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.

In these lines Bryant addresses a migrating bird—often read as a solitary waterfowl or similar traveler—as an emblem of purposeful motion through vast, indifferent space. The speaker contrasts the bird’s “certain flight,” guided across “zone to zone,” with his own human journey, which feels long and solitary. Yet the comparison becomes consoling: the same providential power that directs the bird’s instinctual course can also “lead my steps aright.” The passage thus blends natural observation with religious trust, characteristic of Bryant’s meditative nature poetry, turning the spectacle of migration into a moral and spiritual reassurance about guidance, direction, and endurance.