Henry david thoreau blooms modern critical views, updated edition 2007

Bloom's Modern Critical Views African American Poets: Wheatley– Tolson African American Poets: Hayden–Dove Dante Alighieri Isabel Allende American Women Poets, 1650–1950 Hans Christian Andersen Maya Angelou Asian-American Writers Margaret Atwood Jane Austen Paul Auster James Baldwin Honoré de Balzac The Bible William Blake Ray Bradbury The Brontës Gwendolyn Brooks Elizabeth Barrett Browning Robert Browning Albert Camus Truman Capote Miguel de Cervantes Geoffrey Chaucer G.K Chesterton Kate Chopin Joseph Conrad Contemporary Poets Julio Cortázar Stephen Crane Don DeLillo Charles Dickens Emily Dickinson John Donne and the 17th-Century Poets Fyodor Dostoevsky W.E.B DuBois George Eliot T.S Eliot Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Emerson William Faulkner F Scott Fitzgerald Robert Frost William Gaddis Thomas Hardy Nathaniel Hawthorne Robert Hayden Ernest Hemingway Hermann Hesse Hispanic-American Writers Homer Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston Aldous Huxley John Irving James Joyce Franz Kafka John Keats Jamaica Kincaid Stephen King Milan Kundera Tony Kushner Doris Lessing C.S Lewis Sinclair Lewis Norman Mailer David Mamet Christopher Marlowe Gabriel García Márquez Carson McCullers Herman Melville Arthur Miller John Milton Toni Morrison Joyce Carol Oates Flannery O’Connor George Orwell Octavio Paz Sylvia Plath Edgar Allan Poe Katherine Anne Porter Marcel Proust Thomas Pynchon Philip Roth Salman Rushdie J D Salinger José Saramago Jean-Paul Sartre William Shakespeare Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley John Steinbeck Amy Tan Alfred, Lord Tennyson Henry David Thoreau J.R.R Tolkien Leo Tolstoy Ivan Turgenev Mark Twain Kurt Vonnegut Derek Walcott Alice Walker H.G Wells Eudora Welty Walt Whitman Tennessee Williams Tom Wolfe William Wordsworth Jay Wright Richard Wright William Butler Yeats Émile Zola Bloom’s Modern Critical Views henry david thoreau Updated Edition Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale University Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Henry David Thoreau—Updated Edition Copyright ©2007 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2007 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 ISBN-10: 0-7910-9348-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-7910-9348-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Henry David Thoreau / Harold Bloom, editor — Updated ed p cm — (Bloom’s modern critical views) Thoreau: the quest and the classics / Ethel Seybold — Naturalizing Eden: science and sainthood in Walden / John Hildebidle — From a week to Walden / Robert Sattelmeyer — Revolution and renewal: The genres of Walden / Gordon V Boudreau — Paradise (to be) regained / David M Robinson — Thoreau, Homer and community / Robert Oscar Lopez — Thoreau, crystallography, and the science of the transparent / Eric G Wilson —“The life excited”: faces of Thoreau in Walden / Steven Hartman.” Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-7910-9348-4 Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862—Criticism and interpretation I Bloom, Harold II Title III Series PS3054.H38 2007 818’.309—dc22 2006034841 Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755 You can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Contributing Editor: Janyce Marson Cover designed by Takeshi Takahashi Cover photo © The Granger Collection, New York Printed in the United States of America Bang EJB 10 This book is printed on acid-free paper All links and web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication Because of the dynamic nature of the web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid Contents Editor’s Note Introduction Harold Bloom vii Thoreau: The Quest and the Classics Ethel Seybold 13 Naturalizing Eden: Science and Sainthood in Walden John Hildebidle From A Week to Walden Robert Sattelmeyer Springs to Remember Gordon V Boudreau 35 63 87 “Patron of the World”: Henry Thoreau as Wordsworthian Poet Lance Newman 107 Living Poetry 127 David M Robinson Thoreau, Homer, and Community Robert Oscar López Thoreau, Crystallography, and the Science of the Transparent Eric G Wilson 153 177 vi Contents “The life excited”: Faces of Thoreau in Walden Steven Hartman Chronology 219 Contributors 225 Bibliography 227 Acknowledgments Index 235 233 197 Editor’s Note My Introduction suggests that Thoreau remains one of Emerson’s major works Ethel Seybold traces the literary foregrounding of Thoreau’s career, while John Hildebidle seeks the balance between the transcendental and the naturalistic in Walden Thoreau’s movement from his earlier A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers to Walden is charted by Robert Sattelmeyer as a progress through reading, after which Gordon V Boudreau sees the mythology of nature as the heart of Walden Thoreau’s Wordsworthian, over-influenced poetry is studied by Lance Newman, while David M Robinson proposes Walden’s prose as its author’s truest poetry Homeric thematic influence upon Thoreau is stressed by Robert Oscar López, after which Eric G Wilson exalts Thoreau’s metamorphic mastery of the image of the crystal In this volume’s final essay, Steven Hartman analyzes Thoreau’s many roles in Walden vii H arold B loom Introduction I All of us, however idiosyncratic, begin by living in a generation that overdetermines more of our stances and judgments than we can hope to know, until we are far along in the revisionary processes that can bring us to a Second Birth I myself read Walden while I was very young, and “Civil Disobedience” and “Life without Principle” soon afterwards But I read little or no Emerson until I was an undergraduate, and achieved only a limited awareness of him then I began to read Emerson obsessively just before the middle of the journey, when in crisis, and have never stopped reading him since More even than Freud, Emerson helped change my mind about most things, in life and in literature, myself included Going back to Thoreau, when one has been steeped in Emerson for more than twenty years, is a curious experience A distinguished American philosopher, my contemporary, has written that he underwent the reverse process, coming to Emerson only after a profound knowing of Thoreau, and has confessed that Emerson seemed to him at first a “second-rate Thoreau.” I am not tempted to call Thoreau a second-rate Emerson, because Thoreau, at his rare best, was a strong writer, and revised Emerson with passion and with cunning But Emerson was for Thoreau even more massively what he was for Walt Whitman and all Americans of  230 Bibliography Neufeldt, Leonard The Economist: Henry Thoreau and Enterprise New York: Oxford University Press, 1989 Ogden, Merlene A Walden, A Concordance New York: Garland, 1985 Scharnhorst, Gary Henry David Thoreau: An Annotated Bibliography of Comment and Criticism Before 1900 New York: Garland, 1992 Paul, Sherman The Shores of America: Thoreau’s Inward Exploration Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1958 Paul, Sherman Thoreau: A Collection of Critical Essays Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1962 Peck, H Daniel Thoreau’s Morning Work: Memory and Perception in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Journal, and Walden New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990 Porte, Joel Emerson and Thoreau: Transcendentalists in Conflict Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1966 Richardson, Robert D Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986 Robinson, Kenneth Allen Thoreau and the Wild Appetite 1957 New York: AMS Press, 1985 Ruland, Richard, ed Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden: A Collection of Critical Essays Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968 Sattlemeyer, Robert “The Remaking of Walden.” Writing the American Classics Edited by James Barbour and Tom Quirk Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1990): 53–78 ——— “ ‘The True Industry for Poets’: Fishing with Thoreau.’ ” ESQ 33 (1987): 189–201 ——— Thoreau’s Reading: A Study in Intellectual History with Bibliographical Catalogue Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988 Sayer, Robert F New Essays on Walden New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992 ——— Thoreau and the American Indians Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977 Scharnhorst, Gary Henry David Thoreau: A Case Study in Canonization Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1993 Schneider, Richard J Henry David Thoreau Boston: Twayne, 1987 ——— “Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Landscape Painting.” ESQ 31 (1985): 67–88 Shanley, J Landon The Making of Walden, with the Text of the First Edition Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957 Bibliography 231 Smith, Harmon L My Friend, My Friend: The Story of Thoreau’s Relationship with Emerson Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999 Spiller, Robert E Four Makers of the American Mind Durham, N C.: Duke University Press, 1976 Tauber, Alfred I Henry David Thoreau and the Moral Agency of Knowing Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001 Thoreau, Henry David Walden: An Annotated Edition Foreword and Notes by Walter Harding Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995 Wagenknecht, Edward Henry David Thoreau: What Manner of Man? Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981 West, Michael “Scatology and Eschatology: The Heroic Dimensions of Thoreau’s Wordplay.” PMLA 89 (1974): 1043–1064 Wood, Barry “Thoreau’s Narrative Art in ‘Civil Disobedience.’ ” Philological Quarterly 60 (1981): 106–115 Acknowledgments “Thoreau: The Quest and the Classics” by Ethel Seybold From Thoreau: The Quest and the Classics Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books (1969): 1–21 © 1969 by Yale University Press Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press “Naturalizing Eden: Science and Sainthood in Walden” reprinted by permission of the publisher from Thoreau: A Naturalist’s History by John Hildebidle, pp 97–125, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, copyright © 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College “From A Week to Walden” by Robert Sattelmeyer From Thoreau’s Reading: A Study in Intellectual History Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press (1988): 54–77 © 1988 by Princeton University Press Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press “Springs to Remember” by Gordon V Boudreau From The Roots of Walden and the Tree of Life Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press (1990): 89–104 © 1990 by Gordon V Boudreau Reprinted by permission “ ‘Patron of the World’: Henry Thoreau as Wordsworthian Poet” by Lance Newman From The Concord Saunterer, vol 11 (2003): 155–172 © 2003 by The Thoreau Society Reprinted by permission 233 234 Acknowledgments “Living Poetry” by David M Robinson From Natural Life: Thoreau’s Worldly Transcendentalism Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press (2004): 100– 124 © 2004 by Cornell University Press Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Cornell University Press “Thoreau, Homer, and Community” by Robert Oscar López From Nineteenth-Century Prose, vol 31, no (Fall 2004): 122–151 © 2004 by San Diego State University Reprinted by permission “Thoreau, Crystallography, and the Science of the Transparent” by Eric G Wilson From Studies in Romanticism, vol 43, no (Spring 2004): 99–117 © 2004 by the Trustees of Boston University Reprinted by permission “ ‘The life excited’: Faces of Thoreau in Walden” by Steven Hartman From The Concord Saunterer, (New Series) vol 12/13 (2004/2005): 341–360 © 2003 by The Thoreau Society Reprinted by permission Every effort has been made to contact the owners of copyrighted material and secure copyright permission Articles appearing in this volume generally appear much as they did in their original publication with few or no editorial changes Those interested in locating the original source will find bibliographic information in the bibliography and acknowledgments sections of this volume Index Abolition, 118–119 Achilles Alek Therien and, 164–167 animal nature and, 161 friendship and, 169–173 passion and, 169 Aeschylus, interest in, 27 Agassiz, Louis, 141–142, 144 Alcott, Bronson, 69 Alighieri, Dante, 87, 102 “The Allegash and the East Branch”, 64 Aloofness, solitude vs., 158 American Narcissus, 3–4, 202 Anacreon translations, 29, 31 The Angel in the House (Patmore), 78 Animals, cruelty and, 160 Antigone, influence of, 27, 28 Antiquities, attraction to, 22–23 Ants, warring, 160 Aporia, interpretation of, 169–170 Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum (Loudon), 68 Arches of faith, spring and, 99–100 “Assabet”, 116 Association for the Advancement of Science, 15–16, 142 Atlantic Double-Cross (Weisbuch), 111 “Aulus Persius Flaccus”, 111–112 235 Author, as component of personality, 199 Autobiography, interest in, 81 Bachelorhood, celibacy and, 78 “Baker Farm”, 48–49, 52–54 “The Bean-Field”, 48–49 Beans, cultivation of, 97–98, 130 Beginnings, interest in, 24 Bhagavad Gita, 143 Biography, interest in, 81 Biology, crystallography and, 181–182 Blackmur, R.P., Blake, William, 78, 119 Blessed condition, possibility of, 45–46 “The Bluebirds”, 115 Books, 7–8, 22, 67–68, 191 Boston Athenaeum, 67–68 Boston Society of Natural History, 67 Brown, John, 16, 19, 70, 81 “Brute Neighbors”, enlightenment and, 135 Burnham’s bookstore, 68 Burroughs, naturalism and, 21 Cabot, James Elliott, 74, 141–144 The Caesars (De Quincey), 76 236 Canada notebook, 70, 71–72 Cape Cod, 57, 64, 72 Carlyle, Thomas, 76, 81, 113 Celibacy, bachelorhood and, 78 Cellini, 54–55, 57 Cenobiotic fisherman, 50 Chalmers, Alexander, 111 Change, nature and, 140 Channing, Ellery, 21, 66, 69 Chaos, form and, 190 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 23 Cholmondeley, Thomas, 75 Christianity See religion “Circles” (Emerson), 185 Circulating libraries, 68 “Civil Disobedience”, 1, 28, 162 Civil law, divine law vs., 28 Classics influence of, 22, 26–27, 28–31, 159–174 language and, 158 Colloquialisms, use of, 117–118 Color, descriptions and, 50–52 Communication, 25, 39, 42 Community, 153–158, 174 Complete Works (Wordsworth), 109 “Conclusion”, 10–11, 82–83 Concord Fight, 58 Concord Free Public Library, 68 Concord River, 37, 89, 90 Concord Town Library, 68 The Confessions of an English Opium Eater (De Quincey), 76–77 Consciousness, sainthood and, 55 Contradictions, Walden and, 47 Cosmos, crystallography and, 180–181 Criticism, friendship and, 65 “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (Whitman), 80–81 Cruelty, animal world and, 160 Index Crusts, crystallography and, 179– 180 Crystallography Emerson on, 180–182 frost and, 184, 186 humanity and, 182 “A Natural History of Massachusetts” and, 185–187 overview of, 178–180 Thoreau on, 182–187 Crystals, foliation and, 189–190 Cultivation, symbolism of, 56 Cultural savage, 77 Dante, 87, 102, 168 Darwin, Charles, 59, 79 Davy, Humphry, 181 Dawn, metaphors and, 204 Death, celebration of, 136 Debt, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 64 De Quincey, interest in, 76–77 De Rerum Natura (Lucretius), 27–28 Detail, interest in, 136–137 Dial, transcendentalism and, 19–21 Difference, discriminating perception and, 143–145 Discipline, daily walks and, 66–67 Divine Comedy (Dante), 87 Divine law, civil law vs., 28 “Divinity School Address”, Bloom on, Dolphins, 53 Dugan, Elisha, 116–117 Dynamic worlds, idealism and, 139–140 Early Spring in Massachusetts, journals and, 25 Eclogues (Virgil), 161 “Economy”, 48–49, 58–59 Index Ecstasy, science and, 43–46 Edel, Leon, 3–4 Elasticity, cultivation and, 97–98 Electromagnetism, 181 Elements of Chemical Philosophy (Davy), 181 The Elements of Drawing (Ruskin), 77 Elevated state, 41–42, 54–55 Eliot, T.S., Bloom on, Emerson, Ralph Waldo autobiography of, 81 Bloom on, 1–2, 10–11 crystallography and, 180–182 “Emerson the Lecturer” and, friendship with, 65, 121, 157 ice skating and, 177–178 idealism and, 137–140 Nature and, 39 on Thoreau, 6–7, 8–9, 107–108 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and, 65 on Wordsworth, 109–110 “Emerson the Lecturer”, Empiricism, 141–142, 144 Encyclopedias, 68 English poetry, dislike of, 23 Enlightenment, quest for, 135 Escape, 49, 50, 155 Estrangement, 158 Evangelism, Thoreau and, 46 Everyman, 203 Evil spirits, identification with, 44–45 Exaggeration, language and, 209 “Experience” (Emerson), Bloom on, 10–11 Experimental Researches in Electricity (Faraday), 181 Explorers, interest in, 23–24 Extravagance, 178, 187–192 237 Fables, 57–58, 82, 208 Facts, 14, 136 Fair Haven Hill, 50 Fallen state, 41–42, 47, 56 Families, relationship with, 66 Faraday, 181 Field, John, 52, 56 Fitchburg Railroad, 133–134 Flint’s Pond, 92, 94, 99–100 Fluvial walks, 89–90 “Fog”, Greek classics and, 28 Foliation, crystals and, 185–187, 189–190 Ford, Henry, Form, chaos and, 190 Formation, 178, 187–192 “Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors”, 57–58 Foucault, Michel, 39 Friendship, 65, 157, 163–167, 169–173 Frost, 93, 184, 186–187 Fuller, Margaret, 69 General Historie of Virginia (Smith), 23 Genesis, crystallography and, 179–180 Geometry, frost and, 184 Gilpin, William, 77 Goethe, crystallography and, 181–182 Graveyards, 102 Greek classics, 27, 28–31, 159–174 Greeley, Horace, 69, 72 Grief, Greek classics and, 169 Grotesque, use of language and, 83 Halos, shadows and, 53 Harivansa, 74, 75 Harper’s Ferry, John Brown and, 70 Harvard College, 67, 158 238 Haüy, René-Just, crystallography and, 178, 180–181 Hawks, 100–101, 161 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 75–76, 177–178 “Haze”, Greek classics and, 28 Heaven, naturalism and, 49–50 Heimskringla, 71 Hell, naturalism and, 49–50 Heroes and Hero-Worship (Carlyle), 81 Heroism, 81, 197, 205 Herschel, John, 180 Hinduism, 128, 142–144 Historical and Other Critical Essays (De Quincey), 76 History See also Natural history abstraction of, 58 Cape Cod and, 64 classics and, 159 interest in, 23, 157 life and, 214–215 mythology and, 207, 208–209 nobility and, 154 poetry and, 208–209 revelation and, 21 Thoreau and, 14 time and, 207 Walden and, 57–58 Homer, 27, 161, 164–167 See also Iliad Homoeroticism, 166–167 Hope, transcendentalism and, 17 Horace, deliberate mistranslation of, 31 Humanity, 161, 173, 182, 211– 212 Humans, nature and, 110–111 Ice, 147, 177–178 See also Crystallography Idealism, 18, 21, 137–140, 142 Index Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature (Schelling), 182 Identity, changing, 198–199 Iliad (Homer) animal nature and, 161 community and, 174 humanity and, 173 snowflake simile of, 30 Imagery, statuary, 209–210 “Indian fable”, 57 Indian notebooks, 70, 72–73 Inlets, Walden Pond and, 92 Inner life, ice and, 147 Insight, earning of, 37 Inspection, nature and, 38 Intimacy, Greek classics and, 169–170 Jail, 205 Journal, 204 Journals audiences and, 155–156 expression in, 64–65 records of reading in, 70 spring and, 95–96 usefulness of, 25–26 walking and, 128 Kay, James, 109 Knowledge, revelation and, 48–56 Ktaadn, 44 Labels, rejection of, 44–45 Langbaum, Robert, 45 Language classics and, 158 crystallography and, 187–192, 191–192 exaggeration and, 209 interest in, 24 natural phenomena and, 83 nuances of, 168–170 Index origins of, 29 pronoun usage and, 205 reading and, 131–132 spring and, 88–89, 93–94 Yankees and, 117–118 Latin classics, influence of, 28–31 Laudanum, 76–77 Law, divine vs civil, 28 Leaves of Grass (Whitman), 78, 79–81 Lecturing, 64 Legion, identification with, 44–45 Libraries, importance of, 67–69 Life, 25, 178, 214–215 Life and Letters (Niebuhr), 81 “Life Without Principle”, 1, 15 Limnology, symbolism of, 54, 145–146 Linnaeus, 39, 81 Literary nonfiction, interest in, 75–76 Literary Reminiscences (De Quincey), 76 Literary tradition, evasion of, 7–8 Lowell, James Russell, 4–6 Lucretius, interest in, 27–28 Lyrical Ballads, 112 Mahâhhârata, 74 Mapping, Cape Cod and, 72 Marriage, hostility toward, 166, 170 Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections of, 69 Materialism, Lucretius and, 27–28 Melville, Herman, 75 Memoirs (Wordsworth), 81 In Memoriam (Tennyson), 78–79 Merrimack River See A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers The Metamorphosis of Plants (Goethe), 181 239 Metaphors, 145–147, 204 Mirrors, Walden Pond and, 92 Misanthropy, 197 Miscellaneous Observations on Natural Things (Swedenborg), 179–180 Mitscherlich, Eilhardt, 180–181 Modern Painters (Ruskin), 77–78 Mornings, 133–134, 204 Mosses from an Old Manse (Hawthorne), 75 Movement, 59, 90 Munroe, James, 109 The Music Master And Two Series of Day and Night Songs (Allingham), 78 Musketaquid River, 37 Muskrats, 37–38 Mysticism, 26, 27, 46, 52–54 Mythology, 207, 208–209, 214– 215 See also Classics Names, scientific, 39 Narcissism, 3–4, 202 Narrator, faces of, 198–200 Native Americans, 14, 70, 72–73 Natural history, 35–37, 38–39, 56–60, 142 “A Natural History of Massachusetts”, 37–38, 185–187 Naturalism hell, heaven, and, 49–50 idealism and, 21 Thoreau and, 13, 14, 46 transcendentalism and, 51–54 Natural philosophy, 16, 21, 142– 143 Nature books as, 191 crystallography and, 179–180, 182, 187–192 humans and, 110–111 240 Index idealism and, 139–140 inspection and, 38 natural history vs., 38–39 “sand foliage” passage and, 148–149 turbulence and, 183 violence and, 160–161 Nature (Emerson), 39, 83, 138, 139–140 Naturphilosophie (Schelling), 182 New Criticism, Walden and, 2–3 New England’s Prospect (Wood), 23 Newspapers, reading of, 69–70 Newton, Isaac, crystallography and, 180–181 New Views (Brownson), 138 New York Tribune, 69–70 Nietzsche, Bloom on, 11 “Night” (Alcman), 30 “Night Song” (Goethe), 30 Nobility, history and, 154 Nonfiction, literary, 75–76 Norse kings, interest in, 71 Oates, Joyce Carol, 206 Observation, importance of, 38 “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (Keats), 192 “The Old Marlborough Road”, 116 Optics, crystallography and, 187– 192 Organicism, crystallography and, 187–192 Oriental scriptures, 22, 74–75, 128, 142–143 Origin of the Species (Darwin), 79 Origins, interest in, 29 Orpheus, 27, 28 Pallissy, Bernard, 81–82 Parables, natural history as, 56–60 Paradoxes, 14–15, 19–20, 203–204 Passion, nuances of language and, 169 Patroclus, 164–167, 169–173 Paul, Sherman, 36–37 Pencil-making, 64, 73 Perception, 143–146 Permanence, 139, 207 Persius, 27, 31 Personal Narrative (Humboldt), 81 Personification, perception and, 145–146 Philisophical and Mineralogical Works (Swedenborg), 179–180 Philosophy, 14, 18–19, 180 See also Natural philosophy “The Philosophy of the Ancient Hindoos” (Cabot), 74 Pindar, Thoreau on, 27 “Places to Walk to”, 66 Plutarch, interest in, 27 Poems (Allingham), 78 Poetics, crystallography and, 187–192 Poetry, 20–21, 114–122, 208–209, 214–215 Polarity, 48–49, 181 Polis, Joe, 64 “The Pond in Winter” crystallography and, 189 descriptions in, 50–52 enlightenment and, 135 metaphors and, 147 natural history as parable in, 56–60 revision and, 82–83 “The Ponds” crystallography and, 188 enlightenment and, 135 fables in, 57–58 perceptions and, 145–147 science, sainthood and, 48–49 Ponds, descriptions of, 50–52 Index “On Ponkawtasset”, 116 Practicality, transcendentalism and, 16–18 Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (Herschel), 180 The Prelude (Wordsworth), 81 Present, awareness of, 132–133 Primitivism, 14, 23 Principles of Chemistry (Swedenborg), 179–180 Private Correspondence (Webster), 81 Prometheus Bound, 29 Pronoun usage, 205 Prophets, poets and, 20–21 “Provincetown”, 64, 72 Railroads, 54, 133–134 Ralegh, Walter, 81 Reading, 70, 130–132, 135 Realism, Nature (Emerson) and, 138 Rebirth, mornings and, 204 Redemption, 37, 54–55 Rejection, 158–159 Religion See also Sainthood “Baker Farm” and, 52–54 cultivation and, 56 diminished interest in, 74 Ruskin and, 77–78 science and, 43 states of being and, 41–43 Thoreau and, 46 Thoreau on, 17–18 transcendentalism and, 17, 78 Walden and, 48–56, 75 Renewal, creative, 87–88 Representative Men (Emerson), 81 Reprints, Wordsworth and, 108– 109 “Resistance to Civil Government”, 204, 205 Revelation, 26, 48–56 241 Revisions purpose of, 24–25 Walden and, 82–83, 121–122, 127–129, 211–212 Richardson, John, 94 Rivals, Concord River and, 90 Rivers, walking in, 89–90 Roles, Thoreau and, 13–14 Romantic Dialogues (Gravil), 111 Romanticism, 45, 110–111 Ruskin, interest in, 77–78 Russell, Mary, 166 Saadi, meditation on, 211–212 Sainthood importance of, 54 science and, 48–56 as state of consciousness, 55 Walden and, 41–42, 46–47 Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin, 69 “Sand foliage” passage, 148–149, 189–190 The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne), 75–76 Schelling, crystallography and, 181–182 Scholarship, revelation and, 21–22 Science interest in, 15–16, 37–40 limitations of, 35–36, 40–41, 43–46 sainthood and, 48–56 Scientific names, Thoreau on, 39 Scriptures, Walden and, 210 Self-consciousness, 8, 198–200, 206 Self-criticism, of Walden, 46–47, 141 Self-reliance, James Russell Lowell on, 4–6 “The Service”, 81 Seven Lamps of Architecture (Ruskin), 77 242 Sewall, Edmund, 166, 167 Sewall, Ellen, 166, 167 Sexuality celibacy and, 78, 81 nuances of language and, 169 temptation and, 168 Thoreau and, 166–167 Whitman and, 80 Shadows, halos and, 53 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 109 The Significance of the Alphabet (Kraitsir), 83 Similes, 30, 161–162 “I Sing the Body Electric” (Whitman), 80 “Sir Walter Ralegh”, 81 Slavery, poetry and, 118–119 “Smoke”, Greek classics and, 28 Snowflakes, 30, 186 “The Snow-Storm” (Emerson), 178 Society and Solitude, Bloom on, Solitude, 114, 158 See also Transcendentalist solitude “Song of Myself” (Whitman), 80–81 Sophocles, influence of, 27, 28 “Sounds”, nature of reading and, 131–132 Sparks, Jared, 67 Spirits, crystallography and, 179– 180 Spirituality, reading and, 135 “Spontaneous Me” (Whitman), 80 Spooner, James, 69 Spring, 88, 91–93, 95–96, 97, 99–100 “Spring”, 82–83, 135 Stacy, Albert, 68–69 Stars, 206–207 Statesman’s Manual (Coleridge), 186 Index States of being, 41–42, 198 Statuary imagery, 209–210 The Stones of Venice (Ruskin), 77–78 On the Study of Words (Trench), 83, 90 Style, spring and, 97 “The Succession of Forest Trees”, 63–64 Surveying, 64, 73 Swedenborg, Emanuel, 178–180, 180–182, 182–187 Symbolism, 54, 56, 145–146 Taxes, seizure for, 49 Technology, consideration of, 133–134 Temptation, sexuality and, 168 Theological Essays (De Quincey), 76 Therien, Alek, 43, 76–77, 99, 163–166 Things as books, 7–8 “Thomas Carlyle and His Works”, 113 Time history and, 154–155 keeping of, 132–133 permanence and, 207 states of being and, 41–42, 198 Trains, mornings and, 133–134 Transcendentalism classics and, 27 Dial and, 19–21 natural history and, 36 naturalism and, 51–52 natural philosophy and, 142– 143 New York Tribune and, 69–70 oriental scriptures and, 22 orthodox Christianity and, 78 practicality and, 16–18 revisions and, 24–25 states of being and, 42–43 Index Wordsworth and, 109, 112 Transcendentalist solitude, 6, 10–11, 20 Translations, 28–31, 74, 119 “The Transmigration of the Seven Brahmins”, translation of, 74 Transparency, 178, 187–193 Travel, interest in, 74 Travelers, mistakes of, 59 Travels (Bartram), 74 Triviality, escape from, 155 Tuberculosis, walking and, 66 Turbulence, nature and, 183 Typee (Melville), 75 Unification, perception and, 143–145 Universe formation, crystallography and, 179–180 “Ver”, spring and, 89 Vertebra, Goethe and, 181 “The Village”, science, sainthood and, 48–49 Villages, escape and, 49, 50 Violence, nature and, 160–161 Vishnu Purana, 143–144 Vision, crystallography and, 187– 192 Visitations, “Baker Farm” and, 52–54 “Visitors”, Homer and, 162–163 Vitalism, Bloom on, 11 Walden Bloom on, 1, 2–3, 11 crisis in, 156–157 departure and, 197–198 as historical work, 57–58 Iliad and, 162–166 literary influences on, 73–83 reviews of, 203–204 243 revisions and, 121–122, 127– 129, 211–212 science and, 36 scriptures and, 75, 210 self-criticism of, 46–47 states of being and, 41–42 Walden Pond, expression of spring and, 91–93 Walking daily, 66–67 interest in, 25 journals and, 128 rivers and, 89–90 writing and, 97 Warren, Robert Penn, Waste, Walden and, 48 Water, 89, 188 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers debt incurred from, 64 effect of on relationship with Emerson, 65 fables and, 208 failure of to sell, 63–64 Hawthorne and, 75 as historical work, 57 knowledge and, 207 poetry in, 115 rejection of history and, 154–155 travel and, 59 use of journals and, 64–65 warring ants and, 160 White, Gilbert, 50, 53, 58 Whitman, Walt, 78, 79–81 “Wild Apples”, 63 Willson, Lawrence, Canada notebook and, 71–72 Withdrawal, Achilles and, 169–171 “A Woman Waits for Me” (Whitman), 80 Wordsworth, William Bloom on, 244 success of, 108–110 Thoreau and, 81, 110–114, 114–122 On the World Soul (Schelling), 182 Writing, walking and, 97 Index A Yankee in Canada, 55 Yankees, language and, 117–118 Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems (Wordsworth), 109, 110 The Youth of the Poet and the Painter (Channing), 21 ... Modern Critical Views henry david thoreau Updated Edition Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale University Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Henry. .. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Henry David Thoreau / Harold Bloom, editor — Updated ed p cm — (Bloom’s modern critical views) Thoreau: the quest and the classics / Ethel Seybold... Humanities Yale University Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Henry David Thoreau Updated Edition Copyright 2007 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2007 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved No part of this