Question

What words or phrases in this excerpt from "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant best help to reveal the meaning of the word blight as it is used in the poem?
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile

And eloquence of beauty, and she glides

Into his darker musings, with a mild

And healing sympathy, that steals away

Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts

Of the last bitter hour come like a blight

Over thy spirit, and sad images

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall.

And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,

Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart--

Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature's teachings,

Answer 1

Blight means ruin and disaster. Words and phrases that indicate and support this meaning are: "the last bitter hour" (denoting death), "stern agony, and shroud, and pall" (also denoting death, but this time in an even more literal way), "breathless darkness", "make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart" (these phrases definitely imply a disaster that takes our breath away).