Eco-conscious Insights in Selected Nepali Poems

Abstract

For centuries, the anthropocentric practice of humanity has remained deaf to ecological sensibilities. Anthropocentrism has treated nature as a commodity keeping humans at the center of everything. Ironically, this has brought adverse consequences to humanity itself and the natural world as a whole. In this context, the issue of environmental degradation has significantly drawn the attention of scholars and creative writers across the globe. Aligned with this trend, Nepali poets too have expressed their genuine concerns for environmental awareness through their poems. In this paper, we analyze some representative Nepali poems from an ecocritical perspective to examine how they reflect ecological sensibilities. We have selected seven poems: Abhi Subedi’s “River Stage” and “River Arun from Hile”; Vishnu S. Rai’s “Corona Says”; Lekhnath Paudyal’s “Parrot in the Cage”; Sama’s “Don’t Cut down, Brother Woodcutter”; Lohani’s “Gaia”; and “Krishna Chandra Sharma’s “Lesson from Nature.” We find that Subedi’s poems reflect how the human self is infatuated, motivated and energized in collaboration with nature. They show both the grandeur and crisis in nature. The remaining poems show their concern for the environmental crisis in nature. The ecological problems have taken place out of the hierarchical relation based on the dualistic mechanism of anthropocentrism that prioritizes one category (humanity) over the other (nature). Finally, we claim that by cherishing diversity and co-existence with other beings and nature, humanity can save the entire ecology.