- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (6 April 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330372696
- ISBN-13: 978-0330372695
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 19.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 286,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"'The most important critical work for decades' Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times 'Bate presents his case with an emotional conviction which is almost impossible to resist' The Times 'Anyone familiar with Bate's The Genius of Shakespeare will know how winningly he marries erudition to liveliness' John Coldstream, Daily Telegraph 'I came away from the book deeply grateful for its impassioned song' Adam Thorpe, Sun. Tel."
Product Description
'A work of literary criticism that may become - deserves to become - the most influential of its time' Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Song of the Earth by Jonathan Bate is an informed choice for anyone currently undertaking studies in literary criticism. Especially those interested in the developing theories of ecocriticism or green studies.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
'ecocriticism' comes of age
6 Feb 2001
Format:Hardcover
Jonathan Bate's short book, 'Romantic Ecology'(1991) was a landmark in literary ecocriticism. In 'The Song of the Earth' Bate has developed his theme further and in doing so has produced an instant classic.
The purpose of the book is to show how poetry is not only relevant but necessary in an age of increasing environmental unease. It is a manifesto for the urgency of 'ecopoetics'. Bate writes: 'This is a book about why poetry continues to matter as we enter a new millennium that will be ruled by technology. It is a book about modern western man's alienation from nature. It is about the capacity of the writer to restore us to the earth which is our home' (vii)
Chapters are as follows: 1. Going, Going 2. The State of Nature 3. A Voice for Ariel 4. Major Weather 5. The Picturesque Environment 6. Nests, Shell, Landmarks 7. Poets, Apes and Other Animals 8. The Place of Poetry 9. What are Poets For?
My favourite chapter is 'Major Weather' which, in some quite startling and original ways, charts the influence of climate on writing . The centre piece of the chapter is a reading of Keat's 'Ode to Autumn' as a 'weather poem', resembling 'a well-regulated ecosystem'. For Bate, the ode 'is not an escapist fantasy which turns its back on the ruptures of Regency culture, as late twentieth century criticism tended to suggest. No: it is a meditation on how human culture can only function through links and reciprocal relations with nature.'(103-4). I learned 'Ode to Autumn' as a schoolchild, and it has always stayed with me. Now I see eloquently expressed the reasons for its significance to me.
Bate has set himself a difficult but worthy task, to argue for poetry as 'the place where we save the earth', that if culture is the cause of environmental destruction it can also be its remedy. This, then, is a book that should be read by everyone with an interest in literature, by everyone with an interest in the continuation of life on the planet.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
The Song of the Earth
7 Jun 2007
Format:Paperback
This is probably the best book I've read all year. As an English teacher, I appreciate Bate's literary sensibility, and as a citizen of the earth, I value his insights into our environment. I have recommended this book to every intelligent person I know.
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