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Trees played a major role in Thoreau’s life and work. He responded to them with his eye, his heart, his muse, his mind and his soul. He related to trees emotionally and understood them as a naturalist. They fed his creativity and deepened his thought. He wrote of them as if he could see the sap beneath their bark. In short, he spoke their language. He loved their beauty, wildness, patience and persistence. Trees suggested the “ancient rectitude” of nature.” Nothing stands up more free from blame than a pine tree.” Trees also emerge in his writings as special emblems and images of the divine. On his 200th birthday, Thoreau is still helping us see trees in new ways.

The moonlight now is very splendid in the untouched pine woods above the Cliffs, alternate patches of shade and light—the light has almost the brightness of sunlight, the fulgor. The stems of the trees are more obvious than by day, being simple black against the moonlight and the snow. The sough of the breeze in the pine tops sounds far away, like the surf on a distant shore, and for all sound beside there is only the rattling or chafing of little dry twigs—perchance a little snow falling on them, or they are so brittle that they break and fall with the motion of the trees....

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