"Nature, the Gentlest Mother"

During my years of schooling and watching T.V., I have always heard people talking about how their favorite poet is the great Emily Dickinson. After reading just one of her poems, I can defiantly see why they like her so much; there is something in the way that she writes that seems to speak right to the reader. The poem that I chose to read from her was “Nature, the gentlest mother” from the Nature section in the complete collection of her poems. In all honesty, I chose one under this section and title because I figured that it would be the easiest to relate to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau because they both valued, nature, but I will get to that point later.

The short poem is a very simple one. It is simply about the way Emily see’s nature; as “the gentlest mother” ( Dickinson 1 ). It talks about how it is caring and full of life. It is the most loving and caring thing we know.

I think that Emily Dickinson was heavily influenced by the writing styles and philosophies of transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau. I believe this because she refers to nature as a “ her “ which gives the reader the illusion and idea that she believes that nature is a living person that cares for all living things with great love and care. This is similar to Emerson and Thoreau because they often times referred to nature with a capital “N” instead of the normal lower case letter. This shows that they have much reverence for nature. The capital “N” does not only imply reverence and respect, it also gives the idea similar to the one given by Dickenson; nature is a living person. Another similarity to Emerson and Thoreau was the fact that in the fourteenth line of the poem, she uses the word “prayer” which also gives the poem an immediate religious undertone, which is similar to Emerson’s idea that God can only be observed through nature.

Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000.