American Literature

Module 6: William Cullen Bryant

Topic: To A Waterfowl

Sources: Encyclopedia

             World Literature

             www.poems.com

1.            Learn some synonyms;

2.            Appreciate God’s creature;

3.            Relate their experience about anxiety.

Author’s Background

                William Cullen Bryan is recognized as the “Father of American Poetry,” although a lawyer by profession, he became America’s first nationally known poet as Washington Irving as the first nationally known prose writer.

                After he was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one (21), on December 15, 1815, Bryant walked seven miles from his home in Cummington, Massachusetts to Plainfield to explore the possibilities for his law practice in the place. Just after sunset while on his weary way, he happened to see a wild duck flying swiftly in the horizon. Upon reaching the house where he was to sleep that night he felt much comforted by the sight of the waterfowl flying alone but seemingly not lost. He gave vent to his pent-up emotions in this famous poem.

                His father was Peter Bryant, a physician of considerable literary culture, and a person who had traveled quite extensively. The father took an unusual interest in the culture of his children, and he was amply rewarded for all his pains. There is an unauthenticated tradition that the first Bryant of whom there is any account in America, came over in the Mayflower. Mr. Stephen Bryant came over from England, and was settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1836. Stephen's son Ichabod was the father of Philip Bryant and Philip, of Peter, the father of William Cullen.

Bryant's mother was Miss Sarah Snell, of Mayflower stock, being a descendant of John Alden. Thus our poet has an honorable and cultured ancestry. Strict Puritanical discipline was the order of the day, hence the young poet's life did not fall in pleasant places, so far as recreations were concerned. While the children were held with a steady hand, their educational and moral interests were considered with conscientious earnestness.

                For some time after his birth young Bryant was very frail, and the chances for living seemed decided against him. His head was of such enormous size as to cause his father much uneasiness. Dr. Bryant decided that the size of William's head must be reduced. He thought to accomplish the desired result by giving the babe a cold bath daily. Accordingly two of his students took the child each morning and plunged it, head and all, into a clear, cold spring that bubbled from the ground near the house. Whether the size of the head was reduced or not, we are unable to tell, but the world of popular literature has ample cause to rejoice over the massive size of Bryant's head and heart and mind. In 1810, at the age of sixteen, he entered Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he studied for two years. He soon distinguished himself for his attainments in language and polite literature. In 1812 he withdrew from college and entered upon the study of law. After three years of preparation he was admitted to the bar in 1815. He practiced first at Plainfield, and afterward at Great Barrington. Bryant attained high standing in the local and state courts, but his tastes inclined him rather to literature than the law.

                Bryant's literary record commenced when he was only ten years of age, and even before that age he communicated lines to the local papers. "With a precocity rivaling that of Cowley or Chatterton, Bryant, at the age of thirteen, wrote a satirical poem on the Jeffersonian party, which he published in 1808, under the title of "." By referring to history, you will notice that the English orders in council had been issued in retaliation for the decrees of Napoleon. The above action of foreign powers led Jefferson to lay an embargo on American shipping. This formed the subject of Bryant's satire, "The Embargo." This poem and "The Spanish Revolution" were published in 1808, and passed to a second edition in the succeeding year. The age of the author was called in question, and his friends came forward with proofs that the lad was only thirteen when he wrote the satire. "The Genius of Columbia" was written in 1810, and "An Ode for the Fourth of July," in 1812. When he was only eighteen years of age he wrote the imperishable poem, "Thanatopsis."

To A Waterfowl

Whither, midst falling dew,

White glow the heavens with the

Last steps of day

Far though their rosy depths dost thou

Pursue

Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler’s eye

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee

Wrong,

As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,

Thy figure floats along.

Seek’st thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake or marge of river wide,

Or where the rocking billows rise and

Sink

On the chafed ocean side?

There is a Power whose care

Teaches thy way along the 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 ont, weary, to the welcome

Land,

Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end:

Soon shalt thy 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 heaven

Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on

My heart

Deeply has 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.

Activity: Vocabulary. Give the synonym of each word:

1.solitary

2. illimitable

3. billows

4. fowler

Discussion

1.            What is the dominat emotional mood of the poem?

2.            What does the poet wish to convey in the poem about the voyage of life?

3.            What lesson did the poet learn from the waterfowl?

4.            What is the theme of the poem?

Application: Have you ever experienced anxiety? How did you cope with it? Relate it to the class.

                People with anxiety disorders aren’t the only people who experience anxiety; in fact, everyone feels it everyday, they just don’t know it. Anxiety is what you feel before a big game or an important test. It’s the source of excitement before you go on a ski trip at your favorite resort. It’s the butterflies in your stomach on a first date. It’s what can prepare you for a big event; it’s the rush you feel. Depending on how you interpret this feeling, however, it can be your best friend or worst enemy.              People with anxiety disorders get this rush, but deal with it differently. Their mind and body turn this normally helpful emotion into a feeling of helplessness, and don’t allow themselves to get motivated. Before big games and important tests, rather than getting inspired to prepare for the event, people with anxiety disorders get the feeling that there’s no point in getting ready. They end up concentrating on something much less important because it feels much more comfortable. The rush that usually helps someone deal with a situation becomes the situation they’re dealing with. They don’t want to feel uneasy so they try and keep their mind off it.