Nature
In "Thanatopsis," nature is a force and an idea, but she’s also a lady. This poetic trick is called personification. By turning an idea like nature into a woman, with a voice and a personality,...
The Grave/Tomb
Since "Thanatopsis" is a poem about death, it’s probably not that surprising that images of graves and tombs and coffins are all over the place. One of the major ideas that holds this poem toget...
The Sun
The sun is a symbol, in this poem, of the beauty and power of life and nature. The sun is eternal and bright, and looks down on the whole world all at once. In this poem, the sun rules the land o...
The Ocean
The ocean is another powerful and important representation of the natural world in this poem. The ocean in "Thanatopsis" is giant, scary, and a bit sad. That’s a big contrast to the shining gol...
The Couch
The image of the couch is important, if a little mysterious at first. What the heck is a couch doing in a poem about death? Are we going to be watching a lot of HBO or playing Xbox after we die? N...
The March of Humanity
This image crops up a few times in the poem, although the speaker refers to it in slightly different ways. One of the big ideas in "Thanatopsis" is that all the people in the history of the world...