born Nov. 3, 1794, Cummington, Mass., U.S.
died June 12, 1878, New York, N.Y.
U.S. poet.
At age 17 Bryant wrote "Thanatopsis," a meditation on nature and death that remains his best-known poem; influenced by deism, it in turn influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau . Admitted to the bar at age 21, he spent nearly 10 years as an attorney, a profession he hated. His Poems (1821), including "To a Waterfowl," secured his reputation. In 1825 he moved to New York City, where for almost 50 years (182978) he was editor in chief of the Evening Post , which he transformed into an organ of progressive thought.
William Cullen Bryant, detail of an oil painting by Daniel Huntington, 1866; in the Brooklyn Museum ...
Courtesy of The Brooklyn Museum, New York