Ordinary natural surroundings become continuously informative when attention is active enough to notice changes, signs, creatures, and seasonal detail.
Wake-Robin; Burroughs uses the line while describing the alertness and discovery available to an attentive observer outdoors.
“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.
The Tables Turned; the line follows Wordsworth’s claim that a vernal wood can teach moral insight.
“Secrets lurk on all sides.”
The brief line frames observation as discovery: familiar landscapes still contain details that reward patience, questions, and repeated looking.
Wake-Robin; the phrase belongs to Burroughs’s description of the naturalist’s expectant attention to the world nearby.
“How interesting everything is!”
Wonder becomes a method of attention: rocks, streams, plants, and animals all become invitations to learn rather than background scenery.
My First Summer in the Sierra, near the close of the summer journal.
“Expectation is ever on tiptoe.”
Curiosity keeps the observer mentally ready because the next small discovery may appear before it can be predicted or scheduled.
Wake-Robin; Burroughs describes the anticipatory state created by close engagement with birds, seasons, and other natural signs.
“"Watch and wait" is the naturalist's sign.”
Patient observation is presented as a working method: discovery often requires remaining attentive long enough for elusive natural behavior to become visible.
Pepacton. Burroughs writes “Watch and wait” after describing an observation that corrected a gap in his own natural-history knowledge; the phrase is practical field-observation advice in literary natural history.
“Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.”
Direct attention to the natural world is offered as a form of learning that complements books and abstract study.
Poem “The Tables Turned.”
