Fair Haven lies more open
and can be seen from more distant points
than any of our ponds. The water or lake
from however distant a point seen
is always the centre of the landscape.
The pond is now most beautifully framed
with the autumn-tinted woods and hills.
Birches hickories aspens in the distance
are like innumerable small flames
on the hillsides about the pond.
Fair Haven Pond, methinks,
never looks so handsome
as at this season.
Henry Thoreau
October 13, 2019
In all my rambles I have seen no landscape which can make me forget Fair Haven. I still sit on its Cliff in a new spring day, and look over the awakening woods and the river, and hear the new birds sing, with the same delight as ever. It is as sweet a mystery to me as ever, what this world is. May, 1850
Fair Haven Pond with its island, and meadow between the island and the shore, and a strip of perfectly still and smooth water in the lee of the island, and two hawks, fish hawks perhaps, sailing over it. I do not see how it can be improved. How adapted these forms and colors to my eye! A meadow and an island! I am made to love the pond and the meadow, as the wind is made to ripple the water. November 21, 1850
One afternoon in the fall, November 21st, I saw Fair Haven Pond with its island and meadow; between the island and the shore, a strip of perfectly smooth water in the lee of the island; and two hawks sailing over it; and something more I saw which cannot easily be described. February 14, 1851
One afternoon in the fall, November 21st, I saw Fair Haven Pond with its island and meadow; between the island and the shore, a strip of perfectly smooth water in the lee of the island; and two hawks sailing over it; and something more I saw which cannot easily be described. February 14, 1851
To-day no part of the heavens is so clear and bright as Fair Haven Pond and the river. October 12, 1851
Fair Haven Pond – the pond, the meadow beyond the button-bush and willow curve, the island, and the meadow between the island and mainland with its own defining lines – are all parted off like the parts of a mirror. A fish hawk is calmly sailing over all. April 14, 1852
I land at Lee's Cliff, in Fair Haven Pond, and sit on the Cliff. Late in the afternoon. The wind is gone down; the water is smooth; a serene evening is approaching; the clouds are dispersing. The pond, so smooth and full of reflections after a dark and breezy day, is unexpectedly beautiful. August 31, 1852
Day before yesterday to the Cliffs in the rain, misty rain. As I approached their edge, I saw the woods beneath, Fair Haven Pond, and the hills across the river, — which, owing to the mist, was as far as I could see, and seemed much further in consequence. I saw these between the converging boughs of two white pines a rod or two from me on the edge of the rock; and I thought that there was no frame to a landscape equal to this, — to see, between two near pine boughs, whose lichens are distinct, a distant forest and lake, the one frame, the other picture. November 1, 1852
The ice in Fair Haven is more than half melted, and now the woods beyond the pond, reflected in its serene water where there has been opaque ice so long, affect me as they perhaps will not again this year. March 18,1853
I am entering Fair Haven Pond. It is now perfectly still and smooth, like dark glass. Yet the westering sun is very warm. He who passes over a lake at noon, when the waves run, little imagines its serene and placid beauty at evening, as little as he anticipates his own serenity. There is no more beautiful part of the river than the entrance to this pond. July 21, 1853
We are tempted to call these the finest days of the year. Take 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. December 21, 1854
Now look down on Fair Haven. How pleasant in spring a still, overcast, warm day like this, when the water is smooth! April 26, 1854
All the earth is bright; the very pines glisten, and the water is a bright blue. A gull is circling round Fair Haven Pond, seen white against the woods and hillsides, looking as if it would dive for a fish every moment, and occasionally resting on the ice. April 4, 1855
Fair Haven Pond – the pond, the meadow beyond the button-bush and willow curve, the island, and the meadow between the island and mainland with its own defining lines – are all parted off like the parts of a mirror. A fish hawk is calmly sailing over all. April 14, 1852
I land at Lee's Cliff, in Fair Haven Pond, and sit on the Cliff. Late in the afternoon. The wind is gone down; the water is smooth; a serene evening is approaching; the clouds are dispersing. The pond, so smooth and full of reflections after a dark and breezy day, is unexpectedly beautiful. August 31, 1852
Day before yesterday to the Cliffs in the rain, misty rain. As I approached their edge, I saw the woods beneath, Fair Haven Pond, and the hills across the river, — which, owing to the mist, was as far as I could see, and seemed much further in consequence. I saw these between the converging boughs of two white pines a rod or two from me on the edge of the rock; and I thought that there was no frame to a landscape equal to this, — to see, between two near pine boughs, whose lichens are distinct, a distant forest and lake, the one frame, the other picture. November 1, 1852
The ice in Fair Haven is more than half melted, and now the woods beyond the pond, reflected in its serene water where there has been opaque ice so long, affect me as they perhaps will not again this year. March 18,1853
I am entering Fair Haven Pond. It is now perfectly still and smooth, like dark glass. Yet the westering sun is very warm. He who passes over a lake at noon, when the waves run, little imagines its serene and placid beauty at evening, as little as he anticipates his own serenity. There is no more beautiful part of the river than the entrance to this pond. July 21, 1853
We are tempted to call these the finest days of the year. Take 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. December 21, 1854
Now look down on Fair Haven. How pleasant in spring a still, overcast, warm day like this, when the water is smooth! April 26, 1854
All the earth is bright; the very pines glisten, and the water is a bright blue. A gull is circling round Fair Haven Pond, seen white against the woods and hillsides, looking as if it would dive for a fish every moment, and occasionally resting on the ice. April 4, 1855
The sun is near setting, away beyond Fair Haven. A bewitching stillness reigns through all the woodland and over the snow-clad landscape . . . The pond is perfectly smooth and full of light. December 9, 1856
I sit on the top of Lee's Cliff, looking into the light and dark eye of the lake. May 29, 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. October 7, 1857
I sit on the top of Lee's Cliff, looking into the light and dark eye of the lake. May 29, 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. October 7, 1857
Looking all around Fair Haven Pond yesterday, where the maples were glowing amid the evergreens, my eyes invariably rested on a particular small maple of the purest and intensest scarlet. October 3, 1858
See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, October 13
Always the center –
the pond is now framed with the
autumn-tinted woods.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Fair Haven Pond
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
In the crucible of my celibate life
purified of all desire,
I enter truth from behind
and call her name –
Simplify!
tinyurl.com/HDTfairhvn
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