Specimens

DateOctober 13, 1868

Terms

Specimens
Natural
Hickory
Concord (Massachusetts)

Dimensions25.5 x 22.3 cm (10 1/16 x 8 3/4 in.)

MarkingsInscribed in ink, "S.E. Thoreau 1868/ Fair Haven./ Oct. 13th./ When little hills like lambs did skip,/ And Joshua ruled in heaven,/ Unmindful rolled Musketaquid,/ Nor budged an inch Fair Haven./ If there's a cliff in this wick world/ S' stepping stone to heaven,/ A pleasant, craggy, short hand cut, It sure must be Fair Haven./ If 'ces my bark to be tempest tossed,/ And every hope be wave in,/ And this frail hulk shall spring a leak,/ I'll steer for thee, Fair Haven./ And when I take my last long-rest/ And quiet sleep my grave in/ What kindlier covering for my breast/ Than thy warm turf, Fair Haven."

Credit LineLeaf with Poem by Sophia E. Thoreau, October 13, 1868. Concord Museum Collection, Gift of Mr. W.J.R. Taylor; M430b.

Object numberM340b

DescriptionShagbark hickory specimen; compound leaf (5 leaves on a single stem, shagbark hickory).

"It is as a leaf which hangs over my head in the path," Henry Thoreau wrote in reference to his Journal; "I bend the twig and write my prayers on it then letting it go the bough springs up and shows the scrawl to heaven." In the 1860s, his sister Sophia made the metaphor manifest by inscribing poems on actual leaves she had flattened and dried in her flower press. The poem, one of Thoreau's earliest, was written about the time that he graduated college in 1837. See M340, M340a, M340b, M340c.

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