The Marrow of Life
- Author
- Henry David Thoreau
- Date
- 1854
- Language
- English
- Country
- Form
- Prose passage, philosophical memoir
- First published
- Walden; or, Life in the Woods, 1854 (chapter 2, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”)
- Themes
- deliberate living, nature, simplicity
The source
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
Commentary
Dr. Ruxandra RouxHead of Literary Research & Development
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854. “The Marrow of Life” is not a separate poem. It is the common title of a famous passage from chapter two, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”, about his years at Walden Pond (1845 to 1847).
He went to the woods to live deliberately: to “front” the facts of life, drive it into a corner, reduce it to its “lowest terms” and “suck out all the marrow of life”. If life turned out to be “mean”, he wanted to know it. If it was sublime, he wanted to feel it himself, not take someone's word for it. The enemy is not hardship but sleepwalking: reaching the end and finding you never lived. People stuck in routines and possessions, he says, live like ants. Few of those who quote the line have tried the pond.
Songs
The song made from The Marrow of Life.
