“To read [Walden] as a poem,” writes Anderson (1968), “is to assume that its meaning lies not in its logic but in its language ”. , its image structure, its symbolism – and is inseparable from them” (p. 18). In this way overall, as Anderson concludes, we as students of literature can “discover true poetic subjects” (p. 18); and in this way in particular we can read, investigate and analyze the meaning of topics such as "solitude", to which Thoreau dedicated an entire chapter: the homonymous chapter 5, "Solitude". Thoreau conveys this poetic sensibility through what Golemba (1988) identifies as two “clash[ing]…rhetorical modes” (p. 385) – more succinctly, what Anderson (1968) defines as spirit and metaphor. It is at issue here that the metaphor stimulates the poetry of “Solitude” and therefore is one which, upon careful reading, expresses not the logic but the language of what solitude truly means. Thoreau's metaphor for solitude is implicitly defined is compared and contrasted with solitude is also implicitly defined. Because for the author (or the poet), what solitude is is what solitude is not. In a lyrical litany of comparisons, Thoreau however intentionally solitary he is, writes, “…no more solitary than the loon in the pond who laughs so loud, or Walden Pond itself…; no more than just a single mullein, or a dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horsefly, or a bumblebee...; no lonelier than Mill Brook, or a weather vane, or the North Star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house” (p. 107 ). the entity, creature, or event is literally one among many: the dandelion has thousands of other dandelions to exist among; the horse-f...... in the center of the card ......actively insists that being alone is indeed more superlative. Or, like Thoreau, who feels at home in nature, lyrically and figuratively reinforces natural and other personification and emblematization, opening with his amazement at the "delicious" evening (p. 101) and closing with the categorical , definitive and implicit comparative conclusion: "I have never found a companion so sociable as solitude" (p. 106). ReferencesAnderson, C.R. (1968). The network. In Gerald R. Barterian and Denise Evans (Eds.), Walden's Magic Circle (pp. 13-92). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Dougherty, J. (2008). Home Construction and Management in Walden. Christianity and Literature, 57 (2), 224-233. Golemba, H. (1988). Don't read Thoreau. American Literature, 60 (3), 385-401.Lopez, R. O. Thoreau, Homer and Community. Nineteenth century prose, 31 (2), 122-133.