Wordsworth’s the Prelude: A Manifesto of Ecocriticism

Abstract

This paper investigates the contribution of William Wordsworth’s poetry to increase the ecological consciousness of man. His work is analyzed in the light of ecocriticism with focus on reservation of natural resources and ecosystem to avert the undulate effects of human life. The ecocritics endeavor to warn people against their engagement in anti-ecological activities stating society as a mirror to the destructions of nature by artifacts. The literature is one of the prolific realms to exhibit this notion. Romanticism is one amongst the most active literary periods attended by the ecocritics. This study explores the ideas of ecocritics; Lawrence Buell (1939- ), Harold Fromm (1951- ), and Cheryll Glotfelty (1958- ), in the poems of Wordsworth to trace out his cautious views about the interdependence of man and Nature. Accordingly, this research takes into consideration the importance of the mutual relationship between man and Nature as the key components of a vast ecosystem and helps the readers grow ecologically and attain serenity in an era suffocated by technological pollution.

Keywords: William Wordsworth, Ecocriticism, Romanticism, Nature, interdependence, mutual relationship, suffocated, technological pollution