Nature Poetry Versus Environmental Poetry

Turning the Natural Background into the Poem's Main Subject

Feb 17, 2009

Modern nature poetry has been written since the age of Romanticism. However, given the 21st century's environmental crises, a poetry that speaks to ecology is emerging.

Poetry about nature is a vital part of literary tradition. Whether in opposition to a feared environment or an exaltation over the magnificence of creation, nature verse has predominated in many world literatures. Yet, with the shift in general comprehension of the impact of humanity's actions on the planet, poetry is becoming more conscious of nature in ecological terms.

Nature Poetry

Nature poetry has a long tradition in Europe and North America, and a much longer one in Asian poetry. Chinese poets have diminished the human figure in relation to their natural environment in their lyrics and Japanese poets have written haikus about non-human life for centuries. However, the shift towards a valuation of nature in European poetry only occurred around the time of Romanticism.

At this point nature, as represented by forests, lakes, mountains and other features, began to be lauded as offering sublime vistas and uplifting experiences for poets and others alike. Prior to this, nature was accorded little space in literature or represented as a hostile wasteland.

North American poetry has always dealt with the vast landscape since the inception of its literature, its verse representing either themes of survival in the face of a terrifying wilderness or echoing Romantic images of rosy clouds and ethereal peaks. Yet it is only recently that a poetry has begun to emerge that attempts to acknowledge nature on its own terms, to comprehend the ecological cycles underpinning the environment, and to admit to complicity in the destruction of its fragile systems.

Environmental and Ecological Poetry

Language use brings with it the tendency to enclose humans in their own constructions of belief and subjectivity. Thus, writing a poetry that tries to surmount human supremacy by entering nature in a less-ego driven way is challenging. Poets have always been called upon to freshen and transform stale patterns of thought, to reinvigorate image and language and to speak against injustice in many forms.

Environmental and ecologically grounded poetry considers the interrelatedness of all life, the core premise of ecology itself. It does not construct nature as merely the backdrop, the metaphor, either an entity to fear or to place on a pedestal. Lawrence Buell in The Environmental Imagination (Harvard University Press 1995) asks us to consider four features of environmentally conscious texts, including poetry.

He claims that such works must: make the non-human environment integral not peripheral, make human interest only one legitimate focus, make humans accountable to the environment and make nature into what it is, more of a process than a constant or static backdrop (7,8).

In the States, poets like A.R. Ammons, Mary Oliver, Gary Snyder, and earlier than this Robinson Jeffers and Loren Eiseley, have foregrounded these perceptions of the environment. In Canada, the ecological poetry movement is not as clearly marked, but poets such as Ken Bedford,Di Brandt, Don McKay and Dionne Brand are beginning to write a poetry that considers the environment as an equal participant in the universe.

The copyright of the article Nature Poetry Versus Environmental Poetry in Poetry Forms is owned by Catherine Owen. Permission to republish Nature Poetry Versus Environmental Poetry in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.