The Eco-interpretation Of The Themes In Gary Snyder’s Poems

Since human beings existed on this world, they have had close connection with thenatural world. The topic about the relationship between human and nature has beendiscussed a lot by many scholars in the world literary process. The relationship betweenhuman and nature has been changing from worshipping nature and respecting nature atthe early times, to changing nature, conquering nature, and even controlling nature aftertwo Industrial Revolutions. But nowadays, human conquer nature without limitation.That leads to the worsening of nature and the damage of the whole ecosystem. Just due tothe worsening ecological environment, many literary works directly turn to reflect thepresent ecological state in order to warn human beings and to arouse human’sconsciousness of protecting the environment. This thesis chooses the poems of GarySnyder--one of the American eco-literature representatives--as the main study objects.This thesis chooses the analysis of Gary Snyder’s poems as the main line. It makesan attempt to find the basic structure of Snyder’s ecological thoughts by analyzing andclassifying his poems on different themes; and it find the final guidance of these poems’ecological connotations.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which makes a brief introduction to the birth anddevelopment of eco-literature and literary eco-criticism. Then it touches the birth ofeco-poetry. Next it introduces the general circumstances of both native and foreignresearches on Snyder and the basic information of Gary Snyder. At last, the purpose andthe creative points of this thesis are presented.The second part is the main body, which is made up of three chapters:Chapter One focuses on the eco-exploration of nature in Snyder’s poems. It beginswith the holistic beauty of nature within the ecological connection, which introduces thebeauty of nature itself and the magic connection among all the things. Then it presentsthe power of nature, both its own power and the power nature gives to the others. Finallyit demonstrates how nature suffered in Snyder’s eyes and how nature turns into thepresent state.Chapter Two starts from the aspect of human society, analyzing the change of Snyder’s eco-cognition in the poems. By the main line of analyzing the poems, thischapter narrates the process of human cognition from realizing the fact of nature’sdestroyer to discovering the ecological crisis in human society, which makes people feelstrong emptiness, and finally to finding the solution to the crisis—constructing theharmony within human inner world.Chapter Three concludes the structure of Snyder’s ecological thoughts on the basisof the former two chapters, i.e. realizing the ecological civilization of being harmoniousbetween human and nature. This chapter is on the ecological practice of Snyder. The poethas found that nature is the best platform for human meditation through his researches.And he puts it into practice by himself and later forms his own “Wilderness” ethics, bywhich Snyder calls people to return to nature and be the real inhabitants. He hopes thatthrough such practices people can realize the integrity between nature and their innerworld.The last part is conclusion, which makes a summary of Snyder’s ecological thoughts.Through the eco-explanation of nature and the presentation of human’s eco-cognitionprocess, it comes to the conclusion that human must meditate through the naturalplatform, re-identify our relationship with nature by the changing social need, and followthe way of Snyder’s “returning to wilderness” and “being a real inhabitant”. Only bydoing so, can people keep the balance of developing both in the inner world and in thenatural world in order to realize the harmony and unity between the two.