"Nature" is what we see - Emily Dickinson

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.

Poetry analysis by Nancy Browne of Humanities360.com

In Emily Dickinson's poem, "Nature is What We See," the reader can sense her love and appreciation of nature. The theme of the poem is nature's simplicity, yet her poem suggests that nature is anything but simple; it is mysterious, magnificent, and inexpressible. The surface meaning primarily suggests that nature is natural and simple in theory, but exploring the underlying meaning, we see how Dickinson uses various patterns to describe the diversity in nature.

She shows this by the objects she chooses to represent, in the way of large, medium, and small, the sea, and the squirrel, and the bumblebee. She identifies nature as infinitely variable.

She starts the poem in reference to sight, with distinctive objects (hill, squirrel, bobolink, and bumblebee), all obvious things people can clearly see and visualize. She adds the abstract ( heaven, afternoon, thunder).

Then she takes it further suggesting that nature is more than sight, it is what people hear, Bobolink (a bird), the Sea, Thunder, Cricket, are all indications of her attempt to define nature through the senses (what we see, what we hear).

Next, she mentions that nature is harmony, (now we compare the objects of the sights and sounds. For instance, "afternoon" represents warm and light, the eclipse appears cool and dark. Weak and strong interpretations are also evident; the hill and sea are strong in appearance; the bobolink and bumblebee are weak in sound. Again, the diversity in nature is present by the noise of "thunder," as oppose to the noise of a "cricket." By using size, she attempts to show a pattern in relation to nature. It is as though nature is speaking to her in various degrees, through sight and sound.

She then compares nature to heaven, which suggests that both are mysterious and impossible to describe. So impotent, Our Wisdom indicates that humanity lacks the ability to understand the powers of nature, even suggesting that humans are too busy to care about the insignificant things that nature presents.

The mystery of what she sees and hears in nature leads her to God (Nature is Heaven) where the task of explanation is still impossible. Her suggestion is that nature itself is Heaven, and would bring people closer to God. She appears to be frustrated, unable to understand the morality of humanity and unable to explain the mystery of nature or of God.

(So impotent Our Wisdom) certainly suggests that humanity is not wise enough to define nature, and yet nature is so simple (To her Simplicity). Trying to express with words (Yet have no art to say) she is aware that it is useless; there are no words to describe the mysteries of nature.

In conclusion, she seems to say that humans do not notice the simple things in life, or they tend to ignore them (sight - hill, squirrel) and (sound - crickets, bumblebee). In the end, her line, "Nature is what we know," reflects on the notion that nature is a powerful mystery, and it will always remain indescribable.

The more Dickinson peers into nature, the more confused and frustrated she appears in trying to understand something that is not understandable.

Dickinson lived a life of alienation and this poem perhaps best describes her inability to understand not only herself, but nature, humanity and God as well.

These long dashes in her poem indicate a link to the many hidden thoughts of the author. "Nay" is a negative response and indicates how perplexed she is in defining nature