Henry David Thoreau liked to live in the woods. He spent several years in Walden near Concord in a small house in the outskirts of the city. He experimented by living with basic essentials. He wanted to be near to the nature and experience its beauty. As a transcendentalist, nature has been an influential component for his thoughts. He believed that there was an ideal spiritual state that goes beyond the physical and empirical world which can be understood by the self intuition rather than the doctrines of religions. It clearly shows that the individuals indulgence with simplistic aspects of nature is worthy than the worldly possessions. This poem advocates that living with the nature is most important thing for an individual as it helps him to realise the intrinsic divinity associated with the nature which he already knows rather than believing that he is ruled by the divine. At the same time in the modern context, the poem tries to disown the government and seeks to the individual importance.
Understanding the actual poem
O Nature! I do not aspire
To be the highest in thy quire-
To be a meteor in the sky,
Or a comet that may range on high;
Only a zephyr that may blow
Among the reed by the river low;
Give me thy most privy place,
To run my airy race.
The language of the poem is simple and easy to understand. Thoreau starts by telling some of the uncontrollable incidents of the nature. Then he comes to things he actually wants to get from nature. A refreshing wind among the reeds near the river, Thoreau wants to find solitude to live his simple life. The same tone is continued through the rest of the poem.
In some withdrawn unpublic mead,
Let me sigh upon a read,
Or in the woods with a leafy din,
Whisper the still evening in
Some still work give me to do
Only be it near you
In this part of the poem, he tries to emphasize intangible need to be near to the nature. Even if the moments are rough, he prefers to be silently living with the nature. He expects to work in the pleasant nature.
For I’d rather be thy child
And pupil, in the forest wild,
Than be the king of men elsewhere,
And most sovereign slave of care:
To have a moment of thy dawn
Than share a city’s year of forlon.
He finishes the poem having believed that it is best for him to be in the nature. Rather than being powerful ruler, he wants to be a nature’s child and prefers to learn from the wild. It brings him more happiness to be able to see an early sun rise than the rattling godforsaken time in the city. This highlights the individualistic approach of Thoreau towards his life. He once said that in a society with unjust government, the just place for an individual is prison. He calls “city” where the government rules as a godforsaken place. He advocates that nature which gives him complete freedom is better.
The poem has true ingredients of transcendentalism.
"My life has been a poem I would have written
but I could not both live and utter it" -- Thoreau
One of the phrases I really liked :)
