We were standing where there was a fine view of the harbor and its long stretches of shore all covered by the great army of the pointed firs, darkly cloaked and standing as if they waited to embark. As we looked far seaward among the outer islands, the trees seemed to march seaward still, going steadily over the heights and down to the water's edge.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A visual scene of trees by the harbor evokes a sense of movement, waiting, and quiet anticipation.
- In plain terms
- Trees by the sea look like they are waiting to move.
- What can you take from it?
- Nature descriptions can suggest silent human-like tension.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What emotions do landscapes evoke?
- How does description shape feeling?
Another view
This is a literary impression, not a general philosophical claim.
More from Sarah Orne Jewett
'Step in some afternoon,' he said, as affectionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster wrecked on the lee shore of age like himself.
Permalink to quote #5 Tact is after all a kind of mind-reading.
Permalink to quote #7 The old poets little knew what comfort they could be to a man.
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!
John MuirJohn Muir quote #41 Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which had the whole heath for its floor.
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy quote #42 Above the plain rose the hill, above the hill rose the barrow, and above the barrow rose the figure. Above the figure was nothing that could be mapped elsewher…
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy quote #46