An Ecocritical Interpretation Of Walt Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass

Walt Whitman was a famous romantic poet in American literary history in the nineteenth century and Leaves of Grass was his representative poetry anthology. His creation of "free verse" broke the tradition of restriction for poetic beat and rhyme and initiated a new era of American poetry. The special cadences, the unstrained expression, the plain style and the simple words make contribution to the charm of Whitman’s art. The content of Leaves of Grass almost embraces all things in the world with its eternal themes of democracy, freedom and equality. The previous researches on Leaves of Grass mostly concentrated on stylistics, translation, cultural criticism of feminism and mysticism, thus, this thesis is intended to analyze this classical poetry anthology from a special angle of ecocriticism by using related ecocritical theories. After careful study and analysis of a considerable number of poems, the author tried to dig out the valuable ecological ideas embedded in Leaves of Grass so as to shed some light on the alleviation of modern ecological crisis.The thesis is composed of three parts. The first part, is introduction. The author first gives a brief introduction to the poet and his Leaves of Grass. Then both the foreign and domestic studies on Leaves of Grass are offered, which mainly focus on the stylistics and translation of the poems in Leaves of Grass. Thus this thesis attempts to research Whitman’s Leaves of Grass from a new angle of ecocriticism.The second part is the body of the thesis. It consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, the process of the formation of ecoriticism is briefly reviewed and some related concepts used in this thesis are introduced so that the feasibility of interpreting the poetry anthology from the ecocritical perspective can be fully proved.The second chapter focuses on delving into the formation of Whitman’s ecological ideas. They are mainly related to three respects:first, living in the countryside in his childhood cultivated Whitman’s deep love for nature; secondly, his different working experiences in adulthood also contributed to the formation of his ecological ideas; lastly, equality, freedom and individuality in the main-stream of American culture, together with transcendentalism, enlightened the poet on his contemplation of the relationship between civilization and nature. All these factors gradually forged Whitman’s ecological ideas.In the third chapter, the author analyzes the poems in light of the "intrinsic value", which is much stressed by deep ecologists, and comes to the conclusion that every kind of beings on the earth, including human beings, should be carefully valued. Then the egalitarianism in both nature and society, especially between classes and nations, is discussed to stress the importance of equality. Therefore, each being in nature possesses its own intrinsic value, and each of them has made its own contribution to the ecosystem. People should protect them and their living space rather than damaging or interfering with their living environment only by using the measurement of human beings’interests. Human beings are not superior to any other beings in nature, and cannot impose their will on any of them. Each of them has the equal right with human beings to live and existThe fourth chapter starts with important concepts of ecological holism such as "nature is an organic whole", exploring Whitman’s idea of interrelatedness in nature through careful reading of some related poems in Leaves of Grass. Whitman’s concept of interconnection in nature involves two dimensions:spatial interdependence and temporal interconnection. So all things in nature are interrelated with one another and the relationship between human beings and all the other beings in nature are interdependent, even the past is interrelated with the present and the future. Besides, the diversity of all beings in nature is so important that each of them can play its own role of promoting the prosperity of nature. Meanwhile, the diversity of culture in society is also necessary to make civilization boom.The fifth chapter begins with examining Whitman’s adoration of nature, then his ecological dream or ecotopia is explored. Going back to nature to appreciate its beauty and to acquire its spiritual power is highly advocated. Apart from that, people should also learn the wisdom of nature to live a poetic life in the natural way of existence without much more mental strain and stress. Finally, the harmonious relationship between nature and human beings should be built so that both parties can positively interact with one another at a compatible pace. Here the weak-anthropocentrism is adopted.The third part of the thesis is the conclusion. After the careful study of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass from the ecocritical perspective, the conclusion is reached: Whitman’s ecological ideas are all-round, timeless, universal and sustainable. He not only recognizes the intrinsic value of all beings in nature, but also perceives the interrelatedness and interdependence among all things in nature. He even goes further to extend the interrelatedness in dimension of time by using his amazing imagination so that the importance of sustainable development is emphasized. Besides, Whitman loves nature and cares about society as well. In conclusion, what Whitman aspires for is the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature. He advocates that people should go back to nature to attain the spiritual peace and draw inspiration from nature so that they can realize "the poetic dwelling" on the earth.