The Invention of Nature

Chapter 19: Poetry, Science and Nature

1

‘wished to live’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.118.

2

Thoreau’s cabin: Ibid., pp.52ff., 84.

3

‘earth’s eye’ and ‘closes its eyelids’: Ibid., p.247, 375.

4

‘slender eyelashes’: Ibid., p.247.

5

plants near the cabin: Ibid., pp.149–50.

6

rustled leaves and singing: Channing 1873, p.250.

7

naming places: Ibid., p.17.

8

‘Facts collected by’: Thoreau, 16 June 1852, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.5, p.112.

9

Thoreau as a boy: John Weiss,

Christian Examiner

, 1865, Harding 1989, p.33.

10

‘fine scholar with’: Alfred Munroe, ‘Concord Authors Considered’,

Richard County Gazette

, 15 August 1877, Harding 1989, p.49.

11

like a squirrel: Horace R. Homer, ibid., p.77.

12

Thoreau’s studies at Harvard: Richardson 1986, pp.12–13.

13

Emerson’s library: Sims 2014, p.90.

14

Thoreau’s tetanus symptoms: Thoreau to Isaiah Williams, 14 March 1842, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.66.

15

‘a withered leaf’: Thoreau, 16 January 1843, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.1, p.447.

16

‘build yourself a hut’: Ellery Channing to Thoreau, 5 March 1845, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.161.

17

death part of nature: Thoreau to Emerson, 11 March 1842, ibid., p.65.

18

‘There can be no

really

’: Thoreau, 14 July 1845, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.159.

19

Concord at Thoreau’s time: Richardson 1986, pp.15–16; Sims 2014, pp.33, 47–50.

20

sound of axes: Richardson 1986, p.16.

21

railroad to Concord: Ibid., p.138.

22

‘Simplify, simplify’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.119.

23

‘a life of simplicity’: Thoreau, spring 1846, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.145.

24

Thoreau appearance: Channing 1873, p.25; Celia P.R. Fraser, Harding 1989, p.208.

25

‘imitates porcupines’: Caroline Sturgis Tappan about Thoreau, American National Biography; see also Channing 1873, p.311.

26

Thoreau ‘pugnacious’: Channing 1873, p.312.

27

‘courteous manners’: Nathaniel Hawthorne, September 1842, Harding 1989, p.154.

28

many thought Thoreau funny: E. Harlow Russell,

Reminiscences of Thoreau

, Concord Enterprise, 15 April 1893, Harding 1989, p.98.

29

‘an intolerable bore’: Nathaniel Hawthorne to Richard Monckton Milnes, 18 November 1854, Hawthorne 1987, vol.17, p.279.

30

Thoreau being eccentric: see Pricilla Rice Edes, Harding 1989, p.181.

31

‘refreshing like ice-water’: Amos Bronson Alcott Journal, 5 November 1851, Borst 1992, p.199.

32

‘duel’ of mud–turtles: Edward Emerson, 1917, Harding 1989, p.136.

33

‘seems to adopt him’: Nathaniel Hawthorne, September 1842, Harding 1989, p.155; for Thoreau and animals, Mary Hosmer Brown, Memories of Concord, 1926, Harding 1989, pp.150–51 and Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.170, 173.

34

‘a little star-dust’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.287.

35

Thoreau at Walden: Ibid., pp.147, 303.

36

‘self-appointed inspector’: Ibid., p.21.

37

‘like a picture behind’: Ibid., p.327; playing the flute, p.232.

38

‘a wood-nymph’: Alcott’s Journal, March 1847, Harbert Petrulionis 2012, pp.6–7.

39

returned to village regularly: John Shephard Keyes, Harding 1989, p.174; Channing 1873, p.18.

40

two thick notebooks: Shanley 1957, p.27.

41

‘purely American’: Alcott’s Journal, March 1847, Harbert Petrulionis 2012, p.7; for bad reviews of

A Week

, Theodore Parker to Emerson, 11 June 1849 and

Athenaeum

, 27 October 1849, Borst 1992, pp.151, 159.

42

‘over seven hundred’: Thoreau Correspondence 1958, October 1853, p.305.

43

‘While my friend was’: Thoreau, after 11 September 1849, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3. p.26; see also Walls 1995, pp.116–17.

44

crush on Lydian: Walls 1995, p.116.

45

‘only man of leisure’: Myerson 1979, p.43.

46

‘insignificant here in town’: Emerson in 1849, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.485.

47

‘than walking off every’: Maria Thoreau, 7 September 1849, Borst 1992, p.138.

48

‘What are these pines’: Thoreau Journal, after 18 April 1846, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.242.

50

Thoreau measured precisely: Myerson 1979, p.41.

50

frozen bubbles: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.328ff.

51

‘calling on some scholar’: Ibid., p.268, 352.

52

Thoreau and Transcendentalism: Walls 1995, p.61ff.

53

‘cloud the sight’: Emerson 1971–2013, vol.1, 1971, p.39.

54

‘spirit is matter reduced’: Ibid., vol.3, 1983, p.31.

55

‘not come from experience’: Emerson, 1842, Richardson 1986, p.73.

56

‘of knowing truth’: J.A. Saxon, ‘Prophecy, – Transcendentalism, – Progress’,

The Dial

, vol.2, 1841, p.90.

57

Thoreau reoriented his life: Dean 2007, p.82ff.; Walls 1995, pp.116–17; Thoreau to Harrison Gray Otis Blake, 20 November 1849, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.250; Thoreau, 8 October 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.133.

58

‘Field Notes’: Thoreau, 21 March 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.6, p.20.

59

‘botany box’: Thoreau, 23 June 1852, ibid., vol.5, p.126; see also Channing 1873, p.247.

60

scientists today: Richard Primack, a professor of biology at Boston University, has collaborated with colleagues at Harvard to use Thoreau’s journals for studies in climate change. Utilizing Thoreau’s meticulous entries they have discovered that climate change has come to Walden Pond as many of the spring flowers now flower more than ten days earlier; see Andrea Wulf, ‘A Man for all Seasons’,

New York Times

, 19 April 2013.

61

‘I omit the unusual’: Thoreau, 28 August 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.17.

62

‘I feel ripe for’: Thoreau, 16 November 1850, ibid., vol.3, pp.144–5.

63

Thoreau reading AH: Sattelmeyer 1988, pp.206–7, 216; Walls 1995, pp.120–21; Walls 2009, pp.262–8; for Thoreau and AH’s books, 6 January 1851, meeting of the Standing Committee of the Concord Social Library, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s hand: ‘The Committee have added to the Library in the last year Humboldts Aspects of Nature’; Box 1, Folder 4, Concord Social Library Records (Vault A60, Unit B1), William Munroe Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library.

64

‘a sort of elixir’: Thoreau, ‘Natural History of Massachusetts’, Thoreau Excursion and Poems 1906, p.105.

65

‘His reading was done’: Channing 1873, p.40.

66

AH in Thoreau’s journals and publications:

Thoreau’s Fact Book in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection in the Harvard College Library. The Facsimile of Thoreau’s Manuscript

, ed. Kenneth Walter Cameron, Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1966, vol.3, 1987, pp.193, 589;

Thoreau’s Literary Notebook in the Library of Congress

, ed. Kenneth Walter Cameron, Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1964, p.362; Sattelmeyer 1988, pp.206–7, 216; AH mentioned in Thoreau’s published work: For example

Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada

, and

The Maine Woods.

67

‘Humboldt says’: Thoreau, 1 April 1850, 12 May 1850, 27 October 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, pp.52, 67–8 and vol.7, p.119.

68

‘Where is my cyanometer’: Thoreau, 1 May 1853, ibid., vol.6, p.90.

69

Orinoco and Concord: Thoreau, 1 April 1850, ibid., vol.3, p.52.

70

Peterborough hills and Andes: Thoreau, 13 November 1851, ibid., vol.4, p.182.

71

‘large Walden Pond’: Myerson 1979, p.52.

72

‘Standing on the Concord’: Thoreau, ‘A Walk to Wachusett’, Thoreau Excursion and Poems 1906, p.133.

73

‘drink at my well’: Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.393–4.

74

travel at home: Thoreau, 6 August 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.356.

75

‘but how much alive’: Thoreau, 6 May 1853, ibid., vol.8, p.98.

76

‘your own streams’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.423.

77

‘You tell me it is’: Thoreau, 25 December 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.222.

78

‘which enriches the understanding’: Ibid.

79

‘deprived thereby of the’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.72; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.74.

80

‘chill the feelings’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21.

81

‘deeply-seated bond’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.87; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.90.

82

‘Every poet has trembled’: Thoreau, 18 July 1852; see also 23 July 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.331 and vol.5, p.233.

83

‘a true account’: Henry David Thoreau,

The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906, vol. 1, p.347.

84

stopped using journal for poetry and facts: Sattelmeyer 1988, p.63; Walls 2009, p.264.

85

‘the most interesting & beautiful’: Thoreau, 18 February 1852, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.356.

86

Thoreau wrote seven drafts of

Walden

(footnote): Sattelmeyer 1992, p.429ff.; Shanley 1957, pp.24–33.

87

changes of

Walden

manuscript: Sattelmeyer 1992, p.429ff.; Shanley 1957, p.30ff.

88

‘I feel myself uncommonly’: Thoreau, 7 September 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.50.

89

‘The year is a circle’: Thoreau, 18 April 1852, ibid., p.468.

90

seasonal lists: Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.494; see also his seasonal charts extracted from his journals, Howarth 1974, p.308ff.

91

‘a book of the seasons’: Thoreau, 6 November 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.253, 255.

92

‘I enjoy the friendship’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.173.

93

‘look at Nature’: Thoreau, 4 December 1856, Thoreau Journal 1906, vol.9, p.157; see also Walls 1995, p.130; Walls 2009, p.264.

94

methods based on AH’s

Views

: Thoreau to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 19 December 1853, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.310.

95

earth as ‘living poetry’: Thoreau, 5 February 1854, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.7, p.268.

96

‘snore in the river’: Thoreau, 14 May 1852, ibid., vol.5, p.56.

97

‘the record of my love’: Thoreau, 16 November 1850 and 13 July 1852, ibid., vol.3, p.143 and vol.5, p.219..

98

cut flowers as metaphor for book: Thoreau, 27 January 1852, ibid., vol.4, p.296.

99

‘bring him a berry’: Emerson to William Emerson, 28 September 1853, Emerson 1939, vol.4, p.389.

100 ‘I am dissipated by’: Thoreau, 23 March 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.6, p.30.

101 ‘detailed & scientific’: Thoreau, 19 August 1851, ibid., vol.3, p.377.

102 ‘With all your science’: Thoreau, 16 July 1851, ibid., p.306ff.

103 no poems: Thoreau wrote almost no poems after 1850, Howarth 1974, p.23.

104 ‘Nature will be my’: Thoreau, 10 May 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.6, p.105.

105 ‘the pure blood’: Thoreau, 23 July 1851, ibid., vol.3, pp.330–31..

106 ‘thus reduced to a’: Thoreau, 20 October 1852, ibid., vol.5, p.378.

107 ‘Order. Kosmos’: Thoreau wrote ‘Kosmos’ in Greek, ‘κόσμος’, Thoreau, 6 January 1856, Thoreau Journal 1906, vol.8, p.88.

108 ‘a little world all to’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.172.

109 ‘Why should I feel lonely’: Ibid., p.175.

110 ‘Am I not partly leaves’: Ibid., p.182.

111 thawing of sand: Thoreau, spring 1848, 31 December 1851, 5 February and 2 March 1854, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.382ff., vol.4, p.230, vol.7, p.268, vol.8, p.25ff.

112 thawing in first version: Thoreau’s first version of Walden, Shanley 1957, p.204; in published Walden, see Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.402–9.

113 ‘the anticipation of the’: Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.404–5.

114 ‘prototype’: Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.404–5; for Thoreau and Goethe’s urform, see Richardson 1986, pp.8.

115 ‘unaccountably interesting and’: Thoreau’s first version of Walden, Shanley 1957, p.204.

116 ‘the principle of all’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.407.

117 ‘lives & grows’: Thoreau, 31 December 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4. p.230.

118 ‘living poetry’: Thoreau, 5 February 1854, ibid., vol.7. p.266; see also Thoreau Walden 1910, p.408.

119 ‘Earth is all alive’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.399.

120 ‘in full blast’: Ibid., p.408.

121 ‘like the creation of’: Ibid., p.414.

122 Walden as mini-Cosmos: Walls 2011–12, p.2ff.

123 ‘Facts fall from the’: Thoreau, 19 June 1852, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol. 5, p.112; for objective and subjective observation, Thoreau, 6 May 1854, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.8, p.98; Walls 2009, p.266.

124 ‘I milk the sky’: Thoreau, 3 November 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.7, p.140.