ENG 22 Final
"Mower Poems" John Marvel
"Mower against Gardens" expresses an uneasiness toward modification of the environment → this attitude will continue to grow in the next 350 yrs he had anxiety about how people were introducing new plants & gardening/farming → using compost which made flowers double in size -ex: "the flowers themselves were taught to paint" → change their color thru genetic modification core idea: world was supposed to be as it is, as God made it, so the fact that we're modifying nature & the world isn't right
The Anniversaries, John Donne
"The world is but a carcass; thou art fed. By it, but as a worm, that carcass bred; And why shouldst thou, poor worm, consider more, When this world will grow better than before, Than those thy fellow-worms do think upon That carcass's last resurrection? Forget this world, and scarce think of it so, As of old clothes, cast off a year ago" → he believes that people shouldn't think about saving the earth bc it's a rotting carcass & it's too late to save it
"Walden" as ecocentric
"To Penshurst" & "The Description of Cookeham" were anthropocentric → the env is largely seen as centered on human inhabitants of the estate, which the plants & animals living there are imagined as willingly serving & even happily dying for in "Walden", the env isn't centered on the text's speaker → as Thoreau imagines it, Walden Pond & the wooded area surrounding it aren't just there for the benefit of their sole human inhabitant; rather, as all life there is equally served, it is ecocentric or "biocentric" → centered on the ecological place, all the life in that env -Thoreau's speaker is part of the life there, but not a privileged part → the lifestyle advocated for radically reimagines the relationship that humans have to the planet as the env, according to Thoreau, shouldn't be centered on us the text is far more ecocentric than previous works → he's advocating an ecocentric ethic & the text is highly ecocentric as descriptions so lavishly portray the env than the human characters in the text, the visitor's to speaker's home seem far less important → Walden is centered on the env, not humans the env itself, in the form of the pond, is almost a character → the narrator comes close to speaking to the pond as if it were human & capable of understanding "I can almost say, Walden, is it you?" → Walden isn't unlike a close friend it's a milestone environmental text bc its so ecocentric → arguably no other text prior to Walden was as ecocentric → far other writers ever imagined a physical place almost like a character in the text -however, the word "I" does appear over 24 times in the opening 4 paragraphs of Walden (so it's still dominated by a human narrator, despite efforts to foreground the env) → *Walden is also an anthropocentric text bc its a personal journal* paintings: in Thoreau's era, humans are tiny; in awe of the sublime scene like Dore's "Niagara" (1860) & Thomas Cole's "The Fall of Kaaterskill" (1826)
"Praises of a Country Life" Jonson & "A Country Life" Philips
"country-life" poems & are both translations of Horace's Epode II Horace was a contemporary of Virgil, his Epode begins as a celebration of simple country life, imagined as a literal golden age (free from $ & business, just working the farm) -he is actually making fun of pastoral the ending reveals that this country ideal is constructed in the city → he knows that pastoral is created by people in the city, the money-lender is one who says this -he knows that the perfect country life is culturally-constructed & isn't a locus amoenus
Jacques ("As You Like It")
-a view that will dominant American environmental thought -we aren't the primary life that lives here, we are "usurpers, tyrants..." → we're fighting the animals for the crown & what's worse to frighten & kill the animals (thinks this is horrible) -animals should live here, not humans, it belongs to the animals -he sees it as a place that humans shouldn't be in & we should leave animals alone -first time animal rights become an issue for humans (shown in Shakespeare's play through Jaques)
Duke ("As You Like It")
-comes from the city -knows that this place isn't a pastoral scene -the cold makes him shiver & makes him realize how nice the warm is, but the cold isn't something to be disliked it's natural and fine (cold is actually a good thing) -everything is here in the forest, he wouldn't change a thing, this is pretty much a perfect locus amoenus → you can learn everything in the forest -Duke = representative of pastoral SECOND QUOTE -some it comes from Virgil's Eclogue -"merry note" → shepherds -"come hither" → from Theocritus
Touchstone ("As You Like It")
-compared to the city, he likes the shepherd's life which is solitary but it can also be lonely/boring -if you're a minimalist, you'll enjoy this life -he doesn't like the fact that you can't get everything you want like food in the forest -he's making a list of pros & cons of the forest & trying to make a decision but he can't rlly decide -he's trying to see it for what it is -unlike the Duke, who would never put the forest down
Corin ("As You Like It")
-first time hearing from a shepherd, 200 yrs of pastoral literature & we had never heard from an actual shepherd until now -he wishes he could help this woman but he doesn't have any $ -"But I am a shepherd to another man and do not shear the fleeces that I graze" → gentries owned the wealth & power in England during the time → shepherds didn't own their own land, they were working for the wealthy → so most working class people like Corin don't have anything & are very poor -his master is a mean guy -people thought that if you wanted to be a good Christian, you had to be hospitable but his master isn't -what's worse is that the land is being sold so Corin will be sold along with it -Corin still says "but come with me, let them see what I can do" -he's a real shepherd → not singing songs, not a easy pleasant life but actually a hard, laborious life & does't have anything to himself
Orlando ("As You Like It")
-most people would think the forest is scary (people would attack wealthy people in the forest & wild animals would attack people) -he thinks everything in the forest is savage & something is trying to kill him or he's going to have to kill something to make food TO DUKE: -he was surprised that the Duke spoke like a gentleman bc he expected everyone in the forest to be low life/savages/criminals -which is why he pulled out his sword & was ready to fight the Duke before he realized he was a gentleman -he thinks this is a "desert inaccessible" or a scary, unfriendly place
questions that remain from Thoreau's environmental critique of modernity
1. Are his lifestyle prescriptions only valid in a rural or wilderness setting? Could one live a "Walden" lifestyle in the inner city, for example? From the view point of consumption of the planet's resources, how would Thoreau's Walden way of life be different in the city? A suburb? -it's not just about admiring nature & wilderness 2. Must his prescriptions be taken to the extreme degree that he proposes? Does Thoreau have anything to offer to individuals who are unwilling, perhaps, unable to make such a radical break with consumer society? 3. Is Thoreau's highly Spartan lifestyle even possible for most people? Since he was unwilling--or unable--to sustain it for more than 2 yrs (assuming that eh did at all, given his reliance on the town of Concord), could other individuals, much less families, duplicate for a lifetime? Even if they could, should they do so on environmental grounds? 4. What do you make of the fact that SUV advertisements promise to literally take us to the sort of places about which Thoreau and Romantic poets waxed poetically? Is there a danger here? -YES, env degradation 5. If adopted, would Thoreau's prescriptions actually harm the env? What would happen if millions of individuals did what he did? What would the effect be on the rural environments inhabited? Is there a danger in this "pastoral" impulse? 6. With respect to Thoreau's "pastoral impulse", how does it compare to what we have been calling the anti-pastoral of artist Edward Burtynsky? Does one approach have environmental advtanegs over the other? Does Burtynsky's approach avoid the above dangers that we have seen with overly romanticizing the countryside?
London's air pollution
94% of England was deforested by the 13th century so they had to increasingly look to other fuel sources (especially in cities) -as a result of this & the availability of cheap coal ("seacoal" bc shipped from the coast) many of London's industries, such as brewers, as well as its citizens, began switching from wood to coal as early as 11th & 12th centuries -it was known that seacoal not only created a lot more smoke than wood, but that this smoke was particularly toxic (caused wholesale death of animals & fish, extinction of plants, erosion to buildings, & widespread respiratory disease) -in 1286, the first of many commissions was set up to study London's air pollution problem; the first laws against its indiscriminate burning came in 1307 -by 1600s, England was mining 3-4x more coal than the rest of Europe combined, w/ most of it being burned in London -burning the highly sulfurous seacoal was second only to the Plague as the leading cause of human deaths in London -smog enters the English language bc of the "smoke-hog" hanging over London just one of the many distinctly modern environment problems that emerged in the "Renaissance" → starting in this period, toxic waste, acid rain, rampant consumerism & a host of similar issues will add a whole new dimension to traditional pastoral art (writers cast their sights away from the city & to an imagined simpler life in the countryside, untouched by env problems) → in the early modern period, pastoral will become more important & frequent than ever before -writers will use pastoral to draw attention to the env & communicate env consciousness (ex: "To Penshurst") December 1952 → over 4000 people died in 1 week from respiratory tract illness, with twice that many dying shortly after → helped spawn the modern environmental movement & a number of clean-air legislations (Clean Air Act)
"Silent Spring" as pastoral
Carson (& Gore) draw on the pastoral idea of the locus amoenus → both argue that paradise, now lost, can be regained if we heed their warnings & act responsibly toward the planet -"There was once a town in the heart of rural America where all life seemed to live at harmony with its surroundings...even in winter the roadsides were places of beauty, where countless birds came to feed" -"Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change...Everywhere was a shadow of death...On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices, there was now no sound; only silence" -Gore does the same in the beginning of An Inconvenient Truth Carson & Gore employ anti-pastoral far more frequently than pastoral -while they open w/ an appeal to our inherited belief in a pleasant pastoral past, both writers (like Edward Burtynsky) quickly set their focus on env devastation which they hold w/out blinking -hence they're radically different than Thoreau → if there's a danger w/ Thoreau's thinking, it's that we risk fetishizing & seeking out wilderness & ignoring env devastation in the process Carson & Gore are therefore of interest to a whole new wave of ecocritics -first wave env critics followed Thoreau & similar romantics "into the wild" -second wave ecocritics, careful not to overly romanticize wilderness (as did many of their predecessors), are more likely to direct themselves to sites of env devastation & texts that do the same, like Silent Spring
"Silent Spring" and ecology
Carson's particular approach to env devastation centers on this the idea of the interrelations/interdependence among species -the bioaccumulation of DDT in ecosystems -an insect is poisoned by DDT which, when consumed, spreads to birds, fish, etc. -DDT is sprayed on elm trees, the leaves fall down which turn into soil, earthworms feed on soil which contain DDT, robin feeds on earthworms & now it's biomagnified in the robin Carson speaks about our own, personal, ecology -"There is also an ecology of the world within our bodies. In this unseen world minute causes produce mighty effects...To discover the agent of disease and death depends on a patient piecing together of many seemingly distinct and unrelated facts" -(killing other species will have negative effects on us -she made clear that seemingly minor changes can disrupt an ecosystem (ex: mercury in salmon & other fish, bioaccumulation) she is in part responsible for popularizing the notion of "ecology" -she helped make the public aware of the idea & to shift focus to how ecological systems can be disrupted (Haeckel had been dealing w/ the concept since 1866) ecosystems are very complex → Edward Lorenz (same time as Carson) argued that large-scale env systems (his examples involved weather) are so complex & chaotic that they will never effectively be modeled or predicted → even a single butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil will alter weather in the U.S. Carson is responsible for educating the public about the difference btwn biology & ecology
"To Penshurst", Ben Jonson (1616)
Shakespeare competed w/ Jonson (& Milton) as a playwright it's in the pastoral mode & of the "country-house" genre → the house is largely absent from it, like "Cookeham" → focus shifts to the environment surrounding the house → anthropocentric bc the env is largely seen as centered on the human inhabitants of the estate, which the plants & animals living there are imagined as willing serving & even happily dying for it's highly critical of early modern "prodigy" houses → prodigy houses couldn't be sustained by their surrounding resources (estates had clear cut the natural surrounding environment to create carefully cultivated landscape) → Penshurst was surrounded by an explosion of life (lost in its env, as it should be, Jonson believes you should rlly care about the place that you live & the landscape) -"Thou art not, Penshurst, build to envious show (you're not a house just built to make people envious when looking at it) -"...of polished pillars, or a roof of gold" (can't boast a row of polished pillars just for show) it in some sense anticipates Walden; however, the house at Penshurst is far more opulent than Thoreau's simple cabin Jonson hyperbolically portrays Penshurts as environmentally benign, while Thoreau's cabin actually has minimal impact on the environment → one is an ideal; the other real Jonson was critical of excessive consumption in England at the time → he wasn't proposing radical lifestyle changes, but the underlying thinking that gave birth to *Thoreau's Walden* experiment nonetheless had an early modern emergence (Thoreau read To Penshurst) it explores modern environmental consciousness → Jonson considers how such a consciousness emerges in response to the environment becoming endangered (a major difference from Virgil's Meliboeus) it gestures to both endangered & pristine environments → opening sentence directs reader to the endangered landscape → it is in some sense anti-pastoral, similar to Edward Burtynsky's photographs similar to Frank Lloyd Wright's house at Fallingwater, PA which gestures to its surrounding environment instead of gesturing to the house -hence the house itself and not just the poet and poem describing it, makes a pastoral gesture -Penshurst makes a similar gesture to its pristine (at least as Jonson imagines them) surroundings like a nature tour guide, describing things as you walk by, not necessary to lavishly describe it bc people can see it themselves (loco-descriptive)
"Walden" as pastoral
Thoreau read both Theocritus & Virgil and like Katherine Philips & the romantic poets, he unabashedly imagined the countryside as a pastoral locus amoenus → like Wordsworth, Thoreau literally moved to the country although acutely aware of urban problems, Thoreau turns away contemporary env problems in search of a simpler life in the country -like many romantic poets & unlike Edward Burtynsky -the danger here is that this move risks turning/running, away from these problems → millions of individuals have followed Thoreau into countryside; ironically in the process hastening its destruction -this is the beginning of suburban expansion in the U.S. made possible by mass transportation overly romanticizing the countryside carries a twofold danger -first, we risk ignoring & not doing something about, the env difficulties that come w/ human culture -second, in running away from these issues, we may bring these problems to the area we romanticize
"Paradise Lost" Milton (1667, 1674)
a reinscription of the opening three Books of Genesis -he took the brief Genesis account of Adam & Eve in Eden & expanded it into over 10,000 lines of poetry -more than just retelling the story, he provides radical (even contrary) interpretations of scripture as he weighs in on the Trinity, free will, the nature of God (and of women), & a host of other topics including issues of env interest the author's Eden is a locus amoenus, even tho Adan & Eve garden there -in every account of Adam & Eve in Eden before the pair never did any work before the Fall bc Genesis 3.17-19 made georgic labor a punishment for original sin -however, the author has them gardening in the Garden → thus he is, like Al Gore, a proponent of a Christian stewardship approach to the planet, which entrusts care of the earth to humans he portrays Eve as the genius loci of Eden -Eve "nurses the plants in her domain, sees to the bounty & beauty of Eden, protects the place from "nightly ills" attends to Eden with morning "haste" (as she visits & keeps track of all the plants in her domain) & is as attentive to a spiritual realm as she is to the Earth author deconstructed the notion that Christianity was inherently dualistic: -he was a *monist* → he neither believed that humans were split beings of spirit & flesh, nor that Earth & Heaven were fundamentally different → instead there is but "one first matter" of which everything in Heaven & Earth (w/ the exception of God) is composed he erased the boundary btwn the physical & metaphysical → believed this boundary isn't inherent to Christianity but rather is an ideology inherited from Greek & Roman thinkers like Plato the most famous lines in "Paradise Lost" parody dualistic thinking: "The mind is its own place and in it self / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven" → this is the boast of metaphysical philosophers (like Milton's contemporary Rene Descartes voiced by Milton's Satan) -by Book IV, Satan realizes what is for him a horrible truth: place matters → "Which way I fly is Hell' my self am Hell" → Milton scoffed at those thinker who, like Satan (& Descartes) proclaimed that the mind can pull free of the body, the earth, indeed of the entire physical realm he believed that you don't reside in your body, you are your body, you don't live in a place, you are the place -he not only erased the boundary btwn mind & body, but between mind & place → "The mind is its place" be it Hell, Earth or Heaven → we, like Milton's Eve, don't live in a place, we are that place he interpreted the Judeo-Christian Bible differently than Donne -while John Donne argued that "The world is but a carcass...Forget this world, and scarce think of it", Milton abstaining from both mind/body & physical/metaphysical dualism, argued for the possibility of a regenerative Christian era here on earth (he wasn't alone on this) (like Cooper's Hill) it's highly descriptive of a locale: Eden (bc you can't visit it) → *loco-descriptive* -it's wonderfully able to represent an env which can't be gestured to bc it doesn't exist -also lavishly describes Heaven & Hell → bc he's a monist, he imagines Heaven & Hell as not only made of the same basic matter as Earth, but as strikingly similar in appearance as these 3 places are filled with plants, streams, mountains, etc. → Heaven & Hell are so similar that they could've one day merged -Milton imagines that if there hadn't been a Fall, Adam & Eve would've brought about an extraordinary cosmic event ("And Earth be changed to Heaven & Heaven to Earth")
ecocentrism & anthropocentrism
although early env critics were critical of anthropocentrism, as Walden makes clear, even a highly ecocentric perspective is shot thru w/ human interests → "pure" ecocentrism (altogether removing humans from the scene) is not possible, even for Thoreau when too simplistic, ecocentrism can actually be dangerous -speaking from a radical ecocentric perspective, in 1990 a co-founder of the env organization Earth First! called humans "a cancer on nature" → critics responded that such a position was worrisome as it was also held in Nazis Germany by individuals who began exterminating people in part bc they were seen as such a "cancer" in the 21st century, ecocentrism is impossible for most of the planet → now that humans directly control over 85% of the planet's land mass, it's simply impossible to separate human interests from other life
"The Nun's Priest's Tale" Chaucer
an example of a "beast fable" which used animals to tell allegorical stories, often appeared in elaborately illustrated books -interesting bc they depict animals as not only sentient. but surprisingly human-like -contains an anthropomorphic treatment of a tree nun's priest → priest traveling with a Prioress and nun -priest tells a story, involving barnyard animals, that is meant to be read allegorically not literally, as it's for the most part about human beings, not animals -ex: the words associated with Chauntecleer & Pertelote are of French origin & are meant as a critique of England's aristocracy, who largely spoke French in court → Chaucer is describing aristocrats like cocky roosters decked in plumage trying to be what they aren't bc anthropomorphized depictions of animals often tell us very little about the lives of animals, they may do little to make us sympathize with non-human lives (which are marginalized) → this story is less effective at making us sympathetic to chickens than Varro's book
Ruthwell Cross
appears roughly 800 yrs after Virgil, who came 700 yrs after Hesoid -these 3 represent Greek, Roman and Anglo Saxon cultures inscription begins "Christ was on the Cross. Yet the brave came there from afar to their lord"
"Michael: A Pastoral Poem" William Wordsworth (1800)
as its subtitle suggests, it's a pastoral poem -firmly in the tradition of Virgil's Eclogue I "Michael" tells the story of the loss of a family farm → the poem both directs our attention to an endangered env (hence it brings about an env consciousness) & names the reason for its loss he unabashedly depicts a perfect locus amoenus in "Michael" → like Katherine Philips, he describes "a country life" that's free of any problems but it's seriously endangered from within → new threat to the pastoral (not urban danger): capitalist modernity, founded on the value of wealth alone, is now reaching far into what is imagined as untouched countryside, as the family farm is no longer economically viable it's a loco-descriptive poem in the tradition of "Cooper's Hill" (hill poem) he's encouraging us to walk right into the poem & its env
London's air pollution & literature
began showing up in surprising ways ex: medieval & early modern depictions of Hell, as a place filled with the same sort of sulfurous smoke that engulfed London, owe much to the city's air pollution problem (in countries w/out this problem, there weren't such depictions of Hell) ex: choice of the word "brimstone" (literally meaning "burning stone", coal) by the translators of the 1611 King James Bible for famous passages in Genesis and Revelation, was influenced by the translators' desire to make Hell seem as horrid as possible by describing it, like London, as choked with the sulfurous smoke of burning coal depictions of Hell in Paradise Lost, as well as the mining operation that the devil's set up there, was directly influenced by London's air pollution, as was the protective hedge of trees circling Milton's Eden
Thoreau's background
born into a relatively wealthy background, attended Harvard although he enacted radical lifestyle changes by moving to Walden Pond, many working-class individuals at the time (especially immigrants) live in similarly modest & often far less desirable, conditions bc they couldn't afford to live any other, not bc of choice -ex: his cabin was made from an older shanty purchased from an Irish laborer who lived there w/ his family of 3 -even though he praises & lives in, a far more modest home than Ben Jonson extols in "To Penshurst", it's important to realize that, as relatively wealthy, he was free of economic motivation → Walden is a bit of a how-to manual: how to live as if you're poor for those who aren't -while living at Walden Pond, he went into Concord nearly every day -his Walden experiment only lasted 2 years; he moved back to town isn't a romantic poet, though he shares much with them was part of American Transcendentalist movement, founded by his friend & mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, which also romanticized wilderness -in addition to British, Romanticism, Transcendentalists, were influenced by German philosophy, Eastern religion and mysticism like the romantics, he made a religion of wilderness → "Nature was a religion" → like Wordsworth, he moved to the country to be closer to "God" ("Nature is being capitalized, like God" -his perspective on "Nature" is highly romanticized → *bc we've largely inherited Thoreau's view of "Nature" we can't forget that this was culturally constructed* he's also known as an early protestor of slavery → in his famous essay on Civil Disobedience (1849), he helped develop the rationale for the modern passive resistance movement which would be enormously influential on Tolstoy, Gandhi, & MLK Jr → he argued against actively/violently protesting slavery, instead he favored withdrawing all support for the enterprise (not paying taxes) → he believed if a majority of individuals did the same, slavery would end → *his Walden experiment could be seen as making a similar statement → if adopted en mass, his lifestyle could arguably end rampant consumerism*
"Walden" as critique of consumerism
contains one in the spirit of Jonson & Denham: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" Thoreau argued bc, as Denham had already realized 200 yrs before in Cooper's Hill, "Their vast desires, but make their wants the more" → marketers purposely do this for profit the opening "Economy" chapter follows Denham directly → "I see the City in a thicker cloud Of business, then of smoke; where men like Ants Toyle to prevent imaginary wants; Yet all in vain" (Cooper's Hill) -Thoreau takes Denham seriously; he derives a way of life from his observations this critique isn't new w/ Walden, but it's carried to a new level → calling for radical lifestyle changes in response to rampant consumerism → he's not only critical of excessive consumption on environmental grounds, he has a plan to do something about it & encourages us (his readers) to do the same Unlike Jonson & Denham, Thoreau's approach sounds strikingly modern → he attacks the fashion industry in Paris (1840): "The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap and all the monkeys in America do the same" → clothing factories have less to do with seeing that "mankind may be well and honestly clad" than to ensuring "that the corporations may be enriched" → therefore, "beware of all enterprises that require new clothes!" his critique of excessive consumption focuses on our literal dwellings → in the spirit of the "modest" house celebrated in "To Penshurst" Thoreau actually suggests that a box "6 ft long by 3 ft wide with a few auger holes in it, to admit air" would be an adequate human shelter → seems radical but Marvel already made the same suggestion in "Upon Appleton House"
"Silent Spring" (1962) Rachel Carson
helped spawn the modern environmental movement -in the 2nd half of the 20th century it became a widespread movement especially after the 1969 SB Oil Spill -the grass root protesting of the nuclear power industry in the 1970s owes much to the skepticism that Carson fostered -she also influenced the radical reevaluation of chemical additives to food products in 1960s/70s & even today it represents a profound paradigm shift → while poets had been somewhat skeptical of science for centuries, prior to Silent Spring, the public generally embraced scientific "breakthroughs" especially in the new chemistry → Carson showed the dark, indeed disastrous, underside of such blind acceptance -started a consumer awareness & advocacy that hadn't existed before examples of her considerable rhetorical skill -best one is her title → a warning that we will now have silent springs without birds chirping bc all of the birds will be killed off by DDT -chemicals "should not be called 'insecticides' but 'biocides'" bc they don't just kill insects, but all forms of plant & animal life including humans -she wisely lets others speak for her to rlly tug at the heartstrings → a "housewife" who wrote to her: "it's hard to explain to the children that the birds have been killed off...Is there anything being done? Can anything be done? Can I do anything?" → Carson wants the reader to think the same thing & inspire individual action -also cleverly underscores the dangers of insecticides by connecting them with chemical weapons: "In the course of developing agents of chemical warfare, some of the chemicals developed in the laboratory were found to be lethal to insects. The discovery didn't come by chance: insects were widely used to test chemicals as agents of death for man" -"As the habit of killing grows--the resort to 'eradicating' any creature that many annoy or inconvenience us" grows with it -"Who has made the decision that sets into motion these chains of poisoning, this ever-widening wave of death that spreads out, like ripples when a pebble is dropped into a still pond?" -"As man proceeds toward his announce goal of the conquest of nature, he has written a depressing record of destruction, directed not only against the earth he inhabits but against the life that shares it with him" -"The fact that every meal that we eat carries its loads of chlorinated hydrocarbons is the inevitable consequences of the almost universal spraying or dusting of agricultural crops with these poisons" -"Our line of defense against invading poisons or poisons within is now weakened and crumbling" Carson isn't suggesting radical lifestyle changes → bc she was aware that radical suggestions, like calling for a complete ban on all pesticide use, would not be well received, she wisely draw attention to its widespread indiscriminate use, such as DDT being sprayed on millions of inhabited acres to kill gypsy moths consequently, she prompted direct & widespread action (unlike Thoreau) → she was responsible for the creation of the EPA in 1970 due to public appeal about the env Carson has shaped modern environmental discourse more than Thoreau -her primary objection was to DDT's widespread use & the notion that it was harmless to humans (chemical company said it was perfectly safe to use indiscriminately
Carson as communicator
her great strength was her ability to communicate difficult ideas well → bc of her decades of experience writing for the public, she was well positioned to explain, in simple & understandable terms, the complex scientific & cultural problems in the U.S. behind the use of pesticides → she dispersed the work of others, didn't do scientific research similar to successful contemporary eco-journalists (the major environmentalists that we know are communicators not scientists) -21st century parallel would be journalist Michael Pollan → extremely effective at communicating difficult env ideas -Al Gore → another example of a highly effective activist/communicator unlike romantics, she didn't just romanticize it, but rather saw it like a cool, detached scientist would: as an object of study/inquiry, which makes her more credible (later in his life, Thoreau interestingly began moving in this direction in his personal journals) she cultivated an image as a scientist & naturalist in an effort to bolster her credibility (which sometimes backfired) although she wasn't really either of these following Carson many writers have made similar appeals to heart & head -Gore, Pollan & many other environmentalists have Romantically tugged at our heartstrings to get us to care & carefully laid out scientific arguments that make the situation understandable (Carson's detractors attacked this rhetorical approach) although her approach is at times scientific, she carefully avoids jargon → her experience in making scientific concepts understandable, interesting, and jargon free was a key to making the above approach possible -without its powerful, but accessible, scientific arguments & graphs Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth wouldn't be effective Carson (& Gore) make clear the enormous power of rhetoric & language in shaping ideas & bring about env consciousness by bringing such effective rhetoric to a mass market she effectively employed inherited ideas, such as our notion of "natural" -bc the West, from as early as Gilgamesh, has made a distinction btwn the "natural" & the "unnatural" & began privileging the "natural" as early as Theocritus, Carson was able to turn public opinion against chemicals by casting them as "unnatural" -she inherited & then popularized the "natural/unnatural" dyad in the 20th century -she (& others) were so successful that prior to the 20th century everything was largely "natural" the book shifted in interest toward toxicity → people were interested in deforestation & urban growth issues, but Carson made them aware of an entirely new type of env problem, the widespread use of toxic chemicals, which is a 20th century phenomenon she cleverly kept her focus tightly on one particular problem -like Al Gore, Rachel Carson doesn't overwhelm her audience w/ the frightening range of env problems threatening us, rather they focus on one particular problem in detail -neither write about pollution in general (industrial runoff into rivers & aquifers, the release of chemicals, like sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, solid-waste pollution in landfills, or ocean pollution, etc) -this necessarily ignores a range of important issues however, focusing on one issue can be highly effective at convincing the public to act
"Walden" as loco-descriptive
highly descriptive of a locale: Walden Pond like other loco-descriptive works we've read, Walden foregrounds the locale from its title forward: "The Description of Cookehame", "To Penshurst", Cooper's Hill, "Upon Appleton House" & "Mont Blanc" he takes the project far further in his descriptions of Walden Pond itself → we've not encountered this level of description before → he plays on all sense to get the reader to rlly feel like they're there -uses sounds → onomatopoeia to invoke the sound of sounds
"Praises of a Country Life" Jonson
his translation of Horace's Epode II proves that he too understand this -his translation also ends by noting that the poem, an improbable dream of a perfect, rural life, has been uttered by an urban user
the debate btwn Donne & Milton
is paradise lost? Donne → yes "the world is but a carcass...Forget this world & scarce think of it" Milton → no, we are the earth/env & we should be Christian stewards & regenerate the earth in 2007, prominent Christian activists called on the National Association fo Evangelicals to dismiss an official who urged that global warming be taken seriously (they believe that the earth reached a tipping point 6000 yrs ago & is now in irretrievable decay)
"Man" George Herbert (1633)
like Marvel, he was also anxious about the loss of indigenous plants -"when sickness makes him pale & wan...Herbs gladly cure our flesh" → plants have medicinal values, cure us when we're sick the idea that we shouldn't destroy plant diversity bc it would benefit us to keep them is anthropocentric
Thoreau as Monist
like Milton, he propounds the environmental implications of monism → "Why has man rooted himself thus firmly in the earth, but that he may rise in the same proportion into the heaven above?..." -these lines echo Milton's striking deconstruction of dualism in Paradise Lost like Milton, he not only imagined humans as an tangled mixture of flesh & spirit, he saw this "spiritual flesh" as deeply rooted in the earth, like a plant → this deconstruction has profound implications as both thinkers would erase the divide btwn the physical & metaphysical axis mundi: views human beings as being both physical & metaphysical together, and these 2 things can't be separated he is strikingly direct about the body & its functions → he is thinking thru an age-old question: what exactly constitutes the "good life" → his answer is what you might expect of a thoroughgoing monist -he largely advocates vegetarianism: "the repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct" -he's a proponent of "eating locally" → radical self reliance including the growth & preparation of one's own food & the rejection of imported foods
Walden Pond
located 20 miles from Boston, in what's still a rural locale -1 mile from Concord, MA is approximately the same size as UCSB campus (with its surrounding wood) the area around it isn't wilderness, in the sense that it has been extensively modified by human action -the old growth forest around the pond had been cut generations before Thoreau arrived there → in Walden, he mentions the rail line running thru the area
*country-house vs country-estate*
mostly literal (rather than allegorical) there's no description of the house estate is mentioned often bc of the nature surrounding it -better name bc it's not rlly about the house it's about the estate
England's Renaissance as the 'early modern' period
occurred from 1500-1700 (also called "early modern" period) -called 'early modern' recently bc we're now in the age of modernity -calling it 'early modern' means defining it in terms of the future, the early beginning of what will become modernity, our modern world -the 'Renaissance' resembles the past; the early modern the future -ex: printing press arrived in England in 1476 → icon of the "early modern" period -Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights 1503-1504 (unlike any painting that had come before it, more like Salvador Dali's surrealist paintings (The Lugubrious Game 1929) so it's more accurately characterized as an early modern (20th century) than a Renaissance work, unlike Michelangelo's David)
"The Chimney Sweeper" William Blake
one of a growing number of anti-pastoral poems anxiety over London's urbanization & the growth of technological modernity was widespread (William Strode wrote the first "Chimney Sweeper Song" in 1635 & Blake produced his own in 1789) works like Edward Burtynsky's photographs → his poems unabashedly look straight at an env issue & the cultural fallout that came with it, in this case the exploitation of child labor -in this sense, his poem is a clear, and distinctly modern, predecessor to works like Burtynsky's photographs -like Burtynsky, his appeals to the source of the problem → the audience → "My father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry 'weep! weep! weep! So your chimneys I sweep and in soot I sleep" → child is being sold into child slavery & telling the reader that it should matter to them bc he sweeps their chimneys
"The Dream of the Rood" Chaucer
one of the oldest works of English literature -inscribed on 8th century stone cross from northeast England known as Ruthwell Cross the version that we read comes from a 10th century text known as the Vercelli Book -in old English a rod is a pole or cross (word was used in Shakespeare too) a religious mystic (a "dreamer") has a vision in which the cross ("rood") that Christ died upon speaks to him, explaining to the dream how it is that he, a tree, became the sacred cross -hence the text has 2 separate speakers: a man & a tree we have an anthropomorphized and sentient tree that speaks -less surprising bc the ancient Celts inhabiting England worshipped earth, sea, and sky as well as particular features of the environment, such as streams, lakes, hills, and trees, especially oak trees -Christians called these and other individuals that worshipped nature "pagan" which derives from the Latin pagus and pangere, which is to stick something into the ground, to firmly fix it there → to certain Christians, who believed that their own souls transcended the earth, "pagans" were people literally rooted in & bound to the planet collision of early Christian & "pagan" worlds -we have 2 deities superimposed on each other, a soon-to-be metaphysical deity (Jesus) on his way home to be with his father in heaven & a "pagan" deity who has been uprooted form the earth to be hewn into a cross → both man & tree have been forced into the shape of a cross an important text to consider as it provides an early example of how Christianity encountered "pagan" religions, something that it repeatedly did thruout its history in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, etc. is a *transitional text* intended to transition "pagans" into Christians -able to do so by doubling the Rood & Jesus (a technique used in Myth of Gilg) → the Rood takes on some of Jesus' qualities & Jesus some of the Rood's -ex: Jesus is described in surprisingly heroic terms, as a "young Hero", a "Warrior", a "Mighty King", "strong" with a "stout heart" → he is active, climbing the cross & stripping himself → Jesus clearly takes on the characteristics prized by a warrior culture -ex: the tree, a powerful deity of place, allows his own crucifixion like Jesus: "I might have felled all foes, but I stood fast" → following Jesus' example, "Nor did I dare harm any of them," even while being crucified → like Jesus, the Rood is incredibly powerful, yet allows himself to die for the sake of another (in this case Jesus, just as Jesus died for the faithful) -the doubling continues as the tree describes his own crucifixion like Jesus: "They pierced me with dark nails, the wounds are seen on me, open gashes of hate...I was all drenched with blood" (from the wound in Jesus' side) -the antagonists are the common enemy to both of the doubles, the "strong foes" who both "seized me [the rood] there, hewed me to the shape they wished to see" & crucified Jesus by connecting, indeed, superimposing a new deity (Jesus) upon an existing one (an earth deity), early Christians were able to assimilate the followers of an obviously "pagan" religion -transitional meaning → once the "pagans" were assimilated into Christianity the features, especially those related to the worship of nature, of the earlier religions ultimately fell away it's clever bc it actually is able to *incorporate the destruction of the earth deity--the destruction of the earth religion--into the narrative itself*, as the tree's defining bond with the earth is severed when it's cut in order to be fashioned into a rood (cross) -Jesus is physically killed but Christianity's unique innovation is that he's reborn on a metaphysical register, which is impossible for the tree, a deity of a non-physical religion *symbolically enacts the triumph of one deity (& religion) over another & the triumph of the metaphysical realm over the physical*
"Walden" Thoreau (1854)
part autobiography, part nonfiction & part novel → it's highly autobiographical but changes many real life details -ex: Thoreau lived at there for 2 yrs; but book compresses the experience into one -it also resembles nonfiction writing as some if its chapters are little more than essays he anticipates the future → it contains a very modern perspective on the env, in many respects his perspective is ours as well → we've inherited many of our attitudes from him → these ideas many predate him, but he modernized it → his thinking is a conclusion of centuries of thinking (he read many texts that we've read) -it wasn't well received at the time but 100 yrs later it was bc of the "back to the land movement" in 1960s where individuals tried to live his lifestyle he transitioned past thinking into our environmental present → his thinking didn't arise in a vacuum, but rather is the conclusion of centuries, if not millennia, of thinking
loco-descriptive
provides descriptions of specific locales romantic poetry it's generally a form of pastoral -although it will sometimes abstain the conventions of pastoral poetry (such as the obligatory inclusion of shepherds & sheep) such literature nonetheless pastoral gestures toward an env (lush, pristine) replaced "country-house" poems which were moored by the estate -it isn't moored to an estate/patron so it's a more general-purpose form of nature writing bc of the rise of books that can be sold to anyone & written about anything very descriptive in order to "capture" a locale btwn the boards of a book, from the early modern period onward writers will provide more vivid & increasingly longer, more lavish descriptions of the env, as their works become more & more representational (& less gestural) -earlier works hardly described the locales & instead gesture to familiar & nearby envs tries to effectively describe places that may never be visited which is why they use such detail -literature from the early modern period onward moves towards this poets attempt to create an env in their texts (or hope to emulate an env) -mimesis → a literary term derived from Greek, means "representation" painters do the same starting in the Renaissance → try to emulate landscapes in their art → human presence in these works diminished → the env is taking over the scene, as anthropocentrism is being questioned as England becomes more human centered -ex: Dutch painters, like Pieter Bruegel, made some of the first "landscapes" → "The Harvesters" -ex: Claude Lorrain (photographic reality) from the middle 17th century onward, poets increasingly strived for "photographic" realism in their work thru description (descriptions of the env become more lavish & precise) poetic description will at times approach contemporary scientific writing -as poets describe the env more & more minutely, their writing will often seem like/draw from scientific writing (like Thoreau)
monist
reduces nature and the condition of all things to one single substance (and Heaven & Hell and metaphysical & physical) the presumption that mind and body aren't separate, but are together opposite of dualism
"Druids"
the Celtic priests were given their name by Caesar during one of his campaigns bc he noticed they worshiped trees in Latin, druides simple means "sorcerer" it derives from the Greek drus, which means "oak tree" → "Druid" literally means to worship oak trees Christians called people who worshipped the earth "pagans" which is from a latin word meaning to bound something or drive something into the ground
"As You Like It" Shakespeare (1599-1600)
the Forest of Arden was a real forest in Warwickshire England, which would likely have captured the imagination of his largely urban audience as something of a modern-day locus amoenus → Shakespeare was aware of this and did this on purpose to reveal that our perceptions of the env are not only influenced by works of art like pastoral literature, but that these perceptions differ widely was one of Shakespeare's most mature attempts at pastoral (he tried before but it was a simplified, basic & idealized view of pastoral life) this play presents pastoral life from a variety of perspectives -starting in Act II, as members of Duke Senior's court--including Duke himself--talk/sing about the Forest of Arden surrounding them, it becomes clear that they're all seeing the forest differently makes us aware that we all see the env differently → Shakespeare explores a range of different perspectives on the env, from overly idealizing it to seeing the harsh realities of life in the country for the working class -this is the rise of the working class -Shakespeare knows that the working class is a very disenfranchised group
anthropomorphism
the depiction of animals (and anything else) as human-like (to take on human form or characteristics) bc these depictions of animals often tell us very little about the lives of animals, they may do little to make us sympathize with non-human lives (which are marginalized) -BUT it can to some extent elicit sympathy for them, as it does make non-human life seem more "human" these depictions are exceptionally common in our culture -ex: Steamboat Willie
"Mont Blanc" Percy Bysse Shelley (1816)
the highest mountain in Europe → became an icon of wilderness -means "the white mountain" was one of Europe's most wild places (climbed in 1786) Romantic poets, like Blake, Wordsworth, and Shelley, increasingly fetishized places that were untouched & wild (our word "wilderness" originally meant "wild-ness") to the author, wilderness was sublime; so extraordinary that it inspired awe as well as fear bc of it grandness -wilderness is like a place of worship → "secret throne" romantic poets transformed "nature" no longer is it something to be feared or exploited, but instead appreciated, perhaps worshipped (loco-descriptive) -21st century America has fully inherited this view of wilderness -start to believe that wilderness is where God is the romantic view of wilderness as sublime was best expressed in the painting "The wanderer above the sea fog" (1818) by German painter Caspar David Friedrich -supernatural, sublime, awe-inspiring landscape
axis mundi
the notion of human beings as being physical and metaphysical tree that can't be separated → can't separate the physical & metaphysical how Milton & Thoreau imagined humans
early modern english period
the period from 1500-1700 → referred to either as this or the "Renaissance" -used interchangeably but represent two very different views of the period -"Renaissance" → means to be born, defines the period as a revival of classical learning, which brought light to darkness by reviving the arts/sciences -could be considered the "dark ages" too but it deplores the period of time btwn the Roman Empire & Renaissance → & thinkers like Petrarch were able to epistemologically construct themselves and their cultures by negatively characterizing other cultures that came before them during the "Renaissance" the technology to create Rome's Pantheon was "reborn" -also in arts, the middle ages didn't compare to the Renaissance art → never made something like the Greek statue of Hermes with infant Dionysus & Michelangelo's David triumphantly declared that Renaissance artists had equaled, perhaps surpassed, anything that had come before
Thoreau as genius loci
traditionally, genius loci figures protected the environment from humans (Humbaba tried to protect the Cedar Forest from Gilgamesh's dream of exploitation) in the early modern period, humans are increasingly seen as genius loci → Jonson argued that Robert Sidney protected the Penshurst estate; the speaker of "Cookeham" worried what would happen to the estate without its female protectors; Milton imagined Eve as the genius loci of Eden narrator of Walden is clearly a genius loci; the protector of Walden Pond -Thoreau greatly expands the notion that a human being could be a genius loci, actually implying that his readers should themselves become protectors of places → he was perhaps the first modern environmentalist → Thoreau is suggesting that *environmentalists are the new genius loci* → this inverts & challenges the traditional view -this led to the creation of National Parks
"Description of Cookeham" Aemilia Lanyer
was Shakespeare's contemporary, perhaps his "dark lady" from his works -her writing reveals a very different person than Shakespeare's sonnets, as she is hardly a scripted seductress → she was a proto-feminist was mistress of Henry Carey, Queen Elizabeth's cousin was England's first professional woman writer via patronage (asked wealthy women to pay her to write, first time this happened) "Cookeham" was written for Lanyer's patron, Margaret Clifford -it describes a community of women (a homosocial/single sex group) the "Description of Cookeham" = a so-called *"country-house" poem* (was first country-estate poem or "To Penshurst") -it's part of the explosion of interest in pastoral in London (loco-descriptive) -country-estate poems are mostly literal (rather than allegorical pastoral) the exiled speaker develops & attempts to communicate an env consciousness (like Virgil's Eclogue I, Metaboleus) -it's new bc women are the disenfranchised, exiled group → *group of women have been kicked off the estate so they're lamenting it & trying to communicate an env consciousness* → demonstrates that women had little agency in the world & were being pushed around (Lanyer's patron, Clifford, had no choice but to move off the estate once her brother decided it) Lanyer uses the exile motif to dramatize a sense of loss as well as to catch the moment when the landscape moves forward, as it withdraws "Placing [its] pleasures in your heart" Cookeham withdraws Cookeham is both anthropomorphic & anthropocentric: -ex: "Hills, vales, and woods, as if on bended knees They had appeared, your honor to salute" → estate takes on human characteristics & the theme is that the countryside/estate needs the group of women to take care of it (anthropocentrism) → Cookeham is actually described as dying without human tending hence, *Lanyer's environmentalism is a form of (Christian) stewardship* → humans are given control over the earth but we're supposed to take care of it & if we screw up, God will not be happy (now that the women are leaving, no one will be there to take care of it)
Rachel Carson's background (1907-1964)
was a journalist, not a scientist although she received an MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins in 1932, she worked as a writer for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries producing pamphlets & articles aimed at the general public -in 1952, after writing 3 award winning books on the ocean, she gave up her job with the Bureau her lack of a PhD & the fact that she was a woman → the chemical industry personally attacked Carson by repeatedly questioning her scientific credentials, her use of facts, her credibility as a woman & even her sexuality in an effect to discredit "Silent Spring" -this has continued into the 21st century -she died of cancer in 1964
"Silent Spring" reception
was in part influential bc it was exceptionally well promoted -in addition to its regular publication, Silent Spring was serialized in its entirety in the New Yorker, serially excerpted in Audubon Magazine, & picked up by the enormously popular Book-of-the-Month Club the chemical industry attacked Silent Spring even before its publication -suspecting that Silent Spring would be bombshell, the chemical company Silent Spring's publisher, as well as The New Yorker & Audubon Magazine (these attacks continue today) these companies argued that their products did more good than harm -especially in the case of the developing world, where DDT was used to help suppress the spread of malaria, the chemical industry argued that the value of human lives far outweighed any env fallout → they argued that millions of people would die due to malaria if they stopped using DDT & they claimed there were no alternatives debate over the arguments of Silent Spring fiercely continue today -in a 2005 essay, "The Harm That Pressure Groups Can do" British politician Dick Taverne essentially compared Carson to Adolph Hitler: "Carson didn't seem to take into account the vital role DDT played in controlling the transmission of malaria by killing the mosquitos that carry the parasite...It is the single most effective agent ever developed for saving human life...Rachel Carson is a warning to use all of the dangers of neglecting the evidence-based approach and the need to weigh potential risk against benefit: it can be argued that the anti-DDT campaign she inspired was responsible for almost as many deaths as some of the worst dictators of the last century" -Although Taverne was intentionally inflammatory, in 2007 Robert Gwadz, speaking for an agency of the U.S. Department of Health noted that "The ban on DDT may have killed 20 million children" → raises the age-old debate, which appears as early as Gilgamesh, of how human interests should be weighed against the planet's Silent Spring is the work of a genius loci -Silent Spring is in many ways the logical conclusion of the early modern suggestion (made by Jonson, Lanyer, and others) that human beings should protect places that we inhabit from ourselves -even more than Thoreau, Carson suggests that environmentalists are the new genius loci With Silent Spring, our course has come full circle from the Myth of Gilgamesh -those individuals, like Gilgamesh, who would endanger & recklessly exploit the env are no longer the heroes of our texts, but rather are cast as monstrous -we readers are ourselves now encouraged to become genius loci, fighting off the ambitious "habit of killing" With Gore, the place protected is now the planet itself, not just a specific locale -as env problems are no longer local, being spread globally by our oceans & atmosphere, a new type of protector is needed, one who acts locally in protecting place, which in turn has consequences that are global -Gore thus still echoes Lanyer, Thoreau, and other proto-environmentalists environmentalists are now less likely to look to the past, but rather to the future -like Carson & Gore, environmentalists may be aware of our belief in a past locus amoenus, but they are less concerned with an imagined lost paradise, than with halting the planet's degradation at our hands--perhaps even bringing about significant regeneration & with it a brighter future Silent Spring also addresses one of hte opening questions of the course: Why approach env issues from a literary perspective? -non-scientific writers are often well positioned to disseminate env information to a broad audience, as they may most clearly understand how the ideas that we have inherited historically emerged over time
"Cooper's Hill" Sir John Denham (1642, 1654)
was one of the most popular English poems of the 17th century, inaugurated the popular genre of the "hill poem": from the vantage point of the author, what you would see when standing on a hill (not about the hill, about the view) in part, the poem was so popular (it was reprinted literally dozens of times) bc it allegorically dealt, in the form of an imagined stag hunt, with the beheading of King Charles I the first modern "loco-descriptive" poem in English -gestures to a variety of environments → the panoramic view from Cooper's Hill includes both urban & country locations → there's also a scathing critique of consumerism unlike Denham, future loco-descriptive poets will often turn away from the city -writing a century or more after him, romantic poets (such as Wordsworth) will often completely ignore urban areas, as they instead look to/fetishize more pristine, rural locales Denham brought to poetry what Lorrain & others brought to painting: a desire to create a highly successful representation of an env
"Upon Appleton House" Andrew Marvel (1652)
was the last "country-house" poem (for the most part) it's highly descriptive → country-estate poetry is transitioning to loco-descriptive -super long poem, it makes clear that description is now far more important than it was to Jonson's "To Penshurst" which was much shorter but also highly allegorical -contains a tirade against the Catholic Church actually insinuating that Catholic nuns are lesbians, as well as metaphorically weighing in on England's Civil War expresses numerous perspectives on the env -ex: Marvel imagines his patron General Thomas Fairfax, as overseeing his garden's plants as a general would an army → humans controlling nature -ex: also draws attention to & celebrates Fairfax's old-growth forest -makes clear that environmental attitudes were in flux → although celebrating the near-military control of a highly cultivated garden, Marvel is also aware of the merits of wilderness both for humans & other life → an attitude moving toward ecocentrism
"A Country Life" Philips
was the most popular woman writer in 17th century England -was able to secure such acclaim by knowing just what to & not to say -as a woman writer, she carefully constructed herself as non-threatening, unlike contemporaries like Margaret Cavendish -also understood how attitudes toward the env were changing country-life poem, her translation of Horace's Epode II leaves off the ending → highly stylized transition, which fails to reveal that the poem's celebration of country life is a parody -not a literal translation like Jonson's -gives the audience what they wanted, unequivocal praise of country life (even though she like Horace & Jonson, knew that the portrayal as a locus amoenus was culturally constructed illusion, she also knew that faced with increasing env degradation in London, her readers very much wanted to imagine life in the countryside as perfect) -"country folk" do not rule over anyone nor envy their wealth, they don't eat animals, they (like Thoreau) live in simple cottages, & they're in every way opposed to the city & the "state" -she added over 20 lines of her own when translating Horace's text in order to include so much description she is a forerunner of generations of poets that fetishize the env -after her, many English nature poets (like Wordsworth) not only celebrate life in the country, but actually move there themselves -therefore, by encouraging a literal move to the countryside, pets ironically hastened its destruction
London in the early modern period
what was occurring in England from 1500-1700 was also in many respects unlike anything that had ever occurred on the planet before this city has a strong claim on being, at least environmentally, the first truly modern city on the planet, as air pollution, acid rain, wetland loss, rampant consumerism, & similar issues became major problems -occurred bc this city experienced unprecedented population growth tenfold from 1500-1700 -it developed a host of what would become truly "modern" environmental problems early on (ex: urban air pollution)
*hill poem*
written from the vantage point of the author Cooper's Hill (inaugurated this popular genre) isn't about the hill, it's about *what you would see from the hill*
Intro to "The Canterbury Tales"
written in late 14th century in England by Geoffrey Chaucer, before the advent of the printing press -still technically the "Middle Ages" in England, Chaucer is writing 600 yrs after the Ruthwell Cross -can still read Chaucer's english today -comprised of 24 separate texts recounts the story of religious pilgrims (pilgrimages were enormously popular at the time) on their way to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury, England