I interpreted the following passage:

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its think current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things. I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary. My head is hands and feet. I feel all my best faculties concentrated in it. My instinct tells me t

The theme of this passage, the way I see it, is that for most people, an individual life seems to be all that exists to a person that possesses it. When looking at the overall flow of time, an individual life is just a current sliding away in a stream. In order for an individual life to matter in the flow of time one must think and act intellectually stimulating. Without imagination and creativity, life is pointless. Acting like robots and marching to the beat of industrialization’s drums does not propel the spirit in any direction except down. When one learns to think and act for themselves, progress is made that benefits the individual.

Thoreau’s ideas flow into different concepts throughout this entire passage, opening up his beliefs on life and time. Interpretively, the stream he fishes in is him existing in time. Thoreau drinking at the stream but at the same time seeing the sandy bottom and detecting its depth is him living life and acknowledging how short and futile it is. By stating, “Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains”, he conveys that individual lives and material possessions die or break, but time never fades away. Whe

Some topics in this essay:
David Thoreau, Thoreau Walden, meaning life, sliding stream, individual life, life flow currents, currents sliding stream, flow currents sliding, regretting wise day, current slides eternity, flow currents, current slides, theme passage, slides eternity, sandy bottom, life flow, organ burrowing,