After taking in the rustic scene, Bryant returns home to pen the lines to his now-famous poem. According to Bryant II, his father did achieve success after the penning of his poem, suggesting that the writing process was somehow therapeutic and reaffirming of his own self-identity.
The speaker finds solace in this thought, realizing that his life is guided by a higher purpose, and that he should trust in the path laid out before him. The unity and purposeful direction in this peaceful scene parallels the flight of the waterfowl, who, the speaker believes, is also guided by the same greater power. As the speaker takes in the view of the waterfowl and the scenery of the lake at dusk, one cannot help but think of Bryant, the poet himself, and how he had been faced with ideological and professional challenges prior to the writing of his poem.
Through composing his verse, perhaps he was able to work through these challenges, as his own son has suggested. Here he recognizes both his own solitary and wandering nature. He had a very pragmatic view of death for one so young. He writes of it as the great equalizer, where animals, kings, queens and common man all return to nature. Though he relates the presence of God through nature, his poetry sounds as if ashes to ashes, dust to dust is where it all ends, as part of the beauty of the landscape forever.
Somehow, Suzette, this doesn't comfort me. This is the way I want to see the hereafter. I don't know if you are familiar with the movie, but I find comfort in the fact that we are given choice in settling up, so to speak, with answers to questions that are troubling the individual before crossing over. It gives relevance to the lives we have lived, the choices we have made, the special people we love. Though I understand Bryant's concept and his intent as peaceful, the idea of eternal sleep and simply returning to the earth is oddly disturbing to me.
Physically, I understand this is fact, but spiritually, I hope for more. It is an industrious endeavor as a topic, with many schools of thought that in the end, we must all experience to know the unknown. Your hub is, again, Suzette, unequaled in it's beautifully presented information and thought provoking content.
Truly awesome. Thank you, Bill. I'm glad you enjoyed this piece. I appreciate your comments. These were some of my favorite poems to teach so long ago. Thanks for the visit. I remember his works well from college. Great job of detailing the man and his work; the pictures work perfectly with your words. Nice job, Suzette! Marine Biology.
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William Cullen Bryant is said to have written "To a Waterfowl" while walking in the environs of Cummington, Massachusetts the rural village where he spent his childhood. The features of that environment find their way into "To a Waterfowl. It is also the kind of place where people would live off the land, so to speak, more than they would in a place like Boston. This explains the presence of the "fowler" a bird hunter in the poem's second stanza. If "To a Waterfowl" evokes an early nineteenth-century version of rural Massachusetts, it also evokes a less external setting: the heart of man.
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