Thoreau's Ecstasy

"Thoreau, it seems, was endowed with an almost preternaturally acute sense of hearing...

'... And now I see the beauty and full meaning of that word sound. Nature always possesses a certain sonorousness, as in the hum of insects, the booming of ice -- which indicates her sound state. God's voice is but a clear bell sound. I drink in a wonderful health -- a cordial -- in sound. The effect of the slightest tinkling in the horizon measures my own soundness... All sights and sounds are seen and heard both in time and eternity. And when the eternity of any sight or sound strikes the eye or ear -- they are intoxicated with delight.'

In such reflections on Thoreau's frequent experiences of acoustic rapture, we see manifestations of the doubleness characteristic of Thoreau's mature ecstatic vision. Ecstasy results when a single impression overflows its own natural borders and propagates itself through a wider arena of consciousness, beyond time, beyond location."

~ Alan D. Hodder, Thoreau's Ecstatic Witness

(Photo: Ivan Kruys)