 EXTREME Romanticism
- Hardcore nature fan, believer in total freedom
- Activist against slavery and injustice
- Beyond poetry: what do Romantic ideas say about
LIFE, DEATH, GOD?
- Romanticist “religion” or “philosophy of life”:
Transcendentalism (go-beyond-ism)
 When walking home one day, Bryant
saw a waterfowl and realized that the
bird, while seeming alone, was actually
being guided by some higher being, as
was he himself, and that they both
would find their way.
Finding religion in nature
Nature is the visible face of God
Stanza One
 Where you are among
the dew and the
glowing skies in the
last hours of the day,
far through the sunset,
do you pursue your
own way?
Stanza Two
 For selfish reasons, the
hunter’s eye may catch
you…so he can kill you!
Your dark figure
contrasts with the red
sky as you float along.
BYAAAAA!!
Stanza Three
 Do you seek a marshy,
weedy lake or the edge
of a wide river, or
where the waves rise
and fall on the wornaway shore of the
ocean?
Stanza Four
 There is a higher power
(God) that teaches you
the way, even though it
seems like you have no
path. The desert and
the air are limitless,
like you and me – we
are wandering alone,
but we are not lost.
Stanza Five


All day your wings
work hard while you fly
high in the cold, thin
air…but don’t get tired
and stop on the land
even though the dark
night is near.
Like the bird, people
should not yield to
weariness. They should
persist, sustained by
faith in a higher power,
until they reach their
goals.
Stanza Six
 Soon your hard work
will end; you will find
your summer home
and rest, and talk with
the other birds; soon
you’ll have a
comfortable nest.
Stanza Seven
 Although the
waterfowl has
disappeared into the
unseeable depths of
the skies, his lesson
has sunk deep into
the speaker’s heart.
Seven Eight
 The higher power
who guides your
flight through the
limitless zones of the
sky will lead my steps
on my long trip
home.
The main theme of the poem is that just as God
guides the waterfowl to its summer home, He
too can guide your life until you reach your final
destination.
 What does this question about the bird’s destination
suggest to you about the poet’s state of mind?
 What different effect is conveyed by the poem’s focus upon
a “solitary” bird (rather than one in a flock)?
 How does the introduction of the hunter (a second human
observer) help to establish the poet’s sympathy with the
bird?
 Why is it important that the poet should imagine a
restful homecoming for the bird before it disappears?
 How do lines 25-26 anticipate the parallel between the
bird’s flight and the poet’s earthbound journey?
 What inner assurance has the poet gained?
 What has provided this new assurance?
 What does this question about the bird’s destination
suggest to you about the poet’s state of mind?
 The poet is in a pensive, inquiring mood. He is trying to
understand the meaning of what he sees.
 What different effect is conveyed by the poem’s focus
upon a “solitary” bird (rather than one in a flock)?
 The solitary bird is a picturesque image, and suggests the
individual traveler on his journey through life.
 How does the introduction of the hunter (a second
human observer) help to establish the poet’s sympathy
with the bird?
 The hunter wants to kill the bird, but the poet wants to
observe and understand it. This contrast makes clear the
poet’s sympathy with the bird.
 Why is it important that the poet should imagine a restful
homecoming for the bird before it disappears?
 The image of the bird as a lonely, weary traveler helps the poet to
identify with the bird and imagine for the bird a homecoming
such as the poet would enjoy.
 How do lines 25-26 anticipate the parallel between the bird’s flight
and the poet’s earthbound journey?
 The bird’s disappearance into the “abyss of heaven” may parallel
the human soul’s disappearance at the end of its journey.
 What inner assurance has the poet gained?
 The poet is assured that “the Power” that guides the bird to its
end will also guide the poet through life to a final peaceful rest.
 What has provided this new assurance?
 Observation of the bird, whose tiring travels will end in “ a
summer home, and rest.”