Analysis of To a Waterfowl
William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)
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 sing
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.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XEXE FXFX GHGH IJIJ KLKL MXMA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 101101 11010101111 1111011101 11001 100101 1111011111 1101010101 110101 111011 1101111101 1101010101 101101 1101011 101101111 010011 1100111 111111 111101110 1111010101 101111 011111 1111010101 0101110111 1101101 11001110 1101111111 10110101110 011101 111111 1101011101 0011111101 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,167 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 113 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 108 Views
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"To a Waterfowl" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40388/to-a-waterfowl>.
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