Where I Lived and What I Lived For Chapter 2 analysis.

The second chapter introduces a tone that is conversational. Thoreau's language and rhetorical style also emulate those used in the Romantic Movement, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The principle image of Thoreau "seated by the shore of a small pond" is sufficiently evocative of the Romantic painters' classic portrayal of the wanderer, and the evocation of such a cultural and literary association is notable at this point because of the intellectual authority and dimension that it adds to the text. Secondly, it is significant because it reiterates the poetic nature of Walden. By drawing parallels with literary traditions and specific works, such as Ovid's Metamorphes, which he mentions several times in the text, Thoreau distinguishes Walden as a literary text rather than a scientific documentation of "Life in the Woods." For the same reason, Thoreau revised the title of Walden after its initial publication. He requested that his publishers remove the subtitle of "Life in the Woods."