TO A WATERFOWL - ANOTHER POEM BY...

William Cullen Bryant 

1794-1878 

"To a Waterfowl"

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 the distant flight to do 

thee wrong,

As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,

Thy figure floats along.

Seeks thou the splashy brink

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,

Or where the rocking billows rise

and sink

On the chafed oceanside?

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 amongst 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.

And that's the end of my post.  I wish you all a great day, and thank you so much for stopping by.