International Research Journal of Management

International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology ISSN 2250 – 1959(0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print) A REFEREED JOURNAL OF

Shri Param Hans Education & Research Foundation Trust

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IRJMST

Vol 8 Issue 12 [Year 2017]

ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)

Environmental and Technological concerns in Emily Dickinson’s and Robert frost’s poetry Naseer Khan Freelance Researcher email: [email protected] m Abstract Poetry and eco logy have played a significant role in order to safeguard the environment. This environmental study of poetry highlighted the importance of environment both in Eastern and Western countries. Ecocrit ical study of poetry is a term used to highlight the concept of green studies, or ecological studies in poetry. The nature writers including the Ro mant ics, Victorians or the Moderns make an attempt to give protection to the natural habitat. So in this respect nature poetry has played a vital role by do minat ing the literary scene. However, with the growing environmenta l degradation, poets emplo yed a new vo ice in the context of the emergence o f new scientific discoveries which made adverse effects on the natural habitat which endangered the human as well as other natural species. So in this respect some poets have also shown their bitterness against techno logy and paved way for the environmental protection. Frost and Emily Dickinson the two prominent America 20th century poets have been writ ing about the natural pheno menon by showing how scient ific discoveries have made man‟s life mundane and took him away fro m the natural habitat and provoked him to fulfill his material needs and deeds. Man not only waged war against nature but he waged war against his fellow beings. Frost crit icizes science: Though our kit ing ships Prove but flying chips From science shop And when motors stop they may have to drop Short of anywhere, ……. Ours was to reclaim What had long been faced As a fact of waste And was waste in name (Kitty Hawk 350-373). In the same way E mily Dickinso n laments the development which was made by neglect ing the environment. Hence these two poets are talking about the destruction of natural environment which modern man effected in connivance wit h science and techno logy. Therefore my paper aims to highlight the detrimental effects o f science and development on the natural environment wit h reference to the poetry of Frost and Dickinson.

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Full Length Paper Environmental and Technological concerns in Emily Dickinson’s and Robert frost’s poetry America commonly known as the world of mind and spirit in which the breakdown of middle age took place by creating the modern idea of free individual as a floodful thought. Thoreau wrote many years ago, “I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately, to forefront only essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when, I came to die, discover that i had not lived” (Walden 915) The colonial continent had nothing to boast of in novel, drama as well as in poetry till (1760). After the arrival of Edgar Allen Poe, Walt wit man, Emerson, Dickenson, Frost and others reached the forefront. The world was changing rapidly because science and technology had spread almost in all fields by leaving its good as well as bad impression and the people were ready to shun the dullness of scientific goods by making nature as their peer as Bartman writes in Trveles “nature is an important part of the definition of America” (Bercovitch 138). Nuclear war weapons had already showed their supremacy in 1945 in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were tested for it to turn it into a desert. By the turn of 20 th century the political fears of American traditionalist became a reality around the time of the arrival of Dickinson, Plath Frost, and others on the scene. These poets tried their best to maintain the integrity of „self‟ but there was digression caused by the tension that divided them among persons and persona. This digression disintegration of „I‟ got deepened in Sylvia Plath who became all sceptic and was neurosis and derangement. This is a dark house, very big. I made it myself, cell from a quite corner chewing at the grey paper oozing the glue drops whistling wiggling my ears. Thinking of something else. (Dark house 1-7) This dilemma of “living in a dark house” and “thinking about something else” one of the joyful acceptance of simple faith; and the other to despair that comes from denial which paved the way for the nature writing. This filled the gap of divided self as people realized this world is composed of two things i.e., “nature and soul” (Nature 497). The change began in 17th century and rapidly flourished during the 18th century when the romantic tradition flourished as a movement. This movement though of a slow birth succeeded in liberating man from the exhausting customs of the society mostly of industry. Wordsworth remained the main figure of the romantic tradition, and this influence made ways easier to discuss the things by spreading the general awareness among common mass. The American‟s were themselves aware that even if science has or is going to provide facilities for the development of nature but somehow they too had a belief that science and nature cannot go hand in hand because man has used science for ill purposes also, “science as taught in the past has often failed to foster a respect for nature” (quoted in Love, 40). So there was a great distrust about some scientific discoveries which made life of a man very much mundane. Even if the age was


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the age of American dream but the doubt was rooted in man‟s mind which kept him in dilemma. As Frost laments: the truth is established and borne out, though circumstanced with dark and doubt, though by a world of doubt surrounded (Beech 10-12). The domination of science has bounded everything which left man in a sceptical thought and increased his unfulfilled demands which he has to satisfy with the source available here on this green planet. “The second industrial is a prime example of the kind of over simplification … since it is a term that assumes exactly what it should be examining: the distance travelled between then and now the birth of the factory system and the current global economy” (Against Technology 4). Both Emily Dickenson and Frost showed a great concern towards ecology or environment as their predecessors like Emerson, David Thoreau, Whitman and others had. The biotic environment was the main concern of all the poets and they tried to glorify the surroundings in one way or the other way in their poetry. The poets have discussed the dignified characteristics of flora and fauna by focusing on the social and geographical aspects of New England. The developmental processes was going on in Dickenson and Frost‟s period also and science was making tremendous progress in many spheres as in Dickenson‟s period i.e., between 1830 and 1840‟s electromagnetic Induction and electromotive force were discovered and further the first steam railway was established in 1831. The telegraph machine, the astronomers discovered Neptune 1846. And some other discoveries were made but Dickenson and Frost have written a lot about science and natural habitat which marks them among the great poets who showed concern towards the ecology. Dickenson and Frost are both considered as the naturalists. Dickenson and Frost have written numerous natural and other poems in which they showed the concern about the natural phenomenon, e.g., both talk about the beauty of sunset, the sunrise, beauty of moon, beauty of flowers, trees, seasons, and the other natural species. Both of them do talk about the science also with little difference in their thoughts. Dickenson talks about the day to day feeling which she observes amid a deep forest. For her nature is what we see and nature works as a feast for eyes; nature works as a gentlest mother for her: Nature -- the Gentlest Mother is, Impatient of no Child -The feeblest -- or the way-wardest -Her Admonition mild – (1-4). Emily Dickenson shows her concern towards the creatures of nature by presenting a beautiful life about them. She like Emerson shows a positive relationship with fellow creatures. In a poem “A Narrow Fellow In The Grass‟ she represents the picture of a snake and says: Several of nature's people I know, and they know me; I feel for them a transport Of cordiality; (17-12). She shows her cordiality towards the other creatures like snake because she might be knowing International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology http://www.irjmst.com

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that snakes are very useful in order to maintain the ecological balance and that‟s why God has created them. The researchers have find that the ophidiophobia is in the genes of man, and a man who is fearful of a snake should not kill him but should let him go. The fact about the snakes is that: Out of the 2500 species of snake only 20% of the snakes are venomous. They have their own part to play in the ecosystem. Being top level of predators a single snake can consume over a hundred rodents a year. Moreover all snakes form a part of the diet of other predators such as hawks and foxes and there by serving to link the higher and lower feeding levels. Man with his high handedness tries to assert his superiority over his fellow creatures by harming them. The ill effects are sure to boomerang on him (quoted in Sumathy 36). Further Dickenson is aware of the change in the landscape by remembering the location of rails and fences which break the landscape and this description she give in the letter to Elizabeth Holland; “ the snow is so white and sudden. It seems almost like a change of heart. Though I didn‟t (sic) mean a conversion- I mean revolution” (quoted camb.c.to E.D, 204) She was aware about the over crowdedness of the natural places. She was knowing that this will create imbalance in the natural places of those who live there and there will be hindrances in the freedom as Martin says that “…there is the promise of freedom there is the fear that the sheer number of foreign immigrants attracted by this promise will destabilize, destroy. Or diminish its fragile balance for those already living there… there are so many now, there is no room for Americans (204). This devastation according to her will come in the form of industries which will give space to many hazardous things like railroads and the fences with other locomotives. In a poem Railway Train she shares her experience: I like to see it lap the miles and lick the valley up, and stop the feed itself at tanks. Dickenson has a little admiration towards the mechanical forces and that why she calls the train.. “a docile and omnipotent power, as its gliding movements evokes emotion. Half deprecatingly she attributes an uncanny power to the locomotive” (UP Dissertation 6). Dickenson was aware about the sceptic thoughts of science which had come or were to come; “in the idioms of new England theology that she had renounced she caught and forced into expression the scepticism and doubts of the age of age of science which was to come” (Spiller 127).Her soul was somewhat governed by the desire of despair, because the common men who believed more on science and less in God: I like a look of Agony, because I know its true men do not sham convulsion, no simulate, a three- (1-4 1196) In another poem she says; to simulate- is stinging workto cover what we are from science and from surgerytoo telescopic eyes to bear on us unshededInternational Research Journal of Management Science & Technology http://www.irjmst.com

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for their – sake- not for ours- (quoted Martin 116) Moreover Dickenson speaks about physics and astronomy, chemistry geology and also science in general because it was the period when science was developing very rigorously. Like Keats, Poe, Donne, Frost and others, Dickenson believed that the nature‟s secrets are revealed everywhere and it needs an understanding , therefore she is not taking world as a conclusion but for her there are yet may things for her: this world is not conclusion, a species stands beyond invisible as musicbut positive a sound (501, 1202, 1-4). Thus she believes that some scientific discoveries are designed to heighten the mysteries and not to solve them as some of her poems follow the pattern of equation like xy, xy, etc. where she believes that life is an equation which could be solved while analyzing its all spheres by being a transcend and a confessional poet. But in this regard Frost who like Dickenson for way for being a transcended and a confessional one. Frost believes that earth is the best place to live in. Earth is the right place for love: I don‟t know where its likely to go better. (52-53) Like Dikenson it was a common experience for Robert Frost look around on the insistent material evidence of what they were actually hoping to escape by moving towards the woods. It was all the stone walls, cellar holes, tension and personal conflict due to new discoveries which kept them away of the agricultural work or agrarian life, crafted aircrafts etc, about which he speaks in his poem Ghost House I dwell in a lonely house I know that vanished many a summers ago, and felt no trace but the cellar walls, and a cellar in which the day light falls (1-4). Frost of course, particularly wrote about new England where life was changing rapidly from agrarian to modern and he show the concern about the humanity and nature and says that if man will keep a frack with nature then he can come out of the miserable circumstances according to him man should not be afraid of size: so no need to be afraid of size all revelations have been ours (all revelation 19-20). He like Dickenson shows concern towards the technological inventions which becomes evident when we go through his poetry. He always had a stress that if you want to learn something learn from your surroundings that is nature because in nature Frost see the real education: it took pause to make him realize the mountain he was climbing had silent as of a book held up before his eyes (and was a teat albet done in a planet). Dwarf cormel, glad-thread, and maianthemum, he flowingly fingered as heard (timeout 1-9) Therefore, Frost seems to be inclined towards nature more by remaining in utter surprise more by remaining in realize befits because in order to the blessings of this nature where he International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology http://www.irjmst.com

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acquainted himself with both pleasant and unpleasant things and the way for him to remain in touch with birches snowy woods, picking of apples and other considerable things which came to him in both benevolent and malevolent ways. But Frost sometimes remains in utter surprise when he sees his people selling their farms houses and got buy the scientific objects or sometimes the people have become so modern that they left their agrarian life and prefer urbanity Frost. Sometimes tries to main a complete indifference towards the other heavenly bodies and thinks that there is a wide gulf between man and stars. And yet with neither love nor hate, those stars like some snow white Minerva‟s snow white marble eyes without the gift of sight (Stars 9-120 This might be the cause of his fellow countrymen who abandon the rural life, cut down the trees, who pursue the scientific study which leads them towards hazards of life without knowing consequences. He sees his people moving away from the reality about which he sings in a poem Neither out for nor in deep: they cannot look out for they cannot look in deep but when was that ever a bar to any watch they keep (13-16) Thus both Dickenson and Frost appreciate the beauty of nature not only for its pleasing attitudes but they know the reality about it. They know that without natural phenomenon man cannot survive. If he is going to create an imbalance on this land it will turn fateful for him. So man should try to keep harmony with nature and should abandon all those technical means which are harmful for him. Works Cited: Bercovitch, Sacvan, and Cyrus R. K. Patell. The Cambridge history of American literature. Cambridge University Press, 1994. Thoreau, Buell, Lawrence. The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. 2005. Print. Danielson, Dennis Richard. The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2000. Print. Dickinson, Emily, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson: Create-space Independent Pub; Illustrated edition. UK. 2015. Print. Dobrin, Sidney I. Writing Environments. Albany: State U of New York, 2005. Print. Frost, Robert, and Edward Connery. Lathem. The poetry of Robert Frost: the collected poems, complete and unabridged. H. Holt. 2012. Print. Glotfelty, Cheryll. The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens: U of Georgia, 1996. Print. Gradd, Greg, Ecocriticism: UK: UP: 1990. Print Green, David. The Winged world; An anthology of Poems for Degree Course. 1974. Mumbai: Rajiv Beri for Macmillan India Ltd., 2008. Sumathy, U. Ecocriticism in Practice. New Delhi: Sarup Book, 2009. Print. Henry David. Walden: life in the woods. Gibbs Smith, 2012. Print International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology http://www.irjmst.com

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Hughes, Ted, Silvia Plath, Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath, UK: Faber and Faber, 2014. Print. Jones, Steven E. Against Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism. Taylor and Francis, 2013. Naseer, Naseer, “Ecological Concerns in Robert Frost’s Poetry” (Dissertaion UP) MANUU. Hyderabad. 2010. Print. Spiller, Robert E. The cycle of American literature: an essay in historical criticism. Macmillan, 1972. Print. Whitman, Walt, et al. Three Great American Poets: Whitman, Dickinson, Frost: Leaves of Grass (1855). State Street Press, 2001.


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