Thanatopsis

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Thanatopsis, written by William Cullen Bryant at the age of 17, is considered to be a masterpiece of American poetry. The title is from the Greek thanatos ("death") and the suffix -opsis (literally, "sight"); it has often been translated as "Meditation upon Death."

Due to the unusual quality of the verse and Bryant's age when first published in 1890 by the North American Review, Richard Henry Dana, then associate editor at the Review, initially doubted its authenticity, saying to another editor, "No one, on this side of the Atlantic, is capable of writing such verses." Although the bulk of the poem was written at age 16, Bryant added the introductory and concluding lines 10 years later in 1821.

Thanatopsis remains one of the most widely referenced pieces of American verse, and is included in a collection called The 100 Best Poems of all Time (ISBN 0-446-67681-0) edited by Leslie Pockell.

In popular culture, an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast introduced it to a younger generation by having lines 9-20 used as a song.[1] There are also possible references to the poem in the Nintendo game Golden Sun. The visual artist Ed Emshwiller created a film with the same title "Thanatopsis" in 1962, this is also perhaps a meditation upon death.