A Comparative Study of Gary Snyder and Sohrab Sepehri: Nature and Ecocriticism

This essay aims to study the representation of nature and nature metaphors in the poetry ofthe American poet Gary Snyder (1930) and the Iranian poet Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980),through ecocritical values. Snyder, Pulitzer Prize Winner and environmentalist, has writtenmore than sixteen books of poetry and prose. On the other side of the world, Sepehri isconsidered as one of Iran’s foremost modernist painters and one of the most famous Iranianpoets who have practiced modern poetry. His poetry, like his painting, is contemplation andmeditation about nature. Similar to Snyder, he was a skillful imagist. Therefore, it seemssuitable to study their poetry through lenses of ecocriticism. Environmental criticism, alsoknown as ecocriticism, is an interdisciplinary field that examines the relationship that humanbeings have with the environment. In other words, environmental critics explore how natureand the natural world are imagined through literary texts. Snyder’s ecological views arederived from certain traditional beliefs taken from Indian culture and Buddhism. He looks atthe earth as a ‘mother’ to living beings whereas Sepehri in his poems was more concernedwith naturalistic metaphors, which had become a characteristic of his voice. Therefore, it canbe concluded that although both poets had used nature as their main subject and theme, theirmethod of representation is entirely different. Snyder took the position of nature activist inhis poems, whereas Sepehri used nature metaphors to express his thoughts and feelings in themost creative, imaginative and indirect way.

Keywords:

Nature , Nature metaphors , Ecocriticism , Poetry