Visions of Eco-Anxiety: The Broken Human–Nature Bond in the Poetry of Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney

Abstract

The current review analyses ecological anxiety and ruptured human-nature contact in the poetry of Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney through the ecocritical prism. In response to the growing environmental degradation and its resulting mental impact, the paper conducts a comparative study of the chosen poems, including The Hawk in the Rain and The Crow by Hughes, and Death of a Naturalist and Bogland by Heaney. Based on thematic and comparative literary analysis, the review also discusses how each of the poets expresses ecological crisis in imagery, symbolism, myth, and landscape representations. Hughes views nature as the violent and independent phenomenon that is the agent of the destructive instincts of humans and the ecological alienation, whereas Heaney uses the pastoral recollection and topography to express the sense of loss, nostalgia, and moral accountability to nature. Although poetically, they have different techniques, both poets predetermine emotional and existential aspects of the ecological disaster. The review holds that their poems project an eco-anxiety debate into the present day by dramatizing the mental results of being environmentally detached. This article proves that the relevance of literary texts in the formation of environmental awareness and the restoration of human-nature relations is still topical by placing Hughes and Heaney in the context of the modern ecocritical discourse.