VISITORS
WINTER ANIMALS
SPRING
CONCLUSION
WHERE I LIVED, & WHAT I LIVED FOR
ECONOMY
HIGHER LAWS
SOLITUDE
SOUNDS
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9
BUT WHILE WE ARE CONFINED to books,
afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present
though the most select and classic, and
moment to any work, whether of the head
read only particular written languages,
or hands. I love a broad margin to my life.
which are themselves but dialects and
Sometimes, in a summer morning, having
provincial, we are in danger of forgetting
taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my
the language which all things and events
sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt
speak without metaphor, which alone is
in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories
copious and standard. The rays which
and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and
stream through the shutter will be no lon-
stillness, while the birds sing around or
ger remembered when the shutter is wholly
flitted noiseless through the house, until by
removed. No method nor discipline can
the sun falling in at my west window.
supersede the necessity of being forever
I WAS REMINDED OF the lapse of time. I
on the alert. What is a course of history or
grew in those seasons like corn in the night,
philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well
and they were far better than any work of
selected, or the best society, or the most
the hands would have been. They were not
admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen? Will you be a reader, a student merely, or a seer? Read your fate, see what is before you, and walk on into futurity. I DID NOT READ BOOKS the first summer; I hoed beans. Nay, I often did better than this. There were times when I could not
DECEMBER 1 – To Cliffs. The snow keeps off unusually. The landscape is the color of a russet apple which has no golden cheek. The sunset sky supplies that. The year looks back toward summer, and a summer smile is reflected in her face. There is in these days a coolness in the air which makes me hesitate to call them Indian
time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above
summer. At this season I observe
my usual allowance. I realized
the form of the buds which are
what Orientals mean by con-
prepared for spring,-the large
templation and the forsaking
bright yellowish and reddish buds
works. Mostly, I minded not
of the swamp-pink, the already
how the hours went.
downy once of the Populus
THE DAY ADVANCED if to
tremuloides and the willows, the
light some work of mine; it was
red ones of the blueberry, etc., the long, sharp ones of the amelanchier, the spear-shaped ones of the viburnum.
morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished. Instead of singing like the birds, I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune. As the spar- row had its trill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had I my chuckle or suppressed warble which he might hear out of my nest. My days were not days of the week, bearing the stamp of any heathen deity, nor were they minced into hours and fretted by the ticking of a clock; for I lived like Puri Indians, of whom it is said that “for yesterday, today, and tomorrow they have only one word, and they
11
express the variety
indeed, getting our living, and regulating
of meaning by
our lives according to the last and best
pointing backward
mode we had learned, we should never be
for yesterday for-
troubled with ennui. Follow your genius
ward for tomorrow,
closely enough, and it will not fail to show
and overhead for
you a fresh prospect every hour. House
the passing day.�
work was a pleasant pastime.
This was sheer
I WAS SOMETIMES TEMPTED to stretch an
idleness to my
awning over them and take my seat there. It
fellow townsmen,
was worth the while to see the sun shine on
no doubt; but if
these things, and hear the free wind blow
the birds and flowers had tried me by their
on them; so much more interesting most
standard, I should not have been found
familiar objects look out of doors than in
wanting. A man must find his occasions in
the house. A bird sits on the next bough,
himself, it is true. The natural day is very
life-everlasting grows under the table, and
calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.
blackberry vines run round its legs; pine
I HAD THIS ADVANTAGE, at least, in my
cones, chestnut burs, and strawberry leaves
mode of life, over those who were obliged
are strewn about. It looked as if this was
to look abroad for amusement, to society
the way these forms came to be trans-
and the theatre, that my life itself was
ferred to our furniture, to tables, chairs, and
become my amusement and never ceased
bedsteads—because they once stood in
to be novel. It was a drama of many scenes
their midst. My house was on the side of a
and without an end. If we were always,
hill, immediately on the edge of the larger
EMERSON CLIFF
WALDEN ROAD
EMERSON TRAIL
CABIN REPLICA
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WALDEN POND
THOREAU’S COVE
ORIGINAL CABIN SITE
wood, in the midst of a young forest of
and handsome cherries, fell over in wreaths
pitch pines and hickories, and half a dozen
like rays on every side. I tasted them out of
rods from the pond, to which a narrow
compliment to Nature, though they were
footpath led down the hill. In my front yard
scarcely palatable. The sumach grew luxuri-
grew the strawberry, blackberry, and life-
antly about the house, pushing up through
everlasting, johnswort.
the embankment which I had made, and
NEAR THE END OF MAY, the sand cherry
growing five or six feet the first season.
adorned the sides of the path with its
Its broad pinnate tropical leaf was pleasant
THE TRANSCENDENTAL CLUB BEGAN IN MAIN IN 1836 AND WAS FIRST CALLED THE HEDGE CLUB.
delicate flowers
though strange to look on. The large buds,
arranged in umbels
suddenly pushing out late in the spring
cylindrically about
from dry sticks which had seemed to be
its short stems,
dead, developed themselves as by magic
which last, in the
into graceful green and tender boughs, an
fall, weighed down
inch in diameter; and sometimes, as I sat
with good sized
at my window, so heedlessly did they grow
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and tax their weak joints, I heard a fresh
of a partridge, conveying travellers from
and tender bough suddenly fall like a fan to
Boston to the country.
the ground, when there was not a breath of
FOR I DID NOT LIVE SO out of the world
air stirring, broken off by its own weight. In
as that boy who, as I hear, was put out to a
August, the large masses of berries, which,
farmer in the east part of the town, but ere
when in flower, had attracted many wild
long ran away and came home again, quite
bees, gradually assumed their bright vel-
down at the heel and homesick. He had
vety crimson hue, and by their weight again
never seen such a dull and out-of-the-way
bent down and broke the tender limbs.
place; the folks were all gone off; why, you
AS I SIT AT MY WINDOW this summer
couldn’t even hear the whistle! “In truth, our
afternoon, hawks are circling about my
village has become a butt For one of those
clearing; the tensity of wild pigeons, flying
fleet railroad shafts, and o’er Our peaceful
by two and threes athwart my view, or
plain its soothing sound is—Concord.”
perching restless on the white pine boughs
THE FITCHBURG Railroad touches the
behind my house, gives a voice to the air;
pond about a hundred rods south of where
a fish hawk dimples the glassy surface of
I dwell. I usually
the pond and brings up a fish; a mink steals
go to the village
HENRY DAVID
out of the marsh before my door and seizes
along its causeway,
THOREAU REMAINED
a frog by the shore; the sedge is bending
and am, as it were,
AT WALDEN POND
under the weight of the reed-birds flitting
related to society
FOR TWO YEARS
hither and thither; and for the last half-hour
by this link. The
WHILE HE WROTE
I have heard the rattle of railroad cars, now
men on the freight
HIS BOOK.
dying away and then reviving like the beat
trains, who go over
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the whole length of the road, bow to me
sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing
as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so
over some farmer’s yard, informing me that
often, and apparently they take me for an
many restless city merchants are arriving
employee; and so I am. I too would fain be
within the circle of the town, or adventur-
a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of
ous country traders from the other side. As
the earth.
they come under one horizon, they shout
THE WHISTLE OF THE locomotive pen-
their warning to get off the track to the
etrates my woods summer and winter,
other, heard sometimes through the circles
Henry David Thoreau was no one-man wolf pack. He had large gang that even started an official club. The Transcendentalism movement involved many people, though these are popular names from the philosophical era.
WALDO EMERSON
DICKINSON
Ralph Waldo Emerson is truly the center of
Emily Dickinson, regarded as one of Amer-
American transcendentalism, setting most
ica’s greatest poets, is well known for her
of its ideas and values in a little book, Na-
unusual life of self imposed social seclusion.
ture, that represented ten years of intense
Living a life of simplicity and seclusion she
study in philosophy, religion, and literature,
wrote poetry of great power; questioning
and in his First Series of essays.
the nature of immortality and death.
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WHITMAN Walt Whitman was an essayist, poet and journalist, as well as a volunteer nurse in the course of the American Civil War. Whitman, being one of the most influential American poets, is often referred to as “the father of the free verse�.
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the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth. The whistle of the locomotive HENRY DAVID THOREAU’S
penetrates my woods summer and winter,
INTERESTING FAMILY
sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing
BUSINESS OUTSIDE OF HIS WRITINGS WAS PENCIL MANUFACTURING.
AS I CAME HOME THROUGH the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a wood- chuck stealing across my path, and
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I FOUND IN MYSELF, and still find, an
in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense
instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named,
a part of Nature themselves, are often in a
spiritual life, as do most men, and another
more favorable mood for observing her, in
toward a primitive rank and savage one, and
the intervals of their pursuits, than philoso-
I reverence them both.
phers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She is not afraid to exhibit herself to them. The traveller on the prairie is naturally a hunter, on the head waters of the
The wildness and adventure that are in fish-
Missouri and Columbia a trapper, and at the
ing still recommended it to me. I like some-
Falls of St. Mary a fisherman. He who is only
times to take rank hold on life and spend
a traveller learns things at second-hand and
my day more as the animals do. Perhaps I
by the halves, and is poor authority. We are
have owed to this employment and to hunt-
most interested when science reports what
ing, when quite young, my closest acquain-
those men already know practically or in-
tance with Nature. They early introduce
stinctively, for that alone is a true humanity,
us to and detain us in scenery with which
or account of human experience.
otherwise, at that age, we should have little
THEY MISTAKE WHO assert that the Yan-
acquaintance. Fishermen, hunters, wood-
kee has few amusements, because he has
choppers, and others, spending their lives
not so many public holidays, and men and
boys do not play so many games as they
all factitious, and concerned my philosophy
do in England, for here the more primitive
more than my feelings. I speak of fishing
but solitary amusements of hunting, fish-
only now, for I had long felt differently
ing, and the like have not yet given place
about fowling, and sold my gun before
to the former. Almost every New England boy among my contemporaries shouldered a fowling-piece between the ages of ten and fourteen; and his hunting and fishing grounds were not limited, like the preserves of an English nobleman, but were more boundless even than those of a savage. No wonder, then, that he did not oftener stay to play on the common. But already a change is taking place, owing, not to an increased humanity, but to an increased scarcity of game, for perhaps the hunter is the greatest friend of the animals hunted, not excepting the Humane Society. MOREOVER, WHEN AT THE pond, I wished sometimes to add fish to my fare for variety. I have actually fished from the same kind of necessity that the first fishers did. Whatever humanity I might con- jure up against it was
AUGUST 16 – Cassia Field. Diplopappus linariifolius, apparently several days. Ambrosia pollen now begins to yellow my clothes. Cynoglossum ofcinale, a long time, mostly gone to seed, at Bull’s Path and north roadside below Leppleman’s. Its great radical leaves made me think of smooth mullein. The flower has a very peculiar, rather sickening odor; Sophia thought like a warm
I went to the woods. Not that I am less
apple pie just from the oven (I
humane than others, but I did not perceive
did not perceive this). A pretty
that my feelings were much affected. I did
flower, however. I thoughtlessly
not pity the fishes nor the worms. This was
put a handful of the nutlets into
habit. As for fowling, during the last years
my pocket with my handkerchief.
that I carried a gun my excuse was that I was studying ornithology, and sought only new or rare birds. BUT I CONFESS THAT I am now inclined to think that there is a finer way of studying ornithology than this. It requires so much closer attention to the habits of the birds, that, if for that reason only, I have been willing to omit the gun. Yet notwithstanding the objection on the score of humanity, I am compelled to doubt if equally valuable sports are ever substituted for these; and when some of my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether they
But it took me a long time to pick them out of my handkerchief when I got home, and I pulled out many threads in the process.
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Henry David Thoreau and
at Walden Pond was Emerson’s
Ralph Waldo Emerson have the
gift to Thoreau. Thoreau would
greatest bromance of all time.
baby-sit Emerson’s kiddos
They first met at Emerson’s
while Emerson went away to
lecture, “The American Scholar”
lecture, and other times the two
at Harvard. Thoreau was pro-
would sit and chat about deep
foundly moved by the lecture
things no one will ever know
and shortly after the boys
or understand. The two were
became best buddies. Together
simply made to know each
they joined the Transcendental
other, and without the influence
Club, and laughed as Thoreau
of each other, neither of them
changed his name to ‘David
would have achieved as much
Henry.’ Emerson was constantly
as they did. Due to their awe-
a support and mentor to Tho-
some and adorable bromance,
reau, even letting Thoreau live
Thoreau and Emerson had a
with he and his family on many
profound intellectual impact on
occasions. The property that
American Literature forever.
the writer spent two years on
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THOREAU EMERSON
should let them hunt, I have answered, yes– remembering that it was one of the best parts of my education–make them hunters, though sportsmen only at first, if possible, mighty hunters at last, so that they shall not find game large enough for them in this or any vegetable wilderness—hunters as well as fishers of men. Thus far I am of the opinion of Chaucer’s nun, who “yave not of the text a pulled hen That saith that hunters ben not holy men.” THERE IS A PERIOD in the history of the individual, as of the race, when the hunters are the “best men,—as the Algonquins
called them. We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected. This was my answer with respect to those youths who were bent on this pursuit, trusting that they would soon outgrow it. No humane being, past the thoughtless
TRANSCENDENTALIST WRITERS OFTEN WRITE ABOUT NATURE AND THE CONNECTION TO IT AS HUMANS. MOST BELIEVED THAT WE INNATELY BELONG IN NATUTE AND THAT IT HELPS US SEE THE GRANDER THINGS IN LIFE INSTEAD OF THE CHAOS WE INVOLVE OURSELVES IN WITH SOCIETY.
age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does. The hare in its extremity cries like a child. I warn you, mothers, that my sympathies do not always make the usual philanthropic distinctions. SUCH IS OFTENEST THE young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most
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fish-pole behind. The mass of men are still and always young in this respect. In some countries a hunting parson is no uncommon sight. Such a one might make a good shepherd’s dog, but is far from being the Good Shepherd. I have been surprised to consider that the only obvious employment, except wood- chopping, ice-cutting, or the like business, which ever to my knowledge detained at Walden Pond for a whole halfday any of my fellow citizens, whether fathers or children of the town, with just one exception, was fishing. Commonly they did not think that they were lucky, or well paid original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and
for their time, unless they got a long string of fish, though they had the opportunity of seeing the pond all the while. They might go there a thousand times before the sedi-
1. ABANDONED STYLING HAIR, BUT USES BOBBY PINS TO KEEP IT OUT OF FACE. 2. THREW AWAY YOUR MAKEUP, EMBRACED NATURAL BEAUTY 3. INVESTS IN COMFORTABLE V-NECK T-SHIRTS 4. ALEARNED MOST ACCESSORIES ARE USELESS EXCEPT WATCH 5. GOOD QUALITY, WELL FITTING JEANS ARE NECESSITIES. 6. INVESTS IN GOOD LAYERING SHIRTS, HOODIES AND SWEATSHIRTS 7. RENOUNCED COLOR COORDINATING OUTFITS 9. ALLOWS SOLID COMPANY ALONG FOR THE RIDE 10. LIVES SIMPLY
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1. HOPES THAT HAIR LOOKS GOOD PUSHED BACK SINCE NICE HAIRCUTS ARE OVER 2. BRINGS COMB TO TAME BEARD, WHICH IS ALMOST TO FULL CAVE MAN BEARD 3. INVESTS IN SOLID V-NECK T-SHIRTS FOR THE ROAD 4. FINDS DURABLE, STURDY JEANS THAT WILL LAST 5. ALONG WITH THE JEANS HE DEFINITELY HAS A MANLY LEATHER BELT 6. FOUND PACK THAT WON’T BREAK AND WILL CARRY ALL NECESSITIES 7. BRINGS CLOTHES TO LAYER WITH DURING COLD TIMES 8. ALLOWS SOLID COMPANY ALONG FOR THE RIDE 10. LIVES SIMPLY
ment of fishing would sink to the bottom
beat in him and get him off. If the enterprise
and leave their purpose pure; but no doubt
were as innocent as it is early! If the snow
such a clarifying process would be going
lies deep, they strap on his snow- shoes,
on all the while. The Governor and his
and, with the giant plow, plow a furrow
Council faintly remember the pond, for they
from the mountains to the seaboard, in
went a-fishing there when they were boys; but now they are too old and dignified to go a-fishing, and so they know. I WATCH THE PASSAGE of the morning cars with the same feeling that I do the rising of the sun, which is hardly more regular. Their train of clouds stretching far behind and rising higher and higher, going to heaven while the cars are going to Boston, conceals the sun for a minute and casts my distant field into the shade, a celestial train beside which the petty train of cars which bugs the earth is but the barb of the spear. The stabler of the iron horse was up early this winter morning by the light of the stars amid the mountains, to fodder and harness his steed. Fire, too, was awakened thus early to put the vital
OCTOBER 1 – To Hubbard’s Close. Clintonia Maple Swamp is very fair now,especially a quarter of a mile off, where you get the effect of the light colors without detecting the imperfections of the leaves. Look now at such a swamp, of maples mixed with the
which the cars, like a following drill barrow,
ever green pines, at the base of a
sprinkle all the restless men and floating
pine-clad hill, and see their yellow
merchandise in the country for seed.
and scarlet and crimson fires of all
ALL DAY THE FIRE-STEED flies over the
tints, mingled and contrasted with
country, stopping only that his master may
the green. Some maples are yet
rest, and I am awakened by his tramp and defiant snort at midnight, when in some remote glen in the woods
green, only yellow-tipped on the edges of their flakes, as the edges of a hazelnut bur. Some are wholly brilliant scarlet, raying out regularly and finely every way. Others,
he fronts the elements in-
of more regular form, seem to rest
cased in ice and snow; and
heavily, flake on flake, like yellow
he will reach his stall only
or scarlet snow-drifts.’ The
with the morning star, to
cinnamon ferns are crisp and
start once more on his trav-
sour in open grounds.
els without rest or slumber. Or perchance, at evening, I hear him in his stable blowing off the superfluous energy of the day, that he may calm his nerves and cool his liver and brain for a few hours of iron slumber. If the
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