Saturday, July 21, 2012

Midsummer. Evening descends on the waters.


July 21.


The whip-poor-will begins to sing at earliest twilight.  The river is perfectly smooth, reflecting the golden sky and the red, for there is a bright and general golden or amber glow from the upper atmosphere in the west. At evening lakes and rivers become thus placid. Every dimple made by a fish or insect is betrayed. 

Evening descends on the waters. There is not a breath of air. Now is the time to be on the water.
  
I see the earliest star fifteen or twenty minutes before the red is deepest in the horizon. At morning and at evening this precious color suffuses the sky.  Do we perceive such a deep Indian red after the first starlight at any other season as now in July?

H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, July 21, 1852

At evening lakes and rivers become thus placid. Every dimple made by a fish or insect is betrayed. See May 29, 1857 ("Fair Haven Lake now, at 4.30 p. m., is perfectly smooth, reflecting the darker and glowing June clouds as it has not before. Fishes incessantly dimple it here and there . . ..”)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts Last 30 Days.

The week ahead in Henry’s journal

The week ahead in Henry’s journal
A journal, a book that shall contain a record of all your joy.
"A stone fruit. Each one yields me a thought." ~ H. D. Thoreau, March 28, 1859


I sit on this rock
wrestling with the melody
that possesses me.