Whither, " midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last stops of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursueThy 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 that 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 not, weary, to the welcome land,Though the dark night is near.
Drawn by John Rowell
"Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest."And soon that toil shall end;Soon shalt thou 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 hath sunk the 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.
W. C. Bryant.
Author.-William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), the first great American poet, known as the "Father of American Poetry." He is chiefly famous for his Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl, The Death of the Flowers, and To the Fringed Gentian.
General Notes.-What is the tonight by the waterfowl? Write an essay on " Birds and Human Beings : what they have in common."