At midnight, when there was a moon, I sometimes met with hounds in my path prowling about the woods, which would skulk out of my way, as if afraid, and stand silent amid the bushes till I had passed
I think this line is humorous because he comes upon hounds which are trained to hunt and have an instinct to attack yet here they are cowering at the sight of Thoreau
alden, being like the rest usually bare of snow, or with only shallow and interrupted drifts on it, was my yard, where I could walk freely when the snow was nearly two feet deep on a level elsewhere and the villagers were confined to their stre
I think what Thoreau is trying to say is that where his house was on Walden the snow was shallow enough to walk freely and have fun and enjoy it, while the others in the village had to stay on their sidewalks because the snow was too deep to go anywhere else
Brute Neighb
I have know idea if it appropriate to annotate a title or not but after ready the excerpt I feel like I must because starting out I thought it was going to be a dispute with another man or woman only to find out the "brute neighbor" is just a bird who keeps outsmarting him
. I pursued with a paddle and he dived, but when he came up I was nearer than before. He dived again, but I miscalculated the direction he would take, and we were fifty rods apart when he came to the surface this time, for I had helped to widen the interval; and again he laughed long and loud, and with more reason than before. He manœuvred so cunningly that I could not get within half a dozen rods of
I just think this line is hilarious because all Thoreau is trying to do is examine this bird and the bird keeps playing games with him and his coo sounds like a laugh that is mocking him.
It was very pleasant, when I stayed late in town, to launch myself into the night, especially if it was dark and tempestuous, and set sail from some bright village parlor or lecture room, with a bag of rye or Indian meal upon my shoulder, for my snug harbor in the woods, having made all tight without and withdrawn under hatches with a merry crew of thoughts, leaving only my outer man at the helm, or even tying up the helm when it was plain sailing
I like this line because of it's ominous feeling. It's dark and he has no idea where he is going which is why he loves it. It is like an adventure for him to find his way home in the pitch black night.
After hoeing, or perhaps reading and writing, in the forenoon, I usually bathed again in the pond, swimming across one of its coves for a stint, and washed the dust of labor from my person, or smoothed out the last wrinkle which study had made, and for theafternoon was absolutely f
I like this line because by the time afternoon comes he has already done his work, bathed, swam, and gotten ready for the day so he had no care in the world and was free to do anything. Oh how I wish I could be like that.
the year? This broad field which I have looked at so long looks not to me as the principal cultivator, but away from me toinfluences more genial to it, which water and make it green. These beans have results which
I think what Thoreau is trying to say is that this whole time he thought he was growing the beans but he merely just planted the seeds and mother nature did the rest.
effete. My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks. The last have nibbled for me a
I like this line because he has no quarrel with man only worms and woodchucks because they eat his beans that he is trying to grow. which he believes is his connection to earth and nature, and they have already ate a quarter of an acre. Even though they got a quarter of an acre he never gives up
Now that the cars are gone by and all the restless world with them, and the fishes in the pond no longer feel their rumbling, I am more alone than ever. For the rest of the long afternoon, perhaps, my meditations are interrupted only by the faint rattle ofa carriage or team along the distant
Thoreau here describes everyday life and I relate to this line because I live out in the country side away from town so I know what it like to hear all the cars and see all the people all day long and just how relaxing it is to get home and be away from it all.
The whistle of the locomotive penetratesmy woods summer and winter, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some farmer’s yard, informing me that many restless city merchants are arriving within the circle of the town, or adventurous country traders from the other side. As they come under one horizon, they shout their warning to get off the track to the other, heard sometimes through the circles
I like this line because the sound of a locomotive to him is the same as a rooster for a farmer. The locomotive lets Thoreau know that the merchants are in town and the rooster for the farmer lets the farmer know that it is morning.
he Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were,
I like this line because without this railroad he would be one with nature, but with it he still holds a like to society.
ries. They seemed glad to get out themselves, and as if unwilling to be brought in.
I believe this is a powerful line because he notices his table, books, and pen with ink sitting in the grass with the sun shining on them and to him it looked natural. Almost liked they belonged there and it made the connection of him and his work and how they are so intertwined in nature.
But while we are confined to books, though the most select and classic, and read only particular written languages, which are themselves but dialects and provincial, we are in danger of forgetting the language which all things and events speak without metaphor, which alone is copious and standa
Perhaps Thoreau is trying to say that even though books are good, we cannot forget all the stuff that made the book happen. All the real world things.
artificial. It is not necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he sweats easie
I think what Thoreau is trying to say is that nobody should have to excessively in order to be happy but rather work easier and more relaxed
I intend to build me a house which will surpass any on the main street in Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me as much and will cost me no
I think what he was saying here is that his house will be better than the ones in town because he built it with his bare hands and though it isn't luxury it makes him happy because it was built they way he wanted it not bought to compete with someone.
mber. It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your 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
I like this quote because I always grew up learning that if you borrow something to return it in the exact condition as when they gave it to you or better than it was, just like Thoreau did.
Finding that my fellow-citizens were not likely to offer me any room in the court house, or any curacy or living any where else, but I must shift for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the woods, where I was bet
I feel like Thoreau is saying that he doesn't feel like he is in the right place or at home when he is in a city. I feel like when he said I turned my head towards the woods, where was better known he meant that he loves nature and spends most of his time there so that is where he feels truly at home.
Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by th
Thoreau is basically saying that even though that there is a world out there worth viewing most people don't get to see it and most likely never will because they are so caught up in work that they forget to be themselves and break away from it.