So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustain'd and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." Thanatopsis . William Cullen Bryant
About This Quote

The Thanatopsis by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a poem that describes the death of a person. The narrator, Death, tells the story of the last moments of his life while everything around him is silent. He takes note of all that goes on around him because he knows he will be returning soon to take up residence in the land of the dead. He notes how everything is still and quiet, except for the wind rustling through the trees.

Source: Thanatopsis; To A Waterfowl; A Midsummer Sonnet Pamphlet

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. - Wallace Stevens
  2. To be great, be whole; Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you. Be whole in everything. Put all you are Into the smallest thing you do. So, in each lake, the moon shines with splendor Because it blooms up above. - Fernando Pessoa
  3. The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it. - Jane Kenyon
  4. Truth is a friendthat asks for loyaltyand acceptancethen it enters our heartsdissolving the boundariesfreeing us from lonliness - Nirmala
  5. Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness. - Kahlil Gibran
More Quotes By William Cullen Bryant
  1. All that tread, The globe are but a handful to the tribes, That slumber in its bosom.
  2. So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustain'd and...
  3. Can anything be imagined more abhorrent to every sentiment of generosity and justice, than the law which arms the rich with the legal right to fix, by assize, the wages of the poor? If this is not slavery, we have forgotten its definition. Strike the...
  4. The melancholy days have come the saddest of the year Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sear.
  5. Weep not that the world changes- did it keep a stable changeless state it were a cause indeed to weep.
Related Topics