ABSTRACT
This conclusion draws on the preceding chapters to discuss ideas about nature, culture and environment in Ted Hughes's and Seamus Heaney's respective ecopoetics from a broader perspective, in comparison to each other as well as in relation to a wider framework of the nature and definition of ecopoetics. It outlines Hughes's anti-anthropocentrism, expressed through references to evolutionary and other natural processes that take place on scales beyond the apprehension of the individual human being. The chapter discusses the relation in Heaney's poetry between language, ecology and his own poetic process. It contextualises Hughes's and Heaney's respective themes and ideas in relation to a broader discussion about the relationship between nature, environment and poetry. The concept of an ecological poetics suggests that there is a special relationship between ecology or environmentalism and the formal qualities of poetry. Complex climate change issues, requiring new and challenging theoretical and conceptual approaches, have added to concerns regarding preservation of individual species or local pollution.
