Essays · Chapter
The Last Gleaning explained
Thoreau describes the art of gleaning wild apples in mid-November, after they have fallen and decayed.
What happens
Thoreau describes the art of gleaning wild apples in mid-November, after they have fallen and decayed. He explains how a skilled gleaner can still find hidden fruit in hollows, under leaves, and among alders, and he compares this patient search to the hedgehog's method of collecting apples as recounted in Topsell's Gesner.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and Simplicity
Thoreau celebrates the simple, patient act of gleaning wild apples and finding sustenance in the natural landscape.
Characters to notice
- Henry David Thoreau
The narrator and gleaner, who shares his method for finding hidden apples in the late season.
Key passages
“I know a blue-pearmain tree, growing within the edge of a swamp, almost as good as wild.”
Thoreau knows of a blue-pearmain apple tree at the edge of a swamp that is nearly as wild as a native tree.
Illustrates Thoreau's intimate knowledge of local apple trees and their locations.
“From these lurking-places, anywhere within the circumference of the tree, I draw forth the fruit, all wet and glossy, maybe nibbled by rabbits and hollowed out by crickets and perhaps with a leaf or two cemented to it (as Curzon an old manuscript from a monastery’s mouldy cellar), but still with a rich bloom on it, and at least as ripe and well kept, if not better than those in barrels, more crisp and lively than they.”
Thoreau retrieves apples from hidden spots under the tree, finding them wet, glossy, and sometimes nibbled, but still fresh and flavorful—comparing them to an ancient manuscript rescued from a cellar.
Highlights Thoreau's appreciation for the hidden, natural bounty that surpasses stored fruit.
“His meat is apples, worms, or grapes: when he findeth apples or grapes on the earth, he rolleth himself upon them, until he have filled all his prickles, and then carrieth them home to his den, never bearing above one in his mouth; and if it fortune that one of them fall off by the way, he likewise shaketh off all the residue, and walloweth upon them afresh, until they be all settled upon his back again.”
The hedgehog eats apples, worms, or grapes; when it finds apples on the ground, it rolls on them to impale them on its spines, then carries them home, and if one falls, it shakes off the rest and starts over.
Thoreau quotes Topsell's Gesner to describe the hedgehog's methodical apple-gathering, mirroring his own gleaning.