Essay about Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature

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

Quote for Frame: The foregoing generations beheld God and the nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe. (“Nature” Emerson)

To transcendentalists there was not necessarily a supreme godlike being, but a connection with the nature that they were birthed from and that they would return to at the end of their life. In Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, he explains that "The currents of the Universal Being circulate through [him]; [he is] part or particle of God" (242). He is discussing how when someone is in touch with nature, they become one with nature, and that everyone is a part of nature. Emerson emphasizes that people should break away from reliance and that each individual should develop a personal and meaningful relationship with the universe in order to understand it. He also speculates that, “it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both” (242). Emerson's words reflect back to transcendentalist views of spirituality by describing the amount of happiness that can result from connecting to nature on a spiritual

     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.

A Comparison of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Beliefs concerning Simplicity, the Value and Potential of Our Soul, and Our Imagination.Henry David Thoreau tests Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideas about nature by living at Walden Pond, where he discovers that simplicity in physical aspects brings deepness to our mind, our soul to its fullest potential, and our imagination to be uplifted to change our lives. These two men believe that nature is what forces us not to depend on others’ ideas but to develop our own. Nature is ever changing so we must keep searching for explanations about human life. They feel that nature is the key to knowing all.Thoreau lives at Walden Pond to find the true meaning of life. He wants to experience

Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobler's trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar's garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world.” concerned initially with how we reflect on solitude, the stars, and the grandeur of nature, symbolized in the stars that Emerson views at night, and focuses on how we perceive objects around us. Emerson speaks of the landscape in which he walks and how he, as a poet, can best integrate all that he sees. What is most important in this sequence is the similar ways we perceive the various objects — stars, the landscape, and the poet.(117)

Gathering knowledge throughout reading “Nature” gives the reader a more visual perspective of the topics discussed throughout the series of essays Emerson writes. To demonstrate this, Emerson states “The motion of the earth round its axis, and round the sun, makes the day, and the year. These are certain amounts of brute light and heat. But is there no intent of an analogy between man’s life and the seasons? And do the seasons gain no grandeur or pathos from that analogy?” (517). The author uses this quote to compare a person’s life to the seasons of the year, giving the reader a further explanation of how the changing of the seasons are similar to the changes a person goes through in his or her life. Analogies not only give the reader an enhanced understanding of the text, analogies also assist

“Before I got my eye put out” is a poem which seems to be talking about how the speaker saw the universe before they got their eye put out , but it has a much deeper meaning to it. My interpretations on this poem is that the speaker wanted to be closer and experience nature by taking bigger steps and exploring the different dimensions but is stopped by a force of an instinct. I believe this because the speaker uses words that convey the impression that they were ecstatic about trying something new and eventually they find out they can't do it because of the what actually might be on the outside world. As it stated “So safer-guess-with just my soul …. Where other Creatures put their eyes - incautious -of the Sun …” line 18-21. This quote states the speaker's understanding of why it was safer to stay sheltered then to be out in the open where they were free and vulnerable. Another reason why I think they were willing to explore the world is because the speaker speaks of nature as theirs like it says “The Meadows - mine - The Mountains - mine -

Emerson encourages one to think of nature as a whole, and not merely as a collection of individual entities.

	When Emerson says "Insist on yourself; never imitate." he is saying that you should act like you are on the inside; don't try to be like someone else. Be your own person and strive

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.

By 1836, Emerson had published his most detailed statement of belief in his first published book, Nature. He starts the book discussing the currents of the Universal Being that circulate through him making him part God or a piece of God. This is what transcendentalism is mostly about, the belief in the divinity of the human and nature. Through the universal being everything in nature is linked, including humans. Nature’s spirit expresses itself through us and creates a unity between God, spirit and humanity. Nature rewards the noble and those