Fresh field, winter sunshine

Author: John Burroughs (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Fresh Fields · Winter Sunshine is the author's travel notes from his journey through England. In May 1883, John Burroughs came to the other side of the Atlantic, as if on a mission, almost roaming the entire island of Great Britain. He explored the fields, forests, lakes, ancient buildings, and historical relics of Scotland and England. He visited the countryside, keenly observing and capturing the rich colors and sounds of nature with his eyes and ears. Forests, meadows, valleys, streams, sheep, wildflowers, singing birds, elf-like insects, and small animals— he became obsessed with observing them, carefully experiencing them, and subtly understanding them, reaching a near-trance-like state. With beautiful prose and poetic language, he vividly described them. He visited farmers engaged in herding, mowing, or plowing, admiring their labor with appreciation. He paid visits to the greatest writers and poets of that island, the soul and spiritual symbols of the land— Carlyle, Wordsworth. With reverence, he visited Carlyle's hometown twice, toured his family's rural cemetery and his London home, and studied his history, spiritual world, and solitary journey of the heart.