An Ecological Reading Of John Donne's Poetry

John Donne, living in the 17th century of England, was the founder and the representative poet of The Metaphysical School. His poems have received much attention since the 20th century. Although people have already interpreted his poems from many different angles, the ecological ideas existing in his poems have not got enough attention.The ecological ideas in his poems not only demonstrate the ecological holism but also criticize the anthropocentrism. Donne shows his belief in the harmonious relationship between man and nature; man shouldn't intend to exploit and dominate nature.The thesis consists of five parts.The first part is a brief introduction of Donne's life experiences, his literary career and critical reception of his works. It also gives an introduction of ecocriticism with its development history and main theory that this thesis adopts.Chapter one is a tracing of the formation of Donne's ecological ideas to the heredity of ideas from medieval time to the Renaissance times in which he lived. Under these influences, Donne showed his ecological thoughts in his poetical writings.Chapter Two first probes into Donne's awareness of anti-anthropocentricism, and then displays his approval of ecological holism by explaining his images of love and death.Chapter Three, analyses Donne's attitude towards human, animals and plants one by one through close reading. And it is concluded that Donne had a mind to establish a harmonious ecological chain among them.The fifth part is the conclusion of the whole thesis.