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Solitude at Walden

31:58 recording · EN · 1 speaker

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Brief overview

Solitude in nature is the most companionable society; loneliness is measured by minds, not miles.

  1. Solitude is measured by minds, not milesNo exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer; the diligent student in crowded cambridge college is as solitary as a dervish in the desert.
  2. Nature offers a sweet and innocent societyAfter one doubtful hour, the pattering rain and every pine needle gave him an infinite friendliness that made human neighborhood insufficient.
  3. Society is commonly too cheapMeeting at meals three times a day and at the fireside every night, we stumble over one another and lose respect; less frequency would suffice.
Executive Summary AI
  • The narrator opens the chapter Solitude with a delicious evening walk along the stony shore of the pond, where the whippoorwill's note and the evening wind make him feel a part of nature herself while the fox, skunk and rabbit roam without fear.
  • He describes his privacy as some square miles of unfrequented forest, his nearest neighbor a mile distant, no house visible except from hilltops within half a mile, and at night never a traveller past his house except villagers who come in spring to fish for pouts.
  • He says he never felt lonesome but once, for an hour a few weeks after coming to the woods, until an infinite and unaccountable friendliness in the pattering drops and every pine needle made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insufficient.
  • To men who say he must feel lonesome down there, he replies that this whole earth is but a point in space, that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer, and that a wise man digs his cellar near the perennial source of our life rather than the depot, post-office or bar-room.
  • He concludes that he never found a companion so companionable as solitude, that society is commonly too cheap because we meet at meals three times a day and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese, and that he is no more lonely than Walden Pond, a mullein or the north star, ending with a call for a draft of undiluted morning air instead of quack vials.
Key Quote
“I go and come with a strange liberty in nature, a part of herself.”
— Narrator
Key Quote
“Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way?”
— Narrator
Key Quote
“I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.”
— Narrator

Transcript

0:00 SOLITUDE Solitude This is a delicious evening when the whole body is one sense
0:28 and imbibes delight through every pore.
0:34 I go and come with a strange liberty in nature, a part of herself.
0:43 As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt-sleeves though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy and i see nothing special to attract me in the night and the note of the whippoorwill is borne on the rippling wind from ruffled. These small waves raised by the evening
1:32 wind are as remote from storm as the smooth reflecting surface. Though it is now dark the wind still blows and roars in the wood the waves still dash and some creatures lull the rest with their notes complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek their prey now. The fox and skunk
2:12 and rabbit now roam the fields and woods without fear. They are nature's watchmen, links which
2:22 connect the days of animated life.
2:25 When I return to my house I find that visitors have been there and left their cards,
2:32 either a bunch of flowers or a wreath of evergreen,
2:36 or a name in pencil on a yellow walnut leaf or a chip.
2:42 They who come rarely to the woods take some little piece of the forest into
2:47 their hands to play with by the way, which they leave, either intentionally or accidentally.
2:56 One has peeled a willow wand, woven it into a ring, and dropped it on my table. I could always tell if visitors had called in my absence,
3:08 either by the bended twigs or grass or the print of their shoes, and generally of what
3:13 sex or age or quality they were, by some slight trace left, as a flower dropped or a bunch
3:22 of grass plucked and then thrown away, even as far off as the railroad
3:27 half a mile distant, or by the lingering odor of a cigar or pipe. Nay, I was frequently notified
3:37 of the passage of a traveler along the highway sixty rods off by the scent of his pipe.
3:50 There is commonly sufficient space about us.
3:54 Our horizon is never quite at our elbows.
4:00 The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond, but somewhat is always clearing, familiar and worn by us, appropriated and fenced in some way
4:09 and reclaimed from nature. For what reason have I this vast range and circuit some square miles
4:20 of unfrequented forest for my privacy, abandoned to me by men. My nearest neighbor is a mile distant,
4:30 and no house is visible from any place but the hilltops within half a mile of my own.
4:37 I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself, a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the
4:49 one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other.
4:55 But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. I have, as it were,
5:12 my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.
5:22 At night there was never a traveller past my house or knocked at my door, more than if I
5:29 were the first or last man, unless it were in the spring, when at long intervals some came from the
5:37 village to fish for pouts. They plainly fished much more in the walden pond of their own natures and baited their hooks with darkness but they soon retreated usually with light baskets and left
5:56 the world to darkness and to me and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood.
6:09 I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark,
6:14 though the witches are all hung and Christianity and candles have been introduced.
6:21 Yet I experienced sometimes that the most sweet and tender the most innocent and encouraging society may be found in any natural object there can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of nature and has his senses still
6:50 there was never yet such a storm but it was olian music to a healthy and innocent ear nothing can rightly compel a simple and brave man to a vulgar sadness while i enjoy the friendship of the seasons i trust that nothing can make life a burden to me which waters my beans and keeps me in the house to-day is not and destroy the potatoes in the low lands, it
7:48 would still be good for the grass on the uplands, and being good for the grass, it would be
7:53 good for me.
7:57 Sometimes when I compare myself with other men, it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any deserts that I am conscious of,
8:11 as if I had a warrant and surety at their hands, which my fellows have not, and were especially guided and guarded.

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