Question

Read the excerpt of John Muir's "Calypso Borealis" and answer the question.

[5] How long I sat beside Calypso I don't know. Hunger and weariness vanished, and only after the sun was low in the west I splashed on through the swamp, strong
and exhilarated as if never more to feel any mortal care. At length I saw maple woods on a hill and found a log house. I was gladly received. "Where ha ye come fra?
The swamp, that awfu' swamp. What were ye doin' there?" etc. "Mony a puir body has been lost in that muckle, cauld, dreary bog and never been found." When I told
her I had entered it in search of plants and had been in it all day, she wondered how plants could draw me to these awful places, and said, "It's god's mercy ye ever
got out."
[6] Oftentimes I had to sleep without blankets, and sometimes without supper, but usually I had no great difficulty in finding a loaf of bread here and there at the
houses of the farmer settlers in the widely scattered clearings. With one of these large backwoods loaves I was able to wander many a long wild fertile mile in the
forests and bogs, free as the winds, gathering plants, and glorying in God's abounding inexhaustible spiritual beauty bread. Storms, thunderclouds, winds in the
woods—were welcomed as friends.

In a paragraph of 3-5 sentences, explain how Muir views nature. Support your answer with two examples from the passage. Explain how each example reveals his
view of nature.

Answer 1

Muir views nature as something beautiful, ethereal, powerful, bewildering, intricate, etc. Nature is something that should be appreciated and loved. In paragraph 3, Muir's love and awe for nature and the flowers can be seen when he says "I sat down beside it (Calypsos) and fairly cried for joy." In paragraph 4, he also compared his discovery of the Calypso to that of him meeting new people and it "was more memorable and impressive than any of my meetings with human beings excepting, perhaps, Emerson and one or two others." The flowers were more interesting to him than people.