Ecological Self in Nature Poetry

Abstract

This dissertation entitled ―Ecological Self in Nature Poetry,‖ has explored the issue of deep ecological consciousness and its human interconnections in the representative poems of four nature poets: William Wordsworth and John Keats from the English Romantic Movement, and Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau from the American Transcendentalist Movement. In this study, Wordsworth‘s ―Tintern Abbey,‖ and ―Ode: Intimation of Immortality‖ and Keats‘ ―Ode to Nightingale‖, and ―Ode to Autumn‖, Emerson‘s ―Song of Nature‖ and ―Brahma‖ and Thoreau‘s ―Nature‖ and ―I am the Autumnal Sun‖ have been selected for critical analysis from deep ecological perspective. This study has examined the selected nature poems of British Romanticism and American Transcendentalism revealing their deep ecological consciousness and the inherent interconnectedness between human and nature. These insights foster a non-anthropocentric discussion, which is crucial for addressing the growing environmental crises and achieving ecological equilibrium. This study adopts the insights of Arne Naess, Bill Devall, and George Sessions as theoretical parameters for analyzing the selected texts. The essence of this research is to explore the ecological self in nature poems. This research work traced problems that the nature poets‘ attachment to nature is not just from a human-centric point of view. After going through selected poems of four nature poets, I found that these nature poets are not just describing nature as a means of freedom, place of worship, or a celebration of self, as Romantic poets are supposed to do. Instead, they are returning to nature to reconnect themselves to discover their self-realization of profound embeddedness. Similarly, the poems of transcendentalist poets are not only advocating individualism, self-reliance, and idealism; they are also describing nature and its interconnectedness with humans. These poems have been discussed, interpreted and analyzed by many critics from an anthropocentric perspective, I argue that these nature poets are searching for interconnectedness with nature, describing nature in relation to culture. The selected poems convey the underlined theme of ecological consciousness, along with praising nature and celebrating the self. Therefore, this research work has interpreted, analyzed, and discussed these poems from an ecocentric perspective, which believes that all organisms are equal and interconnected. This research work has unfolded discussion on this gap from the deep ecological perspective, aiming to uncover deep ecological consciousness and interconnectedness among all organisms in nature from the ecocentric point of view. This research focused on finding the answer to the following research questions: What type of relationship is found between humans and nature's biotic and abiotic elements? Why do poets such as Wordsworth, Keats, Emerson, and Thoreau present equal intrinsic and organic relationships among the different components of nature in their poems? How and why do they reveal and redefine the ecological self in their nature poems? And what do they want to achieve?