Henry David Thoreau is one of the most important writers of the transcendentalist movement. He wrote essays, poems, and philosophical works. His best-known work is Walden. His works are known for their close observations of nature, symbolism, and history. He published Poems of Nature in 1895.
‘I Was Made Erect and Lone’ by Henry David Thoreau is a poem about trusting in your own individual autonomy.
I was made erect and lone,
And within me is the bone;
Still my vision will be clear,
Still my life will not be drear,
‘Friendship’ is about the love Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson had for one another. This poem describes the nature of true devotion and how two souls are tied in a bond of love, goodness, and truthfulness.
I think awhile of Love, and while I think,
Love is to me a world,
Sole meat and sweetest drink,
And close connecting link
Thoreau’s ‘Indeed, Indeed I cannot Tell’ was written about Ellen Sewall. This piece manages to relate with almost every living human being and communicates a feeling that is familiar for many.
Indeed, indeed, I cannot tell,
Though I ponder on it well,
Which were easier to state,
All my love or all my hate.
‘My life has been the poem I would have writ’ is a simple two-line work, but within those two lines, contains many subtle grammar.
My life has been the poem I would have writ
But I could not both live and utter it.
‘My Prayer’ by Henry David Thoreau reflects on striving for spiritual truth while accepting human imperfection.
Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself;
That in my action I may soar as high
As I can now discern with this clear eye.
‘Tall Ambrosia’ by Henry David Thoreau depicts the joy one can take from the natural world, specifically the field of Ambrosia.
Of those well dressed ones who no morning dew
Nor Roman wormwood ever have been through,
Who never walk but are transported rather—
For what old crime of theirs I do not gather.
‘The Inward Morning’ by Henry David Thoreau is a complex poem that taps into many of the traditional beliefs of the transcendental poets.
Packed in my mind lie all the clothes
Which outward nature wears,
And in its fashion’s hourly change
It all things else repairs.
‘The Thaw’ by Henry David Thoreau describes a speaker’s desire to be an integral part of an ecosystem, and his acceptance that he has to remain “silent.”
But I alas nor tinkle can nor fume,
One jot to forward the great work of Time,
‘Tis mine to hearken while these ply the loom,
So shall my silence with their music chime.
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