Literature is a deeply personal and interpersonal act from the author to the reader. In some way the author is attempting to capture their interpretation of space and time inside the vehicle of language. Through metaphor and enjambment, syntax and imagery, this thesis attempts to render the contemporary experience of the artist as he is grounded in location and interpretation. The lens used in inspecting the world is biological and philosophical, seeking and hiding from the truth. Nature and science are used as linking languages in the collections of poems, seeking to be united with emotion based in the bedrock of Kentucky. Poetry is ephemeral in its brevity, but concrete in the impressions it can leave with the reader. The author has attempted to render the facts as he observed them in language which is specifically universal. No one else could have participated in the experiment of research, but all are welcome to share in the observations. Kentucky is the pivotal element in this research. Experimentation was made with other locations, but the sense of place that can only be found in these hills provides the fertilizer for the elements of literary art to flourish. The author seeks to enrich the landscape that has created him, and to provide a snapshot of this land and its people.

En France, l'enseignement de la poésie, surtout en tant que méthode didactique, est rarement établi. Pour la plupart du temps, il est sous-estimé, négligé, voire manquant dans les programmes gouvernementaux, les plans d'enseignement ou les activités quotidiennes. Face à cette situation, nous avons donc saisi certains éléments vitaux (poésie, lecture, enseignants, etc.) pendant tout le processus d'apprentissage de la poésie et avons tenté de savoir comment la redéfinition de la poésie pourrait jouer son rôle dans l'établissement d'un environnement plus complet pour les élèves de 5 ans à 8 ans. C'est aussi à ce moment-là que nous avons décidé d'adopter le concept de «écopoésie», nous avons construit notre hypothèse d'écopoésie pour le montrer de plusieurs manières. Cette construction «écopoésie» a été établie pour construire un cadre pour le guide des questions lors de la collecte de données.Nous avons donc mené neuf entretiens avec trois groupes (chaque groupe comprend trois élèves avec des niveaux de lecture distingués) des élèves de GS à CE1 et deux autres avec des enseignants de CP et CE1. Là, j'ai analysé l'établissement de l'écopoésie de chaque cas, d'où nous avons découvert leurs éléments clés respectifs en écopoésie. Notre analyse de cas s'est concentrée sur de multiples interactions entre poésie, soi, éléments linguistiques, etc. Les résultats ont conduit à un concept assez élaboré d'écopoésie, qui s'est avéré être une version étendue de notre hypothèse. Nous avons donc adopté les quatre axes empruntés au programme non officiel (EDSUCOL) pour montrer systématiquement comment le concept d'écopoésie se développe de manière globale. Le rôle de la poésie et ses effets dans les élèves en apprentissage de la lecture sont donc clarifiés et enrichis pendant le processus. / In France, poetry teaching, especially as a didactic method is rarely established. For the most of the time, it is underestimated, overlooked, or even missing in government programs, teaching plannings, or daily activities. Faced with this situation, we therefore seized certain vital elements (poetry, reading, teachers etc.) during the whole poetry learning process, and attempted to ask how could the redefinition of poetry perform its role in establishing a more comprehensive environment for pupils from 5 to 8 years old. It is also at this moment that we decided to adopt the concept of « ecopoetry », we contructed our hypothesis of ecopoetry to show it in several round ways. This « ecopoetry » construction was settled to build a framework for the question guide during data collection. We therefore conducted nine interviews with three groups (each group comprises three pupils with distinguished reading levels) of pupils from GS to CE1 and two others with teachers from CP and CE1. There I analyzed the establishment of ecopoetry of each case, from which we have discovered their respective key elements in ecopoetry. Our case analysis concentrated on multiple interactions among poetry, self, linguistic elements etc. The results led to a rather elaborated concept of ecopoetry, which turned out to be an extended version of our hypothesis. We therefore have adopted the four axes borrowed from the non-official program (EDSUCOL) to systematically show how the concept of ecopoetry develops in an all-around way. The role of poetry and its effects in pupils in reading learning are thus clarified and enriched during the process.

Ce travail s’intéresse à l’esthétique des objets et des choses dans l’oeuvre poétique de Derek Mahon. On constate en effet une véritable prolifération des objets dans ses poèmes, dont l’importance est telle qu’ils monopolisent la parole poétique au point de voler la parole au poète lui-même, et de devenir les sujets lyriques du poème, comme dans « The Apotheosis of Tins » ou « The Drawing Board ». Les objets deviennent la synecdoque du Je poétique, et reflètent les ambiguïtés de leur créateur, notamment vis-à-vis de l’Histoire et du conflit nord-irlandais, conflit qui selon les termes de Mahon lui-même, a eu pour conséquence de provoquer, dans son oeuvre, ce qu’il nomme une « aphasie coloniale ».Les objets seraient-ils alors pour le poète un moyen détourné d’exprimer une parole poétique qu’il se refuse à assumer ? Le recours à la parole des objets aurait alors une vertu thérapeutique, et permettrait au poète de surmonter le traumatisme du conflit nord-irlandais qu’incarnent les Troubles, ainsi que de se libérer de l’emprise de son milieu protestant nord-irlandais, afin d’élaborer une poétique des objets qui lui serait propre. En nous appuyant sur des ouvrages des material culture studies, nous verrons comment Mahon tente de s’extraire d’objets qui lui semblent trop « étiquettés ». Nous étudierons notamment le rapport de Mahon aux déchets ou disjecta, qui représentent la pierre angulaire de sa nouvelle classification poétique des objets. Il faut également distinguer chez Mahon les objets des choses, auxquelles il attribue une valeur différente. Nous tentons d’établir, à travers une perspective à la fois philosophique, esthétique et économique, comment Mahon choisit de ne pas faire coïncider la valeur économique et la valeur esthétique d’un objet, par un double procédé de réévaluation puis de recyclage poétique de l’objet en chose.C’est le statut problématique de l’objet et de la nouvelle dimension que Mahon lui attribue dans son oeuvre poétique que nous nous proposons d’étudier. / This thesis explores the aesthetics of objects and things in the poetic works of Derek Mahon. We cannot but be struck by the impressive array of objects in his poems, where they seem to literally monopolize the poetic voice, and almost steal the poet’s firmly established position. Objects in Mahon’s poetry become the true lyrical “I” of the poem, as in “The Apotheosis of Tins” or “The Drawing Board”. Objects are considered as the mouthpiece for the poet’s own preoccupations and ambiguities, especially apropos his attitude towards History and the Troubles in Northern Ireland (this conflict has even provoked on Mahon’s part what he calls a “colonial aphasia” syndrome).We might then assume that objects represent a disguised opportunity for the poet to express his own thoughts about the conflict, but also about other issues as well, economic as well as environmental. Speaking through objects might then enable the poet to overcome his trauma due to the conflict, as well as liberate himself from his own Protestant Northern Irish milieu, in order to conceive his own aesthetics of objects, and even an Aesthetics of Trash, as Hugh Haughton has called it. Thanks to some recent writings in the field of material culture studies, we will endeavour to study how Mahon is actually trying to escape in his poetry from “(Northern) Irish objects”, and how he finds in beckettian disjecta or rubbish the possibility of freedom, as well as the possibility of a new, post-human world. We will also seek to distinguish between objects and things, which Mahon values differently. We shall try to demonstrate, by using a philosophical, but also an economic and aesthetical perspective, how Mahon chooses to differentiate between the economic and the aesthetical value of an object, by reevaluating it before recycling it, opening the possibility of the transformation of the object into the thing.It is the problematical status of the object and the new dimension that Mahon allows it to take that we intend to study in this thesis.

This thesis explores the cross-cultural ecotheology of contemporary American poet Li-Young Lee by looking at the intersection of the human, the natural, and the sacred in his poetry. Close readings of Lee's poetic encounters with roses, persimmons, trees, wind, and light through the lens of Christianity and Daoism illustrate the way Lee is able to merge the Eastern concepts of interconnection and mutual harmony with Western ideas of sacredness and divinity. This discussion places Lee in direct conversation with modern and contemporary ecopoets who use the creative energy of language to express our moral and ethical responsibility to the world around us. Lee's poetry explores an innately sacred and transcendent relationship with the natural world that suggests that our understanding of our human identity is intricately tied to our respect and reverence for our natural environment.

No description available.

In The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Idea in America, Leo Marx “evaluates the uses of the pastoral ideal in the interpretation of American experience” (Marx 4). While Marx explores ways that pastoralism has been impacted by factors such as industrialism, it is the purpose of this project to explore Marx’s assertion regarding the presence of the figurative and literal machine within the poetry of Robinson Jeffers. Jeffers’ poetry is generally located within the landscapes of California. His lyric poetry has a distinct connection to the land and is driven by inhumanism, which works to shift the “emphasis and significance from man to not-man…” (Oelschlaeger 246). Jeffers’ machine like elements highlight the relationship between the natural world and humanity’s intrusion; in doing so, Jeffers furthers Marx’s supposition that American literature continues to be impacted by the machine, by “forces working against the dream of pastoral fulfillment” (Marx 358).

In the Anthropocene, a new approach towards nature in poetry is emerging. This change is closely related to ecocritical theory, which is a reevaluation of the human view on, and representation of, nature. It moves away from a more traditional anthropocentric perspective to a more critical one. This can for instance be in the spirit of Arne Naess or Timothy Morton, the two main theorists used in this essay. This essay is an ecocritical close reading of two Swedish contemporary poems on nature: “När jag går i skymningsmörkret” by Ingela Strandberg (from Att snara en fågel, 2018) and “(Strandförskjutningar)” by Gunnar D Hansson (from Tapeshavet, 2017). The focus of the reading is on the representation of wild, untouched nature. The formulated questions in the essay concern how untouched nature is represented in the poems, the human relationship towards it and how the differences and similarities between the two poems relate to and transform romantic representations of nature.  The conclusion is that these two very different poems exemplify the range of contemporary Swedish nature poetry. Strandberg’s poem is leaning towards a romantic or ecosofist representation of nature, whilst Hansson’s is more clear-cut ecocritical in line with Morton’s dark ecology.