Reading Thoreau and Thoreau biography thoughts today.

I listed the major works of Thoreau and I'm going to try and read through them. It's possible I'll quit, I have to admit that. But I already crossed on thing off the list, and I'm working on another. Looking for similar people who did the same thing, I came across a fellow who had to put post it notes over his eyes because his wife though they were creepy. I think it's weird that women find things creepy when they're not and you have to cater towards their feelings because we live in a age where women's feelings were over run for so long that it's verboten to continue to do it. It doesn't matter that she's wrong, she has the feeling. Therefore if you are her husband reading the book, you put post it notes over the eyes so she doesn't feel creepy.

Reading Aulus Persius Flaccus (1940) 

Aulus Persius Flaccus is a roman poet and satirist. (More on him)

I come across this: "Ipse semipaganus Ad sacra Vatum carmen affero nostrum,"

Which translates to: I half pagan bring my verses to the shrine of the poets.

Here's a fun quote: "Scarcely can you distinguish one harmonious sound, amid this unmusical bickering with the follies of men."

Thoreau is listing poets: "...Homer, and Shakspeare [sic], and Milton, and Marvel, and Wordsworth."

Who is Marvel? Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)? 

I love it how the importance of spelling wasn't that great in Shakespeare's time and even up to Thoreau's time spelling wasn't of the utmost importance. 

People were so judgemental in the past: "measured faultfinders at best"

Itarticeps crimints means "It's time for the criminals".

I like how Thoreau tries to undercut the sanctimonious voice. I think. "...while no evil is so huge, but you grudge to bestow on it a moment of hate." 

He prefers love over hate. I don't actually know who Perseus is, he's an early hero in mythology. He's got a lot of statues where he's holding a head he cut off. There's even a complicated genealogy. 

"Hand cuivis promptum est, murmurque humilesque. Tollere susurros de templis ; et aperto vivere voto."

Translation: A hand is ready for every one, and a murmur is humble

Remove the whispers from the temples; and with an open desire to live.

I feel exhausted, I'm nowhere close to finishing this.

"Est aliquid quo tendis, et in quod dirigis arcum An passim sequeris corvos, testave, lutove, Securus quo per ferat, atque ex tempore vivis?"

Translates: Is there something at which you aim, and at which you direct the bow? Do you follow the ravens here and there, or the shell or the clay, Easy to carry through, and you live from time?

And then I'm finally done after reading a section of something. It reads like a school assignment. I think it was his first published work in The Dial in 1840.

There are lots of things I don't write about in the biography. But I find it interesting he spent a month in New Jersey surveying, east of Perth Amboy on Raritan Bay for Marcus and Rebecca Spring. He was expected to attend a dance. He read the lecture Moosehunting and Walking. Thoreau chaffs at working. Alcott came down to see if he wanted to live at this commune, and then took Thoreau to Greeley's farm in Westchester. Greeley had invited Thoreau to live there for a year or two. They went to Brooklyn to attend a Henry Ward Beecher sermon. The crowd was "weeping, laughing and devout". Alcott was impressed, Thoreau thought it was pegan. They visited Walt Whitman. He wasn't there but his mother fed them some cakes. 

“The year before, when Whitman published Leaves of Grass, he had mailed a copy straight to Emerson, who, seeing yet again a brilliant new poet to mentor, had written him one of his thrilling trademark letters of support. The buoyed Whitman seized on the letter's most quotable line and, to Emerson's horror, blazoned it right across the spine of his next edition: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career." In one stroke Whitman had given birth to the modern cover blurb, quite without Emerson's permission.” (p. 394 Walls)

They meet and Whitman says he's America, and Thoreau pours water on him and says he's not really into American politics. They bring up the quoting on his book by Emerson and Whitman brushes it off. They part without really a connection. A great naturalist and a great poet don't necessarily connect. But Whitman gave him a copy of Leaves of Grass second edition, and Thoreau went home and read it. He liked it, and carried it around Concord. It was a bit scandalous of a book and the ladies didn't want them to invite Whitman to Concord. They didn't want a fag who couldn't politely hide it better. 

There's a wonderful movie, Separate Tables (1958), where the prudery of old women doesn't win out. It's on one of the Cohen brothers favorite movies list.

Thoreau seems to have loosened up with reading Whitman, and enjoyed himself and passionately embraced his likes.

One was singing Tom Bowling, of which I found this version. A version and lyrics:

1

Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling, the darling of our crew;

No more he’ll hear the tempest howling for death has broached him to.

His form was of the manliest beauty, his heart was kind and soft,

Faithful below he did his duty, but now he’s gone aloft, but now he’s gone aloft.

2

Tom never from his word departed, his virtues were so rare,

His friends were many and true-hearted, his Poll was kind and fair,

Ah, then he’d sing so blithe and jolly, a-many’s the time and oft,

But mirth has changed to melancholy, now Tom has gone aloft, now Tom has gone aloft.

3

Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather when he who all commands,

Shall give to call life’s crew together, the word to pipe all hands;

Thus Death, who kings and tars dispatches, in vain Tom’s life has doffed,

For though his body’s under hatches his soul is gone aloft, his soul is gone aloft.

Another version on Spotify. I can't seem to find an unvarnished one.

There's a 25 page document on Joe Polis, Thoreau's guide on a trip in Maine.

First Native American book by a Native American which Thoreau read.