In my favorite English class with my honors teacher, Mr. Palmer, I read a similar message about birds. This poem (also my favorite poem of all time) is called “The Waterfowl” by William Cullen Bryant. Whither, 'midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through 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 chaféd 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. 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 lesson thou hast given, And shall not …show more content…
The boy sitting at table trying to write a paper with frustration was told by his father to take it “bird by bird”. Taking things step by step, bird by bird, is how one can get through their journey. This passage also used a headlight analogy, which also relates to “The Waterfowl”. One could use just their head lights through a foggy road and still get to where they need to be. You don’t need to look beyond the road, you can get there with the little light from your headlights. Likewise, you don’t have to see your whole journey, you can see a little bit of the road in front of you in that moment and that’s all you need to be able to reach your journey. Bird by bird, one little piece of the road at a