How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
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. (17-20)
Okay, this is where things start to take a much darker turn. Images of death are everywhere: the "cold, thin atmosphere" hardly seems like a place that could support life (it kind of reminds us of Pluto), while the whole "dark night is near" business sounds very, well, ominous. Sure, it's dusk, but also seems like a reference to the eternal night of death.
Quote #5
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. (21-24)
Soon, soon, soon, the speaker tells us, the waterfowl will find a home, and rest, and have a nest. Okay, on one level, this is meant to be literal (the waterfowl will build a nest and settle down). At the same time, it's also about death, only not a dark and scary death, but a peaceful, restful, sheltered death.
Quote #6
Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form (25-28)
Okay, the speaker obviously means that he can no longer see the waterfowl, but the violence of the language here ("swallowed up," "abyss") really makes us think of death, which the speaker starts to get obsessed with in the second half of the poem.