In his essay “Nature”, Ralph Waldo Emerson is of the view that nature and the beauty of nature can only be understood by a man when he is in solitude. It is only in solitude that a man realizes the significance of nature because he is far away from the hustled life he is accustomed to live since childhood.
Emerson is of the view that nature gives a human being so much; the sun, the trees, place to live and in return the man gives nothing as a result of which the balance of nature is disturbed. It is extremely essential for a man to take himself away from the distractions of the society to understand the importance of nature and what nature has to offer.
Emerson in his essay “Nature” creates a common ground metaphorically and in an abstract sense speaks to each and every man. Emerson is of the opinion that we take nature and its beauty for granted, for example, we take stars for granted because we know that wherever we go, the stars will be with us. What Emerson makes clear is that though we can see the stars and they are accessible, they are only accessible visibly.
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The truth is that we cannot access the stars because of the great distance between the stars and the Earth. Similarly, we also cannot access the nature, we do not know what it is all about because of the reason that we think that we are in touch with nature ,but actually we are not ,due to our busy lives.
Creating a link between the landscape and the stars, Emerson states that everything in the Universe is linked to one another. Instead of being a collection of integrated objects, he sees nature as an integrated whole. It is extremely essential to see nature plainly instead of seeing it superficially as most of us do and Emerson states that he is one of the lucky individuals who sees nature plainly. Because of the reason that he sees nature plainly he is living a life full of peace and solitude. It is essential to see nature from the eyes of a child because a child sees everything without judging it, from plain eyes.
In order to develop deep connection with nature, it is essential to see nature through the eyes of a child. It is only then that an individual will be in a position to understand nature. Transcendentalism is also visible in the essay where the poet is of the opinion that when he is alone in the woods he can feel himself being one with the nature as a result of which he can also feel the presence of God within him and all around him.
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Emerson especially discards the traditional way of viewing the nature i.e. from the eyes of ancient historians and ancient theories. This results in the loss of excitement and energy of creating something new as a result of which most of us are unable to discover real nature.