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“The poetry of earth is never dead.”
Seasonal change does not extinguish natural life; the poem hears a continuing voice in both summer and winter.
Source note: On the Grasshopper and Cricket, opening line.
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“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings.”
Nature is presented as a source of knowledge that can complement formal study by training attention and receptiveness.
Source note: The Tables Turned; the line follows Wordsworth’s claim that a vernal wood can teach moral insight.
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“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”
Wordsworth describes long attention to nature as a dependable source of memory, quietness, and moral perspective.
Source note: Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
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“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
Wonder and transcendence are located in the ordinary world around us instead of only in distant or abstract ideals.
Source note: Walden, chapter “The Pond in Winter”; the line joins the immediate natural world with spiritual wonder.
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“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!”
The exclamation turns sunrise into an event worth deliberate attention, expressing Muir’s habit of treating ordinary natural processes as occasions for wonder.
Source note: The Mountains of California, in a passage describing morning light on the mountains.
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“A taste for the beauties of nature should be very early cultivated.”
Attention to nature is treated as something that can be educated, giving children another source of pleasure beyond display, fashion, or social approval.
Source note: Thoughts on the Education of Daughters; Wollstonecraft recommends cultivating appreciation of nature from childhood.