Original artwork, not a still
Journals, entry for Aug. 23, 1853
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Thoreau's cure for restlessness: eat, breathe and feel what each season actually offers instead of wishing it were another. Gardeners, hikers and anyone writing about autumn lean on it, often cut off before the medicinal metaphors (the seasons as a diet and a medicine cabinet) that give the line its quirky flavour.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Journals, entry for Aug. 23, 1853Show the scene
Thoreau wrote this in his journal on 23 August 1853, after a six-in-the-morning walk to Nawshawtuct hill and an afternoon outing to Clematis Brook near Conantum in Concord, Massachusetts. August has just turned to the first hint of autumn, and he is struck by how closely a day mirrors a year. The advice that follows tells the reader to live on berries in August rather than dried meat, and to bathe in all the tides of nature at every season, growing green with spring and ripe with autumn.
Sources (1)
- Walden Woods Project: the Thoreau Log, 23 August 1853Entry textReference checked
Context reviewed
