Walden - Part Two

Back again with Thoreau's Walden.

Here's me (in the middle) under a waterfall in
the Ein Gedi Oasis in Israel.

With this bit of Walden, I have to be honest and say that The Pond in Winter was a bit of a boring affair. Most of it is just Thoreau speaking about measuring the pond and the qualities of ice, which I personally do not find very engaging. However, I think one of my favorite things about this group of readings has to be that they all revolve around water. I, for one, really love water. I've always been a water person. When I was a kid I'd stay in the pool until my lips turned blue. When it rains I still splash in puddles. Rivers and lakes fascinate me. On every trip I've ever been on, there's a picture of me in water.

I think this is why I enjoyed The Ponds. Thoreau goes on for a bit about the color of the water in Walden Pond; it's blue, it's green, black, yellow, "as colorless as an equal quantity of air". I really love how in depth he gets with his description here. I mean, how often in your life do you stop and think about the color of the water? It's fantastic, isn't it?

Anyway, moving onto Spring. I find this section overall to be just wonderful, not only in the diction and description, but also in the ultimate message I think Thoreau's trying to send. He takes great pains in using analogies to describe the coming of Spring, saying that it is "like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age." Thoreau here is alluding to the ancient Greek idea that the gods created order from chaos, much like the creation of Paradise during biblical times, or the Golden Age. He implies, by later quoting Ovid's Metamorphoses, that each person, during their stay in Paradise (the season of Spring) has in them the potential to start anew, to be reborn free of sin. Spring to Thoreau is more than a change in weather, it is a change in life, a renewal.

Also look at this scenery from Metamorphoses. So pretty.

(Sidebar, I am a huge Roman mythology buff. If you haven't read Ovid's Metamorphoses, I'd say you should read it, but really don't. It's actually quite a long read, and a bit dry if I'm honest. Instead, read Mary Zimmerman's play adaptation of the same name. Quite a lot shorter and way more enjoyable in my opinion. Okay, back to Walden.)

It is interesting to note that Thoreau, perhaps counterintuitively, ends his account of Walden in Spring, he doesn't start it there. The rebirth he is describing, instead of pointing to new life, points to a changed one. He brings us, as readers, with him on his journey and then heralds us towards the future of our own lives, and the potential we have to live not only closer to nature, but closer to ourselves.

As Thoreau himself writes, "we can never have enough nature." And I have to say, I agree wholeheartedly.

Write to you soon.

Danielle K.