Poetic Imagination in Communion with Nature: A Case Study of Mary Oliver’s Selected Poems

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 PhD Candidate, Department of English Language and Literature, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Marand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran

Abstract

Considering the significance of ecopoetry and how it widens the ecological horizons of the readers, tracing the ecopoet’s mental transition from the moment of direct sensual experiences in Nature to the act of composition enables the readers to fathom out what lies behind the poetic imagination, bringing about the ecological sense of union with the natural. As for the purpose of this study, the researchers intend to examine the ecocentric-ecopoetic elements of the selected ecopoems out of Mary Oliver’s New & Selected Poems, Vol. 1 with the aim of bringing to light the fact that Oliver’s main attempt is inviting her readers to reach mental growth through her bringing forth the consciousness that derives from the power of imagination and acute attention given to the world of the non-human, enabling the speaker-poet and her readers to do away with the barriers of self-centeredness and take part in a collective reunion with Nature. Accordingly, the general framework that has been used to conduct the following research is Ecocriticism and its celebration of ecological wholeness between human and non-human agents.

Keywords


  1. Abram, D. (2010). Becoming animal: An earthly cosmology. Pantheon Books.
  2. Alford, J. B. (1988). The poetry of Mary Oliver: Modern renewal through mortal acceptance. Pembroke Magazine, 20, 283-288. http://pembrokemagazine.com/archives
  3. Bate, J. (1991). Romantic ecology: Wordsworth and the environmental tradition. Routledge.    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203798843 
  4. Berry, T. (2015). The dream of the earth. Counterpoint.
  5. Berry, W. (1983). Standing by words. Counterpoint.
  6. Berry, W. (1999). The long hunter’s vision. In L. M. Scigaj (Ed.), Sustainable poetry: Four American ecopoets (pp. 129-74). The University Press of Kentucky.
  7. Bonds, D. S. (1992). The language of nature in the poetry of Mary Oliver. Women’s Studies: An Inter-Disciplinary Journal, 21(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.1992.9978923
  8. Bryson. J. S. (2002). Ecopoetry: A critical introduction. The University of Utah Press.
  9. Buell, L. (2005).  The future of environmental criticism: Environmental crisis and literary  imagination. Blackwell Publishing.
  10. Burton-Christie, D. (1996). Nature, spirit, and imagination in the poetry of Mary Oliver. Cross   Currents, 46(1), 77-87.           https://www.academia.edu/28327370/Nature_Spirit_and_Imagination_in_the_Poetry_of_            Mary_Oliver
  11. Christensen, L. (2002). The pragmatic mysticism of Mary Oliver. In J. S. Bryson (Ed.), Ecopoetry: A critical introduction (pp. 135-52). The University of Utah Press.
  12. Clark, T. (2019). The value of ecocriticism. Cambridge University Press.  https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316155073
  13. Davis, T. (2009). The earth as God’s body: Incarnation as communion in the poetry of Mary   Oliver [Special issue]. Christianity and Literature, 58(4), 05-23.  https://doi.org/10.1177/014833310905800408
  14. Devall, B., & Sessions, G. (1985). Deep ecology, Peregrine Smith Books.
  15. Elder, J. (1996). Imagining the earth: Poetry and the vision of nature. University of Georgia Press.
  16. Evernden, N. (1996). Beyond ecology: Self, place, and pathetic fallacy. In C. Glotfelty & H.  Fromm (Eds.) The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology (pp. 92-104). The University of Georgia Press.
  17. Felstiner, J. (2009). Can poetry save the earth?: A filed guide to nature poems. Yale University Press.
  18. Glotfelty, C. (1996). Introduction. In. C. Glotfelty & H. Fromm (Eds.). The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology (pp. xv-xxxvii). The University of Georgia Press.
  19. Graham, V. (1994). Into the body of another: Mary Oliver and the poetics of becoming other. Papers on Language and Literature, 30, 352-73. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44086932
  20. Herald, M. (2000). Cover endorsement. The leaf and the cloud by Mary Oliver. Da Capo Press.
  21. Hitt, C. (1999). Toward an ecological sublime. New Literary History, 30(3), 603-623.  https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.1999.0037 
  22. Howard, B. (1991). World and spirit, body and soul. Poetry, 58(6), 342-344. https://doi.org/10.2307/3773992
  23. Iovino, S. (2012). Restoring the imagination of place: Narrative reinhabitation and the Po  Valley. In T. Lynch, C. Glotfelty, & K. Armbruster (Eds.) The bioregional imagination:   Literature, ecology, and place (pp. 100-117). The University of Georgia Press.
  24. Kalmbach, C. (2012). Ecopoetry: The new nature poetry. Central Michigan University.            
  25. Knott, J. R. (2002). Imagining wild America. University of Michigan Press.  https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12116 
  26. Kumin, M. (1993). Intimations of Mortality. The Women’s Review of Books, 10(7), p. 19, https://doi.org/10.2307/4021509 
  27. Love, G. A. (1996). Revaluing nature: Toward an ecological criticism. In C. Glotfelty & H. Fromm (Eds.) The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology (pp. 225-240). The University of Georgia Press.
  28. Lucas, R. (2006). Drifting in the weeds of heaven: Mary Oliver and the poetics of the immeasurable. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, 13(13), 1-11.
  29. Lynch, T., Glotfelty, C., & Armbruster, K. (Eds.). (2012). The bioregional imagination:  Literature, ecology, and place. The University of Georgia Press.
  30. McNew, J. (1989). Mary Oliver and the tradition of romantic nature poetry. Contemporary Literature, 30(1). 59-77, https://doi.org/10.2307/1208424 
  31. Moore, B. L. (2008). Ecology and literature: Ecocentric personification from antiquity to the   twenty-first century. Palgrave.
  32. Müller, S. L., & Pusse, T. K. (2018). From ego to eco: Mapping shifts from anthropocentrism to   ecocentrism. Brill Rodop.
  33. Oliver, M. (1992). New and selected poems (Vol. one). Beacon Press.
  34. Oliver, M. (2000a). The leaf and the cloud. Da Capo Press.
  35. Oliver, M. (2000b). Winter hours. Houghton Mifflin Company.
  36. Oliver, M. (2004). Long life: Essays and other writings. Da Capo Press
  37. Oliver, M. (2009). Evidence. Beacon Press.
  38. Wimberley, E. T. (2009). Nested ecology: The place of humans in the ecological hierarchy.       The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  39. Worster, D. (1993). The wealth of nature: Environmental history and the ecological imagination.  Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195092646.001.0001
  40. Zona, K. H. (2011). An attitude of noticing: Mary Oliver’s ecological ethic. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 18(1), 123-42, https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isr001