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Great winter itself
reflecting rainbow colors
like a precious gem.
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We have now those early, still, clear winter sunsets over the snow. It is but mid-afternoon when I see the sun setting far through the woods, and there is that peculiar clear vitreous greenish sky in the west, as it were a molten gem.
The day is short; it seems to be composed of two twilights merely; the morning and the evening twilight make the whole day. You must make haste to do the work of the day before it is dark.
I hear rarely a bird except the chickadee, or perchance a jay or crow.
A gray rabbit scuds away over the crust in the swamp on the edge of the Great Meadows beyond Peter’s. A partridge goes off, and, coming up, I see where she struck the snow first with her wing, making five or six as it were finger-marks.
C. says he found Fair Haven frozen over last Friday, i. e. the 8th. I find Flint’s frozen to-day,and how long?
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 11, 1854
The morning and the evening twilight make the whole day. See November 13, 1857 ("How speedily the night comes on now! There is some duskiness in the afternoon light before you are aware of it, the cows have gathered about the bars, waiting to be let out, and, in twenty minutes, candles gleam from distant windows, and the walk for this day is ended."); November 27, 1853 ("The days are short enough now. The sun is already setting before I have reached the ordinary limit of my walk, . . . In December there will be less light than in any month in the year.”); November 28, 1859 ("We make a good deal of the early twilights of these November days, they make so large a part of the afternoon.”); November 30, 1858 (“The short afternoons are come."); December 9, 1856 ("The worker who would accomplish much these short days must shear a dusky slice off both ends of the night”); December 10, 1856 (“How short the afternoons! I hardly get out a couple of miles before the sun is setting”); December 12, 1859 ("The night comes on early these days, and I soon see the pine tree tops distinctly outlined against the dun (or amber) but cold western sky."); December 21, 1851 ("The morning and evening are one day."); February 17, 1852 ("The shortness of the days, when we naturally look to the heavens and make the most of the little light, when we live an arctic life, when the woodchopper's axe reminds us of twilight at 3 o'clock p. m., when the morning and the evening literally make the whole day") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, December Days
That peculiar clear vitreous greenish sky in the west, as it were a molten gem. See December 11, 1855("Great winter itself looked like a precious gem, reflecting rainbow colors from one angle."); see also December 9, 1859 (“I observe at mid-afternoon that peculiarly softened western sky, . . .giving it a slight greenish tinge.”); December 14. 1851 ("There is a beautifully pure greenish-blue sky under the clouds now in the southwest just before sunset."); December 20, 1854 ("The sky in the eastern horizon has that same greenish-vitreous, gem-like appearance which it has at sundown"); December 21, 1854 ("Fair Haven Pond, for instance, a perfectly level plain of white snow, untrodden as yet by any fisherman, surrounded by snow-clad hills, dark evergreen woods, and reddish oak leaves, so pure and still.")
C. says he found Fair Haven frozen over last Friday, i. e. the 8th. I find Flint’s frozen to-day,and how long?
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 11, 1854
The morning and the evening twilight make the whole day. See November 13, 1857 ("How speedily the night comes on now! There is some duskiness in the afternoon light before you are aware of it, the cows have gathered about the bars, waiting to be let out, and, in twenty minutes, candles gleam from distant windows, and the walk for this day is ended."); November 27, 1853 ("The days are short enough now. The sun is already setting before I have reached the ordinary limit of my walk, . . . In December there will be less light than in any month in the year.”); November 28, 1859 ("We make a good deal of the early twilights of these November days, they make so large a part of the afternoon.”); November 30, 1858 (“The short afternoons are come."); December 9, 1856 ("The worker who would accomplish much these short days must shear a dusky slice off both ends of the night”); December 10, 1856 (“How short the afternoons! I hardly get out a couple of miles before the sun is setting”); December 12, 1859 ("The night comes on early these days, and I soon see the pine tree tops distinctly outlined against the dun (or amber) but cold western sky."); December 21, 1851 ("The morning and evening are one day."); February 17, 1852 ("The shortness of the days, when we naturally look to the heavens and make the most of the little light, when we live an arctic life, when the woodchopper's axe reminds us of twilight at 3 o'clock p. m., when the morning and the evening literally make the whole day") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, December Days
That peculiar clear vitreous greenish sky in the west, as it were a molten gem. See December 11, 1855("Great winter itself looked like a precious gem, reflecting rainbow colors from one angle."); see also December 9, 1859 (“I observe at mid-afternoon that peculiarly softened western sky, . . .giving it a slight greenish tinge.”); December 14. 1851 ("There is a beautifully pure greenish-blue sky under the clouds now in the southwest just before sunset."); December 20, 1854 ("The sky in the eastern horizon has that same greenish-vitreous, gem-like appearance which it has at sundown"); December 21, 1854 ("Fair Haven Pond, for instance, a perfectly level plain of white snow, untrodden as yet by any fisherman, surrounded by snow-clad hills, dark evergreen woods, and reddish oak leaves, so pure and still.")
A gray rabbit scuds away . . . A partridge goes off. See December 11, 1858 ("Already, in hollows in the woods and on the sheltered sides of hills, the fallen leaves are collected in small heaps on the snow-crust, simulating bare ground and helping to conceal the rabbit and partridge."); see also September 23, 1851("The partridge and the rabbit, — they still are sure to thrive like true natives of the soil, whatever revolutions occur."); November 18, 1851 (".Here hawks also circle by day, and chickadees are heard, and rabbits and partridges abound. . . .You must be conversant with things for a long time to know much about them,. . . as the partridge and the rabbit are acquainted with the thickets and at length have acquired the color of the places they frequent."); December 31, 1855 ("I see many partridge-tracks in the light snow, where they have sunk deep amid the shrub oaks; also gray rabbit and deer mice tracks.")
C. says he found Fair Haven frozen over last Friday, i. e. the 8th. See November 21, 1852 ("I am surprised this afternoon to find . . .Fair Haven Pond one-third frozen or skimmed over”); November 23, 1852("I am surprised to see Fair Haven entirely skimmed over.”) ; December 5, 1853 (" Fair Haven Pond is skimmed completely over."); December 7, 1856 ("Take my first skate to Fair Haven Pond . . .The ice appears to be but three or four inches thick.”); December 8, 1850 ("A week or two ago Fair Haven Pond was December 9, 1856 (" Fair Haven was so solidly frozen on the 6th that there was fishing on it,"); December 9, 1859 ("The river and Fair Haven Pond froze over generally last night, though they were only frozen along the edges yesterday. This is unusually sudden."); December 21, 1855 (" Fair Haven is entirely frozen over, probably some days"); December 21, 1857 (" Walden and Fair Haven,. . .have only frozen just enough to bear me, “); December 25, 1853 ("Skated to Fair Haven and above.")
I find Flint’s frozen to-day,and how long? See December 4, 1853 ("Flint's Pond only skimmed a little at the shore, like the river."); December 9, 1856 (“Yesterday I met Goodwin bringing a fine lot of pickerel from Flint's, which was frozen at least four inches thick.”);
December 11. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, December 11
The day is short and
we now have these early still
clear winter sunsets.
I will see the sun setting
far through the woods.
That peculiar
clear greenish sky in the west
like a molten gem.
Two twilights merely –
the morning and the evening
now make the whole day.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The day is short – two twilights merely
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2024
tinyurl.com/HDT541211
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