Ralph Waldo Emerson as Nature Poet

Abstract

Since nature inherently contains moral truth, knowledge and wisdom, the artist should rely on it, rather than convention, in shaping, formulating and appraising his work. Emerson maintains that literary works should not be only be evaluated according to artificial standards of tradition, but should rather be judged by nature since art is based organically on it. He shares with Coleridge the belief that literary forms should innately stem from nature instead of following mechanical laws of decorum. Emerson affirms that if we succeed in having a direct relation with the "basic forces" of nature, by retreating to a primitive, simple life, we will be able to reinvent genuine, organic forms (Matthiessen 133-6). In "Nature", Emerson further argues that nature provides us with language as well as with an explanation of the use of language. Every word in language is a symbol of a natural fact; for example, "right" is a sign for "straight" while "wrong" means "twisted". Similarly, we borrow the word "heart" to express emotion and the word "head" as analogous to thought. Both the abstract and the concrete find their roots in the visible forms of nature. Moreover, every natural fact corresponds to some spiritual fact. We symbolically use "light" and "darkness" to express knowledge and ignorance.