2.16.2014
wild to the mass of men
...Thoreau's Journal: 16-Feb-1859
What we call wildness is a civilization other than our own. The hen-hawk shuns the farmer, but it seeks the friendly shelter and support of the pine. It will not consent to walk in the barn-yard, but it loves to soar above the clouds. It has its own way and is beautiful, when we would fain subject it to our will. So any surpassing work of art is strange and wild to the mass of men, as genius itself. No hawk that soars and steals our poultry is wilder than genius, and none is more persecuted or above persecution. It can never be poet laureate, to say “Pretty Poll” and “Polly want a cracker.”
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3 comments:
Same for the Brown Goshawk trying to steal my poultry.I love him still, his beauty and his terror.
we love nature yet we steal from it destroy it for our own selfish desires,we hang pictures of it on our walls because its not there when windows are made! because we think we decide we come first! yet nature keeps us alive! how long will it tolerate us? who gave us these rights? this plagues is what plagues my mind! michael jameson oldantiqueguy@hotmail.com
"So any surpassing work of art is strange and wild to the mass of men." ... and the crap the masses choose has to be strange to artists.
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