“What Evidence is There of Spring?”
Henry Thoreau’s “Kalendar”
W “What evidence is there of spring? This light & warm sun--which compels us to throw our outside coats open wide--or take them off--even to seek the shade for coolness--This rapidly melting snow & these sparkling currents by the roadside--this softened ice--but above all the warble of a single blue-bird that came to us out of the softened air.” From Thoreau’s Journal; February 23, 1859. Henry David Thoreau loved springtime. While it’s true that he had something to say about every season, he seemed to wax more poetic not only in the spring but about the spring. When the earth came alive after a long cold winter, Thoreau’s observations came to life as well. “For the first time I perceive this spring that the year is a circle--I see distinctly the spring arc thus far…Why should I hear the chattering of blackbirds--why smell the skunk each year? I would fain explore the mysterious relation between myself & these things.” From Thoreau’s Journal; April 18, 1852. By 1850 Thoreau had transformed his journal into something more than a daily account of his life and thoughts. While he continued to record the people, places, and things he encountered, along with passages that would be used in his lectures and essays, he also started keeping a record of the flora and fauna he observed on his walks. In December 1856 he would explain in his journal his methodology, observing when “plants first blossomed and leafed,” and noting that he would then “follow it up early and late, far and near, several years in succession… I often visited a particular plant four or five miles distance… that I might know exactly when it opened.” Indeed, Thoreau’s careful observations of the seasonal changes in the fields, meadows, and woods of his beloved Concord were so meticulous, and so far-reaching, that it became well known about town that he could easily tell someone what day of the year it was just by observing what flowers were blooming or what trees were budding!
BY RICHARD SMITH
Springtime at Walden Pond © Richard Smith
22
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