The Rochester Review, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA

Thoreau on Writing in the Afternoon

"8 a.m. A comfortable breeze blowing. Methinks I can write better in the afternoon, for the novelty of it, if I should go abroad this morning. My genius makes distinctions which my understanding cannot, and which my senses do not report. If I should reverse the usual,--go forth and saunter in the fields all the forenoon, which it is so unusual for me to do,--it would be like a new season to me, and the novelty of it [would] inspire me. . . . You must walk so gently as to hear the finest sounds, the faculties being in repose. Your mind must not perspire. . . . On such a road (the Corner) I walk securely, seeing far and wide on both sides, as if I were flanked by light infantry on the hills, to rout the provincials, as the British marched into Concord, while my grenadier thoughts keep the main road."

From Thoreau's Journal for July 23, 1851, as quoted in The Thoreau Log by Raymond Borst '33.

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