Sunset from Fair Haven Hill.

December 27.

Saturday.

Sunset from Fair Haven Hill.

This evening there are many clouds in the west into which the sun goes down so that we have our visible or apparent sunset and red evening sky as much as fifteen minutes before the real sunset.

You must be early on the hills to witness such a sunset, — by half past four at least.

Then all the vales, even to the horizon, are full of a purple vapor, which half veils the distant mountains, and the windows of undiscoverable farmhouses shine like an early candle or a fire.

After the sun has gone behind a cloud, there appears to be a gathering of clouds around his setting, and for a few moments his light in the amber sky seems more intense, brighter, and purer than at noonday.

I think you never see such a brightness in the noon day heavens as in the western sky sometimes, just before the sun goes down in clouds, like the ecstasy which we are told sometimes lights up the face of a dying man.

That is a serene or evening death, like the end of the day.

Then, at last, through all the grossness which has accumulated in the atmosphere of day, is seen a patch of serene sky fairer by contrast with the surrounding dark than midday, and even the gross atmosphere of the day is gilded and made pure as amber by the setting sun, as if the day's sins were forgiven it.

The man is blessed who every day is permitted to behold anything so pure and serene as the western sky at sunset, while revolutions vex the world.

There is no winter necessarily in the sky, though the snow covers the earth.

The sky is always ready to answer to our moods; we can see summer there or winter.

Snow and drifts on the earth; it swiftly descends from the heavens and leaves them pure.

The heavens present, perhaps, pretty much the same aspect summer and winter.

It is remarkable that the sun rarely goes down without a cloud.

Venus - I suppose it is - is now the evening star, and very bright she is immediately after sunset in the early twilight.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 27, 1851

Fair Haven Hill. See July 27, 1852 ("On Fair Haven Hill. . . .All the clouds in the sky are now close to the west horizon, so that the sun is nearly down before they are reached and lighted or gilded. . . . The sun is now set. All glow on the clouds is gone, except from one higher, small, rosy pink isle. The solemnity of the evening sky! Just before the earliest star I turn round, and there shines the moon, silvering the small clouds which have gathered."); May 22, 1854 ("How many times I have been surprised thus, on turning about on this very spot, at the fairness of the earth!”); February 21, 1855 (“I look at the Peterboro mountains with my glass from Fair Haven Hill. I think that there can be no more arctic scene than these mountains in the edge of the horizon completely crusted over with snow, with the sun shining on them.”); October 7, 1857 (" When I turn round half-way up Fair Haven Hill, by the orchard wall, and look northwest, I am surprised for the thousandth time at the beauty of the landscape. . . I think that Concord affords no better view.”); March 18, 1858 ("When I get two thirds up the hill, I look round and am for the hundredth time surprised by the landscape of the river valley and the horizon with its distant blue scalloped rim.")

The man is blessed who every day is permitted to behold anything so pure and serene as the western sky at sunset. See December 20, 1851( Sunset in winter from a clearing in the woods."); December 21, 1851 ("How swiftly the earth appears to revolve at sunset."); December 23, 1851 ("I see that there is to be a fine, clear sunset, and make myself a seat in the snow on the Cliff to witness it . . . having got home , I find that the evening star is shining brightly, and . . . just above the horizon, the narrowest imaginable white sickle of the new moon."); December 25, 1851 ("I go forth to see the sun set. Who knows how it will set, even half an hour beforehand? whether it will go down in clouds or a clear sky?"); January 17, 1852 (“In proportion as I have celestial thoughts, is the necessity for me to be out and behold the western sky sunset these winter days. That is the symbol of the unclouded mind that knows neither winter nor summer.")

There is no winter necessarily in the sky. . . we can see summer there or winter.. . .The heavens present, perhaps, pretty much the same aspect summer and winter. Compare December 31, 1851 ("Consider in what respects the winter sunsets differ from the summer ones "); December 31, 1851 (“I have not enough valued and attended to the pure clarity and brilliancy of the winter skies. . . . The day sky in winter corresponds for clarity to the night sky, in which the stars shine and twinkle so brightly in this latitude.”); January 1, 1852 ("The stars of higher magnitude are more bright and dazzling, and therefore appear more near and numerable, while those that appear indistinct and infinitely remote in the summer, imparting the impression of unfathomability to the sky, are scarcely seen at all. . . .These are some of the differences between this and the autumn or summer nights . . . the dazzle and seeming nearness of the stars."); January 17, 1852 (“sunset these winter days . . . is the symbol of the unclouded mind that knows neither winter nor summer.") January 22, 1854 ("Once or twice of late I have seen the mother-o'-pearl tints and rainbow flocks in the western sky.. . .Methinks the summer sky never exhibits this so finely. "); January 29, 1854 ("Tonight I feel it stinging cold . . .; it bites my ears and face, but the stars shine all the brighter.”); February 3, 1852 ("The heavens appear less thickly starred than in summer, - rather a few bright stars, brought nearer by this splendid twinkling in the cold sky.")March 20, 1852 ("the stars twinkle as in winter night.")

Venus is now the evening star, and very bright she is immediately after sunset in the early twilight See  December 27, 1853 ("It is a true winter sunset, almost cloudless, clear, cold indigo-y along the horizon. The evening star is seen shining brightly, before the twilight has begun. A rosy tint suffuses the eastern horizon.") 

A TRUE WINTER SUNSET December 27, 2017

The sky is always ready to answer to our moods. See January 17, 1852. ("As the skies appear to a man, so is his mind."); January 26, 1852. ("Would you see your mind, look at the sky.")