Winter Reflections
No matter your thoughts on Winter, it never fails to bring a sense of wonder. Let Mr. Emerson share it with you.
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air Hides hills
and woods, the river, and the heaven, And veils the
farmhouse at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm. [1]
In January the new snow has changed the woods
So that [a man] does not know them; - has built
Sudden cathedrals in a night. [2]
Pleasant walk yesterday, the most pleasant of days. At Walden Pond, I found a new musical instrument which I call the ice-harp. A thin coat of ice covered a part of the pond, but melted around the edge of the shore. I threw a stone, upon the ice which rebounded with a shrill sound, and falling again and again, repeated the note with pleasing modulation. I thought at first it was the “peep, peep” of a bird I had scared. I was so taken with the music that I threw down my stick and spent twenty minutes in throwing stones single or in handfuls on the crystal drum. [3]
Tonight, I walked under the stars through the snow & stopped & looked at my far sparklers and heard the voice of the wind so slight & pure & deep as if it were the sound of the stars themselves. [4]
Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts and occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. [5]
In the woods on a Winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window … in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest. [6]
The fall of snowflakes in a still air…the crackling and spurting of hemlock in the flames, or of pine logs, which yield glory to the walls and faces in the sitting room; - these are the music and pictures of the most ancient religion. [5]
See how Nature keeps the lakes warm by tucking them up under a blanket of ice, and the ground under a cloak of snow. [7]
The hearth blazes in the middle and a grateful heat is spread around, while storms of rain and snow are raging without. [8]
Among our many prognostics of the weather, the only trustworthy that I know is that, when it is warm, it is a sign that it is going to be cold. [2]
— Compiled by I. Bornstein, Emerson House guide
WORKS CITED:
Excerpted from Emerson’s poem “The Snow-Storm.”
From Emerson’s “Country Life” lecture at the Freeman Place Chapel in Boston, March, 1858.
Emerson’s journal The Wide World, December 10, 1836.
Emerson’s journal, February 17, 1838.
Emerson’s essay “Nature,” published in 1836, published by James Munroe and Company, 1836.
Emerson’s essay “History,” part of a volume of twelve First Series essays published in 1841.
The essay “Resources” is from Emerson’s last book, Letters and Social Aims, published December, 1875.
The essay “Immortality” is from Emerson’s last book, Letters and Social Aims, published December, 1875.
