Images in Nature
Henry David Thoreau created a masterpiece in his seminal work, Walden. The book is filled with rich imagery and spiritual insight, and it is just this combination and collaboration of elements that gives the book such appeal. In the tenth and eleventh paragraphs of the second chapter, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Thoreau reveals a very profound insight through the imagery of Walden Pond.
The focal point of these two paragraphs is the pond. He describes the pond at certain times of day and of year with a fascinating level of description and almost haiku-worthy sentiment. He describes the stillness and mirror-like quality of the pond that brings him such peace that he feels certain revelation. The pond and the beauty seem to drive him inward, towards the self and true understanding. He doesn’t just see nature in its splendor. He sees the meaning of life in that pond. It holds all of the answers that a human could possibly desire.
Near the end of the eleventh paragraph, he finally reveals what all the beauty and description was for. He builds up this image of the pond, the purity, the peace, only to contrast it to the solid ground of what surrounds him. Then he goes on to describe the flood, an event that completely changes the landscape. What was once a pond stretches much farther and wider, and that peace is spread farther and wider. Regardless of the water, however, the earth exists. The water is something that ebbs and flows, and yet he gave such meaning to it when it was present all the time. There is just wet ground and dry ground. The effect of this profound realization leaves the reader reeling.
Thoreau learned a tremendous amount out in the woods with nature as his primary companion, and we readers are fortunate to be able to read his revelations, possible through meditation in the woods but applicable to all of us regardless of our circumstances.
