5.23.2007

Thoreau's Journal: 23-May-1854

We soon get through with Nature. She excites an expectation which she cannot satisfy. The merest child which has rambled into a copsewood dreams of a wilderness so wild and strange and inexhaustible as nature can never show him. The red-bird which I saw on my companion’s string on election days I thought but the outmost sentinel of the wild, immortal camp,—of the wild and dazzling infantry of the wilderness,—that the deeper woods abounded with redder birds still; but, now that I have threaded all our woods and waded the swamps, I have never yet met with his compeer, still less his wilder kindred. The red-bird which is the last of nature is but the first of God.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

i disagree. thoreau could explore nature more -> the stars, planets, and other life out there to find his red bird. we are a species of infinite desire in a universe with an infinite supply.

Mike Darcy Jeff said...

Fantastic blog, such a great idea and a labor. We are students working on hypertextual practice and theory at Marylhurst University in Portland OR. We are a team of three (really, Walt). We linked your blog with one of our webpages, but the easiest way to get a handle on who we are and so forth is to go to the trashy working blog www.mikedarcyjeff.blogspot.com and link to our various wikis, blogs and web sites. The link referred to is at www.geocities.com/mikedarcyjeff/streetcar.html - click on Thoreau's Boat caption - also a place where we are fooling around. But our intentions vis Thoreau are serious, so thanks for this blog. Such an amazing gift. M-D-J