- ramble (“Walking”)
- trip (Cape Cod)
- sojourn (Walden)
In this literary excursion, he narrates a spiritual quest as it proceeds. The latter half of Thoreau’s journals had a similar form.
The excursion does not feel obligated to be detailed in its description of a specific setting. Instead, it spends most of its time providing an account of the universe as a whole from the perspective of the author.
His choice of this form may in part be due to the fact that it was a popular form in his time. Thoreau has read over 146 travel books.
Travel literature could still be instructive while still being delightful. It was more literary than factual.
Among all of the travel books he read, William Gilpin’s Remarks of Forest Scenery and Other Woodland Views was perhaps closest to Thoreau’s taste.
References
Buell, Lawrence. “Thoreau and the Literary Excursion.” Literary Transcendentalism: Style and Vision in the American Renaissance, Cornell University Press, 1973, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1g69x7r.14.
His favorite form, as noted earlier, is the romantic excursion: a ramble (” Walking” )or trip (Cape Cod) or sojourn (Walden) which takes on overtones of a spiritual quest as the speaker proceeds. Thoreau’s later journals have the same rhythm.
Though somewhat more controlled by the obligation to describe a particular setting, it tends to become, in effect, an account of the whole universe as it appears to the speaker