Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[Louie Muir]
Transcription
To my friend R. U. Johnson.
"Nature loves the number five" Four conundrums & a doggerel
1 Why is R. U. J's Kindness like a grasshopper? Because it makes the earth beautiful and few know how it is done
2 Why is it like a star? Because it is steadfast and ever in bloom
3 Why is it like the ocean? Because it is boundless, endless, & sublime
4 Why is it like a glacier? Because nothing can stop it and it discharges in big chunks
O for a lodge in some vast frigeration, some boundless contiguity of frost some boreal prarie Icy, Airy, Where sultry heat from old Manhattan's shore might never reach me more
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2
O to escape this torrid tedium Gathering Thoreau's [illegible] Over more a blessed crank & tramp On Walden's leafy bank. Or bathe & lave in Concord sages did In cool Musketa quid. And O for more of that sweet lovely loafing At eve and dawn On Sargents lawn. With thee & red breast Robin And round the shady lily pond In rhododendron clouds That vie With sunset sky In red & purple glory Another version of Arabran story Fairy groves & halls & broad verandas Blooming with flowers & fern & science Which to no pen of mine Will come to rhyme Or time While here I weary swoon & swelter Every day a worser melter Eking out a life precarious On scraps of have-beens odd & various
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3
Dog on ice, trees, streams, a[illegible] Glacier meadows mountain floras All in fading memory mingled In dullest prose or doggerel jingled. My useless clothes are falling fast Before this wilting scorching blast. My broiling flesh is gone or going Like snow, in sunshine melting flowing Wit, sense, & all I fear will follow. E'en now my skull sounds light & hollow. Thank Heaven the little left will be Soon cooling on the breezy sea Then looking back I'll blow my slogan Like that brave sailor Paddy Grogan And on every wave of the heaving main I'll find my friends & joys again.
New York
June 22, 1893.
The weather is cool now. For three days the thermometer was above 90° - mostly 95 & 98 - & I began to suffer. But Johnson Kept taking out on the water & so I pulled through. - without much harm. Love to all. Will write the children a line tomorrow. Ever yours John Muir
Location
New York
Date Original
1893 Jun 22
Source
Original letter dimensions: 30.5 x 21 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to [Louie Muir], 1893 Jun 22." (1893). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 943.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/943
Resource Identifier
muir07_1140-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 07, Image 1140
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Copyright Date
1984
Pages
3 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
