4 o’clock A.M. The Townsend Light Infantry encamped last night in my neighbor’s inclosure.
The night still breathes slumberously over field and wood, when a few soldiers gather about one tent in the twilight, and their band plays an old Scotch air, with bugle and drum and fife attempered to the season. It seems like the morning hymn of creation. The first sounds of the awakening camp, mingled with the chastened strains which so sweetly salute the dawn, impress me as the morning prayer of an army.
And now the morning gun fires. The soldier awakening to creation and awakening it. I am sure none are cowards now. These strains are the roving dreams which steal from tent to tent, and break forth into distinct melody. They are the soldier’s morning thought. Each man awakes himself with lofty emotions, and would do some heroic deed. You need preach no homily to him; he is the stuff they are made of.
The whole course of our lives should be analogous to one day of the soldier’s. His Genius seems to whisper in his ear what demeanor is befitting, and in his bravery and his march he yields a blind and partial obedience.
1 comment:
In Thoreau's unending web this entry also refers to his poem "Independence":
The life that I aspire to live
no one proposes me
no trade upon the street
wears its emblazonry"
I have posted a spanish translation of that poem here
http://thoreaucastellano.blogspot.com/
Post a Comment