Writers of the Romantic Period are inspired by intuition and imagination. They seek enjoyment through the beauty of nature. The natural world is a refuge from the falseness of civilization. Nature has an important presence in works from the Romantic Period as compared to man. In the poems “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant, “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and “The First Snowfall” by James Russell Lowell, there is a common theme of death where man joins nature through death and becomes part of a much bigger whole.

In Longfellow’s “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” man is born, lives life, and dies, while nature continues on through the ages. Nature and death have a consistency while man is in a hurry to live life and make some accomplishments before death. This is evident in the repetitiveness of nature and the impatience of man: “The twilight darkens, the curlew calls:/Along the sea sands damp and brown/The traveler hastens toward the town.” (Longfellow 2-4). Longfellow wants to point out the consistency of nature and death as the days, weeks, and years go by. Somehow death always seems to find a way to reclaim the evidence of man’s existence. Throughout the duration of a person’s lifetime: “The little waves, with their soft, white hands./Efface the footprints in the sands” (Longfellow 8-9). Once you are gone your life events are erased by death. Death will always be one step behind to remove man’s impressions from the sand. So when one man dies, nature carries on to greet the life of another. Nature continues on even though the traveler has died: “The day returns, but nevermore/Returns the traveler to the shore,” (Longfellow 13-14). Man comes and goes but nature is continuous. Death is the overarching umbrella spanning man’s life.

Lowell’s “The First Snowfall” shows how nature serves as a reservoir for healing sorrows such as death with its beauty. Nature can either heal the emotional wounds of death or continue the memory of them. Bringing beauty out of death: “Where a little headstone stood;/ How the flakes were folding it gently,/As did robins the babes in the wood” (Lowell 18-20). Nature is making death into a thing of beauty. God is the creator of nature so nature is greater than man and his death. God is above all and can make death beautiful: “The snow that husheth all,/Darling, the merciful Father/ Alone can make it fall” (Lowell 34-36). Man’s place is below God and nature. Only nature can change death into something beautiful. Decorations fit for a king: “Every pine and fir and hemlock/ Wore ermine too dear for an earl,” (Lowell 5-6). Man cannot add more beauty to nature in order to transform death. Nature has powers to heal emotional wounds such as death and decorate itself beyond anything man can do.

According to Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” man is born, lives his life, and then returns to the earth. Nature claims man. Eventually everyone returns to Earth: “Earth, that nourish’d thee, shall claim/Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,” (Bryant 22-23). Man is born in order to die later. In nature everyone is equal in death. No matter who the person might be: “Thou shalt lie down/With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,” (Bryant 33-34). The rich and the poor will all return to the earth in death. There are more dead within the earth than alive on its surface. Many others have followed before: “All that tread/The globe are but a handful to the tribes/That slumber in its bosom.” (Bryant 48-50). Nature is the great equalizer that returns everyone to the earth. Everyone winds up in death eventually.

Writers from the romantic period of American literature used poetry to allow the mind to roam beyond the harsh realities of civilization. In the poems “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant, “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and “The First Snowfall” by James Russell Lowell the natural world is a shield and transcends the harshness of day to day life. Man is nothing more than a part of nature created by God.