Spiritual Ecology In Selected Poems Of Gary Snyder

As one of famous contemporary poets and environmental protection activists in America,Gary Snyder won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in1975and is honored as the Poet Laureate ofdeep ecology because of his unique ecological ideas. In his poems and works, Snyder not onlyexpresses his regret for the ecological environmental deterioration and the strong call for theconstruction of poetic dwelling, but also shows his deep concerns about man’s unbalancedspiritual ecology.Through a study of Snyder’s poetry and prose from the perspective of spiritual ecology,this thesis analyzes the spiritual ecological state of people reflected in poems, interprets theessence of Snyder’s spiritual ecological consciousness and explores the solutions for spiritualcrisis.Snyder pays a close attention to the symptoms of modern people’s spiritual imbalance forreaders which are mainly presented in two ways in his poems: spiritual vacuum and the blindcommodity fetishism. The thesis first mainly focuses on analyzing the spiritual vacuum andits concrete manifestations of the modern people in Snyder’s poems. Because of theconstraints of society, the trauma brought by wars and the negative effect of moderncivilization, people can not find the purpose and meaning of life in real life and they feel thedespair of world and their lives, so that they choose to imprison their selves; because of theloss of values and the lonely empty hearts, the characters in Snyder’s poems are troubled byanxiety, loneliness and sufferings, and ultimately lose in the long journey of life, which canlead to the loss of spiritual garden. Then the thesis analyzes the characters from differentsocial classes in Snyder’s poems blindly pursue materials and worship commodities. It leadsto modern people’s spiritual fetishism which is mainly presented in two aspects: the strongdesire for material possession and the blind worship of high science and technology. In orderto satisfy the greedy desire and fill the spiritual emptiness, some people have to look foralternatives, and thus begin to pursue high-quality material life and endless stream of fame,which at the same time wrecks emotions and relationships between people, deprives the meaning of life and a sense of happiness. Finally, by analyzing the spiritual imbalance of themodern people, the thesis discusses the ecological practice proposed by Snyder to ease thehuman beings’ crisis and proposes people should construct harmonious spiritual ecology. Ittries to seek a way of hope for people to return to their spiritual garden. The unbalancedspiritual ecology brings endless torment and destroys man, even leads to ruin the nation. InSnyder’s eyes, finding the proper place and reinhabitation in there and learning simple livingmay be able to ease people’s spiritual crisis and pay a possible way for man return to thespiritual home and poetically dwell on the earth.In sum, Snyder always maintains the ecological belief in the works and in his daily lifeand advocates a new style of life. With the increasing worsening of environment and thedesolation of human beings’ spiritual world, Snyder’s poetry and lifestyle provide aconstructive choice to mainstream culture from different perspectives. Meanwhile, byapplying spiritual ecology theory to exploring Snyder’s spiritual ecological consciousnessinspire us to realize how to live better in the world. People should be close to nature, throwaway the excessive material desire, find their perfect spiritual garden and poetically dwell onthe earth.