Thoreau and his fellow Transcendentalists regarded Nature as a source of wisdom, purity, and life. Considered by many an extremist, a genius by others, a true representative of the Romantic spirit and, above all, of the so deeply American value of individualism, his account of the 2-year experience in the woods near Walden Pond remains one of the freshest, most true-to-life while consciously artistic 19th-century literary pieces.
Blog Assignment 2
Read the chapter "Where I Lived and What I Lived for" looking for instances in which Thoreau tells readers about his experience, and instances of the message / suggestions / pieces of advice / general thoughts he gives. Then, concentrate on his aesthetic use of language: How does he create beauty thorugh language? Go over the text again, and choose your favorite phrase or sentence, the one in which you find a powerful message expressed in a beautiful language. Copy your favorite statement in the Comments section below. Try to avoid repeating the same phrase as your classmates. (You may also send the assignment via e mail) Due Monday, March 25th
My favourite passage is on paragraph 15 in the first two sentences and it says "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep". I really enjoyed and liked these two sentences because of the metaphor it involved to express the idea of change of a reality. It called my attention the diction he used to express this metaphor. The word "dawn" that stands for the opportunity to move ourselves to do something with reality and "sleep" as the moment when we are passive and that we need dawn to change a certain reality, contribute to express the powerful message of this metaphor.
ResponderEliminarFor exampple, if we want to change an unfear, negative reality we should be awake and keep awake in order to do something. We have to expect the morning with joy and with a positive and hopeful feelings so as to achieve our objectives. The morning is the moment when new ideas come to our mind that will be very useful for the rest of the day or for our future plans. The author created beauty through the choice of words within a metaphor in order to make human beings aware of the importance of the morning. That is to say, how dawn is a relevant opportunity to achieve an objective in life.
To sum up, it called my attention how this metaphor expressed something meaningful to my life and to my way of thinking.
My favourite passages were:
ResponderEliminar"For the first week, whenever I looked out on the pond it impressed me like a tarn high up on the side of a mountain, its bottom far above the surface of other lakes, and, as the sun arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist, and here and there, by degrees, its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods as at the breaking of some nocturnal conventicle." (Paragraph 11)
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one.” (Paragrap 23)
My favourite passage was:
ResponderEliminar"Why should we knock under and go with the stream? Let us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool called a dinner, situated in the meridian shallows. Weather this danger and you are safe, for the rest of the way is down hill. With unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast like Ulysses".
(Paragraph 22)
My favourite passage is:
ResponderEliminar"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." (paragraph 16)
My favorite passage is:
ResponderEliminar"This small lake was of most value as a neighbor in the intervals of a gentle rain-storm in August, when, both air and water being perfectly still, but the sky overcast, mid-afternoon had all the serenity of evening, and the wood thrush sang around, and was heard from shore to shore. A lake like this is never smoother than at such a time; and the clear portion of the air above it being, shallow and darkened by clouds, the water, full of light and reflections, becomes a lower heaven itself so much the more important".
(Paragraph 11)
Thoreau seems to appreciate nature in a deep way and he expresses himself in a very detailed manner by helping the reader, with his words and expressions, to imagine and feel whatever he is trying to transmit. An example of this is seen when he mentions how the "wood thrush sang around". We know that this is not possible because wood cannot sing but what he means is the relaxing noise the wood thrush made.
Throughout the text, Thoreau put emphasis on the aesthetic use of the language to help the reader feel, imagine and interpret clearly his intentions and message.
I like several passages; I will explain two of them. The first one is “We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow.” (paragraph 18) The second one “Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.” (paragraph 22)
ResponderEliminarMy favourite passage is:
ResponderEliminar"Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be to deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments". (paragraph 21).
I think this passage conveys an important message. Thoreau emphasizes how false ideas or appearances are taken as real truths by society, while in reality, only real life is fabulous and so full of truth.
My favourite passage of “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” is:
ResponderEliminar“The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.” (Paragraph 8)
This passage clearly shows both Thoreau’s experience and message. In the first sentence, he describes what the winds were like by means of a simili (“as sweep over the ridges of mountains”) and by contrasting “celestial” and “terrestrial”; he says that there is a celestial melody in the wind, being terrestrial, if we listen carefully. This serves him to convey his message in the next two sentences and to do so, he changes the tense to the Simple Present. He states that Heaven can be on earth everywhere, but not all of us can find it. The celestial tune of the wind he experienced is always there, the same as the rest of creation, yet the “ears that hear it” are few. There is also allusion to Olympus, the Greek home of Gods, adding to the idea of “the outside of the earth” being everywhere. Words such as “forever” and “uninterrupted” denote the unlimited scope of this truth throughout time. This whole message is related to transcendentalists’ ideas that we have to seek simplicity in order to achieve unity with nature (and thus hear what few ears do), live life (because Heaven can be found on earth), and that the individual can eventually transcend his physicality and reach union with the Universe. I think Thoreau presents worthwhile ideas to reflect on with aesthetic and natural beauty.
"I perceive that we inhabitants of New England live this mean life that we do because our vision does not penetrate the surface of things. We think that that is which appears to be."
ResponderEliminarParagraph 21, lines 15 and 16.
I like the way Thoreau describes the way people approach to things and other people that surround them and their failure to recognize the important things in life What he is trying to tell us is that they fail to find the essential meaning of life,how valuable people are without taking into account their physical appearance. In this passage, Thoreau reminds us about the simplicity of life and that all of us should look for that simplicity.
Where I lived was as far off as many a region viewed nightly by astronomers. We are wont to imagine rare and delectable places in some remote and more celestial corner of the system, behind the constellation of Cassiopeia's Chair, far from noise and disturbance. I discovered that my house actually had its site in such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe. If it were worth the while to settle in those parts near to the Pleiades or the Hyades, to Aldebaran or Altair,(10) then I was really there, or at an equal remoteness from the life which I had left behind, dwindled and twinkling with as fine a ray to my nearest neighbor, and to be seen only in moonless nights by him. Such was that part of creation where I had squatted, —
ResponderEliminar"There was a shepherd that did live,
And held his thoughts as high
As were the mounts whereon his flocks
Did hourly feed him by."(11)
What should we think of the shepherd's life if his flocks always wandered to higher pastures than his thoughts? (Paragrraph 13)
I chose this passage because it struck me by its crucial relevance in unfolding the idea of Change in what follows throught the text. The author initialy uses the description of his house as a way of depicting his ideas about changing the people's current way of life. He refers to his home as being far away from any civilization as to describe his way of thinking being totaly opposed to others. Then, he refers to constellations so as to use nature to compare his ideas of detachment from the rest of humanity and to announce that he already had changed his attitudes towards life and had acquired his ideas of life as being lived without worries: "then I was really there, or at an equal remoteness from the life which I had left behind,". Also,simply marvelled at the addition of the lines of the poem towards the end of the paragraph. The author makes us think upon his ideas of leading a simple life by posing a question through the poem. This poem is worded in such a way that it makes the reader think upon that simplicity the author had already lived his life through.
“Every moment was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity” I chose this phrase because Thoreau is able to show us the real value of life. As we discussed in class, the morning is the part of the day when we decide to do something useful to our lives. When we have the chance to wake up, we can think about all the significant and pleasant changes we can bring about in our lives. This desire to become different is a good moment to change not only oneself but also the society in which we live. The morning is a moment to begin something new that can transcend the painful reality. Also, the phrase makes reference to produce that change in a simple way. We can come back to essential and basic things of life; such as the family, the nature, the love or the friends. And we can leave aside the difficult and minor issues of life that do not allow us to live properly.
ResponderEliminar“The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.”
ResponderEliminarI really loved this incredible passage since Thoreau is able to synthesize magnificently, the endlessness of creation and how himself, as part of creation, feels like God, since in spite of his material poverty and modest lifestyle, he owned the whole universe.
In these inspiring lines, the narrator describes through a complicated but at the same time easy to grasp metaphor, the eternity of human essence. Although he lived in a precarious house in the woods, for him, this place represented Olympus, the endless palace of the most powerful being and the ancient creator of universe. Therefore, he felt the most powerful God on earth. By saying this, he is confirming some previous ideas presented in the chapter related to the fact that to be powerful, one does not need to have material goods or possessions, but freedom, peace and happiness.
The narrator, constantly discovering the intrinsic nature of life, considers that God is the “Supreme Poet”, the supreme Artist, the supreme Creator, but compares himself to Him, though sincerely humbly (and here resides the mastery of his style in my opinion), when he says that “Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere”. For him the whole earth is the “House of God” and since he (the narrator) feels the owner of all lands, he realizes that he is also God, a supreme manifestation of the Creator. However, by saying that few are the ears that hear the poem of creation he admits that what makes him more powerful and fortunate than the rest of creatures is not being the manifestation of God but being able to hear the poem, to discover that he is a manifestation of God
Celina Casanova
'Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive'.
ResponderEliminarI chose this passage because it reflects the importance of seezeing and enjoying life. In Literature, 'morning' is related to the time of God's blessings, a symbol of purity and promise. The author says that most people tend to live without emotion, excitment or deep desires; they only live for physical labors. These people are sleepy, unmotivated, they pass through life without taking the most of it. However, there are some people (though a minority) who choose to be really alive, to be awake. Thoreau constantly preaches against being asleep (or not fully alert) while awake. A major purpose of his life is to remain awake and sensitive to Nature and to higher feelings within because 'to be awake is to be alive'.
Florencia García Torres.
One of my favourite passages is:
ResponderEliminar-- "When you think of getting a farm turn it thus in your mind, not to buy greedily; nor spare your pains to look at it, and do not think it enough to go round it once. The oftener you go there the more it will please you, if it is good." I think I shall not buy greedily, but go round and round it as long as I live, and be buried in it first, that it may please me the more at last
the passage i enjoyed the most was:
ResponderEliminar"For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life — I wrote this some years ago — that were worth the postage. The penny-post is, commonly, an institution through which you seriously offer a man that penny for his thoughts which is so often safely offered in jest. And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper."
The passage I liked the most is:
ResponderEliminar"I wanted to live deep and suck out the marrow of life, to live sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life , to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
I chose this passage because the imagery the writer uses is so vivid that the reader can almost feel what the writer wants to express. As a reader, I could understand the way the writer feels or what he wants to transmit thanks to the accumulation of examples he gives which help me to better see and almost feel the way the writer does.
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ResponderEliminarMy favourite statements are:
ResponderEliminar"But I would say to my fellows, once for all, As long as possible live free and uncommited."
"[...]I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them[...]"
The statement that I like the most is:
ResponderEliminar" That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired life, and is persuing a descending and darkening way."
I liked this passage because I think is expresses a truely significant message about life and how people choose to live it. I think it refelcts man´s hope for a brighter new tomorrow and a better future, without which it would be impossible to live.