To a Waterfowl Analysis

The speaker can't quite up his mind about the meter in "To a Waterfowl." He goes back and forth between iambic trimeter and iambic pentameter. Don't worry, Shmoopers. We'll break that down for you...

One thing we can say for sure about the speaker of "To a Waterfowl" is that he has an eye for detail, an eye for nature. In the first stanza of the poem, he can't ask where the waterfowl is going w...

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 envi...

One thing is for certain in this poem: sounds repeat themselves. The most basic form of sonic repetition in this poem is, of course, rhyme. If you've read our "Form and Meter" section, you know tha...

When you're reading an anthology of poetry and you come across a title like "To a Waterfowl," you might think to yourself, "I bet this is one of those poems about nature." You wouldn't be wrong to...

It seems like every other poem by William Cullen Bryant has something to do with taking a walk in the woods. If you've read our "In a Nutshell" section, you know that Bryant was inspired to write t...

Bryant is usually pretty kind to his readers, offering profound, beautiful musings on nature and life in very simple language. This is why is he is often classed as one of the fireside poets, a gro...

William Cullen Bryant was a pretty well-connected dude, so well-connected, in fact, that he once corresponded with Honest Abe Lincoln—true story. (Source.) Who knew that William Cullen Bryant had...

We are incredibly, deeply, profoundly saddened to report that this poem has about as much sex as a Disney movie. Okay, even some Disney movies get a little risqué, so let's say it has about as muc...