Swampy Lake

Henry Thoreau is considered the "Patron Saint" of swamps.  He thought that a deep and hard-bottomed lake was symbolic of a kind of "philosophical self-reflexivity", instead of narcissistic self-contemplation.  Thoreau thought, "a lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature.  It is the earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."  The swamp, on the other hand is shallow and soft.

For Thoreau "my temple is a swamp." He said:

"When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most impenetrable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum."

Thoreau thought the swamp was the holy of holies.  He even said that rather than avoiding the black swamp filled with depression and melancholia, one should go to the swamp.  The photos below are of a 'swampy lake', a swamp that was once a lake with stairs leading down to it so one could get on a boat and go fishing.  Now, it has become a swamp, but is still so beautiful and relaxing.  Grant it, it IS a swamp, so the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.