William Cullen Bryant is the first great American poet. He belongs to Wordsworth's school of nature poets. Bryant's verse, chiefly reflective and descriptive, is characterized by elevation, simplicity, and moral earnestness. His range is narrow. His communion with nature often leads him to the grave, but no other American poet invests it with as much majesty as is found in _Thanatopsis_. His strict Puritan training causes him to present the eternal verities in his poetry. Unlike Irving, Cooper, and the minor writers, his object is not entertainment. The influence of steam, the more rapid emigration westward, the increase of the democratic spirit, and the beginning of the modern era with its strenuous materialistic trend in the administration of Andrew Jackson marked a great change in the development of the nation. The taking of our vast southwest territory from Mexico was an event second only in importance to the Louisiana Purchase. REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY HISTORICAL In addition to the American and English histories suggested on pp. 60, 61, the following may be consulted: Burgess's _The Middle Period_, 1817-1858; Coman's _The Industrial History of the United States_, Chaps. VI. and VII.; Bogart's _Economic History of the United States_, Chap. XIV; Sparks's _The Expansion of the American People_. LITERARY Richardson's _American Literature_. Trent's _A History of American Literature_. Wendell's _History of Literature in America_. Stanton's _A Manual of American Literature_. Herford's _The Age of Wordsworth_. Stedman's _Poets of America_. (Drake, Halleck, Bryant.) _The Croakers_, pp. 255-385, in _The Poetical Writings of Fitz-Greene Halleck_, edited by James Grant Wilson. Wilson's _Fitz-Greene Halleck's Life and Letters_. Irving's, Pierre M.: _Life and Letters of Washington Irving_, 4 vols. Warner's _The Work of Washington Irving_ (60 pages, excellent). Warner's _Washington Irving_ (304 pages, _American Men of Letters_). Payne's _Leading American Essayists_, pp. 43-134. (Irving.) Canby's _The Short Story in English_, pp. 218-226. (Irving.) Lounsbury's _James Fenimore Cooper_. (_American Men of Letters_; excellent.) Clymer's _James Fenimore Cooper_. (_Beacon Biographies_.) Brownell's _American Prose Masters_. (Cooper.) Erskine's _Leading American Novelists_, pp. 51-129. (Cooper.) Cooper's _Last of the Mohicans_, edited with _Introduction_ by Halleck. Godwin's _A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, with Extracts from his Private Correspondence_, 2 vols. (The standard authority.) Godwin's _The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant_, 2 vols. Bigelow's _William Cullen Bryant_. (_American Men of Letters_.) Bradley's _William Cullen Bryant_. (_English Men of Letters, American Series_.) Chadwick's _The Origin of a Great Poem (Thanatopsis)_, _Harper's Magazine_, September, 1894, SUGGESTED READINGS MINOR WRITERS.--_The Croakers_, in Wilson's edition of Halleck's _Poetical Writings_.