Nature is what we see Summary & Analysis
by Emily Dickinson

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The American poet Emily Dickinson wrote "Nature is what we see" around 1863. The poem praises the beauty and wonder of the natural world while also arguing that human beings lack the ability to fully understand, categorize, and describe that world. "Nature" includes things human beings can see and hear, like hills and birds, but the speaker insists that it also encompasses more abstract concepts like "heaven" and "harmony." The poem is one of many Dickinson "definition" poems, in which the speaker attempts to define a particular concept—though, in this case, the speaker admits defeat.

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