At length the jays arrive, whose discordant screams were heard long before, as they were warily making their approach an eighth of a mile
Thoreau describes jay's chirping as "screams" and I feel that he was getting annoyed of their constant "screaming" especially cause he could hear them before they were coming.
ock, I was startled bythe loud honking of a go
I feel he describes the sound of a goose in a humorous manner almost as if he is used to it.
ces. Though the sky was by this time overcast, the pond was so smooth that I could see where he broke the surface when I
I can feel his frustration with not being able to catch a duck and how the ducks are almost taunting him by breaking the surface of the water to tell him that they are there and that they can not be caught.
did not hear him. His white breast, the stillness of the air, and thesmoothness of the water were a
He just has such a beautiful way with words and they just describe so nicely to where you can picture what he is writing about.
t out of danger.” Sometimes I bolted suddenly, and nobody could tell my whereabouts, for I did not stand much about gracefulness, and never hesitated at a gap
I can picture what he is doing because when I was younger I used to take off into the wild and my father would always fear where I was cause I could be gone for hours just exploring.
prop it up. They, being commonly out of doors, heard whatever was in the wind
I can picture this because I was always outdoors and I would recognize most sounds and it is was fun to see how much I was familiar with.
eremony with sincerity. We should never cheat and insult and banish one another by our meanness, if there were present the kernel of worth and friendliness.
He is saying here that we should always be kind to one another and never spread hate and meanness. We should always respect one another as well.
be conversing with an angel. Breadmay not always nourish us; but it always does us good, it even takes stiffness out of our joints, and makes us supple and buoyant, when we knew not what ailed us, to recognize any generosity in man or Nature, to share any unmixed and heroic jo
He is basically saying that we should be grateful for what we get and that it may not be the best but it will do just fine. We need to be more thankful for what we get rather then what we don’t get.
r heads. Early in the morning I worked barefooted, dabbling like a plastic artist in the dew
This really shows how hard of a worker he was and how proud he was of his accomplishments with his bean field. It took some struggles and hard work but he was happy with the outcome.
Boards.......................... $ 8.03½, mostly shanty boards.Refuse shingles for roof sides,.. 4.00Laths,........................... 1.25Two second-hand windowswith glass,................... 2.43One thousand old brick,.......... 4.00Two casks of lime,............... 2.40 That was high.Hair,............................ 0.31 More than I needed.Mantle-tree iron,................ 0.15Nails,........................... 3.90Hinges and screws,............... 0.14Latch,........................... 0.10Chalk,........................... 0.01Transportation,.................. 1.40 I carried a good part————on my back.In all,..................... $
This quote from Thoreau's excerpt really gives you an idea of how much things cost when he was alive and how cheap it was compared to that type of work and materials now.
e names of. I would rather sit ona pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velv
I think that Thoreau is more of a lone wolf than a sheep in a herd and he would rather work alone rather than crowded with lots of other people.
et cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe amalariaall the w
I feel Thoreau was not materialistic and was satisfied with anything and in this quote he shows us that he would rather ride bare minimum rather than in the fanciest car money could buy.
It is the luxurious and dissipated who set the fashions which the herd so
Thoreau is basically saying when the rich set a trend in fashion everyone just followed like sheep in a herd.
speration. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
Resignation is a form of giving up and I feel that is what he was saying in this quote that resignation is desperation.
om my slumbers. I kept neither dog, cat, cow, pig, nor hens, so that you would have said there was a deficiency of domestic sounds; neither thechurn, nor the spinning wheel, nor even the singing of the kettle, nor the hissing of the urn, nor children crying, to comfort one. An old-fashioned man would have lost his senses or died of ennui before
I feel what Thoreau meant here was that he was not like other men and that he did not keep animals like most of them did as well. He is also saying an average man would have been dissatisfied, but he was not.
What’s the railroad to me?I never go to seeWhere it ends.It fills a few hollows,And makes banks for the swallows,It sets the sand a-blowing,And the blackberries a-growing
I think Thoreau wanted his readers to get a sense of what he saw and felt when the railroad would ride by and he puts his feelings into a nicely put poem.
f we were always indeed getting our living, and regulating our lives according to the last and best mode we had learned, we should never be troubled
He is saying that we should live our lives to the fullest so that we never regret the things we never did.
e. It was worth the while to see the sun shine on these things, and hear the free wind blow on them; so much more interesting most familiar objects look out of door
His choice of words are very intriguing in how they can make you get a picture in your head of what he sees and feel what he feels.
When my floor was dirty, I rose early, and, setting all my furniture out of doors on the grass, bed and bedstead making but one budget, dashed water on the floor, and sprinkled white sand from the pond on it, and then with a broom scrubbe
I really can see based on his great use of imagery and sensory details how he cleaned his home so intricately. Also I can get an image in my head of how different people cleaned their homes back then.