From Library Journal
In his comprehensive introduction, Bryson (Mount St. Mary's Coll., Los Angeles) traces the trajectory of nature as a theme in Western poetry, noting how it dominated in the centuries between Beowulf and Blake, took a dive in the age of Darwin, suffered at the hands of Frost and the other anti-Romantics, and eventually made a comeback thanks to Gary Snyder and the Beats. A subset of nature poetry, ecopoetry recognizes the interdependence of all creatures, views humbly the relation between human and nonhuman life, and cultivates skepticism toward the hyperrational, overtechnologized mindset that dominates present-day culture. The 17 essays that follow examine such classic poets as Emerson, Yeats, Jeffers, and William Carlos Williams; contemporaries like Snyder, W.S. Merwin, Mary Oliver, and Wendell Berry; and others who are lesser known. This first book by Bryson, who modestly terms it "a midterm report," is close to encyclopedic in its historical coverage as well as its attention to individual poets. Of special note is the concluding essay by Bernard W. Quetchenbach, which situates ecopoetry within the vast and varied landscape that is poetry today. For academic libraries. David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
"The essays are uniformly thoughtful, perceptive, and readable...[and] engage the current scholarship gracefully, without pretense or pedantry. Each chapter is stuffed with insights."—John Tallmadge, The Union Institute
