An invitation to the dance: A study of the influence of the works of Robinson Jeffers and D. H. Lawrence on deep ecology

This study explores the works of Robinson Jeffers and D. H. Lawrence in order to show how their philosophies on the relationship of humanity with the natural environment has affected the contemporary movement known as "deep ecology."; Starting with the connection of the writers through their experiences in Taos, New Mexico, the study goes on to discuss Jeffers' "inhumanism" and Lawrence's "vitalism," and it shows how these two ideas began a movement away from an anthropocentric worldview towards the development of a new, biocentric ecological consciousness. It then engages the more specific topics of the role of science and the importance of human relationships within this new consciousness, and the role of the poet as philosopher and prophet. The study concludes that our environmental future still depends on accepting the ideas of pioneering thinkers like Jeffers and Lawrence.