Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder’s Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics

作者：秦梦茵

来源：《校园英语·中旬》2014年第09期

【Abstract】This thesis aims to investigate the overall relationship between ecology and Gary

Snyder’s poetry and poetics. The American poet Gary Snyder， known as one of the Beat

Generation， draws attention to the healing and recuperation while the others overthrow and reject

everything. Snyder is also regarded as the Poet Laureate of deep ecology for his great contribution to

deep ecology movement.

【Key words】Gary Snyder ；Ecopoetry；Ecopoetics

’s Poetry of Bioregion

The definition as well as the meaning of bioregion has been made clear in chapter. This section

focuses on the analysis of Gary Snyder’s poetry on bioregion. As Snyder explains， “There are tens

of millions of people in North America who were physically born here but who are not actually living

here intellectually， imaginatively， or morally”（Snyder， “The Practice of the Wild” 40）.

However， they find themselves lack of skills necessary to live in this place. Therefore， it is

essential for people to regain the knowledge that our society has too long considered useless.

It is a “war against earth./ When it’s done there’ll be /no place//A coyote could hide”（Snyder，

“Turtle Island” 23）. The tone of this poem is discouraging and disappointed with the lack of respect

humans have for nonhuman world.

gies of Ecopoetry

Snyder hold the view of ecocentric egalitarianism， which is realized in his ecopoetry by

employing several strategies. These strategies aim at deconstructing anthropocentrism and enhancing

the position of non-human high enough to enjoy deserved respect.

The first strategy is to present human’s insignificance in an enormously expanded context of

space and time. The best example must be “What Happened Here Before”. The poem traces the

evolution of the West Coast region of the continent beginning 300million years ago with the land still

under the sea 80million years ago， “sea-bed strata raised and folded”（Snyder， “Turtle Island”

78）. At 3million years ago， the land “titled and the rivers fell apart/ all running west/ to cut the

gorges of the Feather，/ Bear， and Yuba” that define current watersheds of the bioregion.

The second strategy is to decenter the narrative subject in a poem. Lawrence Buell refers to this

approach as one type of an aesthetics of relinquishment， which involves giving up “individual

autonomy itself， to forgo the illusion of mental and even bodily apartness from one’s environment”