William Cullen Bryant: To A Waterfowl

 By Craig: I don't read a lot of poetry. I mostly read novels, history and science books. However, certain poems strike my fancy. One of these is W. C. Bryant's To A Waterfowl. I am not certain when Bryant wrote it, but I imagine it was one of his earlier poems. To me, it is his best. A man stands on the shore near dusk and observes a waterfowl. Bryant doesn't specifically tell the reader what kind. It doesn't really matter. I assume it is a goose, or perhaps a duck. Gracefully, it glides through the cold sky until it finally its majestic form amalgamates with the inky darkness of the evening. 

What is Bryant attempting to convey? It is a metaphor. The observer, at first feels the loneliness of the bird. However, he soon comes to realize that the bird is not alone. It is being guided by nature, or God. It might be alone, but it is not lost. The observer, then realizes that, like the bird, he too is guided by a higher power. Below is the poem in its entirety.

To A Waterfowl

By: William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

Whither, midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,

Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue

Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler’s eye

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,

As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,

Thy figure floats along.

Seek’st thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,

Or where the rocking billows rise and sink

On the chafed ocean-side?

There is a Power whose care

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-

The desert and illimitable air-

Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,

At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,

Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,

Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,

And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,

Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven

Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart

Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given,

And shall not soon depart.

He who, from zone to zone,

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,

In the long way that I must tread alone,

Will lead my steps aright.