ALS signed “W. C. Bryant,” one page, 7.25 x 6.25, May 3, 1842. Letter to an autograph collector, in part: "I have been obliged, for want of time, to decline all requests to transcribe my poems for the collectors of autographs. As, however, you ask only two or three lines, I send you the subjoined." Below, he pens the last four lines from his oft-anthologized 'Thanatopsis,' in full: "Sustained and soothed / By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, / Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch / About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." In very good to fine condition, with trimmed edges, and show-through at the corners from mounting remnants on the reverse.Format: ALS