“Your Own Voice Changed To The Voice Of Nature”:A Study Of Voice In Louise GlüCk’s Poems

Hailed as the Poet Laureate,Louise Glück(1943-)is one of the most talented poets in contemporary American literature,who won the Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2020.She adeptly uses historical,mythical,classical resources to express her inner mind,which greatly enriches the motifs in her literary production.Her poems fuse a number of mythical archetypes into individuals’ mundane life and are frequently intertwined with abundant obscure images of plants and animals,which present her philosophical thoughts on death,psychic trauma,female predicament and other existential issues.Hence,to examine it clearly,this thesis attempts to have a complete study of Glück’s poems from the perspective of sound.On the basis of some theoretical principles about ecopsychology and the phenomenology of sound,through the textual analysis and the statistical support of linguistic corpus,this thesis intends to delve into “voice,” “echoes” and “silence” presented in Glück’s The Wild Iris,Meadowlands,Vita Nova,Averno and A Village Life,investigating some ecological themes expressed in her poetry.The connection between “voice,” “silence” and ecological psyche in her poems,Glück’s major writing skills and ecological connotations are also examined therein.The thesis contends that a dynamic path of the “echoes” is demonstrated in her poems which could be sketched as: the voice of “I” → the mountains →silence → the voice of “nature” → silence,that is,the voice of “I” is sent to the mountains and the mountains send back the voice of “nature” after the interim silence.The ultimate result of “echoes” turns to be “silence.” To achieve such effects,Glück first employs“poems in dialogues” and “parables” and resorts to natural images to exhibit humans’ psychic activities,social formation and discipline.Her depiction reflects human’s “ecophilia,”“ecophobia” and “the ecological self” as well as emotional resonances with other life forms.The poet portrays the natural echoes of God and botanical inhabitants in The Wild Iris in the form of “polyphony of experience” and the mythical female echoes represented by Goddess of Earth Persephone and the Weaver Penelope,conveying the interaction between human and the ecosphere,and her respect,appreciation and empathy to nature.Meanwhile,her poetry demonstrates the silence of death that provides some space for rebirth in eco-circulation and tranquility of nature that serves as the innate source of healing for the soul of human beings.This thesis contends that Glück,in the diversified portrayal of heteroglossia,poeticizes“voice” and “silence,” manifests the objective and subjective wilderness spirit,respects nature as the objective existence and expresses intimacy and reverence to nature.Hence,she complies with her motivation of writing and the ecological responsibility to “give my voice to nature impressions,” arousing humans’ resonances,empathy and concerns to the ecosphere and non-human beings.