An Ongoing Commitment to Ecology - An Ecostylistic Investigation of Jessica Powers’ Poetry
Keywords:
Ecology, methodologies, eco-criticism, environment, eco-stylistics, natural imagesAbstract
The language and sounds of poetry work together to create the poetic experience of a poem. It also enlightens the readers with various insights from the ideas discussed in it. The present paper attempts to explore the style of Jessica Powers’ through analyzing one of her poems ‘For a Lover of Nature’. The study makes use of the aims, scope, theoretical frameworks and the methodological underpinnings of eco-stylistics against the background of eco-criticism, eco-linguistics and stylistics. Eco-stylistics is particularly concerned with the stylistic examination of environmental themes in various text-types through diverse linguistic frameworks and methodologies. The analysis, especially a close eco-stylistic reading is done in the paper to unveil the special characteristics of this modern American religious poet who uses plenty of natural images too in her poems. The use of Anthropomorphism in the language of poetry is also investigated. The readers of the poem can personally feel the magnificent or freshness of the nature. The study is a qualitative one following descriptive methodology. Doing stylistics enriches our ways of thinking about language and thus eco-stylistics gives light over the major issues of environment discussed in literature and also helps in creating environmental awareness.