The Lost Connection between Humans and Nature: An Ecopsychological Reading of Selected Poems by Mary Oliver

Ecopsychology is a new social and intellectual movement that seeks to understand and harmonize people’s relationship with nature. The term was coined by the Californian professor Theodore Roszak in his 1992 book The Voice of the Earth. Roszak redefines the relationship of the natural world to sanity in our community. He explicates that separation of humans and nature leads to suffering for both the environment (such as ecological devastation) and for humans (such as despair, grief and alienation). According to Ecopsychology, psychoemotional bonding serves as a source of healing for both the environment and human psyche and consequently turns the negative feelings of grief and loss into joy and love. Such characteristics harmonize with the root meanings of Ecopsychology.
In the field of literature, there are many notable writers, especially poets, who have been affected by ecopsychology in their writings. Among these poets is Mary Oliver. Oliver was born on September, 1935, Maple Heights, Ohio. Most of Oliver’s works celebrate the natural world and are dedicated to examining the intersection between humans and nature. Her poems present the limits of human consciousness and language to express the complex relationship between human and non-human world.
This research aims at exploring the influence of Ecopsychology as a universal intellectual approach to analyze literary texts with reference to Mary Oliver’s poetry. The research will also depict the poets’ use of imagery and symbols to prove the eternal relationship between humans and the natural world.