By observing the hunter’s romantic qualities when deciding whether to fire his gun in “To a Waterfowl” by William Cullen Bryant, it is evident that the hunter used his imagination and emotion over logic, thus displaying a core tenet of Romanticism that values individual growth. “To a Waterfowl” is about a hunter who instead of quickly acting based on reason, takes a moment to let himself observe nature and its placidity. The hunter had the bird on target but, “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” (Bryant 5-8). During this moment, the bird’s fate was left to the hunter, who observed the bird “against the crimson sky” instead of shooting it.