From Apocalypse To Self-Realization

William Stanley Merwin (1927-) is an establishment poet who has collected most of the establishment’s prizes. From the Pulitzer Prize to the American National Book Award, there is hardly an award for poetry in America that Merwin has not gained. Having written more than twenty books of poetry, Merwin is also considered as the most continually prolific writer and an undisputable master. Oscillating between modernism and postmodernism, the classical and the open, the obscured and the Zen-inspired, his poetry has, across its span of six decades, provoked an extensive spectrum of critical reactions.Merwin’s poetic writing career can be classified briefly into three phases. His earliest poems were difficult and ornate, dealing with classical subjects and employing traditional forms and devices. The second phase began in the early1960s when his writings became more open, shorn of punctuations and filled with antiwar subjects and bleak visions of the endangered planet. It is in this period of writing that Merwin’s poetry became much recognized for its expression of alienation from the humans and desperation for the ecological crisis of nature, for the political crisis of society and spiritual crisis of the modern man. The third phase began when he settled in Hawaii and involved himself in advocating Hawaiian indigenous culture and studying Zen Buddhism. The flora and fauna in Hawaii started to bloom in his poems, and his writings reveal a Zen-like tranquility and personal intimacy. Furthermore, over the years his poetry demonstrated a shift toward affirming humankind’s place in the natural world, the necessity of reconceptualizing this relationship, and the human responsibility for maintaining and supporting the ecosystem.In Merwin’s poetry ranging from the first phase to the third one, there is a persistent theme:nature. His search for an original, natural world is perhaps the most distinct motif to be found in his whole corpus. Merwin’s poetry has consciously been influenced by a strong sense of ecology, especially in the dimensions of his visions of ecological apocalypse, his non-anthropocentric ideology, the interdependency of all beings within an ecosystem, the social-ecological ideology and the realization of his ecological self. The dissertation is mainly engaged in the discussion of the affinities between Merwin’s poetry and nature and in the exploration of the ecological factors of his poetry.This dissertation begins by analyzing the shaping of Merwin’s sense of ecological apocalypse. Apocalypse becomes a common part of vocabulary in criticism on Merwin’s poetry and the first premise of reading Merwin’s poetry is an intuition of apocalypse. Starting by placing the universal motif of "apocalypse" in biblical and literary tradition, the first chapter follows the sequence of Merwin’s poetry and expatiates on the initiation of Merwin’s tragic vision in his earliest poetry, the developing process of his apocalyptic vision and the eventual formation of his ecological sense of apocalypse. Merwin successfully posits himself as a prophet of ecological apocalypse; his apocalyptic vision is not only a historical claim, or a prediction of some future event but rather a description of a current state. Encountering with the deteriorating and endangered ecological status, Merwin endeavors to fulfill his role of apocalyptic prophet and write "for a coming extinction."The second chapter treats the ultimate causes of ecological crisis—anthropocentrism and analyzes the non-anthropocentric ideology of Merwin, which includes his affirmation of moral status of animals and his emphasis on the intrinsic values and interdependence of all organisms. Different from the Western anthropocentric view which de-sacralizes animals and regards them as objects, tools, commodities and resources, Merwin deifies the images of animals in his poetry, underlining the intrinsic value of all beings. These elements contribute to the non-anthropocentric motif in Merwin’s poetry.The third chapter explores Merwin’s ideas on the relationships between society and nature, city and nature as well as modern man and nature. From the poems on westward movement in The Carrier of Ladders (1970) which debunk manifest destiny, to the division poems of Opening the Hand (1983) and The Rain in the Trees (1988) in which modern men are characterized as avaricious, indifferent and separated from nature, the poet examines the destructiveness in society and modern man, associating the ecological propositions with his penetration of social and individuals’ crisis.Borrowing "self-realization," a term in deep ecology, chapter four intends to investigate Merwin’s realization of ecological self, elucidating the shaping of his sense of place, the affinities between Merwin’s later poetry and Hawaiian indigenous culture, and the Zen aesthetics of spontaneity and self-emptiness revealed from Merwin’s ecopoetry. The strong sense of place and the ecological wisdom from the Hawaiian culture and Zen Buddhism create an unprecedented space in Merwin’s poetic kingdom.The conclusion, making a brief overview of the ecological revelation from Merwin’s poetry, argues that Merwin has eventually found peacefulness and tranquility in his realization of ecological self. In his last place Hawaii, the poet adheres to his ecological ideal and his poetic writing. From the tragic vision of apocalypse in his early works to his eventual realization of ecological self, Merwin fulfils his ecological ideality. His self-realization endowed with ecological wisdom from Hawaiian culture and Zen Buddhism is successfully fulfilled, symbolizing the life cycle of redemption and rebirth.