Author Archives: Lauren Saar

Throughout his poetry, Shelley focuses on the human mind and imagination in its relationship to the universe. He often invokes metaphors from nature to help explain his relationship to the outside world. Shelley believes that nature’s sublimity has a creative … Continue reading →

Timothy Morton’s, Ecology without Nature was definitely a challenging read for me this week. I constantly had to check the meaning of terms and found it difficult to get any main points out of what Morton was saying. Despite all … Continue reading →

Hardy provides many contrasting images and representations of nature throughout The Woodlanders. At times, nature is beautiful and scenic, but at other times it is decayed, dead, or destructive. For example, when Melbury and Grace drive away from the woods, … Continue reading →

In “Ecological Hardy,” Richard Kerridge explains that Hardy does not “separate place and person. He will not allow anything, place or person, to stabilize in meaning; its meaning is always the product of a shifting set of relations” (Kerridge). Throughout … Continue reading →

In American Ecopoetry, Robert Haas states that The Waste Land denotes “a deep injury to the powers of natural and human renewal.” He goes on to say that it is a “world in which connection has failed and the renewing powers of the … Continue reading →

Hi class! As most of you know, the Oscars was this weekend. I am unashamedly elated that Leonardo DiCaprio won for his performance in The Revenant. Regarding the context of our class, his acceptance speech hit home.  Check out this link and start the … Continue reading →

John Milton’s “Lycidas”, is a pastoral elegy about his deceased friend, Edward King. The speaker laments his friend’s death and goes through several phases of the mourning process. He explains the compulsion to speak, either because of obligation or grief: “Bitter constraint, and … Continue reading →

“‘And if she had been dissolved into earth, or worse, what would you have dreamt of then?’ [Nelly] said. ‘Of dissolving with her, and being more happy still!’ he answered.” In chapter 29, Heathcliff admits to Nelly that he dug … Continue reading →

Considering our class is focused on “tragic ecologies,” I paid special attention to the environmental descriptions in Wuthering Heights. It is not difficult to see the the incredible comparison between the novel’s characters and their environments. The juxtaposition between the two manors, Wuthering Heights … Continue reading →