The Ecological Reading Of William Wordsworth’s Poems

The great poet, William Wordsworth, not only described the beautiful natural scene butalso expressed some ecologic ethical thoughts. He thought that nature which can bringenlightenment and joy to man was great, equal to mankind and had own laws. Anydestruction to nature will be punished by nature. Therefore he advocated building a goodsocial relationship and harmonious coexisting eco-relationship between man and nature.Though so many scholars already studied the contribution of William Wordsworth to modernecology, eco-literature and eco-criticism gradually, most study on Wordsworth’s poem wasstill the layer of literature. Therefore, further study is necessary.The paper, from the angle of ecological ethical society, studies the thought ofWordsworth’s poem such as the Excursion, the Prelude, the Lyrical Ballads and his otherpoems to discuss the ecological ethics and ecological consciousness in the poems. This paperwill apply those hot problems that ecological ethics focuses on to discuss Wordsworth’secological ethical thought such as natural value, Anthropocentrism, industrial civilization,mankind’s ecological liability. By studying Wordsworth’s Nature poems, man couldunderstand the importance of nature to human and know that protecting nature meansprotecting mankind.This paper is divided into five parts: first one is an introduction including WilliamWordsworth’s contribution and reputation in the literates, and the characteristics of his poetry;literature review about ecology in literature, appraising of William Wordsworth’s poem andWilliam Wordsworth’s ecological thoughts; finally describing some relative theory such asliterary eco-criticism, anthropocentrism, and natural centrism. Chapter One is to deal withpraising nature in William Wordsworth’s Poetry from three aspects: praising natural scenewith plain language and expressing pleasure and pain with natural feeling; praisingcountryside; praising animal and plant, respecting the animal’s right, praising the harmonybetween plants and animals. Chapter Two is to describe the effect of industrial revolution onnature according to Wordsworth’s opinion. Chapter Three is to discuss the dialecticrelationship between human and nature from two opposite angles: the harmony and theconflict. Finally, it expounds the recourse and the significance of the thought, estimates the value of his works, in order to afford a good use for reference of ecological writing andcriticism, and help the developing of the criticism to some extent. Therefore, man should livewith nature in a harmonious way. Hope such a study can contribute to the establishment ofecological society.