John shipwrecked, Thoreau's interpretation of this connection between the natural and the human was radically altered. Thoreau's shocking observation on the consequences of shipwreck introduced him to the tragic, often wrathful and merciless side of nature. He reported seeing a woman who had seen the corpse of her son "in the arms of his sister...and three days later, the mother died from the effect of that sight" (Thoreau, "The Shipwreck" 7). He recounted this scene with a sense of abject horror and without any reverence for the gentle nature to which he was so accustomed. The calm and tender nature of Walden Pond had allowed for communion, but this "new" nature was an extremely evil power aimed at murderous destruction. With the gentle nature of Walden Pond gone, Thoreau's beautiful reflections on nature took on a darker and somewhat macabre tone: at hand were simply bones with a little flesh attached... But as I stood there they grew more and more imposing. They were alone with the beach and the sea, whose dull roar seemed aimed at them, and it struck me as if there was an understanding between them and the ocean that necessarily excluded me, with my whining sympathies. That dead body had taken possession of the shore and reigned there as no living person could, in the name of a certain majesty that belonged to it. (Thoreau, "The Shipwreck"