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SCULPTURE OF THE MONTH #6

(Mystery Sculpture #5)
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For more on this sculpture, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.

William Cullen Bryant

Artist: Herbert Adams

Architect: Thomas Hastings

Dedicated 1911 

Location, size, medium
About the statue and the subject
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Location, size, medium                                                                        Back to top

Bryant Park, directly behind (west of) the New York Public Library, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 42^nd and 41^st Streets.

About the statue and the subject                                                          Back to top

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), poet and editor for years of the New York Post, was a major force in the literary and political circles of 19^th-c. New York. He crusaded on behalf of the abolition of slavery, free trade, free speech, copyright laws and what was to become Central Park. He was one of America’s most famous poets as well, having published his first work at age 13. For more on Bryant’s life and career, see the article in American National Biography (online or in print).

Bryant Park was named after him in 1884. This statue, with its elaborate canopy, was designed to be set against the west façade of the New York Public Library when the Library was constructed in the first decade of the 20^th century.

Some would consider Bryant long-winded; but then, some would consider Bill Clinton eloquent. Depends on your standards and your breath control. I’m willing to forgive a great deal to a man who can write poetry such as the following, which dates to October 1864, when the Civil War had racked up hundreds of thousands of casualties.

 “My Autumn Walk”

On woodlands ruddy with autumn
 The amber sunshine lies;
I look on the beauty round me,
  And tears come into my eyes.

 For the wind that sweeps the meadows
  Blows out of the far Southwest,
Where our gallant men are fighting,
  And the gallant dead are at rest.

 The golden-rod is leaning,
  And the purple aster waves
In a breeze from the land of battles,
  A breath from the land of graves.

 Full fast the leaves are dropping
  Before that wandering breath;
As fast, on the field of battle,
  Our brethren fall in death.

 Beautiful over my pathway
  The forest spoils are shed;
They are spotting the grassy hillocks
  With purple and gold and red.

 Beautiful is the death-sleep
  Of those who bravely fight
In their country's bold quarrel,
  And perish for the Right.

But who shall comfort the living,
  The light of whose homes is gone:
The bride that, early widowed,
  Lives broken-hearted on;

The matron whose sons are lying
  In graves on a distant shore;
The maiden, whose promised husband
  Comes back from the war no more?

I look on the peaceful dwellings
  Whose windows glimmer in sight,
With croft and garden and orchard
  That bask in the mellow light;

And I know that, when our couriers
  With news of victory come,
They will bring a bitter message
  Of hopeless grief to some.

Again I turn to the woodlands,
  And I shudder as I see
The mock-grape's blood-red banner [= the Virginia creeper]
  Hung out on the cedar-tree;

And I think of days of slaughter,
  And the night-sky red with flames,
On the Chattahoochee's meadows,
  And the wasted banks of the James.

O for the fresh spring-season,
  When the groves are in their prime,
And far away in the future
  Is the frosty autumn-time!

O for that better season,
  When the pride of the foe shall yield,
And the hosts of God and Freedom
  March back from the well-won field; 

And the matron shall clasp her first-born
  With tears of joy and pride;
And the scarred and war-worn lover
  Shall claim his promised bride!

The leaves are swept from the branches;
  But the living buds are there,
With folded flower and foliage,
  To sprout in kinder air.

(Library of World Poetry, pp. 382-3)

Nearby sculptures                                                                                 Back to top

• William Earl Dodge, “the Christian Merchant,” in Bryant Park just south of 42^nd St. and east of Sixth Ave. For more on him, see Forgotten Delights: The Producers or Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the earliest German Romantic writers, in Bryant Park just north of 40^th St. He seems to be looking longingly at the carousel ten feet in front of him.

•  Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, Bryant Park facing Sixth Ave., between 41^st and 42^nd Streets. Brazilian statesman and intellectual of the early 19^th c., one of the fathers of Brazilian independence.

• Gertrude Stein, Bryant Park just right (south) of the Bryant monument. She looks thoroughly grumpy, as someone who writes and thinks like that ought to. (Mentioned briefly in my 4/26/03 lecture.)

• Wendell L. Willkie, relief plaque on the 40^th St. (south) wall of the New York Public Library grounds, near Fifth Ave. The inscription reads, “I believe in America because in it we are free – free to choose our government, to speak our minds, to observe our different religions.” Willkie (1892-1944), a vociferous critic of the New Deal, ran as a dark horse Republican candidate for president who ran against FDR in 1940, and made a respectable showing with 45% of the popular vote. I seem to remember than Ayn Rand worked on his campaign (although I don’t see him mentioned in the index to her Letters or Journal – if you know a reference for this, please email comments@forgottendelights.com), and then became disillusioned with him. Two years after his 1940 defeat, Willkie flew around the world in a military bomber visiting dozens of countries in 49 days. He reported on the trip in One World, an argument (according to the American National Biography) against imperialism and colonialism, in which he mentioned that when a Russian woman cooked him a meal in her farmhouse, he felt just like he did back home in Indiana. Sounds like the sub-title should have been, “Let’s get together and feel all right.”

• Garment Worker, Plaza in front of 555 Seventh Ave., between 39^th and 40^th Streets. Also discussed in my 4/26/03 lecture at the New York Objectivist Club.

• Golda Meir, in Golda Meir Square near Broadway and 39^th St.

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