quid, the grass-grown; he symbolized its gradual ingress and slumber:
"The river swelleth more and more,
Like some sweet influence stealing o'er
The passive town:"
*****
"No ripple shows Musketaquid,
Her very current e'en is hid,
As deepest souls do calmest rest,
When thoughts are swelling in the breast.
And she that in the summer's drought
Doth make a ripple and a rout,
Sleeps from Nawshawtuck to the Cliff,
Unruffled by a single skiff."
*****
"Methinks 'twas in this school of art
Venice and Naples learned their part."
Secondary to the river and its rustic bridges, as elements of pictorial beauty, is a circlet of lakes, or more properly, ponds, all familiar to Thoreau's readers,—Bateman's Pond, Flint's Pond, Goose Pond, and White Pond, "the lesser twin of Walden." By the banks of river or pond, the tourist seeks the hibiscus or marsillia, or waits for the appearance of pickerel or bream, whose friendly habits were so familiar to the man who renounced the role of angler for that of poet. From the cliffs above the river, Monadnock and Wachusett are outlined in the distance, while in the foreground are many of Thoreau's favorite walks. Frequent are his
