Your Horse or Mine? : An essay on Walden
Henry David Thoreau to much of the literary world was one of the greatest writers of all time. His philosophy, experiments, theories and opinions are considered genius even by today's standards. Thoreau does, however, manage to stump even the best of the english and literature scholars with one phrase in his book Walden. "I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle dove, and I am still on their trail. Many are the travelers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the turtle dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves." For some, the horse, turtle dove and hound are symbolic of actual human beings. His friend, father, girlfriend just to name a few. They believe that Thoreau is making reference to people who, at one time or another, were close to him and he cared for. These figures either dies, moved away, rejected him, or lost touch some how. In some way, he had lost people he held with a certain emotion. On the flip side, many others believe that he was only using the animals as a metaphor to show
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Turtle Dove, David Thoreau, Ellen Sewall, God Father, Correct I'm, turtle dove, horse turtle dove, World Difference, bay horse, horse turtle, , Barbara Johnson, bay horse turtle, hound bay, hound bay horse, hound horse, 3 animals, moved woods, lost trail, believe thoreau,
Approximate Word count = 1395
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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