John Muir's Essay 'The Calypso Borealis'

In the essay “The Calypso Borealis,” John Muir used imagery and personification to describe his journey within nature to find a flower. Muir shares the deep bond he has with nature when writing about his experience with the Calypso, and the great lengths he went through to find it. As Muir was describing his journey, he used words such as “bewildering” and “discouraging” to show the hardships he faced. Once he had found the Calypso, he wrote that he “cried for joy” to show just how much happiness it brought to him. These words and phrases allow the reader to grasp that even though he faced so many problems and setbacks, it was worth it to find the “rarest and most beautiful of the flowering plants.” In paragraph 4, Muir describes the difference

of encounters between nature and humans. He described the simple yet complex connection to the flower that he couldn’t find with another human when he said: “This Calypso meeting happened some forty-five years ago, and it was more memorable and impressive than any of my meetings with human beings.” To demonstrate how others saw his journey, he included examples of others perspectives: “I was gladly received. ‘Where ha ye come fra? The swamp, that awfu' swamp. What were ye doin' there?’ etc.” Muir realized that most people don’t see nature in the way he does, and he used personification to show the reader what he saw from his point of view. As I have shown, it seemed as though nobody else understood why Muir went to such great lengths to find the flower, nevertheless he did it anyway because he felt so strongly about it.