| Top | Primary Works

"Thanatopsis," September, 1817, published in The North American Review; Poems, 1821; The Poetical Works of WCB, 1903.

Poems; with explanatory notes. NY: Burt, [18--]. PS1150 .E00

WCB and Oliver Bell Bunce. Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, canons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country. With illustrations on steel and wood by eminent American artists. 2 vols. NY: D. Appleton, 1872-1874. Case / Folio E168 .B89

A new library of poetry and song. Edited by William Cullen Bryant; including also, a biographical memoir of Bryant, by James Grant Wilson. 2 vols. NY: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1883. Case / PR1175 .B78

The Iliad of Homer. Translated into English blank verse by William Cullen Bryant. 2 vols. NY: Houghton Mifflin and company, 1898? PA4025.A2 B7

The Odyssey of Homer. Translated into English blank verse by William Cullen Bryant. 2 vols. NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1899. PA4025.A5 B75

Representative selections. with introduction, bibliography, and notes, by Tremaine McDowell. NY: American Book Co, 1935. PS1153 .M25

The letters of William Cullen Bryant. edited by William Cullen Bryant, II, and Thomas G. Voss. 3 vols. NY: Fordham UP, 1975. PS1181 .A4

Works of Poetry

"The Embargo"- 1808; "Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood"- 1815; "Thanatopsis"- 1815; "The Yellow Violet"- 1815; "To a Waterfowl"- 1815; "The Burial Place"- 1818; "Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids"- 1820; "The Ages"-1821; "Monument Mountain"- 1824; "A Forest Hymn"- 1825; "To the Fringed Gentian"- 1832; "The Prairies"- 1833; "Earth"- 1835; "To the Apennines"- 1835; "The Fountain"- 1839; "The Antiquity of Freedom"- 1842; "The White-Footed Deer"- 1843; "October, 1866"- 1866; "Among Trees"- 1868.

Works of Translation

Iliad - 1870; Odyssey - 1871

Collections of Works 

Poems &emdash;1821 (1^st ed.), 1832 (2^nd ed.); The Fountain and Other Poems - 1842; The White-Footed Deer and Other Poems -1846; Thirty Poems -1864.

Works of Prose

Lectures on Poetry -1826; Letters of a Traveler -1850.

| Top | Selected Bibliography

Branch, Michael P. "William Cullen Bryant: The Nature Poet as Environmental Journalist." The American-Transcendental-Quarterly (AQT) Index 12.3 (Sep. 1998): 179.

Brown, Charles H. William Cullen Bryant. NY: Scribner, 1971. PS1181 .B74

Bryant, Harold S. William Cullen Bryant: his ancestors and where they lived. Middleboro, Mass.: Chedwato Service, 1972.

Bryant, William Cullen, II. "No Irish Need Apply: William Cullen Bryant Fights Nativism, 1836-1845." New York history LXXIV.1 (Jan 1993): 29-.

D'Innocenzo, Michael. ed. William Cullen Bryant and his America: centennial conference proceedings, 1878-1978. N.Y.: AMS Press, 1983.

Johnson, Curtiss S. Politics and a Belly-Full: The Journalistic Career of William Cullen Bryant. New York: Vantage Press, 1962.

Krapf, Norbert. ed. Under open sky: poets on William Cullen Bryant. NY: Fordham UP, 1986.

McDowell, Tremaine: WCB: Representative selections, with introduction, bibliography, and notes. NY: American Book Co., 1935. PS1153 .M25

McLean, Albert F. William Cullen Bryant. NY: Twayne, 1964, 1989. PS1181 .M3

McLean, Albert F. William Cullen Bryant. 2^nd ed. New York: Twayne, 1989.

Meyer, Kinereth. "Landscape and Counter-Landscape in the Poetry of William Cullen Bryant." Nineteenth-century literature 48.2 (Sep 1993): 194-211.

Peckham, Harry Houstan. Gotham Yankee. New York: Vantage Press, 1950.

Pehrson, Joseph. Thanatopsis. New York, N.Y. : Seesaw Music, 1994 (Musical Score).

Richman, Steven M. "William Cullen Bryant and the Poetry of Natural Law." Akron Law Review. 30.4 (1997): 661.

Ringe, Donald. The Pictorial Mode: Space and Time in the Art of Bryant, Irving, and Copper. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1971.

Symington, Andrew J. William Cullen Bryant; a biographical sketch, with selections from his poems and other writings. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1972.

Tomlinson, David. "William Cullen Bryant." Dictionary of Literary Biography: Antebellum Writers in New York and the South. Ed. Joel Myerson. Vol. 3. Michigan: Bruccoli Clark Book, 1979. 30-43.

Vespa, Jack. "The Unsurveyed Interior: William Cullen Bryant and the Prairie State." The American-Transcendental-Quarterly (AQT) Index 11.4 (Dec. 1997): 285.

Vincent, Leon H. "William Cullen Bryant." American Literary Masters. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1969. 35-62.

Voss, Thomas G. ed. The Letters of WCB. NY: Fordham UP, 1975-. PS1181 .A4

Study Questions

1. In his essays, Emerson repeatedly called for the emergence of an American poet. Focusing on Bryant's The Prairies, argue that Bryant satisfied, in part, Emerson's demand. In what ways does Bryant move away from imitating British poetry? In what ways does the poem address American themes?

2. (a) Based upon what you can glean from his poems, what sort of religious and philosophical outlook does this writer have?

(b) Compare the view of nature in poems such as "To a Waterfowl" and "The Yellow Violet" with that in "The Prairies."

3. Bryant's "Thanatopsis" is often read as a proto-Transcendentalist poem; yet it was discovered and rushed to publication by Bryant's father, who by all accounts was a Calvinist. Some options:

(a) Provide a Calvinist "reading" of "Thanatopsis."

(b) Locate, compare, and explain potentially "Transcendental" and "Calvinist" elements in the poem.

(c) Argue that it's one or the other (very artificial, but effective).

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page:

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 3: Early Nineteenth Century - William Cullen Bryant." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/bryant.html (provide page date or date of your login).