When William Cullen Bryant was just seventeen years old, he wrote a poem called "Thanatopsis." The title comes from Greek and means "a view of death." That might sound gloomy, but the poem was actually about finding comfort in nature. Bryant argued that when we die, we return to the earth and become part of the hills, rivers, and forests that surround us. The poem was published in 1817, and readers were astonished that such a young writer could tackle such a deep topic. Bryant was born on November 3, 1794, in Massachusetts. He grew up near forests and streams, and nature became his central theme. His poems described the beauty of the American landscape in a way that made readers see their own country differently. He was one of the first American poets to be taken seriously by European critics, who at the time looked down on American literature. Bryant also had a second career as a newspaper editor. He ran the New York Evening Post for over fifty years, making it one of the most influential papers in the country. He used his newspaper to speak out against slavery and to support Abraham Lincoln.