Till gentians fade, through forest-aisles will still move out and in.”
All who appreciate Bryant’s great poem “To a Waterfowl” may see God, not only “flying over the hill with the bird,” but as the unfailing guide of the human soul.
“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.”
No more triumphant lines exist in literature than those in Browning’s “Paracelsus” which express faith in God’s guidance of man and bird:
“I go to prove my soul!
I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive: what time, what circuit first,