Nature is supposed to invoke a mood of awe. Emerson, by using a reverent tone and poetic style, intends for the essay to inspire a well of gratitude for nature in the reader.
This sublime feeling that Emerson intends to inspire is meant to make the reader’s woes seem small. The sublime is a concept in literature and aesthetic philosophy that refers to the quality of greatness—greatness in size, beauty, or anything else—that inspires immense awe. In literature, the sublime frequently appears in relation to nature, oftentimes in association with things that make humans feel small by comparison. Romantic authors like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth frequently invoked the concept in the late 18th century.
Emerson suggests that a sublime feeling is the antidote to many of humanity’s woes. However, it is worth noting that, although Emerson invokes the sublime, he departs from many of the Romantics when it comes to the idea of nature’s violence. Most of the sublime nature in Romanticism is sublime because it is uncaring and much more powerful than man. Many sublime moods in Romantic books are a mix of fear and awe, but Emerson’s sublime mood is one of only awe. Nature’s purpose, in Emerson's eyes, is to serve man—the wonders of nature are not indifferent or violent toward humanity, but cooperative.
Nature’s mood attempts to reset the reader’s connection with nature so that they can have these experiences of transcendence in nature. Emerson tries to channel the same feeling that nature creates in him into the essay. Reverence for nature encourages the reader to, like Emerson, go forth into the world and notice its beauty.
