Both Uses of
transgress
in
Walden
- They are the spirits, the low spirits and melancholy forebodings, of fallen souls that once in human shape night-walked the earth and did the deeds of darkness, now expiating their sins with their wailing hymns or threnodies in the scenery of their transgressions.†
Chpt 4transgressions = acts that violate rules, promises, or social norms
- We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.†
Chpt 17 *transgressed = violated a rule, promise, or social norm
Definitions:
-
(1)
(transgress) to violate a rule, promise, or social norm
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely (and archaically), transgress can mean: "spread over land, especially along a subsiding shoreline" as in "The sea transgresses along the West coast of the island."