What is the main idea of the poem To a Waterfowl?

What is the main idea of the poem To a Waterfowl?

Themes. In ‘To a Waterfowl,’ William Cullen Bryant engages with themes of solitude, religion, and one’s purpose in life. The speaker spends the poem celebrating the strength and determination that the waterfowl shows in the sky. It flies on, despite its solitude and the nature of the cold night.

Who is meant by the reference to thou in To a Waterfowl?

Thou: Refers to a person being addressed (modern form: you). 4. Shalt: Second person singular form of the verb shall (modern form: you shall).

What is the rhyme scheme of To a Waterfowl?

By William Cullen Bryant If you’ve read our “Form and Meter” section, you know that each stanza in the poem has a rhyme scheme of ABAB (where each letter represents that line’s end rhyme).

Why Is To a Waterfowl a romantic poem?

The poem respresents the early stages of American romanticism which looked to nature to find God and the celebration of Nature and God’s presence within Nature. Bryant turns to Nature and trusts in the lessons he can glean from it. …

What is the power in To a Waterfowl?

At the beginning of the third stanza, which is almost the half-way point of the poem, the speaker starts out talking about a “Power.” It turns out that this Power is closely involved with the waterfowl. Its (the Power’s) “care / Teaches thy way along that pathless coast.”

How did Cullen Bryant view nature?

“Thanatopsis”, by William Cullen Bryant says that nature tells us different things at different times. When we are having bad times, God and nature are willing to help us through our problems. In this poem, Bryant makes a connection between God and Nature through society, imagery, destiny, status, and trust.

What type of poem is to a waterfowl?

“To a Waterfowl” is written in iambic trimeter and iambic pentameter, consisting of eight stanzas of four lines. The poem represents early stages of American Romanticism through celebration of Nature and God’s presence within Nature.

What does the first stanza of To a Waterfowl describe?

In the first stanza of the poem, he can’t ask where the waterfowl is going without launching into a description of the “falling dew,” the glow of the heavens, and how this glow appears like a series of “rosy depths.” Later on, he draws upon his observations of various aquatic environments to talk about a “weedy lake,” …