Thoreau's house was on the side of a hill, surrounded by fruit, trees pushing leaves on tender boughs, and limbs breaking from the lush weight of berries. He heard the sound of birds interrupted only by the whistle of the locomotive whirring as it made its way along the tracks. The locomotive! Shining and snorting like some new being, it made its regular appearance just like the sun. This silver machine caused people to be regular, punctual with hours and moments. Men shoveled the snow with courage so that the locomotive could rumble though, filled with commerce, bringing cloth and wood, hemp and fish. Cattle trains! Pastoral life whirled away. But he crossed the track

On Sundays he hears bells, the wood-nymph echo of bells from the forest. The mooing of a cow, the buzz of a whippoorwill. The screech owl cries out against the night, Oh-o-o-o-o that I never had been bor-r-r-r-n!, echoing across the lake. Or the hooting owl, Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer hoo, hooting so that men need not. Then the wagons creak in the night, and the frogs make their guttural tr-r-r-oonk into the twilight air.

When the ice-cutters open the lake, they cause the ice to break up earlier than it would otherwise. The sun warms the ice. It also reflects off the bottom of the lake, warming the bottom of the ice and causing it to fill with bubbles and holes like a honeycomb. One reason Thoreau came to the woods was to watch this happen, to see spring arriving. The sand makes all sorts of patterns as the ice melts, the sap flows in the trees, and the buds begin to sprout. The birds come out chirping, the squirrel chatters, and the geese honk overhead. Spring, when the leaves unfurl, is the time of newness and life.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

If you want to travel, explore yourself. Thoreau left the woods because he learned all he could there; his feet had worn a path from the door to the pond- side. As he writes:

The final sentences illuminate the theme of light present throughout the book. The inner light is like the inner awareness that Thoreau is attempting to reveal to the reader. "The sun is but a morning star." This world of nature is but a means of inspiration for us to know ourselves. Throughout his book, Thoreau requests and requires self-knowledge, and the path that he took in Walden is just one way to reach that end.

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Approximate Word count = 2896
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)