I will talk about the William Cullen Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis” and talk about Transcendentalism elements in the poem but before I start, I would like to give information what Transcendentalism is. Transcendentalism appeared in New England in the early of 19th century. The purpose of this movement was respect for nature and self- sufficiency. It started from a debate between “New Light” people, who believed that religion must be focus on emotional experiences, and “Old Light” opponents, who valued reason in their belief. Later on, these “Old Light” called Liberal Christians. They believed that Jesus was mortal. Then, Transcendentalist advocated that people don’t need anything for spiritual consciousness. They just need nature. This idea is opposite to materialism. By the 1930s, Transcendentalism became a part of literature. All the major followers of Transcendentalism formed in club which is called Transcendentalism Club. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were most important members of that club and figures for that movement. Transcendentalism is very short and normal form that start with 19th century, by Ralph Emerson. It is social concept and philosophical movement. 1820s and 1830s between these years it took a part in America. Trancendentalism is coming from in your opinion, it is connect with your opinion. it is sprit. It comes from trancend. It is mild form of instituonalised religion. They young genereation, Trancendentalists do not believe the god, they believe in nature. They believe in sprit in nature.  There is a connect and observe in nature. For trandentalsits, if man has a nature, the man is part of the god in him. By the way, man has a energy, sprit, and soul in him or her. The man also part of divine. Transdentalism mean is “goes beyond”. Trandentalism reach the ultimate truth by using nature. All comes from nature and combine. It is combine with philosophical and literary toughts that is taught, and also it is not religious. We can also add that in trancendentalism, has mixed combinaiton by telling “indivualism”. Indivualism has part in it. The without intution, we can not reach in the nature and transcendentalisim. Trancendentalism make human to reach humans own uniq morality. According to this movoment, first make you reach self-improvment and as second make you reach socail-improvment. It can be a belief in the goodness between people and nature. For transcendentalism, the people who do their best and individual also who is an independent is good person. I must say that for transcendentalism people have to get self-reliant. They do not believe in the heaven; they believe in experiences in nature. Transcendentalism emerged under the German and English Romanticism. Strongly transcendentalism affected by Hindu texts on philosophy, Jakob Bohme and Miller are affected on transcendentalism. It relates to Unitarianism. It is also religious and political movement. Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Child, Amos Bronson Alcott, Frederic Henry Hedge, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Theodore Parker was inside the Transcendentalism writers. German Transcendentalism directly connect with Samuel Taylor. Transcendentalism culture is based on native materials. Transcendentalism is experience in deepest truths. I will talk about two important writers in Transcendentalism.

They were against the Puritanism and organized religion. There were not rules that you have to follow to go to heaven or to believe in God. I will explain the “Thanatopsis” according to Transcendentalism. First of all, Poem’s name comes from Greek Mythology and it means death. It is possible to say that poem is kind of meditation and about nature. There are also some personifications in the poem such as “old oceans gray” which means oceans’ sadness. Poet used “her” to describe nature because nature is generally female.

I would like start from the first lines “To him who in the love of Nature holds...Communion with her visible forms, she speaks...A various language; for his gayer hours”. If people love nature, nature speaks to them in a rich and various language. There is another important thing here. The word communion means relation between God and faithful people. When person feels sad, nature can understand this and heal you. There is a curative effect in nature and we can see this in the poem between lines 4-7. “She has a voice of gladness, and a smile...And eloquence of beauty, and she glides...Into his darker musings, with a mild...And healing sympathy, that steals away”. Until the line 13, poet talks about sometimes people can be angry or feel depressed when they realize that we are mortals and will die one day. Poet gives advice in the lines 14-21. “Go forth, under the open sky, and list ...To Nature’s teachings, while from all around—Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—Comes a still voice—Yet a few days, and thee...The all-beholding sun shall see no more...In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,...Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,...Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist” which means when death comes to your mind, you should meet the nature. Listen it, feel it. When you die, you just die. Sun will never see you when your body bury under the ground. Nature is an important element in this poem and there are a lot of metaphors to describe it.

In Transcendental meditation, it is believed that you will be a part of nature. Lines 22-30 show us it clearly. Magnanimity Earth will take us when we die and help us to grow. We will become a part of the earth. We will lose human traits but this is not the end. We will be rocks, soil and field. People will be able to walk on us. We should not be afraid because trees will be there with us, they will huge us and be a part of our body.

From the line 31 to 37 we can understand that there is no difference between human beings. “Yet not to thine eternal resting-place...Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish...Couch more magnificent....Thou shalt lie down...With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,...The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good,...Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,...All in one mighty sepulchre.” Poet says when you die you will not feel alone because you will not be. Everybody will go to the same place. It does not matter who you are, everybody is same. Even you will share the same place with kings. Lines between 44-49 tell us that there are no decorations except nature. Rivers, rocks, seas, trees, oceans, all the things we see in the nature are part of the real world. When you die nature will decorate you. It will be endless decoration. You will feel water and blossoms on your body. When we die everything will be same and life will go on. We will leave everything here. Even people who we really know will go on their life. For me, the most important lines are from 73 to 81. In this part poet gives very important messages. Death is not the end. We should realize that death is a journey. When people die they travel to beautiful places. People shouldn’t be scared of death. They should be brave and fearless. There is an eternal bed in that place so go there with your faith and hold it carefully. If you take your faith with you, you will feel comfortable there. In conclusion, Bryant’s poem is about death and nature and how they connected to each other. The main idea of Transcendentalism is how God, nature and human beings related to each other. There is nothing to be afraid of death according to Bryant. When people die they will go back to her.
   
Emerson’s essay The Poet answers the question of what makes a poet. According to him poet is the men of beauty. Poet is a person who sees nature and beauty in the life. If you don’t put out what you see it is just half and missing. The point is that are you able to communicate and see the beauty in the nature in this world.  Ralph Waldo Emerson He is the most important 19th century Writer, Philosopher, Essayist, and Teacher. He is the person who believe in Nature and Individualism directly. He believes in the democracy; on the other hand, he did not join the experiment. He is strong Transcendentalist. Then he lost his wife. His life was like living with reach to Money to gain Money in nature. Living with peace in nature. He struggled with what life goes on. His Works are about Transcendentalism. He wrote essay and gave lectures. He believes in that man was born in moral sense. His mystical belief is called as “The Over-Soul”. It is moving force in nature as well.  Emerson’s nature: It was created in 1836. In this work, Emerson splited nature as four parts by doing different usages. According to Emerson, when you look at a beautiful sunrise or smell a flower, you become poet. Everything can be a poem, it shouldn’t be in a form or it doesn’t have to be anything. You should show what you see and what the beauty is in it. Even you just see the bunch of flower, stone or little things. They are worth to write. If you can think about something, which means you can write about it. Poets put the world into the glass so people can see it clearly. Poets should be totally awake, not under the control of something so that they can see the reality of nature. People should go out and play the nature instead of spending time with plastic materials because they are not real.  There is no radiance in the cities and crowded place where we can just see buildings, cars and people, even if they are too attractive because there is nothing important in the world than nature that is been touchable and perceivable. When people read a good poem they will fell like they wake up or they started to see. We can explain this like you were blind but you are not anymore. A poem makes you realize something about the world, something you never thought about before. Let yourself find your muse and create your art. Anne Breadstreet, I would like to write about Anne Breadstreet because she is one of the most important poet in American Literature. She was born in 1612 or 1613. We don’t know the exact date. She wasn’t an unlucky woman according to 17th century because she had chance to study in the library and improve herself with her father’s help. Her family, especially her father was strict Puritan. Her family and her husband immigrated to America with a group of Puritans. They settled in Massachusetts. New England is very important and she used her poetry to examine her religious struggle. Another important thing about her is in the 17th century it was very difficult to be a writer as a woman but she was one of the first woman poet whose works were published. In 1666, her house fired and she lost all her possessions. She wrote about her experiences, her life, for her husband and children. Her poems until 1650s were under the influenced by Renaissance. Before 1650s, her readers were sophisticated English and later on her readers were Puritan. After 1650s which is called second part of her life, her poems were more personal and about Puritan. Religion is the most important element in her poems and we can see it clearly when we read them. She was submitted by church. Most of her works published after her death.