Can anybody help me with this ...?

Question

I Nneed help analyzing the poem "To a waterfowl", by William Cullen Bryant. I read it like 5 times and can barely understand it.

You can find the poem here:
http://www.bartleby.com/102/17.html

Answer 1

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bryant/waterfowl.html

I searched around a bit and this page is pretty cool. It has hints on what certain lines may mean and definitions of some of the stranger passages.
Good luck!

Answer 2

Wow. You're right. This poem is tough, but here we go. Okay, FIRST with poems, it is always best to burn into you're mind the TITLE of the piece. That way, some of the enigmatic wording can, in theory, begin to unlock. This poem, in short, is an 'ode' (dic it-'dic' being a v. for look in the dictionary) to birds that fly south. Why do I know its to birds that fly south and not just birds in general? The Title. Waterfowl, most anyway, fly south in colder months. It seems to me that the author found this process of waterfowl rommantic and dramatic against the scene of fall, hence he relayed in Old English (thee, thou, etc.). Also, coming through, is the 'lesson' the author has learned from observing this waterfowl. In a way towards the end he has regained hope; finding that he can himself make it, "in the long way that I must tread alone". Okay, I'm done. Please don't plagarise the ideas mentioned here. They are not your own. If you do repeat them and do not mention that you at least got them from somewhere else, may you be plauged with the knowledge that you have stolen and are, frankly, not as smart as I. Sorry to end on this note, just I worry, so I act. Good luck.

Answer 3

take it by line try to understand each line not the entire poem at one

Answer 4

Yeah, I hate old english language.. it confuses me.

Answer 5

You need to read it again.