8.22.2014

a simple homely square sail
...Thoreau's Journal: 22-Aug-1858

I have spliced my old sail to a new one, and now go out and try it in a sail to Baker Farm. It is a “square sail” some five feet by six. I like it much. It pulls like an ox, and makes me think there’s more wind abroad than there is. The yard goes about with a pleasant force, almost enough, I would fain imagine, to knock me overboard. How sturdily it pulls, shooting us along, catching more wind than I knew to be wandering in this river valley. It suggests a new power in the sail, like a Grecian god. I can even worship it, after a heathen fashion. And then, how it becomes my boat and the river,—a simple homely square sail, all for use not show, so low and broad! Ajacean. The boat is like a plow drawn by a winged bull.

1 comment:

michael jameson said...

it matters not what age you live in or who you are!, we are all amazed from time to time at the power of nature!, so calm most of the time that little notice is taken, yet it has the power to kill and destroy all we have made and accomplished, from complete calm and beauty to sheer terror and death. michael jameson oldantiqueguy@hotmail.com