YuHeng's blog

Henry David Thoreau has been a significant figure whose works have influenced me substantially. Notably, his emphasis on nature in the book Walden and conscience in the essay “Civil Disobedience” have shaped and enlarged the bounds of my thinking and compositions.

The fulfillment of our lives is the blooming of nature, and what we are bothered by are what meadows are bothered by heavy rain. But the latter seek not to blame the deeds, but instead work their way around them. Thoreau, in his book Walden, says, “if it should continue so long as to cause the seeds to rot in the ground and destroy the potatoes in the low lands, it would still be good for the grass on the uplands, and, being good for the grass, it would be good for me.” While there may be torrents whose enormity is too great, there exists an aspect of nature that may benefit from it. When we are destitute of cultivation because of some earthly cessation, we are inclined to fancy that we are nullified of value. But when we account for the simplicity of nature, we may nurture the roots of new ideas at time of temporary “stagnation.” Instead of the loss of anything, the gain of what could have been profited is multiplied, and Thoreau says, “it is of far more worth than hoeing.” In a time when people regularly neglect these senses, Thoreau’s work has made me think more deeply and extensively about the values by which we are compelled to abide and the ones whose nature is truly esteemed.

Thoreau’s further elaboration on his conviction about nature has gradually influenced the attitudes with which I approach my work. When I compose poetry, I may indulge myself in social surroundings, or the contrary—nature. I submit myself to the construct of nature, and at times when I am physically incapable, into an image of it because all that I see and think is in fact, a product on which nature has bestowed. The roaring of the sea and the rustling of trees, contrary portraits in nature, have been both in the presence of wilderness. While it is a singular construct to which people refer, it encompasses all that individuals are constituted of; however, cold-heartedly as they have been rendered by the merits of society, I try to integrate the amount of appreciation I have for nature into my poems.

The primary principle which I take heed of in my writing is delineated to the idea of deliberation. Thoreau’s conviction in “Civil Disobedience” patently outlines the construct of the importance of conscience. While it’s an essay targeting a political issue, and he claims that, “can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?” his premise has struck me primarily because with a conscience, one perceives the world more truthfully, and to a greater extent, perceive the self better. Along with conscience comes deliberation, the method by which we can achieve a degree of truthfulness. For this, I’ve attempted to infuse the idea of deliberation in all my works, which I’ve also described in some of my posts.