Critical Analysis of Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson Essay

Henry Beston in Night on the Great Beach explains how we have destroyed some of the best parts of nature. We really don't appreciate the little things of nature. He goes in to great detail on how we have ruined night and continues to describe the little aspects of nature that we miss. Beston see nature as something that we don't respect anymore, but he has great love for it. It says to me that I don't appreciate nature. I never sit back and just enjoy it.

The rhythm of this quote is simply soothing and majestic. I definitely agree with him in the aspect that one can find his inner self through nature. Not through pollution, cities, nor materialism. Emerson’s last nine words are what influenced me the most because man himself carries the Earth in his back. We all bleed blood, are made of soil, breathe oxygen, and has inner beauty the way nature does.

Emerson’s purpose in the essay “Nature” is to lay out and attempt to solve an abstract problem: that humans do

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the giants during the 19th century American Transcendentalism movement. Their influential work brought upon shared beliefs on concerning spiritual perspectives, government interference, and the ideology of cultural values in American society. Nature has a multitude of meaning if looked at it from all angles, but deeper within nature is the reflection of what you exert while in it. However they agree on the human condition, the two authors speak with different tones that reflect how nature affects the entirety of man’s spirit. While both Emerson and Thoreau practice the spirit of the human condition, Emerson focused his energy on how “[nature’s] philosophical import [is]…unchanged by man” (215.) where Thoreau implied that we are “subjects of an experiment” (1051).

In the beginning of creation of humans, nature has always been there as a friend. Nature is the phenomena of the physical world that includes plants, animals, the landscape, and other features that are on earth. Nature has all of the wild and domestic living things. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American poet that led the transcendentalist movement and influenced other through his ideas and thinking. Ralph wrote “Nature,” and he describes his true feelings toward nature and God and how they have taken part of what has been created and also the relationship to humans. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes the passage “Nature” and he uses comparison between humans and nature and also uses figurative language to convey his appreciation and gratitude for nature.

     As imperative as individualism was to Emerson, developing one’s soul was even more so. The process in developing one’s soul was just as important. He states, “But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future (Emerson 157).” The word “heedless” means “carelessly” and by using the word “riches” Emerson means nature. What he meant by using these words together was that men forget about the beauty in nature because we see it all too often to notice it. Men are too wrapped up in their lives and thinking about the future that they overlook the splendor that nature has to offer. He also states, “These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today (Emerson 157).” With this, Emerson is trying to convey the fact that God is present in nature and all its beauty.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau was very close author who wrote towards same points by criticizing the corrupted government because people were treated very badly and they were not given individual rights. They were good author who brought people together and made them understand about the system of the Transcendentalist movement in America. The governor and government itself was very poor to control the people and society due to corrupted leaders and government. Due to economic progress and poor system of government Emerson started criticizing government indirectly and wrote the poem about nature and society because maximum people could not enjoy the same facilities and freedom. But his intension was very clear and he wants to

Another key transcendentalist idea that Emerson and Thoreau had was self-reliance. They believed that one cannot rely on others to help them and aid them in their journey called life. Sometimes you just have to experience things for yourself. You can’t wait for others to lead you or show you the way, occasionally you just have take a leap by yourself. This quote from Emerson’s Self-Reliance explains his belief on the subject, “Great men have always done so and confided themselves childlike in the genius of their age”(Paragraph 2, Line 3). This quote explains how Emerson believed that great men have let go of society's opinion and just been themselves. In Emerson’s Self-Reliance, he spoke of how the average person is so caught up with trying to please society that they forget to be themselves. Society always has a standard for what normal or acceptable is; it’s ever changing throughout the course of history, but nonetheless, there has and will always be a standard. Society views anyone that acts or thinks outside of this standard to be less important or below them. This quote explains how important self-reliance is, “Freedom comes from strength and self-reliance”(Murkowski). Self-reliance can bring everyone so much happiness. You have to just stop worrying about anyone else and be yourself. Self-reliance is a very important transcendentalist idea that Emerson and

Emerson and Bryant both have a similar idea on how nature can affect a person’s life. Emerson shows his idea in one his writings Nature when he says “to speak truly, few adults person can see nature… in the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows… in the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (Emerson). This reveals the gift/amazement Emerson believes nature possess. He believes that only a few can see nature because only a few people have deep intellectual thinking that allows them to see past the surface and grasps the benefits/value of nature. The gift nature possess to him is the affect that it can have on an individual’s mood. He finds a connection with nature that he doesn’t in the streets or villages. This is because he doesn’t find the same gift in other places like he does in nature. He finds something

Furthermore, he evokes the notion of the embodiment of nature and how few are able to see it; claiming the ones capable of perceiving such enlightenment are the ones who retain a benevolent innocent spirit—such as child—and who has retained the concept in times of adulthood—the poet. The mind of a child responds emotionally rather than sensorial. As a final remark in Emerson’s first chapter of nature, he states: in order for man to see nature plainly and receive the benefits one must push aside the old ways of thinking and egotism to become, as Emerson states, a transparent eyeball. ‘I am nothing, I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am a part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental” (______). This form of vision represents the primary benefit of Nature, a form of ultimate transcendency where there is a spiritual real of reason beyond material understanding. Humanistic delight in the landscapes, which is made up of many forms, provides an example of this integrated vision in which the universal entity transmits itself into one’s consciousness and makes one sense oneness with God. Nature, is thereby a metaphor of the mind in Emerson’s eyes.

	"I confess I am a little cynical on some topics, and when a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart, I have generally found the gravest and most useful citizens are not the easiest provoked to swell the noise, though they may be punctual at the polls." Here Emerson is saying that you should be suspicious when society tells you to be or act a certain way. Question why they are telling you to be or act this way. What is there hidden agenda?

People tend to lose themselves in their everyday lives, forgetting all that the earth and nature have to offer. A simple

This poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson is an exceptional work of his. Entirely characteristic of his poetic approach, it captures the full meaning behind the appreciation of nature, and it does so in a simple yet effective style. The poem is also, in my opinion, an effective rebuttal to the Puritan critique of the Emersonian lifestyle.

Emerson and Hawthorne both focused on nature and how humans affected it, but Emerson wrote more about being optimistic than Hawthorne, whom was more of a dark romanticism writer. In the essay "Nature", Ralph Waldo says, " But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give a man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime"(Emerson 11). This quote demonstrates how Emerson focuses on the feel of nature to oneself being one with nature. Previously he talks about how nature offers solitude and how we should take advantage of it instead of ignoring what the world has to offer.

In this work, man is an object in the middle of living nature. Nature itself draws us from dependence upon the past and invites us to a richer state of being. Do not remember the past for "[t]he sun shines today…[t]here is more wool and flax in the fields…[t]here are new lands, new men, new thoughts"(215). Which suggests that because there is always a tomorrow. Man should not focus on the present and be more concentrated on what will be happening in the future. Emerson believed that nature was beautiful and nowhere else on earth could he find the majestic settings of the macrocosm. As Emerson declares "[in] wilderness, [he finds] something more dear and connate than in streets or villages"(216). He cannot find anything more loved and kindred than in towns and cities than what he finds in nature. Unlike Thanatopsis, Emerson focuses on the living and not the defunct. He tells us that "[in] the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature"(216). Man's nature is more beautiful than the outside of his exterior. Therefore, according to this attitude, man's life is just a mere dot in this world of blackness.