ABSTRACT
This essay is written in the context of Terry Gifford's claim that 'Poetry that acknowledges and informs our responsibility for each other and the planet upon which we depend is arguably the most important poetry being written today'.21 shall argue that twentieth-century rural poets are important because in exploring the essential relationship between people and place they reveal an ecological awareness illustrating what Michael Bunce describes as 'the persistence of a fundamental human need for connections with nature, land and community'.3
