Power, the ability to do or act. A political or national strength, might or force.
The possession of control or command over others.
Upon reading this definition by Webster's Dictionary, I thought of Henry David Thoreau. Concluding a way to visually represent the word, power, was the old steam trains of the American West.
Thoreau often wrote about this subject and this vast symbolism in our culture. His description in Walden's Pond from Sounds and Solitude best fits the complex dialogue he felt between our landscape and the evolving society.
In this section he says, "This whistle of the locomotive penetrates my woods summer and winter, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some farmer's yard...Here come your groceries, country; your rations, countrymen! Nor is There any man so independent on his farm that he can say no." and continues on to say that, "...as if this traveling demigod, this cloud-compeller, would ere long take the sunset sky for the livery of his train; when I hear the iron horse make the hills echo with his snort like thunder, shaking the earth with his feet, and breathing fire and smoke from his nostrils, it seems as if the earth had got a race worthy to inhabit it."
Thoreau often wrote about this subject and this vast symbolism in our culture. His description in Walden's Pond from Sounds and Solitude best fits the complex dialogue he felt between our landscape and the evolving society.
In this section he says, "This whistle of the locomotive penetrates my woods summer and winter, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some farmer's yard...Here come your groceries, country; your rations, countrymen! Nor is There any man so independent on his farm that he can say no." and continues on to say that, "...as if this traveling demigod, this cloud-compeller, would ere long take the sunset sky for the livery of his train; when I hear the iron horse make the hills echo with his snort like thunder, shaking the earth with his feet, and breathing fire and smoke from his nostrils, it seems as if the earth had got a race worthy to inhabit it."
