To a Waterfowl
Whither, midst falling dew,While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursueThy solitary way?
Vainly the fowler's eyeMight mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,Thy figure floats along.
Seek'st thou the plashy brinkOf weedy lake, or marge of river wide,Or where the rocking billows rise and sinkOn the chafed ocean side?
There is a Power whose careTeaches 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 heavenHath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heartDeeply 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.
Words in this poem
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- plashy a.
- Watery; abounding with puddles; splashy. [From 1st Plash.]
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- weedy a.
- Of or pertaining to weeds; consisting of weeds.
- marge n.
- Border; margin; edge; verge. [F. marge. See Margin.]
- pathless a.
- Having no beaten path or way; untrodden; impenetrable; as, pathless woods.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Waterfowl is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by William Cullen Bryant, Project Gutenberg ebook #16341; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Cullen Bryant, To a Waterfowl, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/to-a-waterfowl.html, id L07252.
Form and metre
To a Waterfowl is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB dewA · dayB · pursueA · wayB
- 2 ABAB eyeA · wrongB · skyA · alongB
- 3 ABAB brinkA · wideB · sinkA · sideB
- 4 A-A- careA · coast · airA · lost
- 5 ABAB fannedA · atmosphereB · landA · nearB
- 6 ABAB endA · restB · bendA · nestB
- 7 -A-A heaven · heartA · given · departA
- 8 ABAB zoneA · flightB · aloneA · arightB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Whither, midst falling dew, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thy solitary way? | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| Vainly the fowler's eye | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Thy figure floats along. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Seek'st thou the plashy brink | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Or where the rocking billows rise and sink | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| On the chafed ocean side? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| There is a Power whose care | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,-- | 10 | /˘··˘/·/˘· |
| The desert and illimitable air,-- | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘· |
| Lone wandering, but not lost. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| All day thy wings have fanned, | 6 | ······ |
| At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Though the dark night is near. | 6 | ······ |
| And soon that toil shall end; | 6 | ······ |
| Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, | 11 | /˘···/˘··/˘ |
| And shall not soon depart. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| He who, from zone to zone, | 6 | ······ |
| Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| In the long way that I must tread alone, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Will lead my steps aright. | 6 | ····˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.