two Greek words, and means 'A View of Death.' I have half a
notion to take the poem to Boston with me next winter. I want to show it
to my friend Mr. Philips."

"Oh, do; and take some of Cullen's other poems with it. Perhaps he might
think some of them good enough to publish."

Dr. Peter Bryant was at that time a member of the senate in the
Massachusetts general assembly. When the time came for the meeting of
the assembly he went up to Boston, and he did not forget to take several
of his son's poems with him. The _North American Review_ was a great
magazine in those days, and Dr. Bryant was well acquainted with Mr.
Philips, one of its editors. He called at the office of the _Review_,
and not finding Mr. Philips, he left the package of manuscript with his
name written upon it.

When Mr. Philips returned he found the package, and after reading the
poems concluded that Dr. Bryant had written "Thanatopsis," and that the
others were probably by his son Cullen.

"It is a remarkable poem--a remarkable poem," he said, as he showed it
to his two fellow-editors. "We have never published anything better in
the _Review_," he said, and he began to read it to them.

When he had finished, one of them, Richard Henry Dana, who was himself a
poet, said doubtingly:

"Mr. Philips, you have been imposed upon. There is no person in America
who can write a poem like that."

"Ah, but I know the man who wrote it," answered Mr. Philips. "He is in
the state senate, and he isn't a man who would impose upon any person."

"Well, I must have a look at the man who can write such lines as those,"
said Mr. Dana.

He went to the statehouse, and to the senate chamber, and asked to see
Senator Bryant. A tall, gray-bearded man was pointed out to him. Mr.
Dana looked at him for a few minutes and then said to himself, "He has a
fine head; but he is not the man who could write 'Thanatopsis'" So
without speaking to him he returned to his office.

Mr. Philips, still full of enthusiasm, soon had an interview with Dr.
Bryant, and learned the truth in regard to the authorship of the poem.
It was printed in the next issue of the _North American Review_. It was
the first great poem ever produced in America; it was the work of a
young man not eighteen years of age, and it is without doubt the
greatest poem ever written by one so young. But let us read it.

THANATOPSIS

To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, sh