Walden

This chapter constitutes an ecstatic celebration of what the narrator has discovered by looking into the "pond": he rejoices over his own perfection. Thus at the beginning of this chapter, we are presented with a portrait of a vibrant and vital natural scene which reflects the narrator's powerful sense of spiritual vitality. He again records his happiness, telling us: "Once it chanced that I stood in the very abutment of a rainbow's arch, which filled the lower stratum of the atmosphere, tinging the grass and leaves around, and dazzling me as if I looked through coloured crystal. It was a lake of rainbow light, in which, for a short while, I lived like a dolphin." Within this statement, the narrator informs us of his sublime contentment in three ways: first, he stood at the rainbow's end and was thus the lucky mortal who found the "pot of gold"; second, being flooded in resplendent light symbolizes an experience of spiritual illumination; and third, he compares himself to a dolphin, which is a traditional symbol of immortality. Thoreau makes sure that he has made his point about the narrator's spiritual state with one last touch. He has his narrator declare: "As I walked on the railroad causeway, I used to wonder at the halo of light around my shadow, and would fain fancy myself one of the elect." It is a whimsical, witty statement by the narrator, but it reinforces the claim for spiritual perfection made through the pond symbol of the previous chapter.