One of the most haunting poems in the canon is Sara Teasdale’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.” It contemplates the cycle of nature, which continues even as mankind wages war, wreaking destruction on the land. Here are the last four lines: “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree / If mankind perished utterly; / And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, / Would scarcely know that we were gone.” This exhibition at the Frist puts one in mind of Teasdale’s poem. Taking inspiration from Henry David Thoreau’s profound experiences living alone in the woods of Massachussetts—the subject of his 1854 classic Walden; or, Life in the Woods—the new-media artist Robin Vuchnich has created an interactive, light-based installation that explores the plant species Thoreau collected, a personal herbarium housed at the Harvard University Herbaria. The exhibition looks at these plants today, how well or badly they are doing in our time of habitat loss and climate change, and signals to viewers how their own presence affects botanical life. —Laura Jacobs