Changing Contours of Nature: An Ecocritical Exploration of the Select Poems of Nissim Ezekiel and Stephen Spender

Abstract

In an age where digital, virtual and augmented reality discourses are on an upsurge, the need to call for an environmental discourse is of paramount importance. Environmental literature or Eco literature stresses on the establishment of a strong bond between human and his or her immediate environment. A scrutiny of the works by eminent poets both East and West discloses the changing contours of nature. The changing landscapes, the extinction of flora and fauna, the diminishing relationship between humans and nonhumans are vividly and exquisitely rendered better by exuberant poets than any other creators. As a theoretical approach, ecocriticism grew out of the traditional approach in literature that addresses how humans relate to the nonhuman world or the environment in literature. In order to highlight the ecological transformation that has taken place from the past to the present, from the rural to the urban and from the local to global the present study has taken for analysis the select poems of the distinguished Indian poet Nissim Ezekiel and the renowned British poet Stephen Spender. Further, the select poems of Nissim Ezekiel and Stephen Spender are examined from an ecocritical lens.