The task of the eco-poet is to celebrate the natural world, its unconscious power and encompassing splendour but, also, today, to speak of the terrifying threat posed by global warming, indiscriminate pesticides, factory farming and economic greed. Described by Ezra Pound as the antennae of the human race, many poets are turning their ethical and imaginative attention to the natural apocalypse we are confronting.
Here the very word ‘ecology’ possesses an etymological richness and rightness. Eco comes from the ancient Greek word meaning ‘house’ or ‘dwelling place’, while the last part comes from ...
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