Question

N this excerpt from the poem "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, what is the meaning of the word swain?

Thine individual being, shalt thou go

To mix forever with the elements,

To be a brother to the insensible rock

And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain

Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak

Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.

Answer 1

In the excerpt from the poem "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, the meaning of the word "swain" is a young shepherd or country boy. In the story,  it just show that even a swain can defeat you.

Answer 2

In the excerpt from the poem "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, the meaning of the word "swain" is a young shepherd or country boy.
The narrator really works this image of our bodies swinging into the dirt. Here he lectures about how a country boy or the "swain" – a pretty famous guy in aged nature poems) digs up that clod of dirt with his plow ("share") and walks ("treads") all over it. That’s just how low you’ll be after you've perished. Even the swains get to stomp on you.