William Cullen Bryant was a poet and editor born in Massachusetts. He attended Williams College and studied and practiced law for a time. His first collection, Poems, is thought to have first been published in 1821 and was partially written as part of a commencement speech at Harvard.
Bryant was an editor of the New York Review in 1829, and later that year, became editor in chief of the New York Evening Post. He published many books of poetry, including The White-Footed Deer and Other Poems (1844) and The Fountain and Other Poems (1842).
Information from Poets.org.