Bryant poem- Romanticism

Imagination:

"Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart;--
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"

This passage encourages the reader to use their imagination when alone with their thoughts to envision death in a different way. This is very romantic because because of the emphasis of feeling over cold science.

Nature:

"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
Thy image. Earth, that nourish'd thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix for ever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock,
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould."

This exemplifies the romantic ideals of nature by stating that when you die you become an intimate part of nature. You become the roots of the trees and the very ground that you once walked upon.

Celebration of the common man:

"
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."

This passage shows the romantic ideal of holding the average person in equal esteem as a king or a lord. It is saying, as in the country song "Country Trash", we'll all be equal under the grass.