James 1 Tiffany James Dr.

Godwin Senior Portfolio 25 September 2013 The Destruction of Nature and the Words that Heal In wilderness is the preservation of the world, Henry David Thoreau. I have been reading nature poems since middle school and I never really gave nature a second thought. However, when I took a class on eco-poetry last year, it got me thinking: what is the difference between nature poetry and eco poetry and what caused the eco-poetry movement to start? Poets have been talking about nature for centuries, and William Wordsworth helped bring about the movement that brought everyones attention to it. One of his most famous poems that is still taught to this day is Daffodils. This poem starts off talking about one of the most common parts of nature: clouds. It says, I wandered lonely as a cloud/ that floats on high oer vales and hills (Wordsworth 1-2). Then it goes into the main focus of the poem, when all at once I saw a crowd,/ a host of golden daffodils (Wordsworth 3-4), this shows that Wordsworth is in tune with nature. These pure creations of nature are beside the lake, beneath the tree,/ fluttering and dancing in the breeze (Wordsworth 5-6). These lines show how the simplest insect, flower, and animal in nature can become so important. Little things like the breeze are so highly thought of that they are said to be as, continuous as the stars that shine/ and twinkle on the milky way (Wordsworth 7-8). Just like in space, they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay: ten thousand saw I at a glance,

James 2 tossing their heads in sprightly dance (Wordsworth 9-12). Wordsworth is comparing the daffodils to human beings in the fact that they looked like humans when they are gyrating back and forth with their heads bobbing everywhere. According to Masuda Hasin, Wordsworth presents nature as the incarnation of a spirit that lives and moves through all things (Hasin 1). These lines make it seem like the flowers are alive and bobbing their heads back and forth; but they / out-did the sparkling waves in glee (Wordsworth 13-14) because the way Wordsworth writes about the daffodils gives them life. The poem then takes a turn and starts to talk about the speaker, for oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils (Wordsworth 19-24). In this last stanza is where it is made obvious to the readers that nature is something that they should immerse themselves in. That even the tiniest petals are important and to not over look them. On the other hand William Blake, also a famous poet from the same time as Wordsworth, talks about nature, but in a broader sense. In his poem To Autumn, he talks about the season as a whole. These lines indicate the beginning of autumn with the ripe fruit all around and with the guts of smashed grapes used to make delicious tasting wine, O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained/ with the blood of the grape (Blake 1-2). Then he tells the reader to, pass not, but sit

James 3 Beneath my shady roof, there thou mayst rest, And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe; And all the daughters of the year shall dance! (Blake 2-5). The reader needs to sit down, relax, and enjoy nature at its finest. The fruit from the flowers is a part of nature within Blakes cycle of Love (and perhaps imagination) to the earth and the destruction of Love (Gleckner 539). Just like the fruits in the poem symbolize the love that the earth has with the tree, and the readers are instructed to sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers (Blake 6). Love is referenced directly in these lines, the narrow bud opens her beauties to/ the sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins (Blake lines 7-8). The flowers that the fruit produced have the love of the earth within them and they show how a single fruit can affect nature on a larger scale. Everything beautiful can be seen right away Blossoms hang round the brows of morning, and Flourish down the bright cheek of modest eve, Till clustring Summer breaks forth into singing, And featherd clouds strew flowers round her head (Blake lines 9-12). however, if mankind waits long enough nature will reveal its beauty. If humans take the time to stop and absorb what is around them, they will become like the spirits of the air, who live on the smells/ of fruit; (Blake lines 13-14), and feel joy, with pinions light, who roves round/ the gardens, or sits singing in the trees (Blake lines 14-15). Blake then refers to autumn as if it were a living being; thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,/ the rose, girded himself, and oer the bleak/ hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load (Blake lines 16-18). Then as autumns time ends and leaves mankind once again, it leaves behind something that can only truly be found in nature.

James 4 Authors and poets have been writing about nature for hundreds of years to try and entice people to enjoy simplicity, however after years of progression and technology the reason behind writing about nature has changed. Progression has brought about the age of eco-poetry, a form of writing that delves into the depths of the relationship between nature and culture. Wendell Berry starts off his poem The Peace of Wild Things with when despair for the world grows in me (Berry). With just this one line Berry impacts all that read this poem because the meaning behind his words seems to jump off the page and into the readers heart. The word despair alone lets the readers know that nature is being destroyed and that they need to pay close attention to nature. He then goes on to say and I wake in the night at the least sound/ in fear of what my life and my childrens lives may be (Berry). Here he is indicating that humans need to learn to pay attention to even the smallest thing in nature like a blade of grass or one day humans will wake up and all of the resources in nature that mankind needs to survive will be no longer. However, I go and lie down where the wood drake/ rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds (Berry). Nature is a wonder to behold and humans need to enjoy and immerse themselves in it more often. According to Nathanael Dresser, Wendell Berry considers the natural world in a way most of his predecessors did not: the land itself as a complex character which deserves the respect of its human inhabitants, (350). When Berry says, I come into the peace of wild things/ who do not tax their lives with forethought/ of grief (Berry lines 6-8), he surrounds himself with all of the wonderful things in nature that do not harm but respect everything around them, unlike humans. Then, I come into the presence of still water./ And I feel above me the day-blind stars/ waiting with their light (Berry lines 8-10). As he surrounds himself with nature, he can hear and feel bees, water, air that are not normally noticed, but help make human lives better. As he notices these things he realizes that for a time/ I rest in the grace of the world, and am free

James 5 (Berry lines 10-11). He is enjoying his freedom in the beauty of nature before mankind completely destroys it in their greed. Before mans greed over takes everything, humans need to take a second and remember that earth an nature go hand in hand, without one the other cannot exist. In Cheryl Singers poem Peace of the Earth the reader can see how much nature, the earth, and humans are intertwined. This can especially be seen in the first two lines, earth is in natures womb/ not its own indulgent tomb (Singer). Earth and nature are almost one and the same and killing one is killing both. Humans need to understand that, we are not its keepers, only/ one note sung in harmony (Singer). Humans were not meant to watch over the earth and upkeep nature, but to keep it all alive because the earth and nature are a part of humans. As time has passed by humans have lost sight of what is truly important because happiness is not fame, or money or power,/ but the gifts of clean air, clear oceans, grassy fields, a simple flower (Singer). The simplest things like a blade of grass matter because everything in nature matters; just like, the baby growing inside me whispers a gentle plea./ think of the future of the earth, think of nature, think of me (Singer). Just like the baby pleads for humans to provide a better future for it, the speaker pleads with the reader to understand what she is saying and to make a change before it is too late. According to Bill McKibben, we need to build some movements, and it didnt make since to wait around for others to build them. This coincides with what Singer is trying to get across to her readers, we control our destiny, by the choices we make/ by what we preserve, what we give, and not what we take (Singer). If humans make an effort to change what is happening in nature now then they can make a better future for themselves. Do not throw away what has been previously given because with all that weve been given by nature, what a ridiculous pity/ that we are destroying

James 6 it all to live in a polluted city (Singer). Instead of throwing it all away, let us all give gifts back to this beauty miracle, our Mother Earth (Singer). Through my search for the difference between nature poetry and eco-poetry and what started the eco-poetry movement, I found out so much more. Around 2002 the term came into wider, public use and since then the topic has started to gain worldwide recognition. Nature poetry has always talked about the little things in nature to try to bring humans back to simpler times; however, eco-poetry is not as easy to define. As a relatively new term many are not sure how to come up with a clear definition, but if I was to define it I would say its purpose it to help bring awareness of what is happening to the environment to the foreground of peoples minds. The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future, Marya Mannes.

James 7 Works Cited Berry, Wendell. "The Peace of Wild Things." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 6 Oct 2013. Dresser, Nathanael. "Cultivating wilderness: The place of land in the fiction of Ed Abbey and Wendell Berry."Growth & Change. 26.3 (1995): 350. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. McKibben, Bill. "Actions Speak Louder Than Words."Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. (2012): 3. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. Singer, Cheryl. "Ecomall." Peace of the Earth. Ecomall. Web. 6 Oct 2013.