OP

OP

1. Ch 17- Spring

   • Walden Pond takes awhile for the ice to melt away.
     • Usually melts ten days later than Flint's Pond and Fair Haven.
   • Thoreau says that the highlight of his year is when he hears and see the ice breaking in Walden Pond.
     • This shows how much Thoreau enjoys the simple aspects of Nature.
   • On the 13th of March, Thoreau heard birds chirping but the snow was still a foot thick.
   • Thoreau heard a story of a man who went to go and have some fun with the ducks but he drifted off to the shore on a piece of ice.
   • Some forms of vegetation were lost in the ripple-marks on the bottom of the pond.
   • Thoreau says everything in nature is connected and works together.
     • "The whole tree itself is but one leaf, and the rivers are still vaster leaves."
   • "The maker of this Earth patented a leaf."
     • This is a funny statement because God made everything but Thoreau says he only patented a leaf.
   • The spring time is the most exciting part for Thoreau. He considers this to be his luxury in life.
   • The red squirrels would come out and go into Thoreau's house.
     • They would go under his feet while he is reading and this shows how close Thoreau was to nature.
   • Thoreau describes the entering to spring as Walden being dead and coming back to life.
     • New life begins with new hope.
   • During spring time, it seems as though everything is prefect and the equilibrium has been reached.
   • Thoreau says that spring time allows for sins to be forgiven and transgressions to be forgotten.
     • It is as if people are being born again.
   • Thoreau says that humans want to learn and know everything but life requires things to be mysterious and unexplorable.
     • If this was not the case, people would be like God.
   • You can never have too much of nature.
   • Thoreau left Walden on September 6th, 1847.