This tallest aspen.

October 31, 2023

The other day

Walking through the woods

I came to a tall aspen

that I had not seen

standing in the midst

of the woods in the next town,

leaves yellowish green.

All summer – and it

chances for so many years  –

it has been concealed.

Perhaps the largest

of its species that I know,

I stumbled on it

by mere accident

after walking a couple

hours the other day.

Peculiar in 

its solitude it seemed the

obscurest of trees.

From this hilltop

Now to my surprise

a mile off across the pond

I see one large tree

which I distinguish

by form and color to be

my new acquaintance

Tremulifomis

the only yellow I see –

my tallest aspen

the most distinct tree

in all the landscape coming

half-way to meet me.

October 31, 1858

October 29, 2022

See October 29, 1858 ("Am surprised to see, by the path to Baker Farm, a very tall and slender large Populus tremuliformis still thickly clothed with leaves which are merely yellowish greén, later than any P. grandidentata I know.") and December 15 , 1841 ("The trees have come down to the bank to see the river go by.");  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Aspens; November 4, 1858 (“The actual objects which one person will see from a particular hilltop are just as different from those which another will see as the persons are different . . .We cannot see any thing until we are possessed with the idea of it”); November 28, 1858 (“And all the years that I have known Walden these striped breams have skulked in it without my knowledge!”)

After walking for a couple of hours the other day through the woods, 

I came to the base of a tall aspen, 

which I do not remember to have seen before, 

standing in the midst of the woods in the next town, 

still thickly leaved and turned to greenish yellow. 

It is perhaps the largest of its species that I know. 

It was by merest accident that I stumbled on it, 

and if I had been sent to find it, 

I should have thought it to be, as we say, l

ike looking for a needle in a haymow.

All summer, and it chances for so many years, 

it has been concealed to me; 

but now, walking in a different direction,

 to the same hilltop from which I saw the scarlet oaks, 

and looking off just before sunset, 

when all other trees visible for miles around are reddish or green, 

I distinguish my new acquaintance by its yellow color. 
Such is its fame, at last, and reward for living in that solitude and obscurity.

 It is the most distinct tree in all the landscape, 

and would be the cynosure of all eyes here. 

Thus it plays its part in the choir. 

I made a minute of its locality,

glad to know where so large an aspen grew. 

Then it seemed peculiar in its solitude and obscurity.

It seemed the obscurest of trees. 

Now it was seen to be equally peculiar for its distinctness and prominence . . .

It is as if it recognized me too, and gladly, 

coming half-way to meet me,
and now the acquaintance 

thus propitiously formed will,
I trust, be permanent.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Tallest Aspen

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 ©  2009-2022

https://tinyurl.com/HDTaspen