Imagining Oneness: Charting Ecological Currents in Edwin Thumboo’s Poetry

Abstract

Eco-poetry is a special kind of expression that effects an imaginative unification of the human mind and the more-than-human natural world, thereby leading/guiding the former to an alternative way of being in the world. It is an efficient system for evoking the feelings of a community. It is also an artwork that evinces the interrelatedness of all life forms and preservation of landscapes. Keeping this in view, the paper examines the unexplored poems of Edwin Thumboo to accentuate how these serve the aforementioned functions, despite the inconsistencies in the poet’s ecosophy, that is, his representation of nature as an independent, healthy place, and having spiritual significance. It discusses Thumboo’s continuous engagement with the more-than-human natural world: his identification with other life forms, expression of concern for non-human spaces, and representation of viable ecological communities in his poetry.