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In William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis," what does "favorite phantom" mean? What does it suggest about achievement?

This poem is a meditation on death. The speaker says that everyone who has lived has died. The idea is that we should not fear death because it is a natural part of life, and one should not feel alone in dying because the earth is like one big sepulcher full of everyone one who has ever lived and died. The speaker suggests a kind of togetherness in death.


The speaker says that "each one" (currently), "as before" (just like everyone who ever lived), "will chase / His favorite phantom." This means that every person pursues some desire, some goal, or some achievement in life. This is not necessarily a bad or good thing. One could pursue the love of another person. One could pursue power and wealth. The notion that these pursuits are "phantoms" stresses their transitory existence. These are phantoms because they only exist for a short time: while a person is alive.


Referring to desires, employments, or pursuits as "phantoms" suggests that they are not real. In this sense, and in the larger perspective of life, death, and human history, one person's phantoms do not seem to mean much. If these phantoms are immoral, they should rightly be criticized, but, again, there is nothing overt in the poem to suggest that the phantoms are necessarily good or bad. Each achievement means something special to the individual. This is why the speaker says, "So live" in the final lines of the poem. If the phantoms are good, chase them and make the most of life. If one lives life fully, he/she will go to the grave "sustained and soothed / By an unfaltering trust" ending in "pleasant dreams."

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