Breathless, Kentucky frost, birds, dawn. April 5, 6 AM.

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Two books I reread in part or whole every spring: Walden and The Wind in the Willows.  Below, quotes from each informed by the twenty seconds above standing before the piper at the gates of dawn.

The Wind in the Willows

Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly. He saw the tears on his comrade’s cheeks, and bowed his head and understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by the purple loose-strife that fringed the bank; then the clear imperious summons that marched hand-in-hand with the intoxicating melody imposed its will on Mole, and mechanically he bent to his oars again. And the light grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they were wont to do at the approach of dawn; and but for the heavenly music all was marvellously still. (Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”.)

Walden

To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter, before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been about mine! No doubt, many of my townsmen have met me returning from this enterprise, farmers starting for Boston in the twilight, or woodchoppers going to their work. It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it.(Thoreau, Henry D. Walden, “Solitude”.)

 

 

 

 

 

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