Home › Glossary › Letter E

Ecopoetics

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Poetry and poetics that deal explicitly with ecological issues, the natural world, and environmental activism

Detailed Definition
Ecopoetics is a poetic practice and critical framework that foregrounds ecological awareness, environmental justice, and the interrelationship between language and the natural world; it challenges anthropocentrism by experimenting with form to reflect nonhuman temporalities, ecosystems, or climate crises, as seen in the work of Juliana Spahr, Jorie Graham, or Craig Santos Perez, who blend lyricism with scientific and activist discourse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ecopoetics: "The glacier weeps its ancient tears"; "Concrete forests choke the songbirds’ throats"; "Rivers remember what cities forget"; "Plastic blooms where wildflowers once grew"
Additional Notes
Critical and creative approach emphasizing poetry's relationship to environment, ecology, and place. Theoretical framework informing ecopoetry. Related to nature writing but specifically addresses poetics. Study how form and content intersect in environmental awareness.
Also Known As
Environmental poetics Nature verse theory Ecological poetry aesthetics Green composition theory Ecopoetic style
Skip to main content