I

A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE POETRY OF HENRY THOREAU

AU3Mlo^gfôM

• Arthur L. Ford

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

June 1964

aroved by Doctoral Committee

Department English . ^g. 77/ 11 243413 /yu)>3 £L ■ CONTENTS

CHAPTER PACE I, INTRODUCTION ...... 1 II. LITERARY THEORY ...... 8 III. THEME ...... _ 23 IV. IMAGERY ...... 45 V. VERSIFICATION...... 73 VI. STRUCTURE ...... 93 VII. CONCLUSION ...... 104 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 112 I

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Henry David Thoreau is known primarily for one book, Walden. With­ out this book, Thoreau would certainly be regarded today as simply one Of many minor Transcendentallsts of the mid-nineteenth century» However, Thoreau was also a poet j in fact, poetry was his first love, and through­ out his life he thought of himself as a poet. In spite of this, his poetry was largely ignored for many .years, the assumption being that his „ ...... v.4. . output was scanty and that the poems were mère appendages to his prose. In 1943, Carl Bode published the Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau, *every available piece of original verse that Henry Thoreau composed,a volume running to 247 pages. Twenty-one years later, a new enlarged edition was published containing an additional thirteen poems. Walden remains Thoreau’s most important work; no one would deny that his prose is supe­ rior to his poetry. And yet it does seem strange that so little attention has been directed to a sizable body of work by a major American writer. A review of criticism reveals that surprisingly little has been said about Thoreau’s poetry over the years'. Emerson, who first noticed Thoreau’s poetry, thought of him for a time as the embodiment of his own » ’ concept of a poet, a role which Whitman Was’later to fill. Writing to

^Garl Bode, ed. Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau (Chicago, 1943), p. xil 2 Carlyle, Emerson said: One reader and friend of yours dwells now in my house, and, as I hope, for a twelvemonth to come,—Kenry Thoreau, —arpoet whom you may one day be proud of. Emerson was also instrumental in publishing many of Thoreau’s poems, especially in The Dial. But before long, Emerson's opinion of Thoreau's poetry began to decline and in his oration at the funeral of Thoreau in 1862» Emerson said "His own verses are often rude and defective. The gold does not yet run pure, is drossy and crude.1* Other critics were even more condemning. During the period from Thoreau's death in 1862 to the publication of Poems of Nature by Salt and Sanborn in 1895» the criticism was almost all derogatory. James Russell Lowell's historic 1865 essay on Thoreau in the Worth American Review, of course, damaged his reputation as a writer generally. After Lowell's comments on Thoreau's philosophy and prose, it is even more damning to have his poetry almost completely overlooked. The closest Lowell came to making a direct comment on Thoreau's poetry is contained in the following passage: He had none of the artistic mastery which controls a great work to the serene balance of completeness, but exquisite mechanical skill in the shaping of sentences and paragraphs, Or (more rarely) short bits of vèrse fgr the expression of a detached thought¿-sentiment, - or image. ... I John Weiss, Thoreau's college classmate, writing in The Christian 2

2Quoted in Townsend Scudder, "Henry David Thoreau.". Literary His­ tory of the United States, ed. Robert E. Spiller et al (New York, i960), p. 393. ’ • - . ' ^Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Thoreau," Atlantic. X (August, 1862), 246. \james Russell Lowell, "Thoreau," Essays. Poems. and Letters (New York, 19^), p. 101. 3 Examiner in 1865» said, "They are certainly crude, seldom touched with the bloom of beauty, and full of verdant confidence in the reader’s toler- ation of their youth*"^ J. V. O’Connor in 1878 stated simply: "He wrote some indifferent poetry." 6 And Theodore Watts-Dunton, in an 1882 issue of Athenaeum, dismissed him by saying that Thoreau's poems are "more un- 7 mitigated doggeral than even Garlyle's or Emerson’s." Eyen an admirer such as H. S. Salt could not admit Thoreau as a true poet, "Strictly 8 speaking, he can hardly be called a poet at all." Publication Of Poems of Nature in 1895 did little to improve Thoreau's reputation as a poet. In an examination of this collection in Athenaeum for 1896». the reviewer admitted that occasionally Thoreau did * 9 write as a poet, "but that for the most part he did not." And a review­ er^ the British magazineSaturday Review, for 1896, said bluntly, "Thoreau was not a poet.*-

i • • Even in the twentieth century, when critical interest turned from Thoreau the naturalist to Thoreau the literary figure, references to his poetry are not favorable. Norman Foerster, writing in The Harvard Monthly

John Weiss, "Thoreau," The Christian Examiner. LXXIX (July 1865), 117. ‘ 6 J. V* O'Connor, "Thoreau and New England Transcendentalism," Catholic World, mil (June, 1878), 297.

^Theodore Watt-Dunton, "Thoreau," Athenaeum. (October 28, 1882), p. 560. g H. a. Salt,, "Thoreau's .Poetry* ?n Art Review?,I (May, 1890), 182. Q - 1 7"Review of Poems of Nature," Athenaeum. (October 1?, 1896), p. 517. ^"Thoreau’a Verses." Saturday Review. LXXXI (January 18, 1896), 55. in 1909« said that beyond doubt, so far as mere metrical skill goes, Thoreau was not a poet at all. . .. There is no fluidity, still less — . • 11 . , . mellifluence. No natural singer ever sang so uncertainly. ... And in 1913* John hacy, writing in The Spirit of American -Literature. min- tained that:..... \ ■ Thoreau’s spirit is that of a poet,- though his verses are not good, ' for he was wanting in the ’decisive gift of lyrical expression,' as Emerson-says of Plato and might have said of himself.-...- .. * Brooks Atkinson in 1927 said in. a study of-Thoreau, “His verse seems to me execrable"^; and in 1937» Elsie Brickett, in a dissertation on the, poetry of New England Transcendentalism, said, "Thoreau’s verse can never be considered-.intrinsically important in itself." And in that same year; Van Wyck Brooks published The Flowering of New England, in which * , • ' 15 he dismissed Thoreau’s poetry as "sound and scholarly doggerel;" There have been several exceptions to the above criticism. At least three critics since Thoreau’s death have commented favorably on his poetry; The Scotsman, A. H. Japp, who wrote under the pseudonym of H. A; Page, published in 1877 s. study of Thoreau .called Thoreau: His Life and

^Norman Foerster, “Thoreau As a Poet,“ The Harvard Monthly (October, 1909), p. 20.

—John Macy, The Spirit of American Literature (New York, 1913), p. 186. 13 J. Brooks Atkinson. Henry Thoreau: The Cosmic Yankee (New York, 1927), P. 73. 14 See the unpubl. difes. (Yale, ,1937) by Elsie Brickett, “Studies in the Poets and Poetry of New England Transcendentalism," p. 165«

^^Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England (New York, 1937), p. 294. 5 Aims. In this work. Page referred to the freshness and unusualness of Thoreau’s poetry, ...... In his poems there is often a rarity and chastity of expression, and a quality such as we seldom meet with. Gf their general char* •acter this may.be said. They have the freshness of flowers with the earth still at their roots, though with a purity that recalls the skies; they seem inspired by real occasions, and are far from affec­ tedly finished. He is very free in his way of treating old metres or. inventing new ones, having actually come close on anticipating ; Walt Whitman’s peculiar movements, which he relieves by irregularly recurrent rhymes...... However, Page followed this statement with several selections from Thoreau "cast on models more like those we are familiar with."17 A few years later, Joel Benton, himself included in Cooke‘s anthol- ogy of American Transeendentalist poets, published in Lipplncott’s what is probably the best separate and published study of Thoreau’s poetry to date. In spite Of the fact that Thoreau’s poetry was uncollected in any form at this time, Benton revealed many of its most salient points. That sturdy self-assertion, his love of paradox, his defense of that truth which is anti-proverbial and not apparent, his vision of the all in each, his emphasis on the present ténse where he then stood * in speaking, his almost Swederiborgian belief in the double meaning of things, the mystic and hidden being the one he held chiefly . valuable, —all these are best focussed in.his poetxy, though easily enough seen in his essays and narratives,10 Following Bode’s publication of the collected poems in 1943» Henry Wells published a review in American Literature in which he attempted to place Thoreau in the larger tradition of Western literature by indicating

l6 H. A. Page, Thoreau: His Life and Aims (Boston, 1877)» pp. 188*189.

17Ibid.. p. 189.

18Joel Benton. "The Poetry of Thoreau," Lippincott «s, XXXVII (May, 1886). 500. . 6 those poets who seem to have influenced his poetry. He found Thoreau influenced by many kinds of authors from the Greek classical poets through Medieval poets, Ben Johson* the Metaphysical poets, the Augustans, and even Blake, 19 offering - evidence which is not always conclusive. But per­ haps the most interesting observation made by Wells is that Thoreau ‘•touches the poetry of our own times closely largely in terms of its ’ 20 ' " acute tensions,” Carl Bode restrained from heaping praise on Thoreau’s verse when he first published the collected poems, and when he brought out the new enlarged edition, his initial decision remained. He comes closest to praise when he says that no one would deny that "the poetry Henry Thoreau scrawled and labored over, and later neglected, has its defects as well as its values, . . ." The view of contemporary critics is perhaps best suggested by Roy Harvey Pearce’s treatment of Thoreau’s poetry in his recent The Continuity of American Poetry, His only, comment is this rather cryptic praise: "... Thoreau had everything except the talent and the 22 will to become the purest of poets in the Adamic mode." Such is the reputation of Thoreau, the poet. Most critics have felt that Thoreau had a poetic imagination, that is his thoughts were

19Henry W. Wells, "An Evaluation of Thoreau’s Poetry," American Literature. XVI (May, 1944), 101.

20Ibid., 107.

21Carl Bode,ed. Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau. Enlarged Edi­ tion (Baltimore, 1964), p* viii. All references to Thoreau's poems will be to this edition, with page numbers enclosed in parentheses within the text. 22Roy Harvey Pearce, The Continuity of American Poetry (Princeton, 1961), p. 333. 7 noble or elevating; but that he lacked mastery of poetic technique, that his expression was faulty. The implication often is that Thoreau was trying to ba a conventional writer of smooth and sentimental lines in 9 imitation of the popular poets of the time, but failed. This is com* pletely wrong. As will become apparent later, Thoreau did know what he was doing. When he failed,—and he failed often,—it was a failure which resulted from trying to accomplish something unusual; from trying to match the form to the idea no matter how different the result may have been. Of course, he was a product of his age and could riot escape com* pletely from the¡poetic conventions of his time. His diction is at times trite by our standards. His ideas are at tines impractical or oversim­ plified. His images at times are culled from the traditional poetic stock pile. But infrequently he reveals a simple truth through vivid and fresh images, using a direct ¿almost colloquial dictions. In fact, some of his poetry is more alive than the poetry of any other American writing at the time. Justification of Thoreau as a great poet or'even as a con­ sistently good poet is not the purpose of this study,-even if it were possible. It is possible, however, to see Thoreau is poetry as a total body of work consistent within itself, revealing ideas and concepts found elsewhere in Thoreau’s work, in Transcendentalism in general, and in Emerson specifically. $

CHAPTER II

' LITERARY THEORY

"The beautiful rests on the foundations of the necessary." Emerson, “The Poet”

Thoreau affirmed a preference*for living over writing. It is therefore, easy to see why he preferred writing about life to writing about writing. In fact, he divided poets into two groups: those who immerse themselves in life and those who remain bn its fringes, calmly commenting upon it. There are two classes of men called poets. The one cultivates life, theother art,—one seeks food.for nutriment, the other for flavor;one satisfies hunger, the other gratifies the palate. . . * Nowhere does Thoreau put down in an organized form his esthetic theory, or more specifically, his theory of poetxy. With the possible exception of a college theme, “The Simple Style,” written in 1835« there is no essay devoted entirely to a statement of Thoreau’s esthetics, and one finds no reason to believe that Thoreau ever consciously organized such a statement. However, Thoreau, who, like Emerson, thought of him­ self primarily as a poet, did say a great many things about writing in

^Henry David Thoreau, A Wfeek on the Concord and fferrimack Rivers, Riverside Edition, The Writings of Henry David Thoreau. Vol. I (Boston, 1893)» 494-495. ’ 9 general and poetry in particular, 2 and it is possible to arrive at a • literary theory by combining these conenents. The primary source of Thoreau’s' statements on literature is, of course, his journals. -Although the heaviest concentration of these comments is found in the early years- ' of the journal, when Thoreau was most interested'in poetry, he continued to make sporadic references to literature throughout his life. His pub­ lished writings also contain references to literature and literary the­ ory, particularly A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, but these are usually polished journal entries* And, finally, several of Thoreau’s poems deal with the subject of poetry, its source and its form. Thoreau’s theory of poetry is inseparable from his theory of life and his informal metaphysics. To- him both life and art were simply ways of reflecting the universal. In general, Thoreau accepted the Transcen­ dental View of the universe which, in turn, goes all the way back to Plato. The universe is-divided into two parts: the ideal and the physl- - « cal. The ideal is unseen and eternal; the physical is seen and temporal. However, there is a close correspondence between the two worlds. Ideally, * ■ . < the physical reflects the ideal faithfully, and the best reflector is 3 untarnished nature» Man’s purpose in life, therefore, is to search for

2 It is at times difficult to tell when Thoreau is referring to writing in general or to poetry* since he often uses the term "poetry'* to apply to any kind of writing that produces an emotional effect on the reader. See Joseph Wood Krutch, Henry David Thoreau (Hew York, 1948), p. 266. This is less of a problem than one would expect, however, since the context usually reveals the meaning given to the word and since many of Thoreau’s statements apply equally to prose or poetry. 3 This view of the universe* of course, underlies most of Thoreau’s poetry and prose, but the best explicit statement of it is found in Ewerson’s Nature. probably the most influential book Thoreau ever read. A 10 this ideal universe, despite the.fact that he is biologically trapped in ' the temporal. The poet, more than most men, can transcend this limita­ tion and approximate a union with the ideal in one of two ways. First of all, and most important, he can listen closely to nature, emulate it, and thus make his life correspond to the ideal; second, he can iisten closely to nature, record its message, and produce in his work a parallel to the ideal* or at least a suggestion of it. Thoreau’s life and his work were given, then, to reconciling this duality of the universe, to approaching the ideal within the physical world. This concept dictated to Thoreau his purpose as a poet, his choice of images, and even his use of the technical devices of versification and structure. For Thoreau, the function of poetry «as essentially moral, or more specifically, ethical* It reflected the ideal and it taught man some­ thing about life; as F. W. Lorch points out, this conviction became even 4 stronger as Thoreau grew older. While Thoreau used his poetry as a vehicle for the expression of his ideas, however, he was not a strictly . didactic poet, since he seldom stated these ideas explicitly. Rather, he presented images of nature and, for the most part, let nature speak for herself, thus following Emerson’s advice to use words as symbols of the 5 * spirit. Despite the fact that Thoreau valued content over form, he was dualistic view of the universe was further strengthened by Thoreau’s knowledge of Oriental mysticism, especially as revealed in The Bhagavat- Gita* another very influential book read by Thoreau. See Arthur Christy, The Orient in American Transcendentalism (New York, 1932). 4 Fi W. Lorch, "Thoreau and the Organic Principle in Poetry," PM1A. LIII (March. 1938), 300; -’Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature," Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Saadi Edition Deluxe, Vol. Ill (Philadelphia, 1906), 23. 11 by no means careless or negligent when constructing a vehicle for his thought; in fact, he strove to construct a form which matched the content as closely as possible. 1 Both F. W. Lorch and F, 0. ThtthieSsen refer to Thoreau's concept of the form growing naturally out of the content. Lorch quotes Thoreau I as saying, "As naturally as the oak bears the acorn. ♦ .man bears a poem." And Matthiessen quotes from one of Thoreau’s letters, "As for stylé of writing,if.one has anything to say, it drops simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground." Carl Bode, however, points out that Thoreau worked diligently at constructing his poems, that they did not emerge full-blown by any means, and therefore he finds in Thoreau’s poetry a 8 contradiction of his organic theory. It is my Opinion that Thoreau was talking about an ideal type of poetry, and that the next best thing would be to give the impression of pure inspiration. This he attempts to do by consciously matching the form to the content. This apparent contradiction is basic to an examination of Thoreau’s poetry since paradox in one form or another is found in all aspects of his poetxy. The most obvious contradiction Is between his concept of creativity and his imposition of a conscious form on his "message"; that is to say between his theory and practice* In his theory, the poet is an almost passive receiver of messages from the eternal. All he has to do

6Lorch, 287.

7F, 0, Matthiessen, American Renaissance (New York, 1941), p. 155«

Carl Bode, ed., Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau. Enlarged Edition (Baltimore* 1964), p.'338. organic poetry, however, is not necessarily careless or haphazard poetxy. See Matthiessen, pp'. 133*178. 12 is record the message he receives. . > ' The poet speaks only those thoughts that come unbidden, like the wind that stirs the trees, and men cannot help but listen* He is not listened to, but heard* The weathercock might as well dally with the wind as man pretend to resist eloquence. . * * This, of course, is a typically Romantic concept, symbolized by the aeo- lian harp, an instrumeI nt that depends on the wind for its source of en- ergy. As the wind vibrates the strings of the harp, so does inspiration vibrate the heart of the poet, reproducing divine messages* Thoreau him­ self described the source of these messages in his poem, "Rumors From an Aeolian Harp." There love is warm, and youth is young, And poetry is yet unsung, For Virtue still adventures there, And freely breathes her native air. (53) Many of Thoreau’s statements on the source of creativity emphasize thé inspirational nature of these messages* They come to the-poet 5n a flash of creativity, and the poet must record the words as quickly and as faithfully as possible, There is no time for pondering; the creative pro­ cess is basically intuitive* We should endeavor coolly to analyze our thoughts, but, keeping the pen even and parallel with the current, make an accurate trans- script of them.. Impulse is, after all, the best linguist. . (I, 35* March 7, I838) And* fourteen years later, Thoreau said metaphorically the same thing* Write while the heat is on you. When the farmer bums a hole in his yoke, he carries the hot iron quickly from the fire to the wood,

^Henry David Thoreau, The Journal of Thoreau (Boston, 1949) , I, 258. (Fay 9, 1841). This edition is printed from the plates of the standard Manuscript Edition of the twenty volume The Writings of Thoreau (Boston, 1906). It is,used simply because it is more easily accessible. All references to the journal will be made,in the text, and will include the volume* page, and date of the entry. 13 for every moment it Is less effectual to penetrate (pierce) it, it must be used instantly, or it is useless. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience. (HI, 293. Feb. 10, 1852) Being a romantic, - Thoreau would naturally echo the non-mechanical method of composition urged by those rejecting the rationality of the neo­ classical age. Again, the aeôlianharp is a symbol of this direct tran­ scription of inspired messages. However, comments made by Thoreau, usually during his later years, indicate that he was continually concerned with the form which these ' messages took. Consistent with his theory of organic form, Thoreau stated that the same intuitive source which produced the message would also pro­ duce the appropriate form. In theory, Thoreau held that a message re­ ceived directly from the ideal cannot help but be presented in a correct form. As for the grace of expression, a great thought is never found in a mean dress; but though it proceed from the lips of the Wolofs, the nine Mises and the.three Graces will have conspired to clothe it in . fit phrase. ... And this concept is timer of poetry than it is of prose, for the preci- sion of poetry “requires a particular rhythm or measure for which no other can be substituted. The prosaic is always a loose expression." (VI, 74, Jan. 19, 1854) In actual practice, however, neither Emerson nor Thoreau believed that such a perfect correspondence was possible. The poem was always an imperfect reflection of the ideal, and the form of the poem never com- /'Vo ' ' pletely matched the content; Emerson, in his essay* "The Poet," stated

10 Week. 136., 14 '•that the, poems are a corrupt version of son® text in nature with which they ought to be made to tally. And using a metaphor which Thoreau employed many times, Emerson said: . whenever we are so finely organized that we can penetrate . into that region where.the air is music, we hear those primal warb- lings and attempt to write them down, but we lose ever and anon a word or a verse and substitute something of our own, and thus mis­ write the.poem. . . . 2 Nevertheless, the poet’s role is important; for he more than any other man must be aware of his function as recorder and must be constantly waiting for the communication. "The poet must be continually watching the moods of his mind, as the astronomer watches the aspects of the heavens.” (II, 403, Aug. 19, 1851) But even more important, the poet . V • • must live his life in such a way that he will be suitable to receive . >’'• these messages from the eternal. The poet must live physically close to nature, since nature is the great teacherand he must lead a chaste and moral life in order to receive the message from the divine, Thoreau, of course, is not original in his insistence on'the moral qualification Of the poet; Ruskin, Johnson, Milton, Longinus, Quintilian, Plato, and many others have said the same thing. Emerson himself also insisted, especially in "The Poet," that the poet is a being beyond other men while remaining representative.Whitman was to repeat this belief in his

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Poet," Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Saadi Edition Deluxe, Vol. V (Philadelphia, 1906), 278. 12Ibid.. 265. 13 . * For a discussion of this element in Thoreau’s criticism, see the unpubl, diss, (University of Utah, 1951) by George D. Craig, "Literary Criticism in the Works of Henry David Thoreau," p. 137. l4"The Poet," 262-263. 15 1855 Preface to leaves of Grass.Thoreau, however, more than either Emerson or Whitman, placed a direct responsibility on the poet: he must remain moral. Thoreau throughout his life valued life over poetry and the life of the poet over his poetry. Not only could the poet’s ethical and moral conduct determine whether or not he might be a poet, but his life* as such, was of far more value and a truer poem than anything he could put on pa­ per. This is the subject for several of his poems. In "Away! Away I Away! Away!” he said: Is not eternity a lease For better deeds than Verse? In wpy Books I’d Fain Cast Off, I Cannot Read": Tell Shakespeare to attend some leisure hour, For now I’ve business with this drop of dew, (76) And in this frequently-quoted couplet from A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers. he expressed the idea succinctly. MF HP® hath been the poem I would have writ? But I could not both live and utter it.*? Again, in his journal, Thoreau states explicitly that the real poem is the life of the poet and not what he has written. The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper, coincident with the production of this, which is stereotyped in the poet’s life, is what he has become through his work. (I, 157, July 1, 18A0)

15Walt Whitman, The Complete Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman. (New York, 1948), II, 269-281. l^Bode* p. 54.

17Week. 453. 16 For Thoreau, the poet and poem are inseparably joined. Advice on the conduct of life comes from the ideal, through nature and through the individual in tune with nature* The production of the poem fuses these two sources of revelation, but only if the poem uses nature to express the message and only if the life of the poet also reflects the import of the message* Lorch,.in his article on "Thoreau and the Organic Principle in Poetry," expressed Thoreau’s concept of the purpose of poetry. The end of art is the spiritual improvement of man, and its finest .. . expression is not poetry but the character of the poet,*® Though Thoreau talked of the form of the poem growing naturally out of its content, and, therefore, insisted that the poet has little to ' do with shaping his message, his actual practice of poetry contradicts this statement, and his many statements on the nature of poetic form. ' found particularly in his journal, also contradict this idea* The key word in Thoreau’s prosody, as it was in his life, is •'"simplicity." A3 he shouted in Walden. "Simplicity, simplicity, simpll- io citÿl" so he said in his poetry: It is no dream of mine, To ornament a line; (26) Thoreau refused to use expression and figures which he thought would get in the way of understanding the poem* Again, following the organic the­ ory, if the end of poetry is ethical instruction, then only those items should be allowed in the poem which contribute to this end; everything

l8Lorch/ 286.

19 '• Henry David Thoreau, The Works of Thoreau, ed* Henry Seidel Canfcy, Cambridge Edition (Boston, 1946), p. 365* 17 else is superfluous and should be eliminated. Many statements emphasize his desire for simplicity and his distrust of surface ornamentation. The art which only gilds the surface and demands merely a super­ ficial polish without reaching to the core, is but varnish and filigree. But the work of genius is tough-hewn from the first* because It anticipates the lapse of time and has an ingrained polish, which still appears when fragments are broken off, an essential quality of its substance. Its beauty is its strength. It breaks with a lustre, and splits in cubes and diamonds. Like the diamond, it has only to be cut to be polished, and its surface is a window to its interior splendors. (I, 275» Aug. 28, 1841) While Thoreau was still in college* he urged simplicity of language and metaphor and an avoidance of ornament for the sake of ornament. » If the author would acquire literary fame* let him be careful to suggest such thoughts as are simple and obvious* and to express his meaning distinctly and in good language. ... « A few years later he said: Good poetry Seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech. , . i (I, 289, Nov. 30* 1841) And in 1852 he observed: I do not believe that any writer who considered the ornaments, and not the truth simply, ever succeeded. So are made the belles lettres and the beaux arts and their professors, which we can do without, (in, 278-279, Feb. 5, 1852) His desire for simplicity obviously revealed Itself in his criticism of Other writers, both of his times and of earlier times. He criticized

^This idea is a possible justification for Thoreau’s practice, criticized by many, of breaking his poems into smaller parts and present­ ing them separately. The part retains the essence of the whole.

^Sanborn, p. 90.

22Thoreau also carried this simplicity into his selection of themes. ”Ny themes shall not be far-fetched. I will tell of homely every-day phenomena and adventures. FriendsI Society t It seems to me that I have an abundance of it, there is so much that I rejoice and 18 particularly the ’’refined" poetry of-his age, what he referred to as the "effeminate taste" in literature. When I observe the effeminate taste of some of my contemporaries in this matter of poetry, and how hardly they bear with certain incongruities; I think if this age were consulted it would not choose granite to be the backbone of the t/orld, but Bristol spar or Brazil­ ian diamonds. But the verses which have consulted the refinements even of a golden age will be found Weak and nerveless for an iron one. . . . ’ (I; 278, Sept. 1, 1841) He also criticized writers such as De Quincey for "too great fullness and detail* saying that his sentences are not "concentrated and nutty,". His style is nowhere kinked and knotted up into something hard and significant, which you could Swallow like a diamond, without digesting. (II, 419, Aug* 22, 1851) To Thoreau, the true poet could more easily, be found in the fields than in the study. In looking over Chalmer’s English Poets, he said that "poetry cannot breathe in the scholar’s atmosphere.” (I, 288, Nov. 30, 1841) In fact, he felt that the ordinary farmer is capable of more true ' t poetxy in his speech than most poets in their best poetry* In the first place, the farmer is closer to nature than most poets, and in the second place, his speech is likely to be more natural, less self-conscious, and hence more organic. "The scholar rarely writes as well as the farmer talks." (I, 237, fferch 13, 1841) When Thoreau did praise a poet, he praised him because of his Simplicity of speech and directness of ap­ proach. He admired Gower’s common sense and "blunt plainness." He might have been a teamster and written his rhymes on his wagon- seat as he went to mill with a load of plaster. (I, 303» Oct. 7, 1842) sympathize with, and men, too, that I never speak to but only know and think of. What you call bareness and poverty is to me simplicity. God could not be unkind to me if he should txy." (VI, l60, Dec. 5» 1856) 19 And of Chaucer he said, "The simplest and humblest words come readily to his lips.” (1, 303, Deo. 30, 1841) Among Thoreau’s life-long favorites were many Greek and Roman writers whom he admired not Only for their thought but also for their directress and conciseness. I do not know but the reason why I love some Latin verses more than whole English poems is simply in the elegant terseness and conciseness of the language, an advantage which the individual appears to have shared with his nation. (II, 143-144, Jan, 10, 1851) The typically paradoxical description of Latin poetry, "elegant terseness," best reveals Thoreau’s own concept of good poetry. It is a poetry in which all parts are completely functional and yet is neither sparse nor barren. The richness and elegance emerge from the way in which the words work together to present a concise yet complex image Which in turn, ty analogy, says something about the conduct of life'. Nature played a Very important part in Thoreau’s concept of poet­ ry l First of all, nature is an object of beauty and can be justified on those grounds alone. Second, nature Is a source of inspiration to the man in harmony with it. Third, nature provides the symbols by which the poet can express his ideas. Thoreau used nature in all three ways, never forgetting that untraraneled nature was as near to the ideal as was pos­ sible in this world, and therefore could serve as a model both for his life and his poetry. Thoreau often made a distinction between nature as found in the American forest2^ and nature as portrayed by writers who had little

^Thoreau drew an analogy between nature as a source of inspira­ tion for Greek mythology and nature as a source of inspiration for a new American mythology, English literature, owing to its lack of contact with nature in Its wild state, lacks .this source of mythology and the life-giving vigor that goes with it. For American literature, however, there la no more "fertile nature than the Mississippi Valley. (H, 145, Jan. 10, 1851) ' 20 experience with it. In fact* most of English literature he included in this latter category. English literature from the days of the minstrels to the Lake Poets, Chaucer and Spenser and Shakspeare [sic] and Milton included, breathes no quite fresh and, in this sense, wild strain. It is an essentially tame and civilized literature, reflecting Greece and Rome. Her wildness is a greenwood, her wild man a Robin Hood* There is plenty of genial love of nature in her poets, but not so much of nature herself. (II, 144, Jan. 10, 1851) And again he said even the best poets "have not seen the west side of any mountain." (I, 272, Aug. 18, 1841) Even Nut tail’s North American Sylva. a book about nature, is too tame for Thoreau. Have just been looking at Nuttall’s "North American Sylva." Much research, fine plates and print and paper, and unobjectionable peri­ ods, but no turpentine, or balsam, or quercitron, or salicin, or . birch wine, or the aroma of the balm of Gilead, no gallic, or ulmic, or even malic acid. The plates are greener arid higher-colored than . the words, etc., etc. It is sapless, if not leafless. (VI, 265» May 14, 1854) The poet must not just write about nature; he must live it, closely. He must experience at first hand the vigor and exeitment of living with nature. Once again the emphasis is on life rather than art. I like the surliness with which the woodchopper speaks Of his words, handling them as indifferently as his axe, than the mealy-mouthed enthusiasm oSthe lover of nature. . . ♦ (X, 237, March 13, 1841) But for Thoreau the poet, the most important role of nature was as a symbol for the ideal, and by nature Thoreau meant specific objects, not generalized descriptions. Analogy was the primary device by which Thoreau expressed his ideas; he thought in terms of natural symbols. In a journal entry-near the end of his life, he seemed to be echoing Emer- son’s chapter on language in Nature, which he had read as a young man. •Talk about learning our letters and being literate} Why, thé roots of.letters are things. Natural objects and phenomena are the original symbols or types which express our thoughts and feelings... . . (XII, 389, Oct. 16, 1859) 7 21 Thoreau was always.interested in specific facts first and generalized deductions second. "let me not in haste detect the universal law; let me see more clearly a particular instance of it." (Ill, 157, Dec. 25, 1851) In fact, he emphasized the poetry inherent in facts by one of his most famous quotations. I have a common-place book for facts and another for poetry, but I find it difficult always to preserve the vague distinction which I had in my mind, for the most interesting and beautiful facts- are so much thé more poétïy and that is their success. They are translated from•earth to heaven. I see that if my facts were suf­ ficiently vital and significant, —perhaps transmuted more into the substance of the human mind, —1 should need but one book of poetry to contain them all. (Ill, 311, Feb. 18, 1852) Specific descriptions of nature, then, should be the poet’s primary con­ cern, .for through them he can say something about life. "He is the rich­ est who has most use for nature as raw material of tropes, and symbols with which to describe his life." (V, 135, May 10» 1853) For Thoreau, facts were symbols of truth; therefore, poetry should deal with specific descriptions of nature which by their very presentation reveal something 24 about the universal. As Thoreau said, perhaps as advice to other poets but more probably as advice to himself; It is wise to write on many subjects, to try many themes, that so you may find the right and inspiring one. Be greedy of occasions to express your thought.- Improve the opportunity to draw analogies. There are innumerable avenues to a perception of the truth. . . . (II, 457» Sept.: 4, 1851) ' , I ■ The inherent contradiction in Thoreau's statements on poetry and

24 It is difficult to measure exactly the Influence of Emerson's thinking on Thoreau's poetics or to decide whether or not Thoreau would have arrived at these conclusions without Emerson; however, the similar­ ities between their theories are many and the impression which Emerson made on the young Thoreau must have been profound. Many of Thoreau's Ideas, as already indicated and as will be pointed out in later chapters, can also be found in Emerson's essays, especially "Nature" and "The Poet." 22 literature then become clear* On one hand, he talks of the form growing naturally but of the content of the poem, of the almost unconscious way the poem takes shape , of the passive reception of the poem by the .man who, through his conduct of life, is able to receive it* On the other hand, he makes Statements about how the poet gives shape to the poem, , about the simplicity of approach, about the specificity of description, about the analogical use of nature* 3h fact, as we shall see, he diligently works at much of his poetxy rather than relying solely on inspiration. This is just one of many contradictions.and paradoxes found in the poetry of Thoreau, a fact which is not surprising when ore remembers that Thoreau’s and the Transcendentalist’s concept of the Universe was that of a duality, a duality which they continually strove to bring together* Thoreau’s J T- ’ • poetxy was one such attempt. CHAPTER HI

THEME

"Poets are thus liberating gods." Emerson, "The Poet"

Occasionally Thoreau wrote a poem of fragment which had little or no thematic intent; rather it seemed to be simply the presentation of an image. Such a poem is "The Waves Slowly Beat," first published in A Week on the' Concord and iferrimac Rivers, although even.this poem carries the implication that nature serves some kind of function* The waves slowly beat, Just to keep the noon sweet, And no sound is floated o’er, Save the mallet on shore, Which echoing on high Seems a-oalking the sky. (58) However, the great majority of Thoreau’s poems do carry a specific theme and it is clear, as I have argued in the last chapter, that Thoreau used his poetry primarily for the communication of bis ideas. Since nature served as the physical manifestation of the universal, Thoreau used images from nature to convey universal truths. His themes would therefore quite naturally correspond closely with the reasons for choos­ ing particular images, a matter that will be discussed in the next chapter Thoreau’s themes vary in the explicitness of their presentation. At times, he states directly the relationship between the image and the theme: 24 THE POET’S DELAY In vain I see the morning rise, > In vain observe the western blaze. Who.idly look to other skies, i 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? (78) But most often he allows nature to speak for herself, The soothing and reconciling effect of a May morning is emphasized in this poem: MAY MORNING The school boy loitered on his way to school,. Scorning to live so rare a day by rule. So mild the air a pleasure ’twas to breathe. For what seems heaven above was earth beneath. Soured neighbors chatted by the garden pale, Nor quarrelled who should drive the needed nail— The most unsocial made new friends that day, As when the sun shines husbandmen make hay How long. I slept I know not, but at last I felt my-consciousness returning fast, For Zephyr rustled past with leafy tread, And heedlessly with one heel grazed hy head. Ity.eyelids opened on a field of blue, For close above a nodding violet grew, A part of heaven it seemed, which one could scent, Its blue commingling with the firmament. (97) But regardless of how directly or indirectly Thoreau presented his ideas, most of his themes cluster around a series of typically Transcen­ dental and Thoreauvian ideas: the value of activity in the present, the freedom of the individual, the bonds of friendship, the lessons of nature, and the poet’s distrust of organized society. Or as Thoreau said in his 25 essay, "Walking,": "in shortfall good things are wild and free." Again, Thoreau is thinking dualistically. Transcendentalism it­ self posited the two worlds of the physical and the Ideal; in his poetic theory, Thoreau was confronted with the paradox of consciously construct­ ing the appearance of inspired writing, thè actual practice of which is discussed in Chapter Five. Now in examining Thoreau’s poetry, we shall see that it depends on the tension between freedom, and some kind of re- striction, either stated directly or implied. Emphasis on living life actively and for the present necessitates a degree of freedom, a freedom which nature herself■ symbolizes and which.the individual can achieve by - ' ■ I ' living close to nature, both physically and spiritually, Activity and freedom;, these form the basis for Thoreau’s thematic statement. Ideally, of course, to be Consistent with his philosophy and literary theory, Thoreau should not have been sitting around writing poe­ try, but rather out living it'. In fact, he did realize the inability of his poetry, perhaps any poetxy, to record the activity of life. My life has been the poem I could have writ, ait I could not both live and utter it. (85) Nevertheless, he tried.’ Many of his poems contain a message, usually from-nature, urging the reader to seize the moment and live a vigorous life of activity. Although Thoreau was a,thorough Greek scholar and

Henry David Thoreau, The Works of Thoreau, ed. Henry Seidel Cahfcy, Cambridge Edition (Boston, 1946), p. 678. 2 In Walden. Thoreau asserted this idea in answer to a hypothetical Question about the student’s use of life. . .*1 mean that they [stu­ dents] should not play life, or study it merely, while the community support them at this expensive game, but earnestly ‘live it from beginning to end." - Works. pp. 277-278. 26 had studied history, he continued to emphasize the present, as the Greeks had. Like them, he discouraged concern for the. past when it interfered with enjoyment of the present. The past was alive only in the present. ’“THIS IS M CARNAC, WHOSE UNMEASURED DOME This is ay Carnac, whose unmeasured dome Shelters the measuring.art and measurer’s home. Behold these flowers, let us be up with time, Not dreaming of three thousand years ago, Erect ourselves and let those columns lie, Not stoop to raise a foil .against the sky. ■Where is the spirit of that time but in This present day, perchance the present line? Three thousand years ago are not agone. They are. Still lingering inthis 'summermorn, And Memnon’s. Mather sprightly greets us now, Wearing her youthful radiance on her brow. If Carnac*s columns still stand bn the plain. To. enjoy our opportunities they remain. (62) And in the conclusion to "Voyagers Song," in which he praises the Vigor- ous life of the old French Canadians, Thoreau echoes again the familiar carps diem theme: Thus we lead a life of pleasure, Thus we while the hours away, Thus we revel beyond measure, Gaily live we while we may. (86) His interest in this theme does not come from, a desire for "reveling" or living a "life of pleasure" in the usual sense,’but from his desire to experience life by living It fully at all times. In his poem, "The Hero,? his concept of the ideal man was that of a man of action, a man who did things. (l6l-l63) And in a couplet he said: You must not only aim aright, But draw your bow with all your might. (187) Thoreau at times was not so explicit in his presentation of this theme. In a poem called "My Boots," he described his boots in a mock-heroic style, but there is no satire in the idea expressed. As his boots absorb 27 moisture, a moisture that adds to their luster, so should man absorb life MY BOOTS Anon with gaping fearlessness they quaff The dewy nectar with a natural thirst, Or wet their leathern lungs whore cranberries lurk, With sweeter wine than Chian, Lesbian, or Falernian far. Theirs was the inward lustre that bespeaks An open sole—unknowing to exclude The cheerful day—a worthier glory far Than that which gilds the outmost rind with darkness visible— Virtues that fast abide through lapse of years. Rather rubbed in than off. (105) The individual (boot) Should have an open soul (sole), and receive the cheerful day. The playfulness of the mock-heroic and the punning under­ score the tone of life that Thoreau is urging, but a basic contrast upon which the poem is built makes the reader take the poem seriously. The contrast is between enduring substance and temporary surface. The boot, an essential part of Thoreau’s equipment, becomes a symbol for the true life, a life rooted in nature. Several times Thoreau touches upon the experience-innocence theme in which an individual matures through experience, even though he loses innocence in the process. Thoreau always chose the maturing experience at the expense of innocence, a logical extension of his desire to enter into experience fully. Thoreau’s most complete statement on this theme is found in a poem called "Manhood.” MANHOOD I love to see the man, a long-lived child, As yet uninjured by all worldly taint As the fresh infant whose whole life is play. ’Tis a serene spectacle for a serene day; But better still I love to contemplate The mature soul of lesser innocence, Who hath travelled far on life’s dusty road Far from the starting point of infancy And proudly bears his small degen’racy 28 Blazon’d on his memorial standard high Who from the sad experience of his fate Since his bark struck on that unlucky rock Has proudly steered his life with his own hands. Though his face harbors less of innocence Yet there do chiefly lurk within its depths Furrowed by care, but yet. all over spread With the ripe bloom of a self-wrought content Noble resolves which do reprove the gods And it doth more assert man’s eminence Above the happy level of the brute And more doth advertise me of the heights To which no natural path doth ever lead No natural light can ever light our steps, -»But the far-piercing ray that shines From the recesses of a brave man’s eye. '(225) Although he does not criticize the innocent man—in fact he Says, "’Tis a Serene spectacle for a serene day,”—he does prefer the experienced individual primarily because he “Has proudly steered his life with his own hands." He has lived and he has grown as a result of it, Bode suggests that this poem is an inversion of one of Wordsworth’s favorite themes. Thoreau "stresses not the infant, but the upstanding man; not the loss of innocence, but the gain of moral strength,"^ Certainly, this is consistent with Thoreau’s much more forceful view of life and his more intimate contact with nature. Thoreau by no means set his life up as the perfect example of the type of life he was describing. 3h fact, he often reproached himself for not practicing what he heard preached by nature, a regret also ex­ pressed by Emerson in the poem "Days," He understood the value of a vigorous life, but in his writing he expressed the belief that he had

3 Carl Bode, ed. Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau. Enlarged Edi­ tion (Baltimore, 1964), p. 375.. This idea is by no means unique in American literature. ' See R. W>B. Lewis, The American Adam (Chicago, 1955). 29 not done all he could. Each mere melodious note I hear Brings this reproach to me, Thatlaloneaffordtheear,’ Who would the musicbe. (119) Finally, in an image of a pilgrim reaching lofty heights through a spiral within himself, Thoreau asserted that the possibility of success is with­ in each man,. This poem, "Forever in fy Dream & in MyMoming Thought," was the last on© recorded in his journal.(184)- Thoreau’s concern for the active life is closely connected with his ideas about the individual. In order to act,, man must be free. In order for anything valuable to occur, man must be unrestricted. Inactiv­ ity results when man is restrained, either by his own inertia, or by some outside force, usually society, ffen and nature can become one only when the individual is free to move about or to make choices, and Thoreau vigorously asserts this freedom. Most of Thoreau’s work reflects the idea that man can be free in nature. In his essay, "Walking," he said: I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least—and it is commonly more than that— sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, abso­ lutely free from all worldly concerns. . . . ' Thoreau explicitly declares hi3 own independence in a poem by that name. INDEPENDENCE ify life more civil is and free Than any civil polity. Ye princes keep your realms And circumscribed power, Not wide as are my dreams, Nor rich as is this hour.

Works, p. 66l. 30 What.can ye give which .I have not? What can ye take which I have got? Can ye defend the dangerless? Can ye inherit nakedness? To all true wants time’s ear is deaf, Penurious states lend no relief Out of their pelf— But a free soul—thank God- Can help itself. . Be sure your fate Doth keep apart its state— Not linked with any band— Even the nobles of the land In tented fields with cloth of gold— No place doth hold But is more chivalrous than they are. And sigheth for a nobler war. A finer strain its trumpet rings— A finer gleam its armor flings; The life that I aspire to live k No man proposeth me— No trade upon the street Wears its emblazonry. (132*133) And in a poem called "Wait Not Till Slaves Pronounce the Word" with the subtitle a quotation from Virgil, "Each one his Own Hope," Thoreau em­ phatically states that Freedom must come from id.thin each individual. As he says in the' first stanza: , . . , Wait not till slaves pronounce the word To set the captive free, Be free yourselves, be not deferred, And farewell slavery. (198) In nature Thoreau admired those'objects which gave the appearance of being able to exist by themselves. This is the implication in "The Atlantides," (67)^ but the object which Thoreau admired most for its rug­ gedness and self-sufficiency was Mount Wachusett. Since this mountain

?See Chapter Four, page 59. 31 was west of Concord, he viewed it as looking westward to the land of promise and natural wildness, and identified himself with it. In the conclusion to “With Frontier Strength Ye Stand Your Ground,” Thoreau expresses his desire to be brother to WachuSett. But special I-remember thee, Wachusett, who like me Standest alóne without society. (49) In another quatrain, Thoreau presents Washusett as an object above the concerns of the world and outside the concerns of time. Not unconcerned Wachusett rears his head Above the field, so late from nature won, With patient brow reserved* as one who read • New annals in the history of man, (16) This self-sufficiency is what Thoreau hoped to achieve for himself* At times Thoreau becomes more forceful, even arrogant, in his assertion of the freedom of the individual. In fact, he militantly chal­ lenges the power of the gods* I MAKE YE AN OJFER I make ye an offer, Ye gods, hear the scoffer, The scheme will not hurt you, If ye will find goodness, I will find virtue. Though I am your creature. And child of your nature,- I have pride still unbended* And blood undescended» Some free independence, And my own descendents. I cannot toll blindly,* Though you behave'1 kindly, And I swear by the rood.

^Thoreau refers to the West as a land of promise many times in his prose. In "Walking," for instance, he said: "The future lies that way [West] to men, and the earth Seems more exhausted and richer on that side." Works, p. 667. \ ’ 32 I’ll be slave tono God. If ye will deal plainly, I will strive mainly, If ye will discover, Great plans to your lover, And give hima sphere Somewhat larger than here. (41) But no natter how aggressively Thoreau asserted his independence, he continually described an ideal relationship with other people based on friendship, Again the duality is present. To Thoreau friendship goes further than the traditional definition implies; in fact, he at times comes close to Whitman’s concept of adhesiveness or brotherhood. Friend­ ship transcends human bonds and limitations; therefore* acts of friend­ ship also transcend earthly ties* In an attempt to define true kindness, Thoreau said; True kindness is a pure affinity, Not founded-upon human consanguinity. It is a spirit, not a blood relation, „ Superior to family and station. (63)' And in a passage from a poem first published by Kenneth Cameron in 1956 in the Emerson Society Quarterly, Thoreau described love in platonic terms. I will leave him:I hate And cleave to him I.love I will foresake my earthly mate And seek ny mate above.8

'This concept of friendship is consistent with Thoreau’s state­ ments on philanthropy, particularly in Walden. He doubted the value of giving to others just for the sake of giving. An anecdote from Walden, tinged with satire, illustrates this position. "A robust poor man, one sunny day here in Concord, praised a fellow-townsman to me, because, as he said, he was kind to the poor; meaning, himself.” Works, p. 295*

^Kenneth Cameron, "Four Uncollected Thoreau Poems," Emerson Society Quarterly. V (Fourth Quarter, 1956)15* Also Collected~ Poems. p. 387‘ ' 33 Thoreau attempted to define an ideal friend in a poem called "Great Friend." After discussing his solitude, he expresses a wish for an "intelligent and kindred face," and says: I still must seek the friend Who does with nature blend, Who is the person in her mask, lie is the man I ask. (144) His friend, in other words, must be one with nature, as Thoreau desired himself to be; in fact, in this poem he may be looking for himself. Friendship and love were not simple matters for Thoreau* He ob­ viously realized the danger of blind admiration, recognizing the need for criticism in such a relationship. This concern gave rise to a series of poems on the love-hate theme, a theme whose paradoxical nature must have fascinated Thoreau. The most explicit statement of this theme is found in a poem called "Indeed Indeed, I Cannot Tell." Indeed Indeed, I cannot tell, Though I ponder on it well. Which were easier to state, All my love or all my hate* Surely,. surely, thou wilt trust me When I Say thou dost disgust me. 0,1 hate thee with a hate That would fain annihilate; Yet sometimes against my will, My dear friend, I love thee still. It were treason to our love. And a sin to God above, One iota to abate Of a pure impartial hate. (181) One other group of poems related to this theme must be examined. Several poems discuss love in general terms and seem to be a restatement of Thoreau’s concept of friendship, rather than the feelings of an en­ amored young nan toward a specific girl. Most students of Thoreau be­ lieve that Thoreau possibly was in love with Ellen Sewall for a brief 34 time but this relationship constituted his only interest in physical love* Such passages as: I think awhile.of love, and while I think* love is.to me a world, Sole meat and sweetest drink. And close connecting link Tween heaven and earth. (89) or: There’s nothing in the world I know .That can escape from love, , For every depth it goes below, And every height above. (73) are at times believed to reflect Thoreau’s ideas on friendship. However* Walter Harding, in a forthcoming biography of Thoreau, points out that Thoreau actually was in love several times and that some of Ms "platonic" love poems were directed toward specific women and dealt with unplatonic relationships. 9 Nevertheless, even in these poems the relationship ex­ pressed is based on a bond that transcends the earth, that is a "close connecting link/Tween heaven and earth." Another type of dependence, which paradoxically allowed him to be free, treated favorably by Thoreau was his love for Concord and especial­ ly the surrounding woods. He felt that all he needed in life was there, 10 Xn Walden he said, ”1 have travelled a good deal in Concord; in hia poetry he said: , • - •» You may go round the world By the Old Marlborough Road. (19) ;

^This information is summarized from Professor Harding’s chapter on Thoreau’s women which was read before members of The Thoreau Society at Concord, fessachusetts, on July 13, 1963’.

l^Works. p. 246. 35 Professor Odell Shepherd, speaking before the Thoreau Society in Concord , on July 13, 1963, emphasized Thoreau’s sense of place and observed that Concord.offered Thoreau an ideal location, a genius loci. Thoreau couples his concern for the present in time with a concern for the present in p■l ac■ é» 11 As the individual can best experience life at thé present mo­ ment* so Can he best experience life by concentrating on his cwn locale. Living indepth rather than breadth was Thoreau’s theme. Thoreau’s ex­ periences at Walden Pond substantiated this belief in the universality of a specific placé. It [Walden and the surrounding area] is as much Asia or Africa ' as New England. I have,, as it were, my.own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all/to myself. . . . ■ And in his poetry he said: If you love not Your own land most, You’ll find nothing lovely Upon a distant coast. If you lové not The latest sunset, What is there in picture's Or old gems set? (166) As we shall see in the following chapter, Thoreau draws

^However, the civilization of ancient Greece was of life-long interest to Thoreau. Here he found a peacefulness and simplicity which he hoped to capture. Nevertheless, when comparing Greece and New England, he always chose New England because be could experience New England, but Only read about Greece. Such water do the gods distill, And pour down every hill For their New England men; A draught of this wild reetar bring, And I’ll not taste the spring Of Helicon again. (44).

12Works, p, 331. 36 predominantly from nature for his images. However, he also has something to say about nature thematically. Nature performs certain functions and allows the individual to perform certain functions. Thoreau continually shows a delight in nature, in the fact that nature is free, as he too is free. In "The Breeze’s Invitation*1’ (apparently directed to Ellen Sewall), Thoreau describes a voyage through nature in which he is almost•complete­ ly free. . Coras let’s roam the breezy pastures, Where,the freest ’zephyrs blew, . Batten on the oak tree’s rustle, And the pleasant insect bustle» Dripping Tíitb the streamlet’s flow. What if I no wings ..do wear, • Thro’ this solid seeming air, I can skim like any swalldw Who so dareth let her follow* • And we’ll be a jovial pair. (116) Nature is the' translucent window through which Thoreau can see outlines of. this ideal. Beneath"the annual death and rebirth of nature, he sees something again which transcends earthly restrictions and remains eternal. THE MOON NOW RISES .TO HER ABSOLUTE ROLE The moon now rises to her absolute rule, And the husbandmen and hunter Acknowledge her for their mistress. Asters and golden reign in the fields And the life everlasting withers not. The fields are reaped and' shorn of their pride ButC?] an inward verdure still crowns them The thistle Scatters its down on the pool , The yellow leaves clothe’ the river—' And nought disturbs the serious life of men. But behind the sheaves and under the sod There lurks a ripe fruit which the reapers have not gathered The true harvest of the year—the boreal [?] fruit Which it bears forever. With fondness annually watering and maturing it. 37 But man never severs the stalk Which bears this palatable fruit. (136)X^ Thoreau is contrasting the fruit which is harvested, with the unharvested fruit, "The true harvest of the year." This latter fruit remains eternal; man cannot destroy it. In another selection, Thoreau expresses the idea that an associa­ tion with nature will place him outside the restrictions of time and more in contact with the eternal. Die and be buried who will I mean to live here still; My nature grows ever more young The primitive pines among. (28) He is not speaking of eternal youth but of eternity, and nature gives the appearance of very slowly changing. It is important that Thoreau chose a pine tree which is green all year round, and therefore avoids the effects of the seasonal cycle. But Thoreau’s primary thematic use of nature is as teacher. There is a practical reason for this use, since nature continues to take care ' ' r of its own. With no help from man, the birds .build nests, the trees disseminate their seeds, and the waters keep themselves fresh and clean. This self-sufficiency Thoreau admired and emulated. In addition, nature 1 has a peacefulness and dignity which,appealed to Thoreau in much the Same way as the calm dignity of the Periclean Age of ancient Greece did* However, he also finds a metaphysical reason for his choice of nature as his teacher. Nature is the meeting point of the ideal and the physical; therefore, by observing nature, Thoreau was observing the ideal at work,

^interpolations such as appear in lines seven'and thirteen are textual. 38 and by imitating nature, he was approaching a correspondence with the ideal. Thoreau the scholar invariably gave way to Thoreau the man of nature. There is more to be learned from a walk through the woods than from all the books ever written, including the Bhagvat-Glta and the writings of Greece. Thoreau expresses this ideal very explicitly in his poem, "My Books I’d Fain Cast Off, I Cannot Read,1’ My books I’d fain east off, I cannot read, •Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large Down in the meadow’, where is richer feed, And will not mind to hit their proper targe. ? 7,--. * i Plutarch was good, and so was Homer too, Our Shakespeare’s life were rich to live again. What Plutarch read, that was not good nor true, Nor Shakespeare’s books, unless his books were men. ■ ’ » Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough, What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town, If juster battles are enacted now Between the.ants upon this hummock’s crown?

t Bid Homer wait till I the issue learn, If red or’black the gods will favor most. Or yonder Ajax will the phalanx turn, Struggling to,heave some rock against the host. Tell Shakespeare to attend some leisure hour, For now I’ve business with this drop of dew, And see you.not,- the clouds prepare a shower,— I’ll meet him' shortly when the sky is blue. (76) One sees an almost spatial contrast which supports the poem’s theme. The references to literature are large and^ generalized, while the references * w to nature are suddenly and dramatically specific and, within a line or f 4 ' * ' two, detailed. As in.Walden»- he observes a battle between two ant armies . . ’ * * and occupied his time with a drop of dew. It is as though he looked at / one part of the poem through one end of a telescope, and then turned it around to look at the rest of the poem. 39 Less directly, in "The Fall of the Leaf,” Thoreau explains how the fall of a leaf and the quiet bravery of "threadbare trees" reminds him of a stoic acceptance of the inevitable.. But with as brave a core within They rear their boughs to the October sky. (238) But the exact leèsons that nature teaches are less important than the fact that it does teach. Nature as a teacher rather than the lessons that nature teaches is more often the theme. Perhaps nature will raise the level of a man’s thought. Upon the lofty elm tree sprays ..-The Vireorings the changes Sweet During the trivial summer days. Striving to lift our thoughts above the street. (6) But more generally, the lesson is ,eori£erned With man’s conduct in life, not morally but practically; and any lesson which Thoreau might learn from nature would necessarily include the concept of the simple life, Economy was important to Thoreau, whether in life or in art; in fact, it almost constituted a kind of morality, When he said, "It is no dream of mine,/To ornament a line," he was talking as much about life as about art; 14 in fact, as indicated in Chapter Two, he-often thought of them as being synonymous. Extra action was wasted action* Be asked: Wist we.still eat The bread we have spurned? Must we're kindle The faggots we’ve burned? (206) Thoreau’s Yankee practicality becomes evident here. Be saw in nature

14F or an explication of thi’s pOern,- see Paul 0. Williams, "Thoreau’s ’It is no dream of mine*: A Hew ProposalThoreau Society Btilletih (Winter.. 1964), p. 3. • kQ that those things: which were not functional soon disappeared, and he believed this' lesson could be applied to' himself, 'as well as to his poe­ try. The concept of economy is, of course, basic to Walden, and Thoreau believed that anything not necessary was harmful. Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are;not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. * The poor man whose life was simple and uncluttered by society was closer to the eternal and the ideal. The poor man comes from heaven direct to earth ; As stars'drop down the sky and tropic beams . < . The rich receives in our gross air his, birth, , 'As from low’suns are slanted golden gleams. Men are by birth equal in this that given Themselves and their condition they are even, The less of inward essence is to leaven The more of outward circumstance is given, (219) And as proof of this contention* Thoreau describes the unornamented sun; • Yon sun is naked bare of satellite Unless our earths and moons that office hold, Though his perpetual day.feareth no night And his perennial summer dreads no Cold, f Where are his gilded rays but in our sky? His solid disk doth float far from us still* The orb which through the central way doth fly ’ ¿hall naked seem [?] though proudly circumstanced. (219) Nature then* as Emerson said in Nature, provides man with a sub­ stance through which he can approach the ideal. By coming close to na- ture* both physically and spiritually, the poet can free himself from worldly bonds. The ultimate experience for Thoreau is to identify him­ self almost literally with nature* an image that will be discussed more

15,Works, p. 253« 41 fully in Chapter Four. The actual fusion is described by Thoreau in his poetry in an almost literal and physical sense* Fain would I stretch me by the hig[h] way side. To thaw and trickle with the melting snow. That mingled soul and body with the tide , I too »ay through the pores of nature flow. (107) and: I was born upon thy bank river jy. blood flows in thy stream And thou meanderest forever . At the bottom of my dream (120) The poet has finally broken down the duality of the ideal and the real; he is one with nature. His body’s fluids mingle with the melting snow; his blood becomes part of a stream* The statement is more than metaphor. The directness of the description makes it almost literal* But, Thoreau, although emphasizing a conduct of,life based on the freedom of the individual emulating nature, also realized that "the mass 16 of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” There is a disparity between life as it should be lived, Thoreaii’s chief concern, and life as it is lived, a fact from which Thoreau could never escape. Even while con­ ducting his successful experiment at Walden Pond,.he bad the Irish rail­ road workers near him to remind him of the way most men live. Thoreau’s attack on society, as his criticism of the Irish, was two-fold in its approach. He condemned the instruments of society that interfere with the individual’s freedom, and he held the individual responsible for allowing this interference to occur through his own stupidity and lazi­ ness.

16 . Works , p . 249,. U2 Thoreau’s attitude toward society is most extreme in this short poem. In the busy streets, domains of trade, Han is a surly porter, or a vain and hectoring bully, Who can claim no nearer kindredship with me Than brotherhood by law. (101) And in.two other poems Thoreau revealed an unusually pessimistic attitude toward the world. The first is an imagistic piece originally published by Bode in his first edition. Between the traveller and setting sun, i , ■ . Upon some drifting sand heap of the shore» • A hound Stands o’er the carcass of a man. (205) And the second maintains that the world has passed its peak and is now I. . I - . , ■ , ' . dead* EP [ITAPH] ON THE WORLD Here lies the body of this world. Whose soul alas to hell is hurled. This golden youth long since was past. Its silver manhood went as fast, And iron age drew on at last{ ’Tis vain, its character to tell, The several fates which it befell, What year it died, when ‘twill arise, We only know that here it lies. (154) But the, blame does not lie solely with some indefinite force called society. Man makes no effort to explore, to improve, or to free himself* To revert again to a basic transcendental theme, the change must come initially from within. How little curious is man Be has not searched his mystery a span But dreams of mines of treasure Which he neglects to measure. X. For three score years and ten Walks to and fro amid his fellow men O’er this small tract of continental land And never uses a divining wand. (141) I

43 The conflict between nature and society, including man, is best demonstrated in a poem Called "The Cliffs & Springs.” When breathless noon hath paused on hill and vale, And now no more the woodman plies his axe, Nor mower whets his scythe, ■ Somewhat it is, sole sojourner on earth. To hear the veery on her oaken perch 5 . Ringing her modest trill— : Sole sound of all the din that makes a world, . And-I 'sole:ear, • . Fondly to nestle me in that sweet melody, And own a kindred soul, speaking to me 10 From out the depths of, universal being. O’er birch and hazle; through the sultry air. Comes that faint sound this way,, On Zephyr borne , straight'to my ear. • No longer time or place* nor faintest trace 15 ' Of earth, , the landscape ’s shimmer is ny only space, Sole remnant of a world; Anon that throat has done, and familiar sounds Swell strangely on the breeze, the lew of Cattle, And the novel cries of sturdy swains 20 That, plod the neighboring vale— And I walk once more confounded a denizen of earth. (92) The poem is actually composed of two parts. In the first part, to line seventeen, the poet presents a picture of a veery singing and himself listening. The experience is direct; nothing else is happening but this. As the west wind carries the modest trill'of thè bird to the poet, the scene is taken out of time and place. A nystical experience is taking place; nothing else exists at this moment. The union of the individual and rature has been consummated. But soon the sound dies and is replaced by sounds of society* In place of a veery’s trill, we have the low of cattle, a domestic animal. With nói trace Of wildness about-it; and thé cries of men working the fields, bound by labor to the fields which own them. Little wonder that these familiar sounds now.seem strange to the poet, following his expere ienôe with nature. Even the words of this" second section seem dull and heavy. The cattle and men are described with stock phrases from poetic diction and the swains "plod" through the valley, whereas the sound of the bird is carried by the wind.- The contrast between the two sections is as great as Thoreau could make it and he leaves no doubt about his position at the end of the poem. Thoreau’s thematic concerns center around a world that, for the most part, does not exist. He describes an ideal life and ideal relation­ ship with nature and with other men. Re could never forget the discrep­ ancy between this ideal life that he saw best represented in nature and the life he saw around him; so the only solution was a moral withdrawal into himself, a demand for freedom in order to approach this idéal life, even though it meant doing this alone. This accounts in large part for his twenty-six months at Walden Pond, for his trip on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers with a kindred spirit, for his many other walks into the woods, and for practically every word he ever wrote. CHAPTER IF

.mow "Things admit of being used as symbols because nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in every part." Emerson, "The Poet" -

For the, Transcendentalists, the physical world was a symbol of the spiritual* It was necessary, therefore, for the Transcendentalists to use images, especially.of nature, to convey the truths they found repre­ sented in nature. As Chapter Two demonstrates, Thoreau realized that this use of the physical world was crucial to any kind of effective expression. J. J. Moldenhauer, in a recent study of imagery in Thoreau’s prose, states that imagery was Thoreau’S most natural means of expression; His idealistic conviction made it inevitable that he ’think in images, * that he skillfully and persistently relate empirical experience to the truths which idealism had postulated. His imagery is perhaps the most accurate index of his efforts to establish and exploit that elusive relationship, F. 0. Matthiessen, discussing Thoreau’s imagery, said the samé thing earlier, emphasizing Thoreau’s concrete grasp of the physical world while discussing abstract concepts.2 That imagery is fundamental to,Thoreau’s poetxy, that he used very

1 J. J. Moldenhauer, "Images of Circularity in Thoreau’s Prose," Texas Studies in Literature and language. ¡1 (Summer, 1959). 246.

^F. O. Matthiessen, American Renaissance (Hew York: Oxford University Press)., pp. 92-93« specific imagery, and that he used images of the physical world in and around1 Concord, as Henry Wells points out, will become obvious in the following discussion and needs no further comment here. However, an examination of his imagery will reveal favorite image groups and possible reasons for these preferences. Specific images within Thoreau’s poetry can be placed within sev­ eral larger catégories. In accordance with the duality of Thoreau’s thematic concerns, most of these images are of freedom or of restriction, with the freedom images emphasizing free movement or limitless capacity and the images of restriction presenting some kind of restraint* As one would suspect, Thoreau treats the former favorably and the latter un­ favorably; and again* as one would suspeot, there are far more of the former than of the latter. Thoreau, in A Week on the Concord and Merri­ mac Rivers, quotes from one of his favorite sources, the Bhagvat-Gjta: "Action is preferable to inaction." However, he later goes on to point out that there is value in both states. 4 The verbs, the carriers of the action in a sentence, usually express the freedom, as opposed to the nouns, which are the objects performing the action. The meadows flow, (241) The fishes glide From side to side In the clear tide, (239)

^Henry Wells, "An Evaluation of Thoreau’s Poetry," American Literature. XVI (May, 1944), 101. h, Henry David Thoreau,' A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Riverside Edition, The Writings of Henry David Thoreau. (Boston* 1893)» 175* Wf When the world grows old by the chimney side. Then forth to the youngling rocks I glide— (ill) T . and happily The brook Glides by lulled by its tinkling; (226) See what unwearied (and) copious streams Come tumbling to the east and southern shore, (134) The moon moves up her smooth and sheeny path Without impediment; (226) The moon goes up by leaps her cheerful path In some far summer stratum of the sky, (228) The movement, however, is not always without some kind of friction. Freedom is not something necessarily without control or opposition. Often Thoreau presents a foil against which this freedom works, thus pro­ ducing a tension which supports many Of his best poems. But at the same time* this freedom is only hindered, not usually destroyed. It usually does triumph* as in these following lines in which the speaker asserts the sovereignty and power of that music beyond the dulling of this rou­ tine world. Far from this atmosphere that music souftds Bursting some azure chink in the dull clouds Of sense that overarch my recent years And steal.his freshness from the noonday sun. (223) Or perhaps he contrasted the freedom of one object or situation with f the restrictions of another* The moon’s pale orb through western shadows gropes, While morning sheds its light o’er sea and land. (21?) Occasionally, however, Thoreau went beneath the surface of appearances to reveal that under the seemingly inert exterior is a great deal of activ­ ity. For instance* in "When Winter Fringes Every Bough," he describes the countryside as being covered by snow and ice* but beneath the snow, "The mouse/Nibble th the meadow hay." (14) Or in "The River Swslleth 48 More and hfore," he says: ‘ And many a stream with smoother hum. Doth swifter well and faster glide, • Though buried deep.beneath the tide. (8) Usually when Thoreau described an object, or more likely an action, ' ■ , » ‘ unfavorably, it was, of course;- almost always in terms of restriction or lack of free movement; When comparring his outward life to something larger, such as the movement of celestial bodies (a favorite image of freedom), he says: No charitable laws alas cut me An easy orbit round the sun, but I , Mast, make my way through rocks and seas and earth My steep and devious way Uncertain still. (226) Or again he describes his life in terms of limitations. This tells of better space, Far far beyond the hills the woods the clouds That bound my low > and plodding valley life, (223) The ideal that he postulates existing beyond the bounds of the physical world is always free, limitless, and unrestricted, while by contrast the physical world is "plodding," a word connoting movement which must over* come inertia. However, within this world freedom and restriction are contrasted. Certain objects of nature have their activity hampered at times. The wind, one of Thoreau’s favorite images of freedom, is not always beyond restriction. And winds in distant caverns pent. (57) And the stream does not always flow freely Till fields of- ice-her course confine (46) While this freedom-restriction conflict does exist in much of Thoreau’s poetry, the images of natural freedom are far in the majority. 49 and are often presented alone to express metaphorically the ideal* In transcending the earthly to approach this ideal, Thoreau naturally pre­ ferred those images which were not bound by fixed limits, which could not easily be contained, 'and which flowed, either literally or metaphorically* As Thoreau said in "lately, Alas I Knew a Gentle Boy”: For walls and ports do only serve alway For a pretence to feebleness and sin. (64) Mast of his favorite images have this quality of freedom inherent in them* Thus the eight most frequent groups of images found in Thoreau’s poetry all lack restriction in one way or another: sounds; smells; water . or floating; clouds, mist, or smoke; winds; morning or dawn; the sun; and other celestial bodies* •Most of Thoreau’s images are presented in terms of the sense of. sight, as would be true of Other poets, but an unusually high number refer to sound, and, to a lesser degree, smell* This is not surprising when one remembers that Thoreau was a close observer of nature, and in the forest sounds and smells aré noticable more easily and at a greater distance than visual objects* This, however, is not the only reason Thoreau would show a preference for these senses. Whereas the visual, tactile, and tasting senses depend on the presence of tangible objects. Objects which have mass and physical existence, the hearing and olfac­ tory senses.prove the existence of the invisible, which was exactly what Thoreau and Transcendentalism were trying to do. Sounds and smells are less restricted by the physical world. They float; they wander; and* perhaps equally as important, they carry a message from an unseen world. AS Thoreau said in A Week'on the Concord"and Msrrimao Rivers: 50 > The ears were made, not for such-trivial uses as men are wont , to suppose, but to hear celestial sounds. * . feny times, Thoreau uses sound imagery for its own sake, to pre­ sent a picture of nature; /Coupled with the objects he describes, the ' ’ •* ’ ’’ ■ ’’.4' * . ' 1 ' ■ ■' ' sounds complement the visual imagery and involve the reader much more completely* In “A Winter and Spring Scene,” a poem in which Thoreau; by the use of a long series of short, concise images, attempts to present the scene as completely aá possible. the total picture would not be com* píete without these two stanzas ; • \ ' The axe resounds, , ’ And bay of hounds. And‘tinkling sounds Of wintry fame; .The hunter’s horn Awakes the dawn On field forlorn, And frights the game* The tinkling air Doth echo bear To rabbit‘s; lair. With dreadful din; She scents the air, And far doth fare, Returning where She did begin. (240) Other references to the sounds of nature serve a-similar function. The jay screams through the chestnut woodt (238) thechicadee Lisp a faint note anon, (14) Sometimes I hear the Veery’s clarion, (5) The foxes barked impatient still (l64) As any reader of Thoreau knows, sounds play an important part in his

¿Thoreau, A Week. 504. 51 prose also, especially in Walden, where an entire chapter is devoted to sound* iferiy of these sounds are found also iri his poetxy* in "When Winter Fringes Every Bough," a familiar.sound from Walden is observed* Out on the silent pond straightway The restless ice doth crack, (15) . 1 , » And in a poem called "Walden" i . Only the practiced ear Can catch the surging words, That break and die upon thy pebbled lips. (98) . But sounds to Thoreau always meant more than a mere description of physical nature. Nature as always, and especially the sounds of nature, had a message fox* him; Perhaps it was a guide to life* And in secluded woods the chicadee Doles out her scanty notes, which sing the praise Of heroes, and set forth the loveliness Of Virtue evermore. (5) Perhaps it was a specific message, although not a specific bird, as when Thoreau addressed his dead brother: What bird .wilt thou employ To bring me word of thee? (152) But most often the sound of nature comes originally from another realm, from the world which transcends the senses, and it teaches Thoreau to keep looking for this world. Upon the lofty elm tree sprays . The vireo rings the changes sweet, During the trivial summer days, Striving to lift our thoughts above the streets* (6) At other times, Thoreau identifies with this messenger when the veery speaks directly to him, a kindred soul, "From out the depths of' univer­ sal being." (92) Again in keeping with Thoreau’s duality of the physical and the ideal, a duality that he tries to reconcile through his poetry, he at 52 times contrasts the sounds of nature with the sounds of man, particularly man’s speech. Ris preference is obvious. When deeper thoughts upswell, the jarring discord Of harsh speech is hushed, (104) and more bluntly: . » . ‘ \ 1 , , ‘ Tongues were provided' But to vex the ear with superficial thoughts. (104) The oohflict is stated best in a poem called ‘•Dong, Sounds the Brass in the East,-'1 in which Thoreau usds one of his favorite structural devices, contrast, to point up the difference between the sounds of nature and the sounds of man. Dong, sounds the brass in the east, AS if to a funeral feast, But I like that sound the best Out of the fluttering west.

Its metal is not of brass, But air, and water, and glass, And under a cloud it is swung. And by the wind it is rung. (40) The sound of the bell in the east, for Thoreau civilization and society, is equated with the tolling of a funeral bell and rings with a ’’dong,” the sound of the word itself being flat and without music. However, out of the west, Thoreau’s nature uncontaminated» comes the sound of a bell which is not the result of the dong of brass but the tinkling of glass, and which is a compilation of several of Thoreau’s favorite freedom images: - wind, water, and Clouds. Sounds were extremely important to Thoreau. In fact, he saw in them the essence of his philosophy. Each summer sound Is a summer round. (22) 53 The Intangible, boundless .quality of sounds is matched by the free flow of natural fragrances; but, whereas sounds are often identifiable in Thoreau’s poetry, particular smells by themselves are not found often. Instead, smells are treated in more getterai terms Using such words as "aromàs” or ’•perfumes,” ■ • • Such.fragrance round my couch it makes, More rich than are Arabian drugs. (¿32) ' '' j • ^3o Heunfurled his mast ; To’receive the fragrant blast, (210) , * - . . fi • And smells almost always are symbolic of a Connection between the physi­ cal a-tò.'-'thè? ideal, in much the. Same way that sounds are. Thoreau asks this questioni, . ' Where ‘does thè fragrance of our orchards go Our vineyard while we toil below— (159) Or in the conclusion to the poem,,"Low-Anchored Cloud,” he asks.the clouds 'to : . Bear only perfumes and the scent Of healing herbs to just men’s fields! (56) In one of his best poems, "Smoke," Thoreau uses another favorite image, that of smoke rising, and concludes by referring to the smoke as incense, thus evoking the semi-religious Connotations that he desires and also in­ cluding the Sense of smell, which would be part of a complete descrip- tion of smoke. Thoreau uses the sense of hearing much more and in much greater • • • . » ' • ? complexity than he does the sense Of smell. Whereas smell is almost always used as a general message wafting up to the ideal from the physi-

'or a short discussion of this poem,Jsee Matthiessen, pp., 165-166. cal, sounds are used as messages in both directions, as well as for their own value and beauty* It is well to remember that the vehicles for the correspondence between the physical and ideal are always taken from na- a • ture. Nature is the connecting link. Another of Thoreau’s favorite image groups, already referred to, t • is that of clouds, mist, or smoke. These images had a special appeal for Thoreau, since they clearly embody the element of freedom which dictated most of Thoreau’s images. They were not restricted in any way; and yet, as is not the case with sounds or smells, their substance could be seen and proved* Clouds hang out of reach of earth’s contact. They are * » serene and completely in control. Mist provided a symbol of that in­ definite, obscured realm where the ideal and the physical,.heaven and earth, meet, and Objects viewed through mist take on a quality Of unre­ ality which separates them from thet rest of the physical world. But smoke gave to Thoreau one of his most appropriate images. Rising from a fireplace, a product of man, it continues its leisurely upward journey toward heaven until it either disappears into the sky or becomes a part Of a larger cloud. With practically no help from the poet, it therefore becomes a symbol for the connection between man and the Oversoul, and also provides some sort of communication from the physical world. Again, as Thoreau said: Go thou my inoensè upward from this hearth, And ask the gods to pardon this Clear flame. (27) Joel Benton, a minor Transcendental poet himself and the earliest critic to treat Thoreau's poetry separately and seriously, said when dis­ cussing these images: It may be that these aimless, light, upward bodies, which seem half spirit as well as body, and which stream between the world which is 55 and the One we dream Of, in some way pictured to him his own journey of life, ... There is a great deal of truth in this statement, although it is incom­ plete. These objects give the appearance of aimlessness, as Thoreau ob­ viously did to his neighbors, but Thoreau points out that they accomplish something beyond the monotonous and deadening tasks of everyday life. * • » • . Ani they are completely free to do this; in fact, they can accomplish this precisely because they are free. As in all of nature, man can learn something from them. And yonder vcloud‘s: borne farther in a day Than our most vagrant steps may ever, stray. (I4i) ' ' A • Clouds, mist and smoke pictured to Thoreau, not his own journey of life but an ideal journey, a> journey which he hoped to approximate, "The Sluggish Smoke Curls Up From Some Deep Dell," to be discussed in detail at the end of this chapter, is Thoreau’s best effort at the use of such imagery. But again Thóreau Often used this kind Of imagery to evoke natural objects of beauty. In two very similar poems, he presents a cloud in à J ’ 8 series of parallel,/short and at times unusual images. Although Thoreau gives, to the cloud or clouds a task at the end of each poem, it is the actual image’of the cloud and the many connotations aroused that is impressive.

7 Joel Benton, "The Poetry of Thoreau." Lionincott’s Magazine 1 XXXV H (1885), 496. o This technique is very similar to one used frequently by Emerson which Gay Wilson Allen calls "pyramiding of images," American Prosody (New York, 1935)« p. 117. x 56 : low-anchored cloud Low-anchored cloud, Newfoundland air, Fountain-head and source of rivers, Dew-cloth, dream drapery. And .napkin spread by fays ; Drifting meadow of the air. Where bloom the daisied banks and violets. And in whose fenny labyrinth . -The bittern booms.and heron wades; Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers, Bear only perfumes and the scent Of healIing herbs to just men’s fieldst (56) Thoreau is here describing the cloud, which hangs low over the country­ side, in terras of the countryside itself. The cloud becomes several objects. First, it is the source of rivers, as it is in a literal sense, since it gives rain toW t■»h e1 strea, msZ. L Se. cond. , it is described in fairy- tale terns, which helps to place it beyond the strictly physical world. It is material made1 out of dew and dreams, and spread by fairies. It is an almost other-worldly substance, suggested by the misty appearance of objects which the clouds partially hide. And, finally, the cloud becomes a part of the countryside itself, a drifting meadow within which thè animals live and from which the flowers grow. The second poem also uses several of Thoreau's favorite images of freedom to describe a cloud. WOOF OF THE SUN, ETHEREAL GAUZE Woof of the sun, ethereal gauze, Woven of Nature’s richest stuffs, Visible heat, air-water, and dry sea, last conquest of the eye; Toil Of the day displayed, sun-dust, Aerial surf upon the shores of earth, Ethereal estuary, frith of light, Breakers of air, billows of heat. Fine Summer spray on inland seas; Bird of the sun, transparent-winged Owlet of noon, soft-pinioned, From heath or stubble rising without song; Establish thy serenity o’er the fields. (59) 57 Thoreau is primarily concerned with suggesting the inclusive and bound­ less qualities of the low cloud or perhaps fog, which he does by a series of short paradoxes. As we shall see later in Chapter Six, the paradox is a favorite device used by Thoreau to describe a condition outside the physical, free from the temporal restrictions* The cloud is "visible heat," "air-water," and "dry-sea," each of which suggests a state beyond the logical* Thoreau then presents an extended metaphor of the cloud as a body of water with estuaries, breakers, billows, and spray. And final­ ly the cloud is compared to a bird-which rises from this earth and es- • < • tablishes its "serenity o’er the fields." In both poems, Thoreau combines Several of bis favorite images of . j freedom,, especially, air, wind, and water* The emphasis-is, on the float­ ing or drifting qualities of'the'images used to describe the clouds, ,as t the clouds themselves,“ touching both the earth and the sky, are effective symbols for Thoreau’s correspondence between two worlds. Thoreau’s cloud imagery-is very often closely related to his water imagery. Usually, as above, he describes clouds in terms of water. Or 1 * as in "Walden," he describes their.relationship to each other. ’ Thy flow of thought is noiseless as the lapse of thy own waters* Wafted as is the morning mist up from thy surface. (98) * i' ' ' In the cycle of nature, water produces the clouds or the mist which drifts upward, and often the two are • inseparable. But water has other qualities which appealed to Thoreau* It too was flowing and free, although it had some kind of.restriction placed on it in the form of banks or shores, which perhaps brings it closer to the human situation: a symbol of a more realistic approach to life, a flow­ ing within the banks but always working against them and gradually 58 reshaping them.' Walden Pond, of course, was for Thoreau, a little universe of its own* It was self-sufficient, depending on no inlet or outlet, fed by its own springs and nysteriously draining off the surplus* It was calm and serene, a small part of the eternal. In Thoreau’s poetry, however, the water imagery usually deals with.streams or oceans and of ten with sailing upon them, although Thoreau nowhere treats the voyage symbol as imprest sively as he does in £ Week on the Concord and iferrimac Rivers, and it is by no means one of his. overriding preoccupations. Thoreau* however, Said that "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing o' in," and more than once he described man’s life in terns of a stream or river from its rushing, splashing beginning to the point where its slow, contented flow meets the ocean. < . . ■ , Like torrents of the mountain We’Ve coursed along the lea, From many a-crystal fountain Toward the far-distant sea. And now we’ve gained life's valley, .And through the lowlands roam, No longer may’st thou dally, No longer spout and foam. (87) ■

Fortunately, not a■ *l l'his water ) imagery is quite so trite as in this youthful poem, among his least original and least complex* He admired the exuberance of a tumbling sktream or the strength of a swiftly flowing river, but he also admired th© ease and serenity of his own lazy Concord. Sweet-watered brooks came tumbling to the shore (209) • ■»

^ffenry David Thoreau, The Works of Thoreau, ed. Henry Seidel •• Canby, Cambridge Edition (Boston, 1946), p. 310. 59 Such water do the gods distil, And pour down every hill For their New England men; (kU) Even when the poet moves upstream against the current, the effort is easy and the motion free. New and fresh experience await thé voyager at the head of- the stream. I sailed up a riVer with a pleasant wind, New lands, new people, and new thought to find; (31) Up this pleasant stream let’s row For the livelong summer’s day, Sprinkling foam where’er we go In wreaths as white as driven show— (113) Thoreau-came close to the archetypal symbol of the voyager when he treated In a very generalized way thé ocean which to him usually signi­ fied time or eternity and the inevitable-vessel sailing on that sea. In *1 a poem called "¡lifef”. he ■ Said: . BUt still it £a solitary bark]-plows the shoreless seas of time. Breasting the waves with an unsanded bow. (227) An image similar to the ship-on-the-sea image is that of a lonely island set off by water. This- image supports the theme of man’s in­ herent loneliness, of. his inability to communicate through emotion with others. In a poem about the fabled lost islands of the Atlantic, the » Atlantldes, Thoreau makes it obvious at once that he is talking about men. * The smothered streams of love, which flow Mire bright than-Phlegethon, more low, Island us ever, like the sea, In an Atlantic mystery. (67) Or in a four-line poem, he again emphasizes the aloneness of himself as he searches for life’s meaning. I am bound, I am bound, for a distant shore, By a lonely isle, by a far Azorè, There it is, there it is, the treasure I seek, On the barren sands of a desolate creek* (30) 60 Thoreau made use of water imagery in several different ways. -Al­ though he emphasized its freedom and exuberance when recording the rush­ ing -of mountain streams, he used it quite differently.when recording images of larger bodies of water* • Oceans signify eternity and the ship sailing upon it is.life* Oceans, however, also serve to isolate the individual,' to set him apart-from, the* rest of society* One other natural element used frequently in Thoreau’s poetry is closely associated with thè previous Images, Whereas water gives rise to clouds and mist, it is the wind, or "Fair Zephyr" as Thoreau often re­ ferred to it, that gives direction and movement to them, as well as to the ships floating upon thé sea. i- It-is also the wind that carries sound over the.forests. In addition, the wind is boundless and completely free, another•excellent symbol for Thoreau, since it obviously exists but is

invisible* ■ ' \ ' ■ • * -, I As in his Use Of other natural images, Thoreau finds that by imi­ tating the wind, he can fini a clue to life* In a poem addressed to' Nature; Thoreau asks only that he may be a "zephyr that may blOw/Among the reeds by the river low” and .In some withdrawn unpublic mead - Let me sigh upon a reed; Or in the. [?] woods with leafy din Whisper the still evening in. (216) The wind also brings pleasure in-itself. Where the breeze flows freest, there is Thoreau’s most idyllic picture of nature. See the fair reaches of thé northern lakes To cool his summer with their inland breeze, (134) The north wind sighs a summer breeze; The nipping frost to fend, (14) The early breeze ruffles the poplar leaves, (217) 61 Many times the breeze takes on more positive, almost human, Capabilities. It reports that things are well in the world. And now the cordial clouds have shut all in, And gently swells the wind to say all’s well, (77) or it consciously performs some function. But be the favoring gale That bears me on, And still doth fill ny sail (68) As is obvious from the above examples, the images of sound, clouds, water, and wind were used in very similar ways and many times together. The mist as it rises from the water is caught by thè wind rustling through the forest and carried off to become part of a cloud. Gome let’s roam the breezy pastures, . Where the freest zephyrs blow, Batten on the oak tree’s rustle, And the pleasant insect bustle. Dripping with the streamlet’s flow, (116) Wind, sound, water; at times they are inseparable as they are always in­ separable in nature, and as all things are inseparable in Nature. One particular part of'the day impressed Thoreau with its liberat~ ing characteristics: morning was the time of reawakening and rebirth. » Here cares vanish and thè sense of freedom which permeates So much of Thoreau’s poetry is moat prevalent. Nothing hinders; nothing restricts. The'morning is our prime, That laughs to score Old Time, And knows no crime. (382) Walden, itself; closes with .the promise of dawn: "There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a‘ morning, star.- I In the poem, "The' Inward Morning,? Thoreau concludes by drawing a

10Thoreau, The Works, p.*465. 62 parallel between morning and a dawn within himself, again emphasizing the relationship between man and. nature. I've heard within my inmost soiil Such cheerful morning news# In the horizon of my mind Have' seen such orient hues , As in the twilight of the dawn,. When the first birds awake, Are heard within some Silent wood* Where they the small twigs break, Or in the eastern skies are seen. Before the sun appears, The harbingers of summer heats Which from afar he bears. (75) Usually, however, morning is presented in contrast with some other part-of the day: noon, evening, or night. These are times when activity is restricted either by the heat of a .glaring sun ,or the absence of light, Mbrning is always presented in a positive way and the other times of the day, in contrast to morning, in a negative way; Thus he could say: • I did not think so bright a day Would issue in so dark a night* (124) No matter what may follow, the morning is a time of freshness and bright­ ness. Forward press we to the dawning, ■ ’. For Aurora leads the way. Sultry noon and twilight scorning. In each dew drop of the morning ties the promise of a day. (114) and: When first ny healthy morning life perchance Trod lightly as on clouds, and not as yet •l$r weary and faint hearted noon had sunk Upon the clod vxhile the bright day went by. (223) Two other images associated with his images of morning and often supporting them are-the crowing cock and the sun. The crowing of a cock 63 appears frequently in Thoreau’s prose and he has one entire poem, "Upon the Bank at Early Sawn, * organized around this image. The sun, in ad­ dition to being found frequently-in a description of morning, appears as ’ 5 1 a symbol of something eternal or at least stable. In describing the sun, Thoreau says: It waits as waits the sky, Until the clouds go by, Yet shines serenely on With an eternal day. (73) and: What is it gilds the trees and clouds, And paints the heavens so gay, But yonder fast-abiding light With its unchanging ray? (74) The sun quite naturally was used by Thoreau, since it is a life- giving force, but in addition it has a characteristic that nor® of the previous image-groups had: it is beyond the influence of earthly forces. From Thoreau’s point of view it is completely free and without restric­ tion. This characteristic also helps to explain Thoreau’s fondness for a special kind of image of celestial bodies. Images taken from astronomy are usually explained away as being the result of Thoreau’s interest in metaphysical poetry. While it is probably true that metaphysical poetry reinforced his natural inclination in this direction, astronomical im­ agery would have been used by Thoreau anyway for several reasons. First of all, the stars and planets are beyond the influence of earth and its affairs; in that sense they are free. Second, they are beyond any pre­ occupation with time, and therefore are eternal. As a result they offer Thoreau many opportunities to use them as vehicles for thè expression of 64: his ideas. Finally, Thoreau Saw a parallel between an examination of the infinite reaches of the universe and infinite reaches of the self. As he said: ' If we can reason so accurately, and with such wonderful confirmation of our reasoning, respecting so-called material objects and events infinitely removed beyond the range of our natural vision, so that the mind hesitates to trust its calculation even when they are confirmed by observation, why may not our speculations penetrate as far into the immaterial starry system, of which the former is but the outward and visible type?- Surely, we are provided with senses as well fitted to penetrate the spaced of the real, the substantial, the eternal, as these outward are to penetrate the material universe. Veias, Menu, Zoroaster, Socrates, Christ. Shakespeare, Swedenborg,—these are some of our astronomers. 1 Thoreau presented this relationship when describing the creative process in “Inspiration.", She [the Efose] with one breath attunes the spheres. And also my poor human heart, With one Impulse propels the years Around, and gives my throbbing pulse its start, (232) Other references to celestial bodies can be found in Thoreau’s

On shoulders whirled in some eccentric orbit (149) Ye stars ny spear-heads in the sly, My arrow-tips ye are; (55) But Thoreau’s most'effective use of this image comes in ah extended ap- plication reminiscent of the metaphysical poets. 12 In a poem discussing the quiet strength of friendship, he says:

•11 * s ■ K Week on the Concord and fferrlmack Rivers, 508-509.

12S e■ veral oth• er images used in' a startling way could be traced to Thoreau’s interest in metaphysical poetry* For instance, in a poem called "Music," he works out a sustained Image fof himself as a house and God as the proprietor, (223) Most of his metaphysical images, however, are those of cosmology. ô5 Two solitary stars,— Unmeasured systems far Between us roll* But by our conscious light we are Determined to one pole. (7i) In another poem he uses the gravitational pull of celestial bodies met­ aphorically. I have roiled near some other spirits path And with a pleased anxiety have felt Its purer influence on my opaque mass But always was I doomed to learn, alas I I had scarce changed its sidireal [sic] time. (140) And again, in a poem called "Love,1* the relationship be tween two human bodies or spirits is described in terms of heavenly bodies. We two that planets erst bad been Are now a double star. And in the heavens may be Seen, Where that we fixed are. Yet Whirled with subtle power along. Into new space we enter, And evermore with spheral song ' RevolVeabout thé centre* (109) This poem attempts to define the complex relationship between two people, and the celestial imagery allows him to do this succinctly and effective- ly* The lOve first of all transcends earthly definition. It is the platonic relationship that Thoreau often referred to, even accompanied by the music of the spheres. The relationship is further developed by a series of near-paradoxes, The change that has been brought about as a result of this love is the change from two planets to a double star. Two planets move in regular orbit, their relationship purely mechanicals sometimes they aré near, sometimes they are far apart. But two stars are V t always together. The movement is further complicated and the relation­ ship becomes even neater in the second stanza when the stars, which 66 appear to be fixed, are described as whirling along and yet forever re­ volving around themselves, love then is an intensely personal emotion. Even though these two bodies are traveling swiftly through the vastness of space, their primary preoccupation is with each other. They are alone and they are together. In'fact, their love emphasizes their aloneness. And finally., the reference to the music of the spheres is an image which f combines Thoreau’s interest in the heavens and sounds and Is found fre­ quently throughout his poetry. All of the images discussed so far are images of nature and im­ ages of freedom, Thoreau thought of the two synonymously and almost always treated images of nature in appOsitive way. A number of his 3m- ages, however, are treated negatively. As one might expect,.these Images invariably are concerned with civilization and society. In the forest, men are true brothers, but In the busy streets, domains of trade, Man is a surly porter, or a Vain and hectoring bully., Who can claim no nearer kindredshlp with me Than brotherhood by law. (101) In a poem addressed to "Thou Dusky Spirit of the Wood,” Thoreau describes the flight of a bird "Over desponding human crowds.” (7) And in several Other poems neighbors and houses appear in a negative light. For though the caves were rabitted. And the well sweeps were slanted, Each house seemed not inhabited But haunted. The pensive traveller held his way. Silent and melancholy. For every man an ideot [sic] was* And every house a folly. (189) and: &7 My neighbors sometimes come with lumb’ring carts, As if they wished my pleasant toil to share. But straightway go again to distant marts For only weeds and ballast are their care. (122) In keeping with one of the basic concerns of his life, Thoreau at times contrasts freedom of the individual with the restrictions that a state can impose on him. Society then lives under the state while he; of course, prefers to live outside it. In this respect, the state is sinply a formalized extension of society’s dominance over the individual, reflecting the distrust of the city Inherent in Romantic thought. In a poem addressed to Nature, Thoreau says: For I had rather be thy child And pupil in the forest wild Than be the king of men elsewhere And most sovereign slave of care (216) References to the State are often monarchial, implying rule of one man over another. The state, any state, could be a despot* and monarchs and * v states are selfish and imposing. Thoreau warns: Princes and monarchs will contend Who first unto your land shall send, And pawn the jewels of the crown To call your distant soil their own. (6?) But it is the free images of nature that Thoreau is primarily Concerned with. Be sees in nature a guide to life and he determines to associate himself with it. As treated in the previous chapter, nature is the great teaoher, and man can do no better than to pattern his life after the lessons nature has to teach. At times, however, the connection between Thoreau and nature appears to go beyond the more formal pupil* * V . teacher relationship. In fact, Thoreau attempts to become one with na- ture, to melt into it or fuse with it. For Thoreau this is the ultimate in experience, and he records it often in his poetry. This fusion is a 68

supreme reconciliation of man with nature, a oneness behind the dual pro­ jection of the ideal in the form of outward nature and man. It is the unity in duality that the Transcendentallsts strove for. Nature can teach man because it is a better projection of the Ideal; it is freer and less hindered than man. Kan, by becoming one with nature, also at­ tains this freedom. Carl Bode notes this application by Thoreau of nature to himself in a poem called "I Am the Autumnal Sun," (350-351) but the image is presented more explicitly in"The Thaw." Fain would I stretch me by the hig[h] way side, To thaw and trickle with the melting snow, That mingled soul and body with the tide, I too may through the pores of nature flow. (10?) And in the conclusion to "A Winter and Spring Scene,” after listing a number Of nature images, he says: I melt; I flew* And rippling run, Like melting snow • In this warm sun. (24-2) Thoreau speaks of the water of a river* or the drops of rain going ♦* ■* » * V through his body As if ïfen’s blood, a river, flowed right on Far as the eye could reach, to the Heart of hearts, Nor eddied round about these complex limbs. (157) and: I feel the feet Of tiny drops go pattering through my veins; (157) In “It is no Bream of Mine,” Thoreau describes the organic quality of his literary theory by using the image of Walden Pond and the fusion of him­ self with it. . ' Iç.am its stony shore, And the breeze that passes o’er; In the hollow of ny hand 69 Are its water and its sand, And its deepest resort Lies high in my thought. (26) This, then, is the relationship toward which Thoreau has pointed his life and his poetry* The freedom that he so fervently desires allows him to submerge himself in the.nature he so completely admires* In this imagery; the poet and nature finally become one * The images in a poem, of course, depend upon context for full understanding* A look at one of. Thoreau’s best poems will reveal in com­ pletion his skilful use of several of his favorite images. THE SLUGGISH SMOKE The sluggish smoke curls up from some deep deH, The stiffened air exploring in the dawn, And making slow acquaintance with the day; Delaying now upon its heavenward course, In wreathed loiterings dallying with itself* 5 With as uncertain purpose and slow deed, As its half-wakened master by the hearth; Whose mind still slumbering and sluggish thoughts Have not yet swept into the onward current Of the new day {--and now it streams afar, 10 The while ,the chopper goes with step direct, And mind intent to swing the early axe. First in the dtisky dawn he sends abroad His early scout, his emissary, smoke, ' The earliest, latest pilgrim from the roof, To feel the frosty air, inform the day; 15 And while he crouches still beside the hearth, Nor musters courage to unbar the door. It has gone down the glen with the light wind, And o’er the plain unfurled its venturous wreath, 20 Draped the tree tops,tloitered upon the hill, And warmed the pinions of the early' bird; And now, perchance, high in the crispy air; Has caught sight of the day o'er the earth’s edge, And greets its master’s eye at his low door* 25 As some refulgent cloud in the upper sky. (13) In this poem Thoreau is using the image.of smoke to say something about man’s relationship with nature and with the ideal. The smoke of the second strophe is contrasted with smoke of the first strophe, as well 70

slS strophe with the "master” of both. This double contrast creates the effect of a scientific experiment with the master acting as the constant and the smoke as the variable. The result is a clearer expression of the comparison-contrast between the smoke and man, and serves as a structural framework. ... Thé smoke, serves the dual role of a representative of nature uniting with nature and as a symbol of man ultimately uniting .with nature. This dual rôle is achieved.by choosing an emanation of a natural process created originally by the man beside the hearth and personifying it or giving it human capabilities or characteristics. In the first strophe Thoreau describes the smoke by selecting wards whose connotations convey the impression of slowness, reluctance, and at times irresponsibility. The smoke as it curls up from the valley is described as "sluggish,” which implies slow movement, an almost brutish, sub-human consciousness. "Stiffened" also suggests resistance and restriction, especially in con- ♦ rtsction with sluggish. The smoke is not being allowèd-or perhaps is not allowing itself—to float freely and quickly as it should, but instead is delaying, loitering, and dallying. All of these verbs Indicate lack of action rather than activity, and the responsibility for this inactiv­ ity is given directly to the smoke. In a human way, It makes "slow acquaintance with the day," and performs these deeds with "uncertain purpose and slow deed." The slow, resisting smoke is then compared to the man, just waking by the fireplace. The relationship between the two is emphasized as the word "sluggish" is repeated in line eight and applied to the thoughts of the man which "Save not yet swept into the onward current/Of the new day." 71 Suddenly with the introduction of the new day, the smoke escapes the valley which shielded it from the currents of the upper sky, and, like the woodchopper who has a specific task to perform and who sets about it immediately, it streams afar. The second strophe presents a significant change in the smoke. It becomes almost human when referred to as scoui* emissary, and pilgrim, each of which performs a definite function with a predetermined purpose. It Goes down the glen with the wind (lins 18) Unfurls its wreath over the plain (line 20) Drapes the tree tops (liras{21) Loiters on a hill (line 21) Warms the early bird’s feathers (line 22) Observes the beginning of day (line 24) Greets its master (line 25) Each of these functions is specific and implies responsible move­ ment on the part of the smoke—-a direct contrast to the earlier descrip­ tion, . The difference can be seen in the repetition of the word, "loiter.1* In the" first strophe, it is associated with lack of movement and wasting of time. In the second strophe, it is associated with conscious movement and a brief moment of rest* The context of the word in the second strophe imparts to it a muoh more•favorable connotation than it receives in the first. In addition to the contrast between the smoke of the first strophe and that of the second, there is a Contrast between the smoke of the second stophé and the' master of both. While the smoke has escaped its own limitations and joined the universal stream, the man "crouches still• 72 beside the hearth." "Crouches" seems to indicate some sort of fear, as does the statement in the next line that he hasn’t the "courage to unbar the door."' Obviously It takes mental effort as well as physical to leave the comfortable and familiar and join oneself to nature. The word "still" provides an interesting ambiguity since two denotative meanings are as­ sociated with it, together with their connotations. "Still," in this context, can mean "fixed or stationary," paralleling and recalling the original stiffened air, or it can mean "yet," indicating that the man remains at the hearth while the.smoke has left it. Both lines suggest that the master lacks decisive action, a quality which the smoke has just discovered. The end of the poem suggests several ideas, line twenty-five states that the smoke greets the master as he leaves his home. The in­ dication is that nature leads and man follows; again nature is the tea­ cher. At the conclusion of the poem there is still a wide gulf between the man and the smoke which is emphasized spatially by contrasting the "low door" of the vaster, used ironically, with the smoke that has be­ come "Some refulgent cloud in the upper sky." •- This poem makes use of several of Thoreau’s favorite images; such as clouds, smoke, and wind; and it weaves them, together with a descrip- tiOn of man, into a complex statement of the role of nature, of man, and of their relationship with the universe. The basic structure of the poem is produced by the freedom-restriction, activity-inactivity tension which is common to so much of Thoreau’s imagery. This tension reflects one of his lifelong concerns: the extent of the individual’s freedom within society* CHAPTER V

VERSIFICATION

"He [the poet] uses forms according to the life, and not according to the form." Emerson, "The Poet"

• As we. saw in Chapter One,:Thoreau’s reputation as a poet over the t years .has been much lower than his reputation as a prose writer. He - himself indicated, even at the height of his poetic activity, that poe- try was but an instrument for the;.expression of his ideas; and critics since .then have praised, if anything, the contentof his poems while con­ demning their poetic technique or lack of It.; Thoreau has been at times acceptable as■a poet of ideas, but almost always unacceptable.as a poet­ ic craftsman* - The apostles of regularity during his day laughed him from.the pages of The Dial. Even the editors of his poetry felt obliged to qualify their praise by referring to Thoreau’s poor techniques. Salt and Sanborn in the introduction to .Poems of Mature of 1895 say "Be felt, thought, acted, and lived as a poet, though he did not always write as .. One."^ And,Carl Bode, in a note to his collected edition, states: "As a rule, his ear. . .was indifferent to the making of melodious rhythmns in his own poetry." 2 This is serious criticism. If completely true, it

1Henry S. Salt and Franklin B. Sanborn, ed. Poems of Nature, by Henry David Thoreau (Boston,: 1895)» p. xviii.' o •> Carl Bode, ed. Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau, Enlarged Edition (Baltimore, 1964), p. 371. 7b would seem to rule out any consideration of Thoreau as a poet and justify those critics who have ignored Thoreau’s verse throughout the years. But the problem is not so simple. ' After glancing at samples of Thoreau’s poetry no one would deny that it is generally irregular in . meter, rhythm, and.thyme. But this is not to say that Thoreau was in­ competent or .ignorant of what he was doing. Perhaps he had reasons for most of his irregularities. If he failed, he failed as an experimenter; 3 he failed trying to accomplish something. Although this is more than most critics care. to. admit, Several of them suggest that Thoreau knew , .What he was trying to do. Joel Benton, commenting on the limited number * of poems available to him before,the publication of Poems of Nature in 1895» maintained that Thoreau was not interested in writing "regular" poetry.., Be has shown that he can write good verses by the technical rules, but he eared little for. them when they restricted or baffled his complete thought. , ■. ¿* In the only other serious consideration of Thoreau’s poetry published, Henry Wells, reviewing Bode’s edition, supported Thoreau as an experi­ menter, Thoreau is a keen metrical experimenter, seeking exotic devices,* both in rhyme and a free blank verse, to express his highly various moods......

^Carl Bode.pointed out in a note to one of Thoreau’s poems* "To Day I Climbed a Handsome Hounded Hill," that Thoreau’s usual method of composition was to express an idea in prose first and then work it into poetry. Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau (1964), p. 366. This undoubt­ edly helps to account for the poor quality of Some of Thoreau’s un­ finished poetry, \joel Benton, "The Poetry of Thoreau," Lippincott’s Magazine, XXXVII (1885), 491, ^Henry W. Wells* "An Evaluation of Thoreau’s Poetry," American Literature. XVI (May, 1944), 103. 75 If Thoreau was consciously writing irregular verse,', why? This is the question that must be answered before Thoreau can be taken seriously as a poet, and several reasons immediately suggest themselves. First of all Thoreau’s statements about the organic creation of poetry would account % »J. for his irregularity* Since each idea and each image is different, it follows that each poem would be somewhat different. Even though, as Bode amply points out, Thoreau did not always follow this theory, but rather worked carefully at many of his poems, he nevertheless saw a correlation between the many forms which nature can take and the many forms which poetry can take. It was a justification for the diversity * of his poetic forms. Moreover the findings of this study suggest that Thoreau felt a need for irregularity in his poetry. Thoreau, the indi- t vidualist supreme, as he liked to think of himself, would have considered himself a hypocrite if he had written in the accepted fashions of the day. In addition, it is possible, as is apparent in his prose* that Thoreau was too good a handler of the English language to allow himself to be bound by traditional forms. There was too much he hoped to accomplish outside these narrow bounds. Thoreau’s search for freedom, a search that dominated his thematic content and dictated his choice of imagery, also forced him outside the literary stream of his day. A close examination of his poetry will reveal that variations from stahdard metrics were made consciously and for a definite purpose. Tho­ reau’s line lengths vary from dimeters to hexameters, and they can be grouped into three categories: short lines contain dimeters, trimeters, and poems using combinations of these two; average length lines contain tetrameters and combinations with other lengths; and long lines contain 76 pentameters* hexameters, and their.combinations. Thoreau shows an unusual preference for short lines. At least thirty-three of his poems in the collected edition are basically dimeter or trimeter* One. possible'effect of a series of dimeter lines, of course, is that the verse seems abrupt, rushing, and jagged; and most of Tho­ reau’s dimeters appear, this way because of his extensive use of the end- stopped line. The following is typical* MT GROUND IS HIGH My ground is high, But ’tis not dry, What you Call dew Cornés filtering through; Though in the Sky, It still is nigh; Its soil is blue And virgin too, (128) * Commas and semi-colons break the line movement with but two exceptions. Line seven ends with a natural pause since *!andn follows, and line thrôe requires*a Slight pause because .of the juncture between the subject and the verb. Even those dimeter lines with little or no punctuation require pauses at the end Of the lines because of the rhyme schemes. No sound from ngr forge Has been heard in the gorge, But as a brittle cup I’ve held the hammer up. (188) Thoreau at other times can give the effect of longer lines by reducing the rhyme', eliminating most of the punctuation, continuing the thought unit for several lines, and adopting a conversational tone, as in "I Am the Little Irish Boy.” 77 I am the little Irish boy That lives in the shanty I am four years old today And shall soon be one and twenty I shall grow up * . And be a great man And shovel all day As hard as I can. Down in the deep cut . Where the men lived Who made the Rail road. for supper , , I have some potatoe . And sometimes some bread And tfcen if it’s cold I go right to bed* (177) But this long-line effect occurs very infrequently. Most of what has been said about dimeters can be said also about trimeters with several exceptions* First of all» the extra foot does make a significant difference in helping to eliminate an otherwise jerky effect; and, second, trimeters were usually used by Thoreau in combina­ tion with other line lengths. Compare for instance these two passages describing the sound of bells. One more is gone Out of the busy throng That tread these paths; The church bell toils. Its sad knell rolls To many hearths (211) and; OLD MEETBffi-KOUSE BELL Old meeting-house bell I love thyy music well It peals through the air Sweetly full & fair As in the early times When I listened,‘t io ’ its chimes. (170) The first passage» presented in dimeter«, recounts the slow tolling of 78 funeral bells over the countryside, with the short line enphasizing each toll. The second passage describes a meeting-house bell* using pri­ marily trimeters. The extra.foot helps to eliminate the heavier pounding effect of the preceding selection. Other elements also work toward the effect which these passages attempt to create* including Thoreau *s use of assonance. The open vowels, in words suchas "more," "throng," "paths ,n "tolls," "knell,’’ "rolls," and "hearths,” slow the lines considerably, again consistent with the sound of funeral bells, in the latter selec­ tion, however, closed vowels arid dipthopgs ending in high-front vowels, such as "meeting," "peals," "Sweetly," "times," and "chimes," produce the opposite effect, that of ringing rather than tolling bells. Thoreau is most successful with his short lines when he varies the length* avoids rhyme* and presents a series of images, each usually complete in the line. LOW-ANCHORED CLOUD Low-anchored aloud* Newfoundland air, Fountain-head and source of rivers, Dew-cloth, dream drapery, And napkin spread by fays; Drifting meadow of the air. Where bloom the daisied banks and violets, And in whose fenny labyrinth The bittern booms and heron wades; Spirit of lakes and seas'and rivers, ‘ Bear only perfumes and the scent Óf healing herbs to just‘men's fields! (56) However,-the fact that the line length at times seem inappropriate to the context does not mean that Thoreau did not know what he was doing. Rather, Thoreau's, and almost all Transcendentalist poets’ preference for short lines can be explained perhaps by their concept of inspiration in A. „ poetry. The poet should write while he is in an emotional state* or at 79 least give this impression. The expression, therefore, would be likely to be ejaculatory, hence shortOf course, this observation does not imply an esthetic judgment of the poetry; nor is it true of all Romantic poets. Thoreau’s favoritepoetic . form by ¿far is the fairly regular octo­ syllabic line, rhyming abab or aabb. The preference for this line is fortunate because the line is short enough to'suggest inspiration and yet long enough to avoid abruptness. Again Thoreau is at his best when each line or two is a phrase or image in itself. • . . , . • ■ • • NATURE • 0 nature I do not aspire To be the highest in thy quire, To be a meteor in the sky ■ Or comet' that may range on high, Only a zephyr that nay blew Among the reeds by the'river low. Give me thy most privy place Where to run my airy race. In some withdrawn unpublic mead Let me sigh upon a reed, Or in the KJ woods with leafy din Whisper the still evening in, For X had rather be thy child -• And pupil in the forest wild , Than be the king of men elsewhere And most sovereign slave of care To have one moment of thy dawn Than share the city’s year forlorn. Some still work give me to do Only be it near to you. (216) Thoreau’s most widely used variation of the tetrameter is the ballad stanza with its alternating tetrameter-trimeter quatrain and abab rhyme scheme, which Thoreau could apply to any subject matter. The youthful ’’Godfrey of Boulogne" is a literary ballad in which three ballad

^Gay Wilson-Allen, American Prosody (New York, 1935)* P* 125» 80 ¡quatrains are combined into one stanza, each having as its last line, "’Twas Godfrey of Boulogne." (192-193) Another poem, concerning love,, presents an astronomical image in the ballad form. LOVE , We two that planòt3 < erst had been , . Are now a double star, . And in the heavens may be. seen, : Where that we fixed are*. Yet whirled with subtle power along, Into new space we'enter . And evermore with spheral song y , Revolve about one centre, (109) ■ And finally, Thoreàu used the ballad form to present many descriptions' of nature. . • • In addition to this use of the ballad stanza,'Thoreau often com­ bined it with other.stanzaic forms as in "Independence" (132-133) dr "The Peal of the Bells," (ill) or subtracted a foot from one'of the lines. The'following poem was based on a translation frara Anglo-Saxon prose, and 8 contains a stanza with a structure of 4-3~4-2. The while the hall It [a Sparrow] files about. It laughs the Cold to scorn. But soon it goes à window out, And summer’s gone. (213) 7 Thoreau’s experimentation with the ballad stanza allowed him a great deal of freedom within a perfectly acceptable poetic form. The fact that there are far more variations of the ballad form than standard

' ■ • For a discussion of the imagery in this poem see pages 65-66 of Chapter Four, 8 The poem is "Speech of a Saxon Ealderman" (213-214), and the prose translation is Turner’s The History of the Anglo-Saxons From the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest. Bode, p. 372. 81 versions of it is understandable in the light of Thoreau’s willingness to accept almost any variation as a suitable form for poetry* Although Thoerau. preferred the shorter octosyllabic lines, he also Used longer lines, especially rhymed and unrhymed pentameters. Some of hiS most successful poems are of this sort. The longer line had an in­ herent dignity of tone and gave to the poet an opportunity for a more leisurely and complete development of Imagery. The difference can be seen in the following description from "My Books I’d Fain Cast Off, I Cannot Read.” And now the cordial clouds have shut all in, And gently swells the wind to say all’s well. The scattered drops are falling fast and thin, . , Some in the pool, some in the flowerebeH. I am well drenched upon my bed of oats 5 But see that globe come rolling down its stem. Now like a lonely planet there it floats, And now it sinks into my garnet's hem. Drip drip the trees for all the country round. And richness rare distils from every bough, The wind alone it is makes every sound* Shaking down crystals on the leaves below. (77) lying on the ground, allowing each separate drop, observed closely, to soak into his garment, the poet reveals his oontentment and harmony with nature, partially at least through the longer line. But Thoreau did not hesitate to use a number of variations of the iambic pentameter which are similar to those used with the tetrameter. Again his basic rhyme schemes are abab and-aabb, but at times he adds an extra line and uses an abccd rhyme scheme* I HAVE ROLLED NEAR SOKE OTHER SPIRITS PATH I have rolled near some other spirits path And with.a pleased anxiety have felt Its purer influence on my .opaque.mass But always was I doomed to learn, alasf I had scarce changed its sidireal [sicj tin©. (140) 82 Thoreau also infrequently made the final line in a quatrain longer. In the following example, the revelation is emphasized in the "fourteener." ON THE SUN COMING OUT IN THE AFTERNOON Methinks all things have travelled since you shined, But only Time, and clouds, Time’s team, have moved; Again foul weather shall not change ny mind, ' But In the shade I will believe what in the sun I loved. (126) However, the most consistent "variation" of the basic rhymed iambic pentameter used by Thoreau is blank verse, This form gave dignity to a description of nature which paralled Thoreau’s efforts to invest nature with added significance. Thus,\this description of winter con- I * ' tributes to the dignity of the poem because of its blank verse. PRAY TO WHAT EARTH DOES THIS SWEET GOLD BELONG Pray to what earth does this sweet cold belong, Which asks no duties and no.conscience? The moon goes up by leaps her cheerful path In some far summer stratum of the sky. While stars with their cold shine bedot her way. The fields gleam mildly back upon the sky, And far and near upon the leafless shrubs The snow dust still emits a silvery light. Under'the hedge, where drift banks are their screen. The titmice now pursue their downy dreams. As often in the sweltering summer nights The bee doth drop asleep in the' flower cup, When evening overtakes him with his load. By the brooksides, in the still genial night, The more adventurous wanderer may hear The crystals shoot and form, and winter slow Inorease his rule'by gentlest summer means. (228) Again the content of this poem calls for a complementary form. The poet describes the effect of winter, particularly the fact that the titmice (chicadees), protected by the snowdrift above them, are asleep. The comparison is then made to the effect that summer has on animals, and a similarity is suggested between the slumber of the birds under the hedge and the sleep of the bee in the flower-cup. The' development of the 83 comparison is slow, and, of course, the subject of Sleep calls for a leisurely movement which the blank verse offers, The movement of the line is further slowed down by the large number of end-stopped lines, and, to a large extent, by the plosive consonants themselves. The "d," "t," and "k" sounds in lines such as "While stars with their cold shine bedot her way," and "The fields gleam mildly back upon the sky," force the reader to take extra time in order to form the word in his mind. * * As in otter line lengths, Thoreau often varied the meter in his blank verse freely and extended the thought for several lines. Thus, the irregularity of the meter tould work against the conformity oalled for* The result,was'a tension which held the poem between a conventional vèrse form and prose. Thoreau demonstrates that he is interested in using many differ­ ent kinds of line lengths and stanzaic patterns within the same poem. In fact, he often'combined lines of several lengths into one poem. Gay Wilson Allen in his chapter on Emerson In American Prosody states that an ode in the mid-nineteenth century was a poem on any topic with irregu- Q lar line lengths. Thoreau apparently had this concept of the ode in I ' mind in several of his poems, although-he did not use the conventional tone of the ode* THEY WHO PREPARE MT EVENING MEAL BELOW They who prepare my evening meal below Carelessly hit the kettle as they go With tongs or shovel, And ringing round and round, Out of this hovel It makes an eastern temple by. the sound.

9Allen, p. 115. . • 84 At first I thought a cow-bell right at hand Mid birches sounded o’er the open land* ■ Where I plucked’ flowers; • . Many years ago, Spending midsummer hours With such secure delight they hardly seemed to flow* (127) "4. f ■ ■ ■'■■■ ■ ■ •. " ■ ■ •' ■ t The kinds and variations of poetic forms that Thoreau preferred are perhaps less important than the simple fact that Thoreau did use a great maty forms for the presentation of his images and ideas. Like Emerson and the rest of the Transcendental poets; he felt free to break from convention and present a variety of ideas in a variety of ways. He could help to give his poetry the impression of rushed inspiration Or quiet contemplation, depending on the form he chose. Most of the charges of incompetence leveled at Thoreau revolve around his irregular use of standard patterns. One must remember, how­ ever, that most good poetry rests on a tension produced by variation within á pattern of expectation set up in the mind of the reader. This accounts for many "irregularities’* in the poetry of Thoreau, but it would be foolish to deny that some of this poetry is the result of carelessness 1 , or poor judgment.. Also* it is only fair to remember that many of the poems published by Bode were rough first drafts never intended for publi­ cation. It Seems apparent in many poems that Thoreau was very consciously manipulating his form to match his content. Carl Bode, in discussing Thoreau’s practice of the organic theory, feels that he could make effec­ tive use of it and indicates that he was most successful in matching a metaphor to its forra.^ The following poem demonstrates Thoreau’s

10See the unpubl. diss. (Northwestern, 1941) by Carl Julius Bode* "Henry Thoreau As a Poet: With a Critical Edition of the Poems," p. ci. 85 conscious attempt at matching content and form. LAST SIGHT AS I LAY GAZING WITH, SHUT EYES Last night as I lay gazing with shut eyes Into the golden land of dreams* I thought I gazed adown a quiet reach Of land and water prospect, ; Whose low beach s Was peopled with the now subsiding hum Of happy industry-*whose work is done. i ' , ' And as I turned me on my pillow o’er, I heard the lapse of waves upon the shore. Distinct-as it had been broad noonday, And I were wandering at Rockaway. (108) The first stanza presents a dream that the poet is having, a dream in­ distinct and general. The form is irregular, with the line varying from three syllables to.ten, suggesting indefiniteness. Withethe beginning of the second stanza, however, a change takes place, designated by the turn of the pillow. He now hears the water lapping the shore "Distinct as it had been at broad noonday,” and the line and meter become much more regu­ lar rhyming iambic pentameters. As has been Suggested, Thoreau was able to speed up or slow down a line depending.on the subject of the line. In the following first stanza of "I Love a Careless Streamlet,” he describes the action of a small stream as it splashes down the side of a hill. I love a careless streamlet, That takes a mad-cap leap, And like a sparkling beamlet Goes dashing down the steep, (8?) The short, regular iambic trimeters and the series of plosive sounds increase the movement of the line, but the key to the rapidity of the lines lies in the feminine rhyming words at the end of lines one and three. The extra unaccented syllables of ’’streamlet” and”beamlet” 66 hurry the line along and also support the playful tons of the poem, as well as the stream. * - frany times an extra foot or a change in syntax will produce the desired effect for Thoreau. For instance in the first few lines of the following poem; he presents an image in tetrameters. Then, reflecting upon this image rather than describing it, he slows the'poem with a pen­ tameter to natch the contemplative mood* • At midnight’s hour I raised my Lead . The owls were seeking for their„bread The foxes barked impatient still At their wan fate they bear so ill--, I thought ms of eternities delayed (164) And in another line, Thoreau suggests physical movement by the movement of the line: "The slubbering sea with the day’s impulse heaves.” (217) The sudden awakening of the sea with a forceful movement is dramatized by the change in syntax. The verb "heaves" is placed last in the line to suggest sudden change from stillness. However* not all of Thoreau’s metrical irregularities produced an organic line. At times, his poetry simply trailed off into prose, or more likely, as a result of his method of composition, never quite reached the stage of poetry. In two poems, unpublished in Thoreau’s time and obviously unfinished, Thoreau slid into prose. ■ TO DAY I CLIMBED A HAlffiSOî® ROUÎŒED HILL To day I climbed a handsome rounded hill Covered with hickory trees wishing to see The country from its top—for low hills Show unexpected prospects— I looked Many miles over a woody low-land Toward Marlborough Framingham & Sudbury And as I sat amid the hickory trees (176) And in the following poem, Thoreau’s verse became more prose-like until the last eight lines could easily pass for prose if so arranged. Again, 87 it. should be remembered that Thoreau’s usual method of composition was to express an idea in.prose first and then work it into poetry. This method could explain many other irregularities in Thoreau’s poetry, especially in his unpublished poems. There were other flowers which you would say Incurred less danger grew more out of the way Which no cart rattled near* no walker daily passed. But at length one rambling deviously For no rut restrained plucked them . And then it appeared that they stood Directly in his way though he had come From farther than the market wagon— (175) Both Gay. Wilson Allen and Frederick Carpenter emphasize that Emerson's poetry is irregular because Emerson intentionally made it ir­ regular and because the rhythms of nature, which are being imitated, are 11 also irregular while responding to natural laws* The sac® justifioa- tion has been given for Thoreau’s poetry by Elsie Brickett. One must realize, however, that Thoreau was not always successful in his experi­ ments* as no experimenter, including Emerson, is, and that many of the poems subsequently published were taken from incomplete and unrevised manuscripts. Two other related areas of Thoreau’s versification invite criti­ cism. Thoreau’s rhymes are often imprecise or careless, and his vocabu­ lary many times is either too "poeticn or not poetic at all. One thing can be said about Thoreau’s rhymes: they are not exact. Ibsculine

11Allen, p. 96; and Frederic Ives Carpenter, Emerson Handbook (New York, 1953)» p. 92. 12 See the unpubl. diss«. (Yale, 193?) by Elsie F« Brickett, "Studies in the Poets and Poetry of New England Transcendentalism," p* 210* 88 rhymes, feminine rhymes, accented rhymes and unaccented rhymes, double rhymes* near rhymes, and sight rhymes; all are used by Thoreau, at times successfully and at other times unsuccessfully? . In some instances, he rhymes latin biological names in poems such . as. this; ■■■' ' , AND ONCE AGAIN And once again ? When I xient a-maylng— . . & once or twice more I had seen thee before. For there grow the Ifey flows 0] (Epjgaea repens) & the mt cranberry f •' & the .screech ówl strèpens (169) or uses obviously Inappropriate rhymes such as: Our village shows a rural Venice, Its broad lagoons where yonder fen is;(8) At other.times, however, he can use near rhymes, sight rhymes and unac­ cented rhymes to break up the repetitive effect of short rhyming lines. The best example of this latter if ’’The Old Marlborough Road," in which he rhymes money-ary, man-Dugan, blood-road, stone-noon, and Lee-Darby in a poem which has lines varying from two to six syllables, (17-19) The effect is one Of jogging-rather than jangling, thus imitating the move­ ment -of a man òr cart on the old Marlborough Road. This variety seems to be the most important single reason for Thoreau’s irregularity of rhyme, although there are several other instances when rhyme is organic* In the following poem Thoreau accomplishes two things by the use of rhyme or the absence of it. ' WAT ’S THE RAILROAD TO ® What’s. the railroad to me? . I never go to see , Where it ends. 89 It fills a few hollows, And makes banks for the swallows. It sets the sand a-blowing, • And the blackberries a-growing, (25) The lack of rhyme in line three, plus the fewer syllables, supports the word "ends'* by giving an abrupt stop to the line. The use of three feminine rhymes at the end of the poem, however, produces the effect of continuing, of having no limits. . As if in answer to those critics who feel that Thoreau cannot handle rhyme with ease, we find a poem, "On Ponkawtasset, Since We Took Our Way,” in which Thoreau uses regular rhymes extensively. • On Ponkawtasset,'‘since, we took cur way, Down this still stream to far Billericay, A poet wise has settled, whose fine ray Doth often shine on Concord’s twilight.day i Like those first stars, whose silver beams on high, Shining more brightly as the day goes by, Most travellers cannot at first descry, But eyes that wont to range the evening sky. And know celestial lights, dc plainly see, And gladly hail them, numbering two or three; For lore that’s deep must deeply studied be, As from deep wells men read star-poetry. These stars are never paled, though out of sight,. But like the sun they shine forever.bright; Ay, they are suns, though earth must in its flight Put out its eyes that it may see their light. Who would neglect the least celestial sound, Or faintest light that falls on earthly ground. If he could know it one day would be • found • That star in Gygnus whither we are bound, And pale out sun with heavenly radiance round? (36) This poem seems to indicate that Thoreau could have been much more con­ ventional had he wished to be. However, this is not the end of unconventionaiity. His irregular­ ities of line, meter, and rhyme give,at times an almost conversational 90 tone to his poetry, which is often supported by his word choice. In an era’when.word choice was often determined by a standard poetic .vocabulary, Thoreau many times used words normally relegated to informal or colloquial prose. B©nton early noticed this characteristic.' • They {the poerasj were short and rough and rambling," and startled the reader not more by their caprice or rhythm than byAheir use of words not usually considered possible to a poet. . . . 2 Most of these words which so startled Benton are accepted in poetry by readers today. In presenting specific rather than generalized images, Thoreau obviously chose specific and unpretentious words. If he referred to a definite object* he called it by its name, no matter how "unpoetic" that name seemed. ' The river swelleth more and more, Like some sweet influence stealing o’er The passive town; and for a while • ‘ Each tussuck makes a tiny isle, Where, on some friendly Ararat, Resteth the'weary water-rat; (8) But usually, Thoreau’s word choice of this type could be described as unpretentious, simple, and straightforward. • Now we glide along the shore. Chucking lillies as we go, While the yellow-sanded floor Doggedly resists the oar, Lite some turtle dull and slow. (113) However, while using at times an almost colloquial vocabulary, Thoreau occasionally seems to go to the other extreme and use the most "poetic" of words, words which are archaic and,, when imitated, are usu­ ally associated with an inflated poetic diction. Therefore, words such

^Benton, p. 498. 91 as "methinks," "doth," "forsooth," "fain," and "thou" produce an archaic formality in some of his poems which usually include very generalized imagery and rather standard versification. Nature doth have her dawn each.day, But mine are far between; Content, I cry, for sooth to Say, Mine, brightest are I ween.. For when my sun doth deign to rise, Though it be her noontide, Her fairest field in shadow lies, Nor can my light abide. (70) » Mary of Thoreau’s poems contain both specific, even colloquial words, and archaic words, each tending to compensate for the other, producing a tension which at times helps to keep the poem under oontroi, but at other times ruins it. "Fog" provides an example of a successful combination. FOG/ Dull water spirit—and Protean god Descended cloud fast anchored to the earth That drawest too much air for shallow coasts Thou ocean branch that flowest to the sun Incense of earth, perfumed with flowers— Spirit of lakes and rivers, seas and rills Come to revisit now thy native scenes Night thoughts of earth—dream drapery Dew cloth and fairy napkin Thou wind-blown meadow.of the air. (150) This seemingly odd combination is not unusual for Thoreau when one remembers that his best prose depends on a tension between specific natural description and the control of an almost classical tone. Thoreau’s versification then is not marked by regularity; neither Is it completely left to chance,. Rather, it reveals Thoreau exercising a great deal of freedom within standard and perfectly acceptable forms. The important point to remember is that these deviations appear to be 92 almost always conscious and are very often effective. CHAPTER VI

STRUCTURE

"For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that • ' ‘ makes a poem." Emerson, "The Poet"

In examining Thoreau’s.philosophy and.his literary theory end technique ». one is struck by a certain consistency within these areas. One principle permeates all aspects of Thoreau’s poetry and that is the principle of duality. Thé world is composed of two parts, the seen and the unseen, and the poet’s function is to reveal the unseen through an enlightened presentation of. the seen. Thoreau’s literary theory revolves around the two aspects of a duality also / On one hand the poet reflects in his poetry the spontaneous, intuitive way in which truth is revealed to the poet; on the other hand, he must work carefully and rationally in order to produce the illusion of spontaneity.; His selection of imagery is determined by the relationship between two conflicting ideas, freedom and restriction, which also comprise his basic thematic concern; and even his versification reflects this duality since it reveals Thoreau’s inter- est in variations from accepted forms/' It should come as no surprise, then,to discover that this pre­ occupation with dualities carries over into the larger structural elements of Thoreau’s poetry and reveals itself in his most important single Uni­ fying technique, the use of contrast, as ttëll as in his extensive use of 94 paradox, and his unusual affinity for punning, both of which rely on the juxtaposition of apparentlycontradicting elements. Most of Thoreau’s poems are built on a framework of contrast, a contrast which usually involves nature and something or somebody who does not measure up to nature. A poem examined in some detail earlier reveals r * this structure very obviously. "The Sluggish Smoke Curls Up From Some Deep Dell" depends upon several parallel contrasts; the first between the smoke lingering in the valley and the same smoke later being Carried by the upper air* - and the action of the smoke contrasted with the inaction of the man in the cabin* . Most of Thoreau’s poems are based on a similar framework. In a poem called "The Mood," Thoreau describes the moon rising steadily and brightly up the sky and then says: . ' but my fortune, Which her rays do not bless* My wayward path declineth soon, (ll) And another poem is based on a contrast set up in the first stanza. Dong, sounds the brass in the east* As if to a.funeral feast. But I like'that Sound the best Out of the fluttering west. (40) As is "Nature Doth Have Her Dawn Each Day." (70) In Still another poem Thoreau uses a contrast intricately bound up with his nature vs. society theme, THOU DISKY SPIRIT OF THE WOOD Thou dusky spirit of the wood* Bird of an ancient brood* Flitting thy lonely way* < ' ■ \ — - -- ...... -. r xS0e Chapter Four* pp. 68-72. 95 A meteor in the summer *s day. From wood to wood, from hill to hill, Low over forest, field and rill, • What wouldst thou say? Why shouldst thou haunt the day? What makes thy melancholy float? What bravery inspires thy throat, And bears thee up above the clouds, Over desponding human crowds, Which far below Lay thy haunts low? (7) The contrast is to a large extent spatial as Thoreau describes the soar­ ing bird, a meteor, above the clouds and then refers to humanity far below. And in "The Poet ’s Delay" he reveals his own inadequacies when placed beside nature. 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 uy lay? (78) The contrast is developed through a series of Thoreau’s■favorite images, the west, the morning, and spring, with the poet failing to take advan­ tage of each. The seasonal cycle is then extended and a contrast is made between the bird who began singing in the spring and the poet who, even in autumn, has not yet begun to sing. The final question which the poet asks is a particularly complex one because of these contrasts. He states». "But still my spring does not begin," with spring apparently re­ ferring to a source of inspiration as well as the metaphorical beginning 96 of his efforts. In other words, he is asking, "Why have I not yet been inspired?" But in the next stanza hé is asking a question which all writers must ask, "Is it worth the trouble? Should I wait until it comes more easily?" It is this curious combination of personal responsibility and outside responsibility that results from the contrasting elements in the poem. Of course, not all of Thoreau’s poems are based on such obvious contrasts* Some avoid contrast altogether, but many others have just one part of the contrast stated and the other part implied* In the latter case, the poem gains in effectiveness due to a subtlety which is absent when both parts of the contrast are given. An example of this use of contrast is found in the following poem. ' SUCH WATERS DO THE GODS DISTIL ■ Such waters do the gods distil, And pour down every hill For their Hew England men;. A-draught of .this wild nectar bring, And I’ll not taste the spring • Of Helicon again. (44) Thoreau is contrasting the countryside of Hew England, especially the mountains and streams, as a source Of inspiration with classical litera- * • • - ture and thought. However he does so not by making the contrast explicit, but by describing New England in terms of classical mythology, the im­ plication being that this source is superior to the classical source, the Muses on Helicon* And finally, Thoreau allowed one contrast to stand metaphorically for another, which is not surprising when one remembers the extensive symbolic use he made of nature imagery. The natural object usually rep­ resented some abstract concept* In this poem 97 EACH MORE KEIDDIOCS NOTE I HEAR Each more melodious note I hear Brings this reproach to me, That I alone afford the ear, Who would the music be. (119) Thoreau regrets that he must only be a receiver of the music of nature rather than a maker of it. This seems, in a metaphorical Sense, to be Very close to a theme he stated many times; regret at being a passive recorder of experience; that is a poet, rather than an active participant. Contrast is the most frequently used single organizing principle found in Thoreau’s poetry, and it is no accident that it is often further * strengthened by the frequent use of paradox and paradoxical ideas. Tho­ reau’s poetry is literally filled with paradox.. Bode points out Thoreau’s love for paradox, and Allen, in a few Short general statements about ’ i Transcendental poetry, following his account of Emerson’s versification, 3 said that most Transcendental, poets delighted in the use of paradox. Certainly in paradox Thoreau could deal with apparent. contradictions which reconcile themselves upon closer observation/ This device is a perfect symbolic counterpart to his concept of the universe as well as a useful tool in explaining his often complex ideas and attitudes. The universe too appears to be split into two separate parts, but the success­ ful poet brings them together. ■: Thoreau’s paradoxes are usually central to:the poem in which they appear and of ten. provide the core from which the rest of the poem

2 Carl Bode, ed,, Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau, Enlarged Edition (Baltimore, 1964), p. 348. 3 Gay Wilson Allen, American Prosody (New York, 1935), p. 122. 98 develops* Of course a paradox treated extensively necessitates a basic framework of contrast; the two would be inseparable. In the following poem, Thoreau begins with a paradox, "Th‘ambrosia of the God’s a weed on earth," and then proceeds to explain what he means by equating ambrosia and nectar with weeds and dew, the point being that "the gods are simple folks" and, by implication, the lowliest form of nature is divine. TH’AMBROSIA OF THE GODS’S A WEED ON EARTH Th ’ ambrosia‘of the Gods ’s a weed on earth Their nectar is the morning dew which oh ’ly our shoes taste—For they are simple folks ’Tis very fit the ambrosia of the gods Should be a weed on earth. As nectar is The morning dew with which we wet our shoes For the gods are simple folks and we should pine upon their humble fare (174) And in this poem: ON FIELDS OER WHICH THE REAPER’SjHAND HAS PASs[eJd On fields oer which the reaper’s hand has pass[e/d, Lit ty the harvest moon and autumn sun, My thoughts like stubble floating in the wind And of such fineness as October airs, There after harvest could I glean my life A richer harvest reaping without toil, And weaving gorgeous fancies at my will In subtler webs than finest summer haze. (142) the paradox is stated explicitly in line six, "A richer harvest reaping without toil," with the lines coming before and after explaining the paradox. How can one reap a richer harvest without working for it? The answer of course lies in a definition of the word /‘harvest , " by which Thoreau means the joy of contemplation.; The poem is actually much more complex than this, since Thoreau is also equating autumn and the harvest to one’s lif^’in which case contemplation at the time of autumn also re- » .s fers to contemplation near the end of one’s life, and the richness of it. 99 • Another favorite use of paradox which Thoreau employs is to build up towards an important point that he wants to make and then ironically clarify the point by presenting a paradox which instantly reconciles Itself, Such a poem is "The Friend,*’ first published in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Thoreau begins by describing a lighthouse as.it stands on the shore serving as a beacon to the sailors and being linked with foreign places by these ships ani by the ocean. However, although the sea does serve as a link, it does not bring him answers to ultimate questions but rather . ’ » • ' . Thè sea itself become a shore. To a broader deeper sea, . A profounder mystery. (2Ù2) Several of Thoreau’s poems are based.on reconciled paradoxes with­ in his philosophy, For instance, in a mystical perception of the ideal, the unseen is seen; and this paradox provides the basis for his poem, "On Ponkawtasset, Since, We Took Our Way," just recorded on page 89 in the previous chapter. The celestial lights which, are,. not seen during the day because the light of the sun Outshines them are nevertheless present; in fact, they may be much more powerful than the sun. 'In another poem, Thoreau states that only the unseen is real, true, and unchanging. HE KNOWS HD CHANGE WHO KNOWS THE TRUE Be knows no change who knows the true,- And on it keeps his eye, Who always still the unseen.doth view; Only the false & the apparent die.. . Things change, but change not far, ' From what they are not but to what they are, Or rather ’tis our ignorance that dies; Forever lives the knowledge of the wise. (2X)8) Thoreau uses another favorite image in several of his poems because of its paradoxical nature, the sound of nature. In "Cliffs** the 100

paradox is stated in the first line and a half and then explained In the rest of the poem. CLIEFS The loudest sound that burdens here the breeze Is thé wood’s whisper; ‘tis when we choose to list Audible Sound, and when wé list not, - It is. calm profound. Tongues were provided But to vex the ear with superficial thoughts* When deeper thoughts upswell, the jarring discord Of harsh speech is hushed, and senses Seem i As little as may be to share the extacy. (104) The structure of this poem once again is based on contrasti between the * t . sounds of nature and the sounds of man. . The poet states that the Sounds of the woods are whispers; and yet they are the loudest. Thé paradox rests on thé word "loudest.’* It is not being used in the usual sense here; intensity of volume; but r- a( ther in. a m• e«t tapho- rical sense; It is loudest because it reveals deeper thoughts? because what it has to say is much more important* Thoreau frequently used paradox to represent one other idea. With paradox he Could transcend the limits of logic and .reason, thus getting into the realm of thè idéal. Therefore, he used paradox to present a state of all-inclusiveness, outside the literal restrictions of the phys­ ical. In "I’m Quided In the Darkest Night," he presents a series of • Z . paradoxes in short lines which seem to indicate this Inclusiveness« I am a miser without blame Am conscience stricken without, shame? ' An idler am I without leisure, ; A busy body without pleasure. (124) And in a fragment of a,poem which has the first part missing, Thoreau apparently is describing Walden Pond but at the san» time is using Walden as a symbol for a larger Transcendental reality. Throughout this fragment 101 he identifies himself with Walden. . . I am its source, & my life its course I am its stoney shore & the gale that passes oer (171) But the appeal of Walden Pond to Thoreau at this point is its paradoxical nature; It èontinually refreshes itself without having an apparent inlet or outlet. Or as Thoreau says: Without inlet it lies without outlet it flows (171) This poem is obviously incomplete and unfinished, perhaps just a thought that Thoreau jotted down in a minute or two, but his use of paradox is quite dear. Its purpose is to suggest the beyond-temporal logic of this ideal Walden that he is describing. Many critics have pointed out Thoreau’s fondness for punning, both in his prose and poetry. Paul Williams, in an unpublished dissertation on Transcendentalist poetry, states that Thoreau is the only Transcenden- 4 talist poet to insert puns in serious poetry, the implication being that puns often marred the poems, producing an interesting discrepancy in the poetry of ThoreaU. Since his and the Transcendental theory of poetry states that all elements of the poem must be functional, and since Thoreau scrupulously avoided images and figures of Speech which were not func­ tional, it is difficult to imagine that he would include puns in his poetry for no reason. Not all his puns can be justified (again the un­ successful expérimenter), but there seems to be a correspondence between

4 ‘ See the unpubl. diss. (University of Pennsylvania; 1962) by Paul Osbourne Williams, "The Transcendental Movement in American Poetry,” p. 259. 102 Thoreau*s use of contrast,, his fondness for paradox and his pttns. All three depend on two unreconciled parts being reconciled corresponding to his dual concept of the universe* This explanation perhaps helps to justify Thoreau’s use of puns in general, but,does not necessarily explain the inclusion of each particular pun, • In almost all cases, both meanings to the pun apply within the con- text of the poem, thus justifying the presence of the pun* For instance in "Music," Thoreau discusses the loss of a responsiveness to life with the loss of youth, and describes the way he,used to walk, but no longer does, as "boyant." (223) He obviously means he no longer has the vigor and energy of youth but the reference to "boy," supported by the spelling ' . t •• • as Bode point’s out; 5 is also appropriate* At times, Thoreau presents his poetry in a lighter, more playful mood, in which casé puns do not destroy the töne, but rather add to it. The poem, "My Boots," discussed earlier,^ plays on the double meaning of sole-soul, and the playfulness of "Epitaph on an Engraver" is supported by the extended play bn the word "lies," as well as the word "translated." .By death’s favor ’ -, ■ •' Here lies the engraver ■ • And now I think o’t . Where lies he not? ■ * If the archangel look but where he lies He ne’er will get' translated to the skies. (155) Other puns do show a tendency to destroy the ifcone; but this is not unusual in Thoreau’s poetry since irregularity is to be expected; and

\ * ^Collected Poems. p. 374, 6 i - See Chapter Three, p. 2?. 103 again both meanings of the. pun apply? In "I Seek the Present Time" a • poem in which he advocates living simply and in the present-, Thoreau describes certain necessities including: Clothes paid for, and no rent In your shoes;— (166) "rent" referring to both money owed and a tear in the shoes. Or again* using the soul-sole pun, Thoreau in one of his more serious poems, "Rumors From an Aeolian Harp," describes the following: And tread of high-souled men go by, ■Their thoughts conversing with the sky.' (53) The implication is that their soles-souls are high because they are con­ versing, with the sky.- Happily* Thoreau’s irreverence included the use Of puns; Two major ideas seem to govern Thoreau’s ¡peculiar versification and structural practices* ideas which aré consistent with his choice of Imagery and.thematic concerns. First*'his desire for freedom from re­ strictions of all kinds allowed him to experiment, successfully and un- < j . successfully* with many kinds of verse.forms* rimes and vocabulary; and, second* his dual concept of the universe, spirit and matter, the ideal ( and the physical, and his attempt to reconcile this disparity through nature led him to literary structures corresponding to such a concept of the universe. The result is that most of his poems display an unusual degree of experimentation* are built on the organizing principle of con­ trast* and reveal an unusual interest in paradox and puns. CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

This study has tried to present Henry David Thoreau’s poetry as à serious body of work.having a consistency within itself. All aspects of his poetry here studied—literary theory, theme, imagery, versification, and structure-display a concern for duality and a search for a reconcil­ iation of that duality. In Transcendental philosophy, the duality is one of the ideal and the physical-»this world and another, more perfect, world; The area of contact between these two worlds, especially for Tho­ reau, is physical nature. As Walden Pond became a symbol to Thoreau of the link between the physical and the ideal, so; in his poetry, speoifie natural images represented this link, and a complete fusion with nature became the goal towards which the poet worked. In theme, imagery and versification, Thoreau expressed an Important duality reflected in nature; that between freedom and restrictions placed on that freedSm*.''wThbreau’s favorite images are taken from areas of nature-which are relatively un­ hampered. Smoke, fog, water, sounds, wind, dawn, and celestial bodies at least appear to be free.’ and unrestricted, while responding as well to higher laws such as gravity or the progression of the seasons. In his 1 , versification, Thoreau strove to give the impression of spontaneous, in­ spired writing, all the time working within the standard poetic forms of the day. And, finally, the larger organizing rhetorical principle of , most of his poetiy was contrast, also reflecting his concern for dualities, 105 and leading inevitably to a fascination for paradox and punning as a way to reconcile the duality. - ■ This study then proves 'Thoreau’s seriousness and consistency as a poet./but it has said little about the purely esthetic value of his poet­ ry, partly because it is not the stated purpose of this paper to do so* and partly because, with a few notable exceptions, Thoreau’s poetry fails, However* the nature of its failure helps to place it within the Stream of Transcendental and nineteenth century American poetry. Thoreau was avowedly a disciple of Snerson, especially in those early years when he was most interested in poetry. He could not have helped but know Emerson’s ideas on poetry; indeed, as suggested in Chap­ ter Two, Thoreau’s concept of organic poetxy seems at times almost iden­ tical to the concepts proposed by Emerson, especially in "The Poet." •In 1837, Emerson urged the American scholar to break off his blind dependence on the literature and. learning of other times and cultures, to turn to America instead. Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life, cannot always be fed on the sere remains of fore eign harvests. Events, actions arise,- that must be sung, that will sing■themselves. -, And Emerson, in "The Poet," (1844) predicted correctly the course of poetry to come. In so doing, he established a standard which can help to define the nature of Thoreau’s poetic failure, and his place in American poetry.

xRalph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar," Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Saadi Edition Deluxe, Vol. Ill (Philadelphia, 1906), 77. io6 I look in vain for the poet whom 1 describe. We do not with sufficient plainness or sufficient profoundness address ourselves to life, nor dare we.chaunt our own times and social circumstance.. If we filled the day with bravery,, we should not shrink from celebrating it. Time and nature yield us many gifts, but not yet the timely man, th® new religion, the reconciler, whom all things await., Dante *s praise is that he dared to write his autobiography in collossal cipher, or into universality* We have yet had no genius in America, with tyrannous eye, which knew the value of our. incomparable materials, and saw* in the barbarism and materialism of. Our times, another carnival of the same gods whose picture he so much admires in Homer; then in the Middle Age; then in Calvinism. Banks arid tariffs, the newspaper and caucus, Methodism and Uni- tarianism, are flat and dull to dull people» but rest on the same foundations of wonder as the town of Troy and the .temple of Delphi» and are as swiftly passing away. Our log-rolling, our stumps and their politics, our fisheries, our Negroes and Indians, our boasts and our repudiations, the wrath of rogues and the pusillanimity of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, the western clearing, Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet America is a poem in our eyes; Its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres. . . , Eleven years later, a poet responded to this challenge with pôet- ry that dared to include all of America, not just the pleasantries of nature; with a poetic line which dared to reflect traditional metrics, not just offer variations of them; with a largeness that encompassed all of experience, not just a limited identification with the world of the forest. In Walt Whitman’s success we can see Thoreau’s failure because Thoreau, in his poetry, tried to do what Whitman did, but fell far short. An examination of one of Whitman’s poems and one of Thoreau’s poems, on a similar theme, will illustrate how Thoreau failed to become Emerson’s poet. The following is an excerpt from section sixteen of Whitman’s "Song of Myself." . ' I am of old and young, of. the foolish as much as the wise. Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,

erson, "The American Scholar," Vol. V, 286-28?. 107 Stuff’d with the stuff that is eoarse and stuff ’d with the stuff that is fine. One of.the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the • largest the same-, A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and hos­ pitable down by the Oconee I live, A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the lim- berest joints.on earth and the sternest joints on earth, A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin leg­ gings , a Louisianian or Georgian; A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye; At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with fisher­ men off Newfoundland, At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and tacking, At home on the hills of Vermont or in the-woods of Maine, or the Texan ranch, Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners, (loving their big proportions,) Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands and welcome to drink and meat, A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest, A novice beginning yet experlent of myriads of seasons, Of every hue and cast -am I, of every rank and religion, A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,^ Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest. In this section, as in most of the poem, Whitman is suggesting the scope and complexity of America and its inhabitants; as Emerson urged the American poet to do, by enumerating thé rvarious kinds of people making up America. The references are to specific areas of the country and to specific types Of people. The first reading suggests a rather random, ; haphazard selection of details much as a mere listing of great numbers of shoes might Suggest a pile' of shoes. There is, however, structure in this selection. First of all, the persona, Walt Whitman, identifies himself with each detail, giving the section a central focal point; and second, there is a movement from the larger to the smaller, from the

^Walt Whitman, The Complete Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman. Vol. I (New York, 1948), 75-76.

■H 108

general to the specific, as the persona bores more deeply into America* Hebegins with man in lts broadest sense,, including both young and old,, male and female.. From there he moves to the nation; then to sections, Northerners and Southerners; residents of particular states, Kentuckian, Louisianian, Georgian; and finally he refers to particular people, empha­ sizing the diversity of the group, gentleman, prisoner, rcwdy, and priest. The organization is organic because its movement grows out of Walt Whit­ man’s movement, into the essence of the American. The series of free- verse lines and the use of parallelism reflect the limitlessness of his subject, America* and the equal importance of each item that helps to comprise America. Thoreau, in most of his poetry, also uses America as his Subject matter, although the use is usually limited to a particular locality, i.e. Concord and its surroundings. Thoreau felt the poet must restrict himself to that which he knows intimately, Nevertheless, Thoreau at­ tempted, as did Whitman, to present the scope and complexity of America. OUR COUNTRY It is a noble country where we dwell. Fit for a stalwart race to summer in; From Ifedawaska to Red River raft, From Florid keys to the Missouri forks, See what unwearied (and) copious streams Come tumbling to the east and southern shore, To find a man stand on their lowland banks; Behold the innumerous rivers and the licks Vibe re he may drink to quench his summer’s thirst, And the broad core and rice fields yonder, where His hands may gather for his winter’s store. See the fair reaches of the northern lakes To cool his summer tilth their inland breeze. And the long slumbering Appalachian range Offering its slopes to his unwearied kneest See what a long-lipped sea doth?clip, the shores, And noble strands where navies may find port; 109 See Boston,- Baltimore, and New York stand Fair in the sunshine on the eastern sea, • And yonder too the fair green prairie. See the red race with sullen step retreat, ■ . Emptying its graves, striking the wigwam tent, And where the rude camps of its brethere stand, Dotting the distant green, their herds around; ■ 'In serried : ranks, and with a distant clang* Their fowl fly o’er, bound to the northern lakes, •‘ Whose plashing waves invite; their webbed feet. Such the fair reach and prospect of the land, The journeying summer creeps from south to north •With wearied feet, resting in many a vale; ' Its length doth tire the seasons to e^eroome, Its widening breadth doth make the sea-breeze pause And spend its breath against the mountain’s side: Still serene Summer paints the southern field, While the stern Winter reigns on northern hills. Look nearer»—know the lineaments of each face,— Learn the faretravelled race, and find here met The so long gathering congress of the worldt. The Afrie race brought here to curse its fate', Erin to bless,—the patient German too, Th’ industrious Swiss, the fickle, sanguine Gaul, - - And manly Saxon, leading all the rest. All things invite this earth’s inhabitants To rear their lives to an unheard-of height, And meet the expectation of the land; To give at length the restless race of man , A pause in the long westering caravan. (134*135) The most important difference between Whitman’s passage and Tho­ reau’s poem is boldness. . Thoreau approaches his subject much more timidly and much less in command; in fact, he seems reluctant to be different. His diction, imagery, and structure are much more standard and much less effective than Whitman’s. Whereas Whitman described his subject with terms .such as "Buckeye"raftsmen," and "fancy-man,? Thoreau’s word ' choice tended towards poetic diction: "stalwart race," "serried ranks," "plashing waves," and "webbed feet.? Whereas Whitman used specific, vivid imagery such as "A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deere i ? ’ • skin.leggins," arid "fishermen off Newfoundland,/At home in the fleet of 110 ice-boats, ” Thoreau described the streams tumbling down to' the lowlands, the rivers quenching thirst or the fields supplying food, "the red race with sullen step retreat,” and "Still serene Summer paints the southern fields,/While the stern Winter reigns on northern hills." Whereas Whit­ man broke entirely from convention* using fr&é-verse, Thoreau merely : varied the basic iambic of traditional blank verse. Damaging as this comparison is, it helps to place Thoreau in the development of American poetry during the nineteenth century. Thoreau would have liked to become Emerson’s poet, but he lacked, as did Emerson himself , the'boldness, perhaps even the courage, to throw over all con­ ventions and create a new expression. Thoreau, however, early recognized that his forte was prose and not poetiy; in prose he felt more confident and was much more bold and daring* Nowhere in Thoreau’s poetxy can one find lines such as these: He ¿the Canadian woodchopper of WaldenJ Wore a flat gray cloth cap, a dingy wool-colored gréatcoat» and cowhide boots. He was a great Consumer of meat, usually carrying his dinner to his work a couple of miles past my house»—for he chopped all summer* —in a tin pail; oold meats* often cold woodchucks, and coffee in a stone bottle which dangled by a string from his belt; and sometimes he offered me a drink. ... Ór this paragraph from "Wild Apples" in Which Thoreau describes the flavor of a wild apple eaten in late autumn: To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors Of these October fruits* it is necessary that you be brea tiling the sharp October or November air. The outdoor air and exercise which the walker gets give a dif­ ferent tone to his palate, and he craves a fruit which the sedentary would call harsh and crabbed. They must be eaten in the fields, when your system is all aglow with exercise, whenthe frosty weather nips your fingers* the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles the

Sfenry David Thoreau, The Works of Thoreau, ed. Henry Seidel Canby, Cambridge Edition (Boston, 1946), p. 341. Ill + few remaining leaves, and the jay is heard screaming around. What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labeled, "To be eaten in the wind.”5 To hâve.failed as Emerson’s poet, however, is not to have failed as a poet. Emerson himself seldom—if ever—wrote the kind of poetry he described* 6 Thoreau’s place in American poetry is somewhere between Emerson’s preaching and Whitman’s practice. His poetrywas often hesi­ tant and even reluètant but it was, nevertheless, a step in thé direction of freedom for American Verse, and he should be judged ultimately not by what he. failed to do but by what he accomplished.

?Thoreau, The Works, p. 725,

I. Carpenter, in the introduction to his American Writers Series volume on Emerson, represents critical opinion Oh this subject when he says j "Emerson’s theory of the organic raturé ofart.was essentially modern, but his practice of it was'not always successful. ‘His.own poetxy could' not wholly free itself from the conventions of the past--Whitraan practiced his ideal better than he did., . i. Ralph Waldo - Emerson (New York, 1934), p. XL. v? ! /H

A SELECTED BIBLIXX&APHr A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Primary Sources

Emerson* Ralph Waldo. The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 5 vols, Saadi Edition Deluxe. Philadelphia, 1906. Lowell, James Russell. Essays.- Poems and Letters. New York, 1948. Thoreau, Henry David. £ Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Riverside Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1893. . Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau, ed. Carl Bode.- Chicago* 1943, ...... Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau, ed. Carl Bode. Enlarged Edition, Baltimore, 1964. . ■. The Journals of Thoreau. Boston, 1949, (Reprint of the Manu- . script Edition) . . . . . The Works of Thoreau, ed. Henry Seidel Canby* Cambridge Edition. Boston, 1946. Whitman, Walt* The Complete Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman. 2 vols. New York* 1948.

B. secondary Sources

Books: Allen* Gay Wilson. American Prosody, New York* 1935« Atkinson, J. Brooks. Henry Thoreau: The Cosmic Yankee. New York, 192?. Brooks, Van Wyck. The Flowering of New England, New York, 1937» Carpenter, Frederic Ives. Emerson Handbook. New York* 1953» Channing, William Ellery, Thoreau: The Poet-Naturalist, -Boston, 1902. Christy, Arthur. The Orient in American. Transcendentalism. New York, 1932. 113 Cooke, George Willis, The Poets of Transcendentalism. Boston, 1903» Crawford, . B. V. Henry David Thoreau: Representative Selections, New York, 1934. FiedelsOn, Charles, Symbolism and American Literature. Chicago, 1952. Foerster, Norman. Nature in American Literature. New York, 1923. Krutch, Joseph Wood. Henry David Thoreau. New York, 1948. Macy, John. The Spirit of American Literature. New York, 1913..- Mitthiessen, F. G. American Renaissance. New York, 1941. Page, H. A. Thoreau: His Life and Aims. London, 1877. Pearce, Roy Harvey. The Continuity of American Poetry. . Prineeton, 1961. Sanborn, F. B. Henry D. Thoreau. Boston, 1882. Sanborn, F. B. Henry D. Thoreau. Boston, 1891. Salt, Henry.S.,. and F. B. Sanborn, poems of Nature. Boston, 1895. Salt, Henry S. The Life of Henry D. Thoreau. London, 1890. Seudder, Townsend. "Henry David Thoreau," Literary History of The United States, ed. Robert J5. Spiller et. ¿L, New York, I960, pp. 338-415.

Periodicals : . Adams, Raymond. "Thoreau’s Literary Apprenticeship," Studies in Philology. XXIX (October, 1932), 617-629. align, Francis. "Thoreau’s Collected Poems," American Literature. XVII (November, 1945), 260-267» Benton, Joel. "The Poetry of Thoreau," Lippincottls, XXXVII (May, 1886), 491-500.. .

» t t Bode, Carl. . "Rejoinder,M American Literature. XVH (November, 1945) * 267-269. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Thoreau," Atlantic. X (August, 1862), 239-249. Foerster, Norman. "Thoreau As a Poet," The Harvard Monthly (October, 1909), 18-22. • . <• • Loroh, F. W. "Thoreau and the Organic Principle in Poetry," PMLA. LIII (March, 1938). 286-302. 114 Ifcldenhauer, J. J. "Images of Circularity in Thoreau’s Prose," Texas Studies in Literature and Language. I (Summer, 1959), 245-263. O’Connor, J. V» "Thoreau and New England Transcendentalism," Catholic World. XXVII (June, 1876), 289-300. Paul, Sherman. "The Wise Silence: Sound as the Agency of Correspondence in Thoreau." New England Quarterly. XXH (December, 1949), 511*527. * 1 •• I "Review of Poems of' Nature." Athenaeum (October 17» 1396); 517-518. Salt» Henry S. "Thoreau’s Poetry." Art Review; I (Nhy 1890), 153-155. Thomas, William Si "Thoreau‘as His Own Editor," New England Quarterly. XV-(Jferch, 1942),. 101-103.' ' "Thoreau’s Verses," Saturday Review. LXXXI (January 18, 1896},55* Watts-Dunton, Theodore. "Thoreau," Athenaeum (October 28, 1882), . 558-560. . Weiss, John. "Thoreau," Christian Examiner. IXXIX (July, 1865), 96-117. Wells, Henry W,. "An Evaluation of Thoreau’s Poetry," American Literature. XVI (ifey, 1944), 99-109.r> Williams, Paul 0. "Thoreau’s ’It is no dream of mine': A New Proposal," Thoreau Society Bulletin (Winter. 1964), 3.

Dissertations : Adams, Raymond. "Henry Thoreau’s Literary Theory and Criticism," Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1928. Bode, Carl Julius. "Henry Thoreau As a Poet: With a Critical Edition of the Poems," Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Northwestern University, 1941. Brickett, Elsie F. "Studies in the Poets and Poetry of New England Trans- eendentalism," Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1937. Craig, George D. . "Literary Criticism in the Works of Henry David Thoreau," Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Utah, 1951« Williams, Paul Osborne. "The Transcendental Movement in American Poetry," Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1962. A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE POETRY OF' HENRY THOREAU

Arthur L. Ford

An Abstract of a Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY June 1964

Approved by

Adviser Department of English !

FORD, ARTHUR L., Ph.D., June, 1964. • English A Critical Study of the Poetxy of Henry Thoreau. (114 pp.) No. 3' Faculty Adviser: Richard G. Carpenter.

Although there has been a steady increase during this century in the reputation of Henry Thoreau and the amount of scholarship devoted to him, surprisingly little serious criticism has been directed to his poetxy in spite of the fact that a collected edition was published in 1943 and again, in expanded form, in 1964. This dissertation attempted to correct this situation by examining the various elements of Thoreau’s poetry as well as relating it to his literary theoxy. In the course of the examination, it was discovered that a consistency exists within the body of Thoreau’s poetxy which is related to his other works and to Transcendental metaphysics generally. Thoreau’s literaxy theory rests on the Romantic assumption that knowledge, including poetry, comes to the individual intuitively. The poet, therefore, is simply the highly sensitive medium by xihich the poem is translated to the reader. Other statements made by Thoreau and the evidence of his own poetry, however, suggest that he worked quite con­ sciously at creating the Impression of inspirational poetry rather than following its dictates completely. This concept of contradiction or duality is also found throughout all elements of Thoreau’s poetry.' Thematically,-his poetxy reveals the desire for freedom and action as they, oppose and are limited by restric­ tions of various kinds, a desire found elsewhere in Thoreau’s writings. 2 His images also cluster around this central duality of freedom-restriction as revealed by a list of his most frequent image groups: sounds} smells; •water or floating; Clouds, mist, or smoke; wind; morning or dawn; the sun; the stars and'Other celestial bodies. The duality inherent in Thoreau’s intuitive concept of literary composition manifest itself in his1 technical concerns. His meter, line lengths, rhymes, and diction suggest that he consciously attempted to create the impression of intuitive-composition. Further, his larger « structural devices also reflect a duality. Most of the poems are based on the simple rhetorical'device of contrast, usually contrast between an ’.S' ideal concept or action and its physical-counterpart which fails in some way. In addition,. the poems.also makeextensive functional use of para­ dox .and punning, again reflecting the dual nature of Thoreau’s poetry. • I This dissertation did not attempt to resurrect Thoreau as a major American poet; he is not. But.it did insist that his poetry be taken more seriously than is currently the Case, for its own value, for its relationship to Thoreau’s prose, and for the place which it occupies in the history of American poetry. A final chapter suggested that Thoreau’s experimentation as a poet looks forward to but falls far short of the poetry of Walt Whitman.