The author was only 18 when he wrote this contemplation on death, his most famous poem. His teenage musings on nature's capacity to delight us and calm us while we live, then enfold us -- every one of us -- in its bosom for all eternity, captures a serene truth. The earth is a giant graveyard and a consummate leveler, for everybody suffers the same fate in the end.
(Tags : Thanatopsis (Unabridged) William Cullen Bryant Audiobook, William Cullen Bryant Audio CD )