d, and again near the end of winter, when the snow was melted on my south hill-side and about my wood-pile,
Sun exposure during the winter hits the southern part of Thoreau's property based on the location of the sun during that time. This means there is more sun exposure on his south hill side which causes the snow to melt there first.
I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond,
This is hard for me to visualize or hear in my head, I don't think I have ever heard this noise before.
howls. This was his looning,—perhaps the wildest sound that is ever heard here, making the woods ring fa
I find it fascinating that sounds like these can be heard out in the wild along with other noises. Thoreau's description of the sound making the woods ring far and wide makes it sound as if the woods are never ending, and filled with only the sounds of nature
They come rustling through the woods li
A good use of a metaphor to describe the sound of men walking through the woods, the same noise as leaves rustling in the wind or falling to the earth floor
found by this time. I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got more than is sufficient while
The less you own and the more simple you make your life, there is less of a need to steal an item.
Though he knows that he has travelled it a thousand times, he cannot recognize a feature in it, but it is as strange to him as if it
Someone may know the road so well and traveled it a thousand times, but once something changes about it, such as a blanket of snow covering the path, plants and trees, it could be daunting to try and have to figure out if you're going the right way or not
k. As I had little aid from horses or cattle, or hired men or boys, or improved implements of husbandry, I was much slower, and became much more intimate with my beans than
We have lost this connection to Earth and the food we grow due to monoculture farming. It's much more work when there is less machinery used and more varieties of produce grown together, but it's better for the environment and for the economy.
I planted about two acres and a half of upland; and as it was only about fifteen years since the land was cleared, and I myself had got out two or three cords of stumps, I did not give it any manure; but in the course of the summer it appeared by the arrowheads which I turned up in hoeing, that an extinct nation had anciently dwelt here and planted corn and beans ere white men came to clear the land, and so, to some extent, had exhausted the soil forthis very crop
This sentence was interesting to read. While reading Thoreau I envisioned this almost uncharted area that only a few people had wandered, but in reality Native Americans have been living on this land for far longer than us.
from 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
Based on this sentence, it sounds as if Thoreau was the best person to write this book and live this life. It seems as if having a family, having animals or even having anyone else to take care of was of any interest or importance to him.
all have. All day the sun has shone on the surface of some savage swamp, where the single spruce stands hung with usnea lichens, and small hawks circulate above, andthe chickadee lisps amid the evergreens, and the partridge and rabbit skulk beneath; but now a more dismal and fitting day dawns, and a different race of creatures awakes to express the meaning of Nat
This is a wonderful description of nature itself. Usnea lichen is the stringy, mossy-like plant that grows on branches and can be seen here in California as well.
My house was on the side of a hill, immediately on the edge of the larger wood, in the midst of a young forest of pitch pines and hickories, and half a dozen rods from the pond, to which a narrow footpath led down the hill. In my front yard grew the strawberry, blackberry, and life-everlasting, johnswort and goldenrod, shrub-oaks and sand-cherry, blueberry and groundnut. Near the end of May, the sand-cherry (Cerasus pumila,) adorned the sides of the path with its delicate flowers arranged in umbels cylindrically about its short stems, which last, in the fall, weighed down with good sized and handsome cherries, fell over in wreaths like rays on every side. I tasted them out of compliment to Nature, though they were scarcely palatable. The sumach (Rhus glabra,) grew luxuriantly about the house, pushing up through the embankment which I had made, and growing five or six feet the first season. Its broad pinnate tropical leaf was pleasant though strange to look on. The large buds, suddenly pushing out late in the spring from dry sticks which had seemed to be dead, developed themselves as by magic into graceful green and tender boughs, an inch in diameter; and sometimes, as I sat at my window, so heedlessly did they grow and tax their weak joints, I heard a fresh and tender bough suddenly fall like a fan to the ground, when there was not a breath of air stirring, broken off by its own weight. In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke the
This is a perfect description of the changing of each season. Thoreau would have been out in nature for about 8 seasons, and was able to experience the beauty in each one.I loved hearing him identify St. John's Wort and Goldenrod. Both are commonly used nowadays.
t. 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 the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that “for yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow theyhave only one word, and they express the variety of meaning by pointing backward for yesterday, forward for to-morrow, and overhead for the passing day.” This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me bytheir standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.
While in nature, there is really no need to know the days of the week or the hours of the day. Thoreau explains that his fellow townsmen might think of him as being lazy while he's out in nature, but nature will never scold him for being "lazy." With a simpler life, perhaps it's okay to not feel like you have to be doing something every hour of the day.
ed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller’s wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse
In this sentence Thoreau explains that he took careful consideration when building his home. The sun sets in the west, and so he put a window on the west side of his home so the sun could shine through it.
r enterprise. The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it
Thoreau describes that he takes extremely good care of other people's items, and when he returns it, it's in better condition than it was before. This is something that I think should be done still to this day, but with so many disposable items sometimes people think it's easier or better to get the person a new item.
ure. Under the most splendid house in the city is still to be found the cellar where they store their roots as of old, and long after the superstructure has disappeared posterity remark its dent in the ea
This sentence seems to explain that no matter how large or glorious the house is in the city, there will always be the remains of the older ways of living. The house may be gone in the future, rebuilt, changed, renovated or nothing there, but whats underneath the home, the earth, will still be there.
In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live s
Thoreau explains in this sentence that we should not feel that we are suffering in our lives. If we learn to live with less and much simpler, then life will be enjoying.
I learned from my two years’ experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one’s necessary food, even in this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and stren
Thoreau wrote about living off the land. Today's society is filled with frozen meals for convenience, and I feel that over time humanity is forgetting to learn how to forage, identify plants and animals in the way our ancestors did in order to live.
before he dies? Why should not our furniture be as simple as the Arab’s or the In
In a society like ours, people are brainwashed into thinking they need the newest gadget, a matching furniture set, dishware for the holidays and dishware for every day. Other cultures live on far less than Americans do, and focus on more important things in life such as simplicity.