Which work is attributed to William Cullen Bryant?

• A. We Wear the Mask
• B. On Being Brought from Africa to America
• C. Thanatopsis
• D. A Rescue

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is recognizing authorship in early American Romantic poetry. Thanatopsis is the poem that William Cullen Bryant wrote, and it embodies the Romantic emphasis on nature, mortality, and a contemplative view of life and death. The piece presents death as a natural part of the human cycle and invites readers to find solace in nature and in the idea that all people share in a common fate. This reflective, nature-centered mood and Bryant’s standing as a pioneering American Romantic poet point to him as the author. The other works listed are by different poets—We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar and On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley—so they aren’t Bryant’s, reinforcing why Thanatopsis is the correct attribution.