찰스 톰린슨의 시와 생태학

Abstract

Charles Tomlinson is known to be the most considerable of his contemporary British poets. Perhaps some readers may not agree with this judgement, but I am convinced that they would not hesitate to acknowledge the originality of his poetry. This originality appears to be derived from his meditative temper. He has evidently a sense of affinity for “being” as opposed to “doing.” In his case, however, the dimension of being should be thought to be distinguished from “the wise passivity” of Wordsworth. Generally his poetry originates from his contemplation of objects, places, and landscapes, but fundamentally is based on the reciprocity between himself and them. His contemplation focuses on ferreting out relationships. This, in turn, requires a silencing of the self, and therefore he is vigilant against the self’s excess. His work is the perception of changes, a perception that includes himself, the poet: he changes as things change and perceives himself as integral to those changes. The leap into the object is a jump into himself. By this poetic method, he suggests that humans and nonhumans share one world. His “one world” allows man’s identity and boundaries to be permeable by the nonhuman world. Laura Sewall refers to this way of perceiving as “ecological perception.” She points out that the deadening of our senses is at the heart of the environment crisis and that reawakening them is an integral step toward renewing our bond with the Earth. This paper examines the ways this ecological perception is embodied in his poetry.