Nature Literature discussion
Thoreau's Journals
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Composition
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Something I came across today.When asked by an aunt if he had made peace with God, Thoreau replied, “I did not know we had ever quarreled.”
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Each section gives one much to ponder.
Becky -- have you read in Thoreau's "it is worth while" or "it may be worth while."
I read in an essay he mentioned this many times referring to - it is worthwhile to register what we see in nature. A moment. A scene. I am interested to see this in context of his writings. Have you come across this line anywhere??? I am super interested , because I am working on a series of scenes that my motto is it is worthwhile to take note...
Mod
Each section gives one much to ponder.
Becky -- hav..."
I can't say that this phrase has stuck out to me (yet), Sher, but I will for sure look for it going forward!
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When asked by an aunt if he had made peace with God, Thoreau replied, “I did not know we had ever quarreled.”"
I remember that quote, too, John. He does make me chuckle at times!
If my world is not sufficient without thee, my friend, I will wait till it is and then call thee. You shall come to a palace, not to an almshouse.
My homeliest thought, like the diamond brought from farthest within the mine, will shine with the purest lustre.
Though I write every day, yet when I say a good thing it seems as if I wrote but rarely.
To be great, we do as if we would be tall merely, be longer than we are broad, stretch ourselves and stand on tiptoe. But greatness is well proportioned, unstrained, and stands on the soles of the feet.
How many are waiting for health and warm weather! But they wait for none.
In composition I miss the hue of the mind. As if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning and evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure.
This good book helps the sun shine in my chamber. The rays fall on its page as if to explain and illustrate it.
I who have been sick hear cattle low in the street, with such a healthy ear as prophesies my cure. These sounds lay a finger on my pulse to some purpose. A fragrance comes in at all my senses which proclaims that I am still of Nature the child. The threshing in yonder barn and the tinkling of the anvil come from the same side of Styx with me. If I were a physician I would try my patients thus. I would wheel them to a window and let Nature feel their pulse. It will soon appear if their sensuous existence is sound. These sounds are but the throbbing of some pulse in me.
Nature seems to have given me these hours to pry into her private drawers. I watch the shadow of the insensible perspiration rising from my coat or hand on the wall. I go and feel my pulse in all the recesses of the house and see if I am of force to carry a homely life and comfort into them.