The poets, Freneau, Bryant and Emerson, have all written poems thathave been reprinted numerous times all over the world. All their poems present an array of lessons depending on their diction, form and themes. These lessons are, according to Freneau’s The Wild Honeysuckle,nature offers a great scope of lessons. These lessons, however, are only available to those persons that are in the sincerity to seek them.Freneau uses nature to make intricate comparisons to the way that the life of human beings works. It is from these from this that one learns that just as nature is, human beings are bound to be born at some point, live and die eventually. Freneau also asserts that people are supposed to take care of one another just as they do for nature itself and the ways that they treat their personal lives. This is demonstrated in the line “She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, and planted here the guardian shade.” Every person should be considered as being beautiful in their own right. They should be cared for by other people just as the seasons of nature express their intentions and actions in the care of nature’s components. In addition, Freneau presents the fact that just as “the frail duration of a flower” is, human life should also be guarded and lived in a manner that an individual attains the best out of it. Human beings should strive to exploit the resources and opportunities that life throws their way as time goes by. It is only through such exploitation of resources and opportunities that one survives.

Freneau, in the Indian Burying Ground, presents an understanding that people may learn more by attempting to go in quite an opposite direction from the norms set by society.It is from such actions that human beings learn the different aspects of life and its components. 

According to Emerson’s poems, similarly, lessons can be learned. In the poem, Hamatreya, presents such lessons as distinction, separation and likeness as being among the fundamental skills for survival. For instance, he presents a distinction between reality and illusion by presenting the pride in land as any other property. He furthers this by making clear that the belief that one would always be wealthy. This is an illusion as Emerson presents that death, being indiscriminate, is something that every person, whether wealthy or poor, will negate every bit of importance ascribed to property by human beings. He makes clear that, ultimately, human beings will understand that property is not as valuable as they believe like him by the use of the line “my avarice cooled.”

From Bryant’s To a Waterflow, on the other hand, the lesson brought out is that through nature, one can overcome the stresses they are undergoing. From The Prairies, Bryant teaches that nature is constant and does not change unlike a person who keeps changing.

Bryant views nature as an escape from the pressures of life and pressure of the crowd. He stated that to a man who is burdened by world’s misery, nature provides him with calm shade and a sweet breeze which wafts a balm to the sick heart. He also believed that nature contained a lot of truths to share with man. He uses the poem named the Prairies and To a Waterflow to describe the beauty and the glorious strength that nature provides to man.  He also attributes man’s acquisition of knowledge to nature. In The Prairies, Bryant states that man has no control over the clouds which sweep over with their shadows or any other works of God. He also states that nature, unlike man, does not change. 

Emerson believed that nature does not exist to just provide man with the enjoyment of is beauty. Instead, the existence of nature was to help man intuit spiritual abstractions. The presence of nature was for the purpose of reminding man of oneness of man to man, of man to nature and of nature to God. He further asserts that nature lives in he now, has existed in the present day and the breath of God nourishes it from time to time. In Hamatreya, Emerson upholds a broader and spiritual outlook of nature.  Emerson’s Each and All emphasizes the unity of all manifestations of nature and also symbolism of nature. It also stresses on the perpetual development of all the forms of nature towards the greatest expression as personified in man. For instance, he states that the stars were made to enable him to perceive the “perpetual presence of the sublime.” Nature, according to Emerson provides eternal youth and joy, and counters any misfortune befalls a person.

Freneau has used literary characteristics to praise nature and emphasize on a person’s intuitive perception especially in The Wild Honey Suckle and The Indian Burying Ground.  Freneau in his poem The Wild Honey Sucker uses words such a fair, honeyed for the purpose of creating he image of a beautiful flower which can only survive if it is protected by nature.  He sees the fate of humans mirrored in the fate of a mirror. This means that people originated from nature and they will return to nature one day.  In The Indian Burying Ground, Freneau puts emphasis on nature. He portrayed the birds painted vessel, bow and arrows of dead individuals to illustrate that as if he was still alive. Also, death in the Indian culture has been portrayed as not a horrible thing. Life is spent and not the old concepts gone. Nature is also described to provide information to a curious eye. 

According to Bryant, in the poem To a Waterfowl, the revelation is that at the end of the life human beings, they encounter the heavenly realm. He asserts that there is a Supreme Being who guides people through these times and that is always there with man. Bryant goes ahead to present his claim that in spite of being guided by the Supreme Being, human beings have the ultimate stance and will to make the decisions on how they live their lives. Bryant, furthermore, presents the fact that God is the giver of life. He presents this in the poem, The Prairies. As God gives life, He also causes the change in the forms of being. God is presented as a powerful and glorious being that causes the life and death of living things.

Emerson, on the other hand,in his poem Each and All, presents nature as it is, offers a better understanding to the ways and decisions people make. It is through the observance of human beings to nature that they get to appreciate their being. They are a part of “the perfect whole”. This is expressed in the line that states that “the rolling river, the morning bird.” In the poem by Freneau, The Wild Honeysuckle,there is the use of the wild honeysuckle to make a revelation about the life of human beings. This is done by expounding on the life of the honeysuckle. It is done to the point that “quietly the summer goes away.” This depicts the process of human life until they reach the point of the “declining repose.” It is this declining repose that demonstrates the finality of the life of human beings, death.

Related essays