December 9, 2021 3:13 P.M.
Winter days in woods
or fields have commonly the
stillness of twilight.
The sun near setting
over the snow-clad landscape –
the pond full of light.
More or other things
are seen in the reflection
than in the substance.
It often happens
as the weather is harder
the sky seems softer.
The sun is near setting, away beyond Fair Haven. A bewitching stillness reigns through all the woodland and over the snow-clad landscape. Indeed, the winter day in the woods or fields has commonly the stillness of twilight. The pond is perfectly smooth and full of light. December 9, 1856
I perceive that more or other things are seen in the reflection than in the substance. As I look now over the pond westward, I see in substance the now bare outline of Fair Haven Hill a mile beyond, but in the reflection I see not this, only the tops of some pines, which stand close to the shore but are invisible against the dark hill beyond, and these are indefinitely prolonged into points of shadow. . December 9, 1856
The air being very quiet and serene, I observe at mid-afternoon that peculiarly softened western sky, which perhaps is seen commonly after the first snow has covered the earth. December 9, 1859
There is just enough invisible vapor, perhaps from the snow, to soften the blue, giving it a slight greenish tinge. December 9, 1859
Methinks it often happens that as the weather is harder the sky seems softer. December 9, 1859
Methinks it often happens that as the weather is harder the sky seems softer. December 9, 1859
December 9, 2013
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 © 2009-2020
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