I see from this hill

July 1.

From the hill I perceive that the air is beautifully clear after the rain of yesterday, and not hot; fine grained. The landscape is fine as behind a glass, the horizon-edge distinct. The distant vales toward the northwest mountains lie up open and clear.  The shadows of trees are dark and distinct.

On the river I see the two broad borders of pads reflecting the light, the dividing line between them and the water, their irregular edge, perfectly distinct. 

The clouds are separate glowing masses or blocks floating in the sky, not threatening rain. I see from this hill their great shadows pass slowly here and there over the top of the green forest. 

Later a breeze rises and there is a sparkle on the river. The wood thrush and tanager sing at 4 P.M. at Cliffs.

July 1, 2014

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 1, 1854


The landscape is fine as behind a glass. See February 9, 1852 ("It is a new glass placed over the picture every hour.")

The distant vales toward the northwest mountains lie up open and clear. See June 25, 1852 ("The mountain outline is remarkably distinct, and the intermediate earth appears more than usually scooped out, like a vast saucer sloping up ward to its sharp mountain rim.") Compare July 11, 1857 (“Looking off into the vales from Fair Haven Hill, where a thin blue haze now rests almost universally, I see that the earth itself is invested with a glaucous bloom at this season.”); May 24, 1860 (“Looking into the northwest horizon, I see that Wachusett is partially concealed by a haze. This is one of the values of mountains in the horizon, that they indicate the state of the atmosphere.”); see also August 2, 1852 (“To look across hence to that blue rim of the earth, and be reminded of the invisible towns and communities, . . . which lie in the further and deeper hollows between me and those hills. . . ., and be reminded how many brave and contented lives are lived between me and the horizon.); March 28, 1858 (. On ascending the hill next his home, every man finds that he dwells in a shallow concavity whose sheltering walls are the convex surface of the earth, beyond which he cannot see. .”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Mountains in the Horizon; A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Seen from a Hillside

The shadows of trees are dark and distinct.  See  June 11, 1856 ("I think that this peculiar darkness of the shade, or of the foliage as seen between you and the sky, is not accounted for merely by saying that we have not yet got accustomed to clothed trees, but the leaves are rapidly acquiring a darker green, are more and more opaque, and, besides, the sky is lit with the intensest light.”); Compare June 30, 1860 ("The shadows under the edge of woods are less noticed now because the woods themselves are darker.”)

The clouds are separate glowing masses or blocks floating in the sky. See July 23, 1851 ("The mind is subject to moods, as the shadows of clouds pass over the earth. "); March 22, 1858("No doubt the season is to be detected by the aspect of the clouds no less than by that of the earth."); June 24, 1852 ("The drifting w;ite downy clouds are objects of a large, diffusive interest . . . Far away they float in the serene sky, the most inoffensive of objects. What could a man learn by watching the clouds? ")

I see from this hill their great shadows pass slowly here and there over the top of the green forest. See July 1, 1852 ("It is pleasant to behold so much of the landscape in the shadow of the clouds ") See also June 3, 1858 ("It was interesting to watch from that height the shadows of fair-weather clouds passing over the landscape."); July 27, 1852 ("It is pleasing to behold at this season contrasted shade and sunshine on the side of neighboring hills.")

The wood thrush and tanager sing. See July 10, 1854 ("The singing birds at present are . . . Red-eye, tanager, wood thrush, chewink, veery, oven-bird, — all even at midday.");  July 13, 1854(" hear the hot-weather and noonday birds, -- red eye, tanager, wood pewee, etc. ").

I see from this hill 

the horizon-edge distinct 

clear air after rain. 

Shadows pass slowly 

over the green forest top 

clouds floating in sky. 

A late breeze rises 

wood thrush and tanager sing 

sparkling the river.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, I see from this hill 

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

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