Henry David Thoreau：Walden, Excerpt 48

I was also serenaded by a hooting owl. Near at hand you could fancy it the most melancholy sound in Nature, as if she meant by this to stereotype and make permanent in her choir the dying moans of a human being,—some poor weak relic of mortality who has left hope behind, and howls like an animal, yet with human sobs, on entering the dark valley, made more awful by a certain gurgling melodiousness,—I find myself beginning with the letters gl when I try to imitate it,—expressive of a mind which has reached the gelatinous mildewy stage in the mortification of all healthy and courageous thought. It reminded me of ghouls and idiots and insane howlings. But now one answers from far woods in a strain made really melodious by distance,—_Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer hoo_; and indeed for the most part it suggested only pleasing associations, whether heard by day or night, summer or winter.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205
Locator：Excerpt 48 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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