward some
what prematurely." His brother Austin,
he says, however, was "more remarkable
as an early scholar than myself Before
the close of his third year he began to
read the Bible, and by the end of his
fourth year had read from Genesis to
Revelations.
Mr.. Bryant's first published poem was
the inception "The Embargo or, Sketches
of the Times by Youth of Thirteen. '
This was honored with second edition i'll
the loIlowlnS year, loU3. Inc au'oplo-
graphy ends Just as MIR. Bryant was about
| ia toll ne of fine Influences unlcr which
his "Thanatopsis" was written. Why he
stopped it is not known. Mr. Goodwin
thinks that it was probably owing to his
| i'i'ihS ih'nioi y WI 'ou"ii AN w
| the story OF the famous poem ana SHOWS
mp the poet in the throes of composition
at was in the autumn the blue of the
summer sky had faded into gray, and the
brown earth was heapod with sere and
withpred emblems of the departed glory
of the year. AS he trod upon the hollow
sounding ground, in the loneliness o! the
woods and among the PROSTATE trunks oi
trees, that for generations had been mold
ering into dust. he thought how the vast
solitudcs about him were filed with the
same sad tokens of decay. He asked
himself. MS the thought expanded in his
mind. What, indeed, is the whole eartl
but great sepulchre of once living
things and its skies and stars but the
witnesses and decorations of Il tomb?
While his mind was vet tossing witt
the thought he hurried home and endeav
ored to paint it to the eve and render i
i'll music to the ear. He began abruptly,
in the middle of line:
,,,
The all.behSIdinr sun sHaIi see no more
In all his cours.;'
on1 WORKING tbrough ,he vorinus suooos
t;nns Of Lis theme he ended M lcss all
ruptly
WIN snoro ,v Inou.a,ins ,,i,srra more worl
Dance an etc, to the grave The busy brood OF care
PODS on and each one caooSe; ,a as before
TmeIT mirp and % th.ir cmploynsnt. ant .haI com
Ana make their bed wi'hthee.
This ia tbe form Of pocm os If wos frs
. published, and for which he coined
name from the Greek "Thanatopsis
Contrary to his custom, the youthful poe
, did not take this poem to his father f.
criticism, nor even read it to his brother
n for their approval, but he carefully hid
y away in pigeon-holc OF his fathers desk
! ON which ii had been written.
q This is the way he announces his maj