Description
Something magic lurks in the New England woods. They have been the stomping ground of natives, Vikings, poets, hermits, and dreamers for centuries.
Many of our great dramas center upon the forest. For Thoreau and Emerson, it was the Massachusetts woods. They extend from the outskirts of Boston to the wilderness of Western MA. All that is civilized peters out as one goes beyond the pale of University life. The great thinkers of our early nation had their muse right beside them.
Wooded areas represent that which lies just beyond our door but is secret and hidden, both scary and inviting. Emerson’s musings are peppered with the Massachusetts forest, and Thoreau conducted his great experiment right in them.
New England is characterized by a juxtaposition of the quaint and the grand. Like the lands of New England’s ancestors (English, Irish, Scottish), the mountains are not gigantic, but they are majestic. There are no Himalayas, Rockies, great lakes, deep trenches. Yet entire folk histories inhabit the cracks and crevices of the land. Caves are gateways to lairs of sorcerers. Valleys are watched over by protecting gods. The scale may be quaint, but the lands implied beyond are infinite.
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