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Where I lived, and what I live for -- Thoreau
he says “we live meanly” and “our best virtue,” making himself part of the group that he is speaking to, creating a persona that he is not a perfect individual, that he too needs to change. he’s making himself more easy to identify with in that he is part of this group.
here he makes allusions to ulysses, as they travel past the sirens, ulysses makes the crew strap themselves to the mast and fill their ears with cotton so that they are not prey to the siren song, and so that they do not turn the boat around and dash themselves on the rocks.
he’s using some parallelism here, with his “i never recieved for that one or two letters…. i never read any memorable news in a newspaper.”
“I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear…”
i really like this line, it caught my attention while i was reading. I would have to agree with him on this because there is no point of living…when you have no life, enjoy life to the fullest, “living is so dear.”