A vast Corinthian column. A fair, flaxen-haired sister with golden ringlets. An old citizen of the town. A harp upon which the wind makes music. An athlete that shows its well-developed muscles. A great green feather stuck in the ground. These are all phrases that Henry David Thoreau used in his journals to describe trees. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Thoreau Talks About Trees”
Grant, I have a list of descriptions for you.
These are from the journals of Henry David Thoreau, and I wonder if you can guess what he’s describing.
Okay.
He’s describing the same type of thing, but he’s using all these different ways to describe this type of thing.
Okay, let’s hear it.
An old citizen of the town, an athlete that shows its well-developed muscles, a vast Corinthian column, a fair flaxen-haired sister with golden ringlets, a great green feather stuck in the ground, a harp upon which the wind makes music.
These are all examples from his journals of some particular type of thing that he described.
It’s a tree.
Yes.
Is it a willow?
Any kind of tree.
Any kind of tree, okay.
What gave it away?
The column, actually, was the closest one.
The Corinthian column?
Yeah.
Oh, you got three examples in.
That’s cool. He had a great deal of love for nature, right?
Yes, he did. He had all kinds of terms for trees.
Handsome and cool and bosky.
Bosky, that’s a great word.
Yes, isn’t it?
Related to French words for the forest.
Right, right. And related to our word oboe, actually.
A match found for me at last. I like that.
Who describes a tree that way?
Share your tidbits that you picked up from your reading.
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