Emerson's "Nature"

Eli Pardue
3/26/08
AP Lang Comp
LaMags

Emerson’s “Nature”

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature,” Emerson presents many ideas and beliefs of man’s role in the natural world. He obviously writes this piece as an ode to nature, but makes man a much more invasive aspect of nature, saying how nature “deifies us” so that we might shape it to our needs. He also writes about man being an integral part of nature.
“The shows of day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, and the like, if too eagerly hunted, become shows merely, and mock us with their unreality. Go out of the house to see the moon, and 't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey. The beauty that shimmers in the yellow afternoons of October, who ever could clutch it? Go forth to find it, and it is gone: 't is only a mirage as you look from the windows of diligence.” In this lengthy passage, Emerson speaks of nature’s beauty. He is presenting the idea that if one goes out to search for nature’s beauty, be it the rainbow, orchards in blossom, the moon, or the stars, one will not find it because it cannot be found if directly searched for. In order for one to really appreciate nature’s beauty, one must be working in harmony with nature. When speaking of the moon, Emerson says, “it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey.” This means that the moon’s light will be more appreciated and therefore more beautiful when its light is a necessity to light your way.
I think that this passage holds a lot of truth, but I think that it also contradicts his previous statements. Seeing nature through the “windows of diligence” is possible if one is a solitary man like Emerson, or Thoreau, because they have chosen that path. But it is not possible if one has been deified by nature, because one would then go about altering nature to his own needs, such as paving the land with railroad tracks. Such actions do not help people appreciate the beauty of nature, because if they did, the people would not cover that beauty with tracks. I do agree with Emerson, however, that flowers are more appreciated when planted and cared for, and that the light of the moon and the stars is more appreciated when it lights your path.