Walden Excerpts Part 2

After some of the things that we talked about Thoreau during our last class I have noticed more and more how he has two drastically different writing styles. One is very methodical and science-based. I can tell that he is a very educated person and that he wants to share what he sees with the reader. For example during The Pond in Winter Thoreau shares the different temperature readings that he has recorded from the ponds in the neighboring areas and tells how that effects the rate of ice melt. However, Thoreau also has a very poetic side to his writing. One of my favorite examples of this is from The Ponds:

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows."

~Thoreau, Walden

Thoreau compares the landscape of the lake and its surroundings to human characteristics which I find very interesting. It seems almost as if he is trying to make nature seem more like a person and less like a thing. I decided to look for artists who try to show the link between humanity and nature and came across Kate Macdowell who has a very interesting take on this. Some of her creations are interesting while others just look creepy.

Overall I really enjoyed reading Walden and I learned more about who Thoreau was and what motivated his writing by reading these excerpts. I think that next time I read his works I will be better equipped to hear his message as well as understand the reading and enjoy it.