AcknowledgmentsWe thank I. Gor for laboratory assistance, Herb Isside for greenhouse care, and M.I. Menter for statistical advice. Seeds were kindly donated by Burpee corporation. Funding for this project was provided by the Swarthmore College Department of Biology and a Merck summer stipend. [Note that peoples titles are omitted.]William Wordsworths proto-ecological PoetryWordsworth was against the accelerated destruction of the natural world brought on by the Industrial revolution. He was worried that the industry has created false illusions that humans control nature which made us forget that we ourselves are dependant upon nature. His warning is valuable and important for tracing the beginnings of environmental awareness.What can, in truth, be more absurd, than that either rich or poor should be spared the trouble of travelling by high roads over so short a space, according to their respective means, if the unavoidable consequence must be a great disturbance of the retirement, and in many places a destruction of the beauty of the country, which the parties are come in search of? 3Wordsworths proto-ecological poetry expressed a new vision of appreciating, and understanding nature as an animate, equal partner with humanity.

Romanticism and EcologyRomanticism was a widespread movement of late 18th century. By being deeply rooted in historical and social circumstances of its time, it was an inevitable reaction against material changes in society and brought a set of new ideas and philosophies.Romanticism: - had no empathy for rapid industralization - rejected materialism at the cost of spiritual values - celebrated freedom of the individualRomanticism opposed the scientific rationalism of its age. In fact, it was the anti-thesis of everything scientific: - logical behaviour - order - authorityIt turned to Nature as the ultimate source of inspiration.The Romantic tradition offers a rich and varied set of responses to the natural world. It is among the English Romantic poets that the first ecological understandings emerged. Modern environmental movement traces its fundamental ideas to poets such were William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats .In the 21st century we are well aware that our survival is undoubtedly linked to the preservation of our planetary eco-system. By re-examining the environmental concerns of the English Romantic period we could gain a fresh perspective on the burning environmental issues through the methods of ecocriticism.

Ecocriticism As a method of literary analysis, ecocriticism emerged in the late twentieth century as a means of investigating the relation between literary texts and their environmental contexts. The term ecocriticism was first devised in 1978 by William Rueckert in his pioneering essay, Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism. 2

ConclusionThe liberation of human society was accompanied by a realization of the interconnectedness between human beings and all other living things. For the English Romantic poets, Nature is more than just a passive beneficiary of human endeavors to bring about social and political transformation. Romantic significant stress upon the concepts of biodiversity, preservation and symbiosis were inherited by modern ecological science. Romanticism offered a frame for understanding our eco-system. The Romantic poets' recurrent sense of kinship with animals emerges from a new scientific understanding of the underlying familial relationships among all living things.

Romanticism as EcocriticismMartina Dmitrovi; Aja Hadi Department of English Language, University of SarajevoRomantic literature is a germinal site for the rise of ecological consciousness and practices and its modern day philosophies. Nowadays there are many ecological philosophies: ecofeminism, ecological psychology , anarchist social ecology, deep ecology, confucian ecology.

The ecological crisis that humanity now faces forces us to re-evaluate Romantic ideas of Nature and our relationship with it.

To understand nature one needs something other than factual knowledge gained by the meddling intellect. This poem, The Tables Turned, rejects methods of 18th century science, a science that was mostly concerned with the logical, anatomical description of an individual rather than engaging in a different kind of studying and knowing a human being. The last stanza of the poem repudiates both science and art and calls for a different way of perceiving the world that surrounds us.

Portrait of Keats, listening to a nightingale on Hampstead Heath by Joseph Severn 6 The day is come when I again repose Here, under this dark sycamore, and view These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, Which at this season, with their unripe fruits, Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves 'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms, Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke Sent up, in silence, from among the trees! With some uncertain notice, as might seem Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire The Hermit sits alone.5The poem reveals physical and metaphysical dimension of Nature. A mind that is creative, philosophical enough will benefit and learn immensely from a natural landscape. The psychological relationship between the poet and Nature provides an individual with positive energy. It must be noted that Keats work was based on suffering and agony. Keats clearly used Nature to his own aesthetic and philosophical ambitions. A considerable part of Keats undoubtedly demonstrates how internalizing ecology inspires rethinking, creativity and responsibility towards our natural habitats.Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818) by Caspar D. Friedrich is a well-known and especially Romantic masterpiece was described by the writer John Lewis Gaddisas leaving a contradictory impression, "suggesting at once mastery over a landscape and the insignificance of the individual within it. We see no face, so it's impossible to know whether the prospect facing the young man is exhilarating, or terrifying, or both."1IntroductionThis presentation will tell the story of the Romantic Era and the work of its most prominent poets as the starting point of philosophies and underlying ideas behind ecocriticism. We will explore how Romantic elements have been used in the basic principles and tenants of modern day ecocriticism.

Sweet is the lore which nature brings;Our meddling intellectMisshapes the beauteous forms of things;We murder to dissect.Enough of science and of art;Close up those barren leaves;Come forth, and bring with you a heartThat watches and receives.4From an eco-critical point of view, Wordsworths poem Tintern Abbey, raised a crucial and a very contemporary question whether wilderness can be preserved at all and is it possible for wilderness to be sustained in any human encounter with nature. For, Wordsworth returns to a landscape from his past and finds it unchanged. It is the endurance of that land amidst human occupation that gives him a reason to celebrate it.John Keats: an eco-critical inquiryJohn Keats apprehension of Nature plays a central role in understanding of his imagination and work. Keatsian dominant spiritual dimension of nature was slightly different from older Romantics. Keats tends to place Nature within his aesthetic quest, not only to contemplate it as a universal force.The total sympathy with Nature holds the key to the secret of creative genius. Keats consciously used Nature and its imagery as well as his own apprehension of natural phenomena to illustrate Nature as being therapeutic to human health.Keats poem The Poet shows his own enthusiasm for nature:

At Morn, at Noon, at Eve, and Middle Night, He passes forth into the charmed air With talisman to call up spirits rare From plant, cave, rock and fountain. To his sight The hush of natural objects opens quite To the core: and every secret essence there Reveals the elements of good and fair Making him see, where Learning hath no light. Sometimes, above the gross and palpable things Of this diurnal ball, his spirit flies On awful wing; and with its destind skies Holds premature and mystic communings: Till such unearthly intercourses shed A visible halo round his mortal head. 7Much Romantic writing emerges from a desperate sense of alienation from the natural world and expresses an anxious endeavor to re-establish a vital, sustainable relationship between mankind and the fragile planet on which [we] dwell" 8