To A Waterfowl- William Cullen Bryant

I'm back. :D


These days I'm starting to really, deeply immerse myself to literature. In our English Literature, we're on to poetry in the Old English Period. Among the literary pieces we discussed were Anglo-Saxon Riddles, The Seafarer, and Dream of the Rood. The last two are quite religious in nature. I might post them soon (I'm not sure if I will though.) but for now I'm going to share my favorite poem since I was in high school- To a Waterfowl. I find the poem wonderful because of how the author realizes the power and goodness of God just watching a simple creature as a waterfowl. I hope you appreciate it the same way I do. 

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 painted on 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 fann'd 

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 hath 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.