Rachel Worthington: "Nature" is What We See

"Nature" is What We See:

"Nature" is what we see --
The Hill -- the Afternoon --
Squirrel -- Eclipse -- the Bumble bee --
Nay -- Nature is Heaven --
Nature is what we hear --
The Bobolink -- the Sea --
Thunder -- the Cricket --
Nay -- Nature is Harmony --
Nature is what we know --
Yet have no art to say --
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.
- Emily Dickenson

In this poem, Dickenson is presenting to the reader her experience with the presence of God through his works in nature. She contemplates on nature and uses each example of it as a way to communicate how humans are inherantly one with it. The hill, bumble bee, sea, eclipse and soforth are examples of nature that humans hear, see and know; however, it is the meaning that the objects have is where one finds the divinity with in them. By discovering the beauty and meaning behind nature, one begins to understand theirself in relation to nature. Dickenson speaks of harmony between the self, nature and the Divine. Using a phenomenological approach, she attempts to represent the difference between things we simply observe with our senses with the things we engage our senses into. Lines 9 and 10 express how we know nature because we are of it, but we can only try to recreate the feeling of unity with it through art. She illudes to the notion that one can find themselves when they look for the self in nature.

Baker, Abu, and M. S. Ahmad. "Delving into the Mysteries of Dickinson's "'Nature' Is What We See"/ETUDES APPROFONDIES SUR LES MYSTÈRES DE "'NATURE' EST CE QUE NOUS VOYONS" DE DICKINSON - This Article Is an Attempt to Decipher the Meaning of Emily Dickinson's Poem 668 "'Nature' Is... - Canadian Social Science." Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education - Faqs.org. Canadian Social Science, 1 Nov. 2010. Web. Apr. 2011. .