Silently we unlatch the door, letting the drift fall in, and step abroad to face the cutting air. Already the stars have lost some of their sparkle, and a dull leaden mist skirts the horizon. A lurid brazen light in the east proclaims the approach of day, while the western landscape is and spectral still, and clothed in a sombre Tartarrean light, like the shadowy realms.

– Henry D. Thoreau

That from Thoreau’s essay, a Winter Walk. The Tartarrean light refers to Tartarus, the lowest section of the underworld in Greek mythology.

Thoreau opens by opening his door and describing winter morning to us. Morning is a transition of light. Thoreau mentions light, in some form, three times in two sentences.

“Already the stars have lost some of their sparkle“

“A lurid brazen light in the east proclaims the approach of day“

“clothed in a sombre Tartarrean light“

Read A Winter Walk in full here.

Or pick up this helpful version Henry D. Thoreau Essays, full annotated edition from Yale press.

Thoreau, Henry D.. Essays: A Fully Annotated Edition. Italy, Yale University Press, 2013. pp28