On The Ecological Thoughts In D.H.Lawrence's Poems

D.H.Lawrence is one of the most influential writers in the 20^thcentury.He is not only a great novelist but an outstanding and prolific poet who kept writing poems throughout his whole life.Many of his profound ideas are expressed by the form of poetry including his rich ecological thoughts.Though the increasing ecological researches on his novels in recent years have proved the existence of his ecological philosophy,studies on Lawrence's ecological wisdom in his poetry are still lacked.This thesis deeply explores the ecological thoughts of Lawrence in his poetry based on a case study on Birds,Beasts and Flowers,his collection of poems that was created during the interim and has an overall display of his abundant ecological consciousness.The thesis attempts to answer three research questions,namely,what the core notions and characteristics of Lawrence's ecological thoughts are,what the differences in the focus of animal writing and plant writing in Birds,Beasts and Flowers are,and how the poet convey his ecological thoughts respectively in plant and animal writings.By analyzing Lawrence's creation motive and background,with relevant materials including his biography,letters and essays as extra evidences and Aldo Leopold's Ecological Holism as theoretical support,the paper redefines and illustrates the ecological thoughts of Lawrence from two aspects,i.e.ecological holistic thought toward nature and criticism on industrialization toward society.And Birds,Beasts and Flowers is a concentrated expression of the two ecological ideas.The poet's focuses in the plant and animal writings of this work are different.On the one hand,through careful reading of plant poems,it is found that the poet's unique aesthetic on plant life highlights the secrets and existence values of different life forms,expressing his ethical concern for the“lower life”in the“biotic community”.The recording and reflection of the life process of plants from flowering to rotting conveys the poet's ecological views on death based on his consideration to the balance and integrity of ecosystem.And the image of the“land”in plant poems actually refers to the same notion as the“land”in Land Ethic,through which Lawrence emphasizes the great importance of the connection between individual and the ecological unity.Therefore,the plant writing is actually about Lawrence's unique understanding of life itself and nature,which embodies his ecological holistic thought.On the other hand,the animal poetry in Birds,Beasts and Flowers contains Laurence's eco-thinking on the industrial society.The appreciation of the ugliness for animals voices his disavowal of the deep-rooted concept of species discrimination in human society.Poetic lines about human's interaction and confrontation with animals reveal the destruction of industrial civilization to human-animal relationship.What's more,the frequent use of zoosemy and the bold description of the intuitive life of animals in poetry express the poet's worship for“blood consciousness”which is believed to be the remedy to cure the diseased condition of human society in the industrial era.At last,the thesis makes an overall conclusion on the poet's ecological philosophy in poetry,as well as on the significance of this study which will not only help to reexamine Lawrence's achievement on poetry and recognize his identity as a great ecological poet,butalsotoarouseourecologicalholisticconsciousness,generalizethe non-anthropocentric ethic and rebuild the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature.