Theodore Roethke, William Stafford, and Gary Snyder:
The Ecological
Metaphor as Transformed Regionalism.
Uppsala, Sweden:
Uppsala University International Scholarly Series, 1989
This study examines the new
ecological dimension of the regional impulse in the poetry of three, major
contemporary poets of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The study
opens with a survey and analysis of the discussion of a general regional
aesthetic in poetry in the Northwest during the twentieth century and argues
that the important development visible in the regional impulse since World War
II in these poets has less to do with an earlier regional aesthetic than with
the elements of an ecological metaphor.
In
three close readings of the poets’ work the various strategies
of expressing the metaphor with the context of their common
region is explored. It is argued that in the poetry the
ecological metaphor conveys a new view of the relationship
between man and non-human nature, between man and place, in
which man is seen as an integrated and inseparable part of the
natural system of a region. This poetic metaphor is ethical in
that it voices a concern about the destruction of the natural
environment, suggests a model of ecologically correct behavior,
and envisions a harmonious balance where the human and non-human
meet as equals. In its an attempt to convey an environmental
ethic which would protect the integrity of the non-human world,
the poetry tends to rejects images and emblems of our
contemporary industrial-technological society, and to harken
back not only to earlier Romantic and Transcendental currents in
poetry, but more significantly, to the vision of man’s place
in nature as traditionally perceived by the Native Americans.
Finally,
the study concludes with a brief survey of other Northwest poets
who emphasize regional and/or ecological themes--including a
glance at three prominent Northwest Native American poets--and a
brief discussion of the political dimensions of this metaphor.
Order
This Book