‘…if poetry is the original admission of dwelling, then poetry is the place where we save the earth.’ (p.283)
Jonathan Bate (2000) The Song of the Earth
Approaches to teaching poetry writing
• Close observation
• Shaping experience
• Language games
• Poetic forms and formulas
• Capturing everyday language
• Workshop collaboration
Ecocriticism
A burgeoning movement in literary studies• ASLE – Association for the Study of Literature &
the Environment• Buell, L. (1995) The Environmental Imagination• Kerridge, R. and Sammells, N. (1998) Writing
the Environment• Jonathan Bate (2000) The Song of the Earth• Garrard, G. (2004) Ecocriticism
Principles of ecocriticism
• makes the non human central to interpretation• cares about animals• addresses environmental contexts of reading and writing• tends to be concerned with moral and political values• aspires to interdisciplinarity• Challenges language as the first influence• Raises the profile of nature writing• Celebrates the natural and deplores its destruction• Advocates the experiential benefits of learning and
teaching outside (or at least looking out of the window…)
• Notice the detailed and analytical style of drawing in the following example from a field guide.
• Walk along your trail and choose a plant to draw in detail as if for a field guide. The purpose of this is to focus your attention on the detail of the plant. (Use the space overleaf for your sketches)
The shared experience of place and activity Literary
models Close observation
Collaboration
Scientific language
New knowledge of the ‘natural’ and constructed
Field guides
Herbal lore and legend
Geographical guides
Literary concepts: picturesque and sublime
Nature writing
Tintern Abbey The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail
Writing Workshop
Spinoffs
Creative writing anthology
The poetry anthology
• Use of literary models and concepts• Integration of illustration – drawing and
photos• Use of language from field guides and
research• Recounting shared moments of
experience• Reflecting (often ironically) on the method
Ecocritical approach to poetry
• An attitude to poetry as rooted in the rhythms of Earth
• Committed writing• Shared experience of environment – the
encounter• Reflection and research with
interdisciplinary knowledge and language• Starting with something real to write about• Promoting ‘the eighth intelligence’