Have you ever felt the gentle pull of poetry, urging you to explore deeper emotions and thoughts?
As a woman who finds solace in words, I have often turned to the works of Henry David Thoreau for inspiration.
Here are 10 of Thoreau’s most captivating poems that have been a source of strength and reflection for me.
Let’s kick things off!
My favorite Henry David Thoreau poem for nurturing women
#1 “Men Say They Know Many Things” by Henry David Thoreau
Men say they know many things,
But lo’ they have taken wings, —
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances,
The wind that blows
Is all that any body knows
Thoreau’s poem “Men Say They Know Many Things” captivates me with its profound simplicity and insight.
It challenges the notion of knowledge and highlights the mystery of the natural world, a theme that resonates deeply with imaginative minds.
This poem invites women who value creativity and introspection to ponder the limits of human understanding and embrace the wonders that remain beyond our grasp.
9 more Henry David Thoreau poems for nurturing women
#2 “My Love Must Be As Free” by Henry David Thoreau
My love must be as free
As is the eagle’s wing,
Hovering o’er land and sea
And everything
I must not dim my eye
In thy saloon,
I must not leave my sky
And nightly moon
Be not the fowler’s net
Which stays my flight,
And craftily is set
T’ allure the sight
But be the favoring gale
That bears me on,
And still doth fill my sail
When thou art gone
I cannot leave my sky
For thy caprice,
True love would soar as high
As heaven is
The eagle would not brook
Her mate thus won,
Who trained his eye to look
Beneath the sun
#3 “True Kindness Is a Pure Divine Affinity” by Henry David Thoreau
True kindness is a pure divine affinity,
Not founded upon human consanguinity
It is a spirit, not a blood relation,
Superior to family and station
#4 “It Is No Dream Of Mine” by Henry David Thoreau
It is no dream of mine,
To ornament a line,
I cannot come nearer to God and Heaven
Than I live to Walden even
I am its stony shore,
And the breeze that passes o’er,
In the hollow of my hand
Are its water and its sand,
And its deepest resort
Lies high in my thought
#5 “Thou Dusky Spirit Of The Wood” by Henry David Thoreau
Thou dusky spirit of the wood,
Bird of an ancient brood,
Flitting thy lonely way,
A meteor in the summer’s day,
From wood to wood, from hill to hill,
Low over forest, field and rill,
What wouldst thou say?
Why shouldst thou haunt the day?
What makes thy melancholy float?
What bravery inspires thy throat,
And bears thee up above the clouds,
Over desponding human crowds,
Which far below
Lay thy haunts low?
#6 “The Respectable Folks” by Henry David Thoreau
The respectable folks,—
Where dwell they?
They whisper in the oaks,
And they sigh in the hay;
Summer and winter, night and day,
Out on the meadow, there dwell they.
They never die,
Nor snivel, nor cry,
Nor ask our pity
With a wet eye.
A sound estate they ever mend,
To every asker readily lend;
To the ocean wealth,
To the meadow health,
To Time his length,
To the rocks strength,
To the stars light,
To the weary night,
To the busy day,
To the idle play;
And so their good cheer never ends,
For all are their debtors, and all their friends.
#7 “Pilgrims” by Henry David Thoreau
‘Have you not seen
In ancient times
Pilgrims pass by
Toward other climes?
With shining faces,
Youthful and strong,
Mounting this hill
With speech and with song?’
‘Ah, my good sir,
I know not those ways:
Little my knowledge,
Tho’ many my days.
When I have slumbered,
I have heard sounds
As of travellers passing
These my grounds:
‘’Twas a sweet music
Wafted them by,
I could not tell
If afar off or nigh.
Unless I dreamed it,
This was of yore:
I never told it
To mortal before;
‘Never remembered
But in my dreams,
What to me waking
A miracle seems.”
#8 “Nature” by Henry David Thoreau
O Nature! I do not aspire
To be the highest in thy quire,—
To be a meteor in the sky,
Or comet that may range on high;
Only a zephyr that may blow
Among the reeds by the river low;
Give me thy most privy place
Where to run my airy race.
In some withdrawn, unpublic mead
Let me sigh upon a reed,
Or in the woods, with leafy din,
Whisper the still evening in:
Some still work give me to do,—
Only—be it near to you!
For I’d rather be thy child
And pupil, in the forest wild,
Than be the king of men elsewhere,
And most sovereign slave of care:
To have one moment of thy dawn,
Than share the city’s year forlorn.
#9 “My life has been the poem I would have writ” by Henry David Thoreau
My life has been the poem I would have writ
But I could not both live and utter it.
#10 “Great God, I Ask Thee for No Meaner Pelf” by Henry David Thoreau
Great God, I ask for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself,
That in my action I may soar as high
As I can now discern with this clear eye.
And next in value, which thy kindness lends,
That I may greatly disappoint my friends,
Howe’er they think or hope that it may be,
They may not dream how thou’st distinguished me.
That my weak hand may equal my firm faith
And my life practice what my tongue saith
That my low conduct may not show
Nor my relenting lines
That I thy purpose did not know
Or overrated thy designs.