"The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defence, but the toughest son of earth and of Heaven, and by his greater strength and endurance his fainting companions will recognise the God in him. It is the worshippers of beauty, after all, who have one the real pioneer work of the world.
(page 54 of the anthology; page 288 of the text)
I picked this small excerpt because, in my opinion, it is not only beautiful in how it was written but it also reminded me of the text we read by Emerson. Thoreau also elevates the figure of the poet several times and this is just an example, in which, he brings up the idea that the poet is the first builder of the world. To me, this means that the poet, through his work of expressing and appreciating beauty combined with his 'Godly' features, is the responsible for the first works of the world, no matter how he can contribute it is still important that he keeps being present throughout the ages.
Since transcendentalists truly believed in subjectivity and the cultivation of the self, I have chosen a more personal approach to the task we were given:
PART 1
Having been born and raised in a rural area of Germany, nature has always played a big role in my life – that is up until the age of 18, when I fled the countryside to explore big city life. The little town I am from is surrounded by large fields, little creeks, and deep woods. In fact, the woodland was only a five-minute walk away from home. Reading A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers took me back to my formative years in rural Germany, the same way Thoreau revisits “some haunt of [his] youth” (297) in 19th century Massachusetts. The very first thing that aroused my interest was the beautiful depiction of the landscape and wildlife in the area of Concord. Thoreau’s detailed descriptions of nature build up landscapes before our mind’s eye and are then given life and a certain dynamic to, through his enthusiasm and lyrical writing. The first signs of fall he describes at the beginning of “Friday” had a particular effect on me. As the natural world we find in this excerpt almost equals the one of my homeland, I could not help but feel connected to his words. The change of season, especially from summer to autumn is something that has always intrigued me very much. A new season can be immediately felt in the subtleties of nature but it is also reflected on the instantaneous change in behavior of both humans and animals:
"The cottages looked more snug and comfortable, and their inhabitants were seen only for a moment, and then went quietly in and shut the door, retreating inward to the haunts of summer.
"And now the cold autumnal dews are seen To cobweb ev'ry green; And by the low-shorn rowens doth appear The fast-declining year."
We heard the sigh of the first autumnal wind, and even the water had acquired a grayer hue. The sumach, grape, and maple were already changed, and the milkweed had turned to a deep rich yellow. In all woods the leaves were fast ripening for their fall; for their full veins and lively gloss mark the ripe leaf, and not the sered one of the poets; and we knew that the maples, stripped of their leaves among the earliest, would soon stand like a wreath of smoke along the edge of the meadow. Already the cattle were heard to low wildly in the pastures and along the highways, restlessly running to and fro, as if in apprehension of the withering of the grass and of the approach of winter. Our thoughts, too, began to rustle." (284-285)
Taking into consideration Thoreau’s deep involvement in the transcendentalist movement that encouraged a sense of wonder about the natural world and within us all, it is of importance to pay close attention to the relationship he draws between his human feelings and his surrounding environment. To achieve this relation, Thoreau uses many personifications to describe acts of nature. On page 284 e.g. he speaks of the “yellow gurgling water” or “flitting clouds.” These personifications can be found throughout the entire text and give nature humane characteristics, which firstly underline that nature itself is a living organism and secondly once again affirm the fact that nature and human kind are one. He goes as far as to conclude that the natural world has a strong will of its own and acts on whatever it pleases to: “Nature will know how to point it out in due time, if it be necessary, by methods yet more searching and unexpected.” (303) Nature, ultimately, “is one and continuous everywhere.” (296)
Instead of focusing on the material aspects of his surrounding environment, Thoreau tries to dig deeper, beyond the descriptive facts about the flora and fauna. He eventually lets his mind float and in a way becomes one with a larger whole and transcends into a spiritual realm. This can be best seen when he talks about the shadows that “harmonized with our mood” (298) or the “current of our thoughts [that] made as sudden bends as the river.” Eventually, nature helps him to come to certain realizations, such as the importance of following one’s personal path, discussed on page 287. Here, he compares the common folk to cattle that simply follows predetermined ways of life. His conclusion in regards to this matter is very definite and strong and has become another quotation that intrigued me immensely: “How cheap must be the material of which so many men are made of.” (287) Various other ideas of his (such as the role of the poet) are reflected upon, which have ultimately been triggered by nature.
I would like to add that this is not my first reading of Thoreau. In fact, I had given Walden a try many years ago and dismissed it as utterly tedious. It might be the physical and spatial distance to the natural surroundings I grew up in or maybe a certain kind of homesickness that made me appreciate these excerpts the way I did. However, my thirst for further moments of nostalgia at the same time might have overshadowed some very important key elements of the text.
"If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveller always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning a new page to view. The wind sets the types on this blue ground, and the inquiring may always read a new truth there. There are things there written with such fine and subtile tinctures, paler than the juice of limes, that to the diurnal eye they leave no trace, and only the chemistry of night reveals them. Every man's daylight firmament answers in his mind to the brightness of the vision in his starriest hour." (p. 304)
I chose this quote because it inspires a lot of optimism and idealism in the way one can look at the world. Looking at the sky and seeing a million of possibilities, to be able to read something in it and to feel something thanks to it, seems like a beautiful way to approach life. Letting the surroundings speak to us and make our brains work, brings so many new possibilities in interpreting things and brings a new sensitivity that can only teach us more about the world and about ourselves. Also the idea of transformation or the idea of seeing change on something that remains the same is really interesting and reminds me of the power of feeling inspired. If the stars bright up the sky when it is most dark then so can one's mind be filled with new ideas and wonderful thoughts.
"You shall see rude and sturdy, experienced and wise man, keeping their castles (...) greater men than Homer, or Chaucer, or Shakespeare, only they never got time to say so; they never took to the way of writing. Look at their fields, and imagine what they might write, if ever they should put pen to paper." - page 48 of the anthology, page 4 of the original. Having been raised sorrounded by people whose main concern was to earn a living, for themselves and their family, not even thinking about pursuing an academic carreer, I relate closely with this excerpt from Thoreau's text. The elevation of the common, uneducated, rude man above the fathers of Western society strikes me as bold and, at the same time, natural. Bold because it dares to compare what the artistic world sees as gods (Homer, Chaucer and Shakespeare) against mere mortals. And natural because, in a work permeated by Nature, the man who works this Nature, lives it, is one with it, is necessarily above all other men. There is also, in this excerpt, almost a sense of chance. The only reason why country men are not perceived as equals by the world with Homer and the like is the fact that "they never took to the way of writing".
In vain I see the morning rise, In vain observe the western blaze, Who idly look to other skies, Expecting life by other ways.
Amidst such boundless wealth without, I only still am poor within, The birds have sung their summer out, But still my spring does not begin.
Shall I then wait the autumn wind, Compelled to seek a milder day, And leave no curious nest behind, No woods still echoing to my lay?
O que me cativou a atenção neste poema foi, sobretudo, a problematização da criação poética. O poeta, para os transcendentalistas, é o tradutor da linguagem da natureza, aquele que traduz a sua beleza. Mas, neste poema, o obstáculo que se ergue entre o poeta e a natureza parece ser o acto de escrever e acompanhar a organicidade incessante da natureza. Os dois versos que surgem antes do poema expressam essa questão: "My Life has been the poem I would have writ,/But I could not both live and utter it." Apesar desta ruptura temporária, em que o poeta deixa de viver o poema inefável que a natureza inscreve em si para passar ao processo de escrita, não deixa de ser curioso o paradoxo de estarmos, ainda assim, perante a existência de um poema. Esse facto levou-me ao pensamento agradável de que o poeta escreve inevitavelmente, ainda que seja sobre a tristeza que sente quando não consegue traduzir em versos o sentimento numinoso que a natureza lhe proporciona. Gostei sobretudo da quadra final, em que o enunciador poético coloca a possibilidade de renovação do seu espírito e inspiração através da renovação das estações, terminando com duas imagens metafóricas que achei tocantes pela sua simplicidade: "And leave no curious nest behind,/ No woods still echoing to my lay?". Para o poeta transcendentalista, pequenos fenómenos naturais, como um ninho ou os sons que a floresta emite, podem ser estímulos determinantes para renovar a relação entre homem e natureza, e para a recriação dessa relação através de palavras.
"The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defence, but the toughest son of earth and of Heaven, and by his greater strength and endurance his fainting companions will recognise the God in him. It is the worshippers of beauty, after all, who have one the real pioneer work of the world.
ResponderEliminar(page 54 of the anthology; page 288 of the text)
I picked this small excerpt because, in my opinion, it is not only beautiful in how it was written but it also reminded me of the text we read by Emerson. Thoreau also elevates the figure of the poet several times and this is just an example, in which, he brings up the idea that the poet is the first builder of the world. To me, this means that the poet, through his work of expressing and appreciating beauty combined with his 'Godly' features, is the responsible for the first works of the world, no matter how he can contribute it is still important that he keeps being present throughout the ages.
Since transcendentalists truly believed in subjectivity and the cultivation of the self, I have chosen a more personal approach to the task we were given:
ResponderEliminarPART 1
Having been born and raised in a rural area of Germany, nature has always played a big role in my life – that is up until the age of 18, when I fled the countryside to explore big city life. The little town I am from is surrounded by large fields, little creeks, and deep woods. In fact, the woodland was only a five-minute walk away from home.
Reading A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers took me back to my formative years in rural Germany, the same way Thoreau revisits “some haunt of [his] youth” (297) in 19th century Massachusetts.
The very first thing that aroused my interest was the beautiful depiction of the landscape and wildlife in the area of Concord. Thoreau’s detailed descriptions of nature build up landscapes before our mind’s eye and are then given life and a certain dynamic to, through his enthusiasm and lyrical writing.
The first signs of fall he describes at the beginning of “Friday” had a particular effect on me. As the natural world we find in this excerpt almost equals the one of my homeland, I could not help but feel connected to his words. The change of season, especially from summer to autumn is something that has always intrigued me very much. A new season can be immediately felt in the subtleties of nature but it is also reflected on the instantaneous change in behavior of both humans and animals:
"The cottages looked more snug and comfortable, and their inhabitants were seen only for a moment, and then went quietly in and shut the door, retreating inward to the haunts of summer.
"And now the cold autumnal dews are seen
To cobweb ev'ry green;
And by the low-shorn rowens doth appear
The fast-declining year."
We heard the sigh of the first autumnal wind, and even the water had acquired a grayer hue. The sumach, grape, and maple were already changed, and the milkweed had turned to a deep rich yellow. In all woods the leaves were fast ripening for their fall; for their full veins and lively gloss mark the ripe leaf, and not the sered one of the poets; and we knew that the maples, stripped of their leaves among the earliest, would soon stand like a wreath of smoke along the edge of the meadow. Already the cattle were heard to low wildly in the pastures and along the highways, restlessly running to and fro, as if in apprehension of the withering of the grass and of the approach of winter. Our thoughts, too, began to rustle." (284-285)
PART 2
ResponderEliminarTaking into consideration Thoreau’s deep involvement in the transcendentalist movement that encouraged a sense of wonder about the natural world and within us all, it is of importance to pay close attention to the relationship he draws between his human feelings and his surrounding environment.
To achieve this relation, Thoreau uses many personifications to describe acts of nature. On page 284 e.g. he speaks of the “yellow gurgling water” or “flitting clouds.” These personifications can be found throughout the entire text and give nature humane characteristics, which firstly underline that nature itself is a living organism and secondly once again affirm the fact that nature and human kind are one. He goes as far as to conclude that the natural world has a strong will of its own and acts on whatever it pleases to: “Nature will know how to point it out in due time, if it be necessary, by methods yet more searching and unexpected.” (303) Nature, ultimately, “is one and continuous everywhere.” (296)
Instead of focusing on the material aspects of his surrounding environment, Thoreau tries to dig deeper, beyond the descriptive facts about the flora and fauna. He eventually lets his mind float and in a way becomes one with a larger whole and transcends into a spiritual realm. This can be best seen when he talks about the shadows that “harmonized with our mood” (298) or the “current of our thoughts [that] made as sudden bends as the river.” Eventually, nature helps him to come to certain realizations, such as the importance of following one’s personal path, discussed on page 287. Here, he compares the common folk to cattle that simply follows predetermined ways of life. His conclusion in regards to this matter is very definite and strong and has become another quotation that intrigued me immensely: “How cheap must be the material of which so many men are made of.” (287) Various other ideas of his (such as the role of the poet) are reflected upon, which have ultimately been triggered by nature.
I would like to add that this is not my first reading of Thoreau. In fact, I had given Walden a try many years ago and dismissed it as utterly tedious. It might be the physical and spatial distance to the natural surroundings I grew up in or maybe a certain kind of homesickness that made me appreciate these excerpts the way I did. However, my thirst for further moments of nostalgia at the same time might have overshadowed some very important key elements of the text.
David Klein Martins
"If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveller always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning a new page to view. The wind sets the types on this blue ground, and the inquiring may always read a new truth there. There are things there written with such fine and subtile tinctures, paler than the juice of limes, that to the diurnal eye they leave no trace, and only the chemistry of night reveals them. Every man's daylight firmament answers in his mind to the brightness of the vision in his starriest hour." (p. 304)
ResponderEliminarI chose this quote because it inspires a lot of optimism and idealism in the way one can look at the world. Looking at the sky and seeing a million of possibilities, to be able to read something in it and to feel something thanks to it, seems like a beautiful way to approach life. Letting the surroundings speak to us and make our brains work, brings so many new possibilities in interpreting things and brings a new sensitivity that can only teach us more about the world and about ourselves. Also the idea of transformation or the idea of seeing change on something that remains the same is really interesting and reminds me of the power of feeling inspired. If the stars bright up the sky when it is most dark then so can one's mind be filled with new ideas and wonderful thoughts.
"You shall see rude and sturdy, experienced and wise man, keeping their castles (...) greater men than Homer, or Chaucer, or Shakespeare, only they never got time to say so; they never took to the way of writing. Look at their fields, and imagine what they might write, if ever they should put pen to paper." - page 48 of the anthology, page 4 of the original.
ResponderEliminarHaving been raised sorrounded by people whose main concern was to earn a living, for themselves and their family, not even thinking about pursuing an academic carreer, I relate closely with this excerpt from Thoreau's text. The elevation of the common, uneducated, rude man above the fathers of Western society strikes me as bold and, at the same time, natural. Bold because it dares to compare what the artistic world sees as gods (Homer, Chaucer and Shakespeare) against mere mortals. And natural because, in a work permeated by Nature, the man who works this Nature, lives it, is one with it, is necessarily above all other men. There is also, in this excerpt, almost a sense of chance. The only reason why country men are not perceived as equals by the world with Homer and the like is the fact that "they never took to the way of writing".
Miguel Troncão
The Poet's Delay
ResponderEliminarIn vain I see the morning rise,
In vain observe the western blaze,
Who idly look to other skies,
Expecting life by other ways.
Amidst such boundless wealth without,
I only still am poor within,
The birds have sung their summer out,
But still my spring does not begin.
Shall I then wait the autumn wind,
Compelled to seek a milder day,
And leave no curious nest behind,
No woods still echoing to my lay?
O que me cativou a atenção neste poema foi, sobretudo, a problematização da criação poética. O poeta, para os transcendentalistas, é o tradutor da linguagem da natureza, aquele que traduz a sua beleza. Mas, neste poema, o obstáculo que se ergue entre o poeta e a natureza parece ser o acto de escrever e acompanhar a organicidade incessante da natureza. Os dois versos que surgem antes do poema expressam essa questão: "My Life has been the poem I would have writ,/But I could not both live and utter it." Apesar desta ruptura temporária, em que o poeta deixa de viver o poema inefável que a natureza inscreve em si para passar ao processo de escrita, não deixa de ser curioso o paradoxo de estarmos, ainda assim, perante a existência de um poema. Esse facto levou-me ao pensamento agradável de que o poeta escreve inevitavelmente, ainda que seja sobre a tristeza que sente quando não consegue traduzir em versos o sentimento numinoso que a natureza lhe proporciona. Gostei sobretudo da quadra final, em que o enunciador poético coloca a possibilidade de renovação do seu espírito e inspiração através da renovação das estações, terminando com duas imagens metafóricas que achei tocantes pela sua simplicidade: "And leave no curious nest behind,/ No woods still echoing to my lay?". Para o poeta transcendentalista, pequenos fenómenos naturais, como um ninho ou os sons que a floresta emite, podem ser estímulos determinantes para renovar a relação entre homem e natureza, e para a recriação dessa relação através de palavras.