Excursions, and Poems: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 05 (of 20)

A collection of essays and poems that captures Thoreau at his most meditative and politically sharp. The volume gathers his late-period writings, including the celebrated essay "Walking," which articulates his philosophy of sauntering through the world with open eyes and an uncorrupted imagination. Here too is "Wild Apples," his lyrical meditation on the fruit that grew wild in New England orchards, and "Slavery in Massachusetts," his fiery antislavery address delivered in 1854. Throughout these pages, Thoreau the walker moves through landscapes both external and internal, pausing to observe the autumnal tints of leaves, the character of New England towns, and the deeper questions of how to live a life uncommodified and free. The poems scattered throughout reveal a more private voice, one that thinks in meter about the same truths his prose hunts in daylight. This is Thoreau not as solitary hermit but as engaged citizen, naturalist, and philosopher walking the edge between the cultivated and the wild.