The Ecological Consciousness In Wallace Stevens's Poems

Wallace Stevens is one of the five major American modern poets in the early 20th century. One of his most outstanding features is his concern and love for nature. On one hand, the climate, the sky, the air, the field and so on make up the beautiful scenery in Stevens's poetry. On the other hand, the poet's world of life always lies in the sharp contrast between the bleakness and monotony of modern industrialized life and the richness of nature, just as what Stevens himself says,"an exceptional view of the public dump and advertising signs while dwelling in an ivory tower".This thesis aims at a close reading of some parts of Steven's collected poetry, giving an analysis of Stevens's ecological thoughts and ecological consciousness. On the basis of finding out the descriptions of nature beauty, the thesis tries to reveal the poet's main ecological thoughts. Stevens considers nature as the equal entity of man and he believes that man and nature are interdependent with each other and man should hold strong belief in nature, as he once claims in his letter,"An old argument with me is that the true religious force in the world is not the church but the world itself: the mysterious calling of Nature and our responses". Stevens hopes that man could respect nature and conform to nature in the attempt to rebuild the harmonious relationship between man and nature. Chapter One is the introduction which gives a brief introduction to ecocriticism, the poet and his poems. Chapter Two presents the features of Stevens's nature descriptions. Chapter Three deals with Stevens's ecological thoughts by analyzing his presentation of the relationship between man and nature in his poetry. Chapter Four focuses on Stevens's ecological awareness on how to improve the relationship between man and nature. Chapter Five serves as a conclusion, presenting the significance of reading Stevens's poems from an ecological perspective for the modern age.In a word, the nature's subjectivity and the interdependence between man and nature proposed by Stevens are in accordance with the ecological theories appeared in the late 20th century. So the poet's ecological consciousness is ahead of time. Undoubtedly, with the sharpening of the international ecological crisis, Stevens's ecological awareness is of great significance for modern people's dealing with the relationship between man and nature.