LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 47 ANIMAL POETICS IN BRITISH CONTEMPORARY POEMS: FORGING INDIVIDUAL’S CONCERN ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION Henrikus Joko Yulianto Semarang State University ABSTRACT In times of today‟s changing global world, each of us needs to have a kind of steel armor to shield us from any threatening and daunting global impacts. Yet, we cannot just sit still or stay indolently to let any hazards take over or disrupt the living concordance and convenience. In case of environmental issues for instance, problems such as deforestation, pollution, global warming still become prevalent issues that people are coping up with. Literature as one social and cultural product should play roles in evoking people‟s understanding about the importance of conserving and preserving our environment. It is through ecocriticism or a criticism that harmonizes ecology and literary criticism that literature can participate in disseminating the values of green living. Poetry is one of literary genres that best describes one‟s vision of environment; contemporary British poetry is another example of the work that remarkably captures the sight and vision of the poets about problems related to the conservation of wildlife in their respective habitats. Keywords: environmental issues, contemporary poetry, conservation of wildlife, ecocriticism INTRODUCTION In this recent time, the skyrocketing physical infrastructure building shows human‟s modernity. Each piece of land is allocated for any building for business plans and often the building does not really consider the surrounding ecological safety. The decreasing number of lands because of these development plans makes human‟s dwelling be more crowded and weather be stifling hot. In many places, humans devastate forest lands by doing illegal logging, forest burning, and land clearing for business purposes as well. These practices certainly threaten the habitats of wildlife such as biodiversity of flora and fauna not to mention cause them to be extinct. A newsletter reported by Greenpeace organization says that the world marine life has been endangered by the non-degradable ten million tons of plastic waste that are floated away to the seas as well as by the exploitative and inappropriate fishing practices (www.greenpeace.or.id). Not only tigers but also the number of diverse birds and other rare animals are being threatened because they lose their shelter and habitat to live. In our daily life, http://www.greenpeace.or.id/ 48 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 we also contend with many environmental problems such as air and water pollution, landslide, flood, heaping rubbish, river shallowing, etc. in which many of these are caused by humans‟ detrimental practices towards environment. Sea otter is one of the endangered animals in many areas in the world. According to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the number of sea otter has been declining due to some human‟s destructive acts such as commercial fishing, hunting, pesticides, etc. To protect the otter and other endangered animals from disappearance, they designated critical habitats for them, in which the endangered animals are conserved in their habitats (http://www.fws.gov). As a part of cultural artifact living in our culture, language needs to take some roles in coping up with these problems. Literature as one part of language studies has managed to support environmentalists‟ concern towards ecological crisis through a critical study called ecocriticism. Through ecocriticism, literature wants to play a more active role in evoking people‟s awareness and concern for preserving their natural environment for a better life. Formerly, literature as an aesthetic discourse tended to center only around things that nurture literary knowledge or it is called prose literacy in today‟s context. Yet, the fanciful and counterfeit illustrations of the literary text tend to exclusively drag literature in an ivory tower; it does not give a contact nor touch on urgent day-to-day issues especially those related to ecology and environment. As Glotfelty says that literature does not stand apart from the environment but joins in its whole system (1996: xix). This means that literature with its concern for ecological issues will harness empowerment not only to the literary study itself but also to those who read and appreciate a literary text. In a word, through its perspective towards environment, literature will be able to nourish readers‟ ecological knowledge so that they will take a more caring attitude towards their environment. In this paper, the discussion focuses on animal poetics in two contemporary British poems – The Otter by Seamus Heaney and The Banished Gods by Derek Mahon as a medium of enhancement of one‟s ecological awareness and concern about environmental conservation especially in endangered animals conservation. By reading and appreciating poems that portray animal imageries, one will hopefully not only foster his knowledge of natural objects through eco-imageries and poetics but also nourish one‟s caring and love for his nature and environment. This paper addresses two problems: first, what animal poetics the two British poems describe; second, in what ways the depiction of the animal poetics in the poems serves as a medium for enhancing and forging individual‟s concern about ecological and environmental conservation. In forwarding these questions, the LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 49 discussion refers to assumptions given by some ecocritics in ecocriticism, the study of literature and environment. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Poetry Perrine & Arp define poetry as “a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language” (1992: 3). Furthermore, they say that to understand language in poetry, one need to understand what poetry says. It is because language is employed on different occasions to say quite different kinds of things and hence language has different uses. Language in poetry then consists of two kinds: denotation or “the dictionary meaning or meanings of the word” and connotation or what the word suggests beyond what it expresses or its overtones of meaning (1992: 37). One element of poetry in general is imagery or “the representation through language of sense experience.” The word „image‟ itself suggests a mental picture or something that is seen in the mind‟s eye; it is often known as visual imagery. Yet, an image also represents a sound (auditory imagery); a smell (olfactory imagery); a taste (gustatory imagery); touch, such as hardness, softness, heat and cold (tactile imagery); an internal sensation, such as hunger, thirst, fatique, or nausea (organic imagery); or movement or tension in the muscles or joints (kinesthetic imagery) (1992: 49). Other elements include figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, etc.; meaning and idea; tone, musical devices; rhythm and meter; sound and meaning; and pattern (1992). Contemporary Poetry McClatchy in an introduction of his book The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, says that by the word „contemporary‟, he means, poets of this period (2003: xxx). He further says that contemporary poets sought an „impersonal‟ manner “that could brood over spiritual conditions rather than emotional instants”. Besides, contemporary poets also felt the force of plain speaking – “of the colloquial, the commonplace, a naturalistic aesthetic that was free from design or pretense” (2003: xxvii). In contemporary American poetic tradition, one previous literary era will influence the former era – “Beneath the landscape of trends and schools and movements run underground streams of sympathy and influence” (2003: xxiv). By quoting Alexis de Tocqueville‟s notion, he says that the subject of American poetry is mostly on the self (2003: xxiv). Blake Morrison in introduction of his book Contemporary British Poetry, elucidates that the new spirit in British poetry began to emerge in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 70s. The new poets show greater imaginative freedom than the previous poetic generation, free from the constraints of 50 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 immediate post-war life. They have developed a degree of ludic and literary self-consciousness reminiscent of the modernists. The new poetry is often open- ended, reluctant to point the moral of, or conclude too neatly, what it chooses to transcribe. The new poetry wants to extend the imaginative franchise (1985: 12-20). Meanwhile, John Kinsella in Landbridge – Contemporary Australian Poetry, in the introduction says that “Australian poetry is a geographic and psychological entity rather than a purely historical one” (1999: 15). He further explains that in many ways “it is possible to read Australian poetry through and against the landscape, rural and pastoral models.” The word „pastoral‟, as Kinsella explains, refers to the urban construct of the rural myth – as opposed to a specifically rural poetry (1999: 19) Ecocriticism Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. It takes an earth-centered approach to literary studies (Glotfelty, 1996: xix). William Howarth, an ecocritic in his article “Ecocriticism in Context”, explains that the word „ecocriticism‟, „eco‟ and „critic‟ are derived from Greek, „oikos‟ and „kritis‟. In tandem, they mean „house judge‟. An ecocritic then means “a person who judges the merits and faults of writings that depict the effects of culture upon nature, with a view toward celebrating nature, berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm through political action” (Coupe, 2008: 163). Scott Slovic, another ecocritic, in his article “Ecocriticism: Containing Multitudes, Practising Doctrine”, defines „ecocriticism‟ as “the study of explicit environment texts by way of any scholarly approach or, conversely, the scrutiny of ecological implications and human-nature relationships in any literary text, even texts that seem, at first glance, oblivious of the nonhuman world” (Coupe, 2008: 160). Yet, ecocriticism is not the same with other literary criticisms as it does not forward certain theoretical assumptions as new criticism or new historicism do. As Slovic argues that “ecocriticism has no central, dominant doctrine or theoretical apparatus – rather, it is being re-defined daily by the actual practice of thousands of literary scholars around the world” (Coupe, 2008: 161). Nevertheless, what differentiates ecocriticism from other criticisms is that the former considers non-human and human contexts in a literary work as Glen A. Love an ecocritic argues that ecocriticism “encompasses non-human as well as human contexts and it is necessary to consider the interconnections between the text and the environmental surroundings” (2003: 16). Meanwhile, Karla Armbruster & Kathleen R. Wallace explain that „environment‟ in ecocriticism does not only refer to „natural‟ or „wilderness‟ areas but it also includes cultivated and built LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 51 landscapes, the natural elements and aspects of those landscapes, and cultural interactions with those natural elements (2001: 4). Ecocriticism principles as influenced by deconstructive assumptions, hold on dismantling the former relation that privileged humans and subordinated non- human as suggested by an ecocritic, Patrick Murphy. He says that “the human self needs to be related to the natural „other‟, that relationship being one of „heterarchy‟ rather than „hierarchy‟. It means that humans must replace the former opposition of humanity as „one-for- oneself‟ and nature as „things-for-us‟ with the principle of „anotherness‟, by which culture opens itself up to „interanimation‟ with nature (Coupe, 2008: 159). Hochman calls ecocriticism as green cultural studies and suggests that “plants and animals are granted separateness, independence, and liberation” (Coupe, 2008: 192). Kate Soper in her article “The Idea of Nature” sums up the multiple roles which nature can play in ecological discourses – „metaphysical‟, „realistic‟, and the „lay‟ (or „surface‟) ideas of nature: (1) Employed as a metaphysical concept, which it mainly is in the argument of philosophy, „nature‟ is the concept through which humanity thinks its difference and specificity. It is the concept of the non-human, even if, as we have seen, the absoluteness of the humanity-nature demarcation has been disputed, and our ideas about what falls to the side of „nature‟ have been continuously revised in the light of changing perceptions of what counts as „human.‟ (2) Employed as a realist concept, „nature‟ refers to the structures, processes and causal powers that are constantly operative within the physical world, that provide the objects of study of the natural sciences and condition the possible forms of human intervention in biology or interaction with the environment. (3) Employed as a „lay‟ or „surface‟ concept, as it is in much everyday, literary and theoretical discourse, „nature‟ is used in reference to ordinarily observable features of the world: the „natural‟ as opposed to the urban or industrial environment („landscape‟, „wilderness‟, „countryside‟, „rurality‟), animals, domestic and wild, the physical body in space and raw materials. This is the nature of immediate experience and aesthetic appreciation; the nature we have destroyed and polluted are asked to conserve and preserve (Coupe, 2008: 125). In finding out ecological aspects in a literary text, Glotfelty argues that ecocritics can ask questions such as: How is nature represented in the sonnet?, What role does the physical setting play in the plot of this novel?, Are the values expressed in the play consistent with ecological wisdom?, 52 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it?, How can we characterize nature writing as a genre?, In what ways has literacy itself affected humankind‟s relationship to the natural world?, How has the concept of wilderness changed over time?, In what ways and to what effect is the environmental crisis seeping into contemporary literature and popular culture?, What cross-fertilization is possible between literary studies and environmental discourse in related disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology, art history, and ethics? (1996: xix). In sum, Glotfelty assumes that all ecological criticism shares the fundamental premise that human culture is connected to the physical world, affecting it and affected by it. In practice, ecocriticism takes as its subject the interconnections between nature and culture, specifically the cultural artifacts of language and literature. In other words, ecocriticism has one foot in literature and the other on land; as a theoretical discourse, it negotiates between the human and the non-human (1996: xix). DISCUSSION There are two contemporary poems that I took as the samples in this discussion; they are The Otter by Seamus Heaney and the Banished Gods by Derek Mahon. The Otter By: Seamus Heaney When you plunged The light of Tuscany wavered And swung through the pool From top to bottom. I loved your wet head and smashing crawl, Your fine swimmer‟s back and shoulders Surfacing and surfacing again This year and every year since. I sat dry-throated on the warm stones. You were beyond me. The mellowed clarities, the grape-deep The Banished Gods By: Derek Mahon Near the headwaters of the longest river There is a forest clearing, A dank, misty place Where light stands in columns And birds sing with a noise like paper tearing. Far from land, far from the trade routes, In an unbroken dream-time Of penguin and whale, The seas sigh to themselves Reliving the days before the days of sail. Where the wires end the moor seethes in LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 53 air Thinned and disappointed. Thank God for the slow loadening, When I hold you now We are close and deep As the atmosphere on water. My two hands are plumbed water. You are my palpable, lithe Otter of memory In the pool of the moment, Turning to swim on your back, Each silent, thigh-shaking kick Re-tilting the light, Heaving the cool at your neck. And suddenly you‟re out, Back again, intent as ever, Heavy and frisky in your freshened pelt, Printing the stones. silence, Scattered with scree, primroses, Feathers and faeces. It shelters the hawk and hears In dreams the forlorn cries of lost species. It is here that the banished gods are in hiding, Here they sit out the centuries In stone, water And the hearts of trees, Lost in a reverie of their own natures – Of zero-growth economics and seasonal change In a world without cars, computers Or chemical skies, Where thought is a fondling of stones And wisdom a five-minute silence at moonrise. Animal Poetics in the Two Poems Heaney‟s poem literally uses an animal image, „otter‟ as the title and the story; whereas, Mahon‟s poem metaphorically portrays endangered animals as „the banished gods‟. The Otter (TO) has seven stanzas with four lines each while The Banished Gods (TBG) have five stanzas with five lines each. TO depicts only one kind of animal, which is „otter‟ while TBG presents several animals such as birds (stanza 1), penguin and whale (stanza 2), hawk (stanza 3). „The Banished Gods‟ as metaphors of „the endangered animals‟ also represent other kinds of animals that the poet does not mention. In TO, the poet expresses his feelings being enticed by the cute and wonderful behavior of the otter. From stanza 1 to stanza 7, he cherishes and praises the ways the otter swims or its physical appearance – When you plunged The light of Tuscany wavered And swung through the pool From top to bottom (stanza 1) The second line seems to use hyperbole since it says that the way the 54 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 otter plunges into the water has caused the light in Tuscany (a region of west central Italy) to waver. The poet‟s amazement of the otter‟s physical appearance is expressed in stanza 2 line 1-2 – “I loved your wet head and smashing crawl, your fine swimmer‟s back and shoulders”; stanza 5 line 2-3 – “you are my palpable, lithe otter of memory”; stanza 7 line 3 – “heavy and frisky in your freshened pelt” (1982: 37). The „otter‟ does not only appeal to visual imagery but also tactile imagery since the poet also touches and fondles the otter by his hand. The images „plunged‟ and „swung through‟ (stanza 1) appeal to kinesthetic imagery, and so do the words „re-tilting the light‟ and „heaving the cool‟ (stanza 6) – „printing the stones‟ (stanza 7). The words „wet head‟ (stanza 2); „warm stones‟, „mellowed clarities‟, „grape-deep air‟ (stanza 3); „palpable‟, „lithe‟ (stanza 5) appeal to tactile imagery. Meanwhile, the words „dry-throated‟ (stanza 3); „close and deep‟ (stanza 4); „heavy and frisky‟ (stanza 7) appeal to organic imagery. In TBG, the poet uses words that appeal to senses, too. „The Banished Gods‟ appeals to organic imagery since the gods are abstract beings but visible and tangible in one‟s imagination. The words such as „headwaters‟, „forest‟, „birds‟ (stanza 1); „penguin and whale‟, „trade routes‟ (stanza 2); „moor‟, „scree‟, „primroses‟, „hawk‟ (stanza 3); „cars‟, „computers‟ (stanza 5) appeal to visual imagery. Meanwhile, the words such as „dank‟, „misty‟, „stone‟, „water‟, „the hearts of trees‟ appeal to tactile imagery. The words „forlorn‟, „reverie‟, „wisdom‟ appeal to organic imagery. In this poem, the poet illustrates the forest clearing as one cause of the declining and disappearing number of animals in their habitats such as in stone, water, and the hearts of trees. He imagines that all species of animals will restore to their former habitats when people do not excessively occupy themselves with economic activities and do any environmental disruptions and produce more cars and chemicals that all of these might endanger the environment itself. In terms of figurative meaning, the poem TO suggests a somewhat symbolic meaning. A symbol itself means “something that means more than what it is” (Perrine & Arp, 1992: 80). While an image means only what it is, a symbol means what it is and something more (1992: 80). The „otter‟ as a figurative image may represent something beloved and cherished to the poet just as he dearly describes the otter as one kind of cute animal. Looking at the sequence of event from stanza 1 to stanza 7, the image „otter‟ used by the poet seems to represent his imaginative or inventive power as the poet. Imagination comes back and forth as it likes; yet, when it comes to someone, it engrosses one‟s mind and fancy and restores to its former fanciful energy as it were like invisible but acknowledgeable. This is expressed in stanza 4-5: LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 55 Thank God for the show loadening, When I hold you now We are close and deep As the atmosphere on water. My two hands are plumbed water. You are my palpable, lithe Otter of memory In the pool of the moment. Meanwhile, in TBG the figurative image of „the banished gods‟ suggests something as ancestral, sacred, dignified, and respectable as the gods; yet, they are described as things that are endangered by human‟s devastating acts. Looking at the stanzas, the image „banished gods‟ represents local cultural heritage or ancestral tradition that might be jeopardized by any recent global trends and development. The assumption is based on what the poet says in stanza 4 that the banished gods „have sit out there for centuries in stone, water, and the hearts of trees.‟ The loss of the ancestral culture might be caused by any daydream or absent-mindedness (reverie) of its own inhabitants probably in case of any dispute and disagreement. The vanishing ancestral culture might also be caused by the modernization and globalization trends as parts of environmental and cultural phenomena, represented by prospering economic growth, rapidly growing technology in automotive, computer, and chemicals that correspondingly also bring forth ecological impacts such as the endangered wildlife and their habitats. In stanza 5, the poet assuredly says that through thought and wisdom will people be able to restore to their former convenient and sustainable living harmony between humans and nature. Its Effects on Forging Individual’s Concern about Environmental Conservation As William Rueckert says that “poems can be studied as models for energy flow, community building and ecosystems” (Glotfelty, 1996: 111); therefore, Heaney‟s and Mahon‟s poems representing animal poetics reveal their concern about the threatened existence of animals as the parts of living creatures in human‟s nature and environment. Meanwhile, Jhan Hochman in his article “Green Cultural Studies” argues that the studies and human culture should grant these non- human creatures (animals and plants) unromanticized difference, an autonomy apart from humans, a kind of privacy. They should ensure that plants and animals to have separateness, independence, and liberation (Coupe, 2008: 192). This kind of awareness emerges in Heaney‟s poem when he delightfully describes the amazing behavior of the otter, in which he treats the otter as similarly as he does to humans. He cherishes, expresses his love and praise for having the otter by his side – Thank God for the slow loadening, When I hold you now 56 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 We are close and deep As the atmosphere on water (stanza 4). The poet‟s love for the otter through the visual and tactile imageries shows the change of attitude towards the animals. Formerly, people tended to degrade animals as unworthy creatures but as people evolve and civilize, they begin to realize that animals like other non-human living creatures also have their rights and independence as parts of our nature. In accordance with this opinion, some ecocritics such as Patrick Murphy states that the relationship between humans and non-humans is no longer based on hierarchy, in which man is the center but it has been on heterarchy in respect of „anotherness‟ and „interanimation‟ in their relationship in nature (Coupe, 2008: 159). In Mahon‟s poem, the poet even represents animals as „the gods‟; this shows his respect and appreciation of animals. He assumes that the endangered animals should have their rights to regain their missing habitats and live in conserved and preserved homes. In view of ecocriticism, the relationship between human and non-human should consider the heterarchy and interanimation mechanism. Another ecocritic from Georgia State University, the US named Randy Malamud in his article entitled “Poetic Animals and Animal Souls” published by e-journal “Society and Animals” volume 6, no. 3 October 1998, asserts that “animal poetry may facilitate an enlightened, perhaps even a spiritually transcendent, outlook toward animals” (1998: 264). In his article, Malamud refers to Mesoamerican animal beliefs, in which Mesoamerican people believe in “a private spiritual world of the self that is expressed through the concept of animal souls.” The Mesoamerican beliefs then evoke some of poetry‟s enticements. Accordingly, animal poetry may embody a displaced realm of contemporary Western intellectual/aesthetic spirituality, which derived from the natural world that exceeds the merely human realm (1998: 266-267). By quoting Frost‟s notion, Malamud says that when a person chooses to make a friendship with an animal, she/he does so “to extend her sense of self by granting, creating, or recognizing the selfhood of another that would otherwise remain unrealized” (1998: 265). Correspondingly, he also quotes from Kowalski‟s notion that human‟s friendship with animals is to find out “an inwardness in other creatures that awakens what is innermost in ourselves” (1998: 270). In the two poems, the imageries „otter‟ and other animals show the poets‟ concern and appreciation of the animals as the human‟s „partners‟ and „friends‟. The use of „otter‟ is probably based on Heaney‟s fondness of the cute and marvelous animal but more especially on his concern about the endangered species of the animal. European otter or lutra lutra family as the subfamily that exist LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 57 in European countries including Ireland where Heaney comes from, is the most widely distributed otter species. Its range covers parts of Asia and Africa as well as across Europe. The population of European otter declined across its range in these recent times because of pollution from pesticides such as organochlorine (OCs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as well as from other threats such as habitat loss and hunting (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/otter). Meanwhile, an e-article published in October 2009 by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service entitled “Sea Otter Critical Habitat in Southwest Alaska,” says that the population and habitat of sea otter in southwest Alaska are endangered. The Service finalized designation of critical habitat for the threatened northern sea otter in southwest Alaska. The critical habitat identifies geographic areas that contain the specific habitat elements essential for the conservation of an endangered species. It includes five discrete units from west to east, (1) Western Aleutian Unit; (2) Eastern Aleutian Unit; (3) South Alaska Peninsula Unit; (4) Bristol Bay Unit; and (5) Kodiak, Kamishak, Alaska Peninsula Unit. In regard to the declining population of otter, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA) has prohibited the seizure of marine mammals including sea otters (http://www.fws.gov). In Mahon‟s poem, the poet depicts a critical habitat of the endangered animals from stanza 1 to stanza 4 because of some human‟s forest and land clearing – Near the headwaters of the longest river There is a forest clearing, A dank, misty place Where light stands in columns And birds sing with a noise like paper tearing (stanza 1). The stanza above wants to stress that the forest clearing has caused the animals‟ habitats to disappear. In stanza 2, the poet also describes that the sea is also threatened by human‟s commercial fishing that caused the marine mammals to be in jeopardy. In stanza 4, the poet again illustrates the critical habitats of the threatened animals that have disappeared – It is here that the banished gods are in hiding, Here they sit out the centuries In stone, water And the hearts of trees, Lost in a reverie of their own natures – Despite the poets‟ concern about the endangered animals in the two poems, by referring to Kowalski‟s notion as Malamud has quoted, the poets‟ depiction of animal images in their poems reflects their intention to find out “an inwardness in other creatures that awakens what is innermost http://www.fws.gov/ 58 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 in themselves.” In TO, Heaney expresses his excited feeling when he holds the otter, he feels as if „they are close and deep like the atmosphere on water‟ (stanza 4). These lines show how affectionate and intimate the friendship between human and animal is. Yet, the intimacy also suggests the poet‟s search for inner essence within their own selves. In stanza 5, the poet again enunciates his gleeful feeling but then by pointing to his former search for the inner self – You are my palpable, lithe Otter of memory In the pool of the moment. In TBG, the poet‟s search for inner self pervades in each stanza through the illustration of the forest clearing and its cause of the disappearing animals, the restless seas due to commercial fishing, the seething moor and the forlorn cries of lost species, the vanishing animal habitats, and the hope for the regaining and returning of former wildlife conservation when people are willing to go back to nature. By returning to eco-principles, reading animal poetics in these two poems will hopefully be able to evoke individual‟s understanding about the importance of conserving and preserving animals and their habitats as the wise acts to create a more sustainable and convenient living. The poets‟ representation of animals does not only convey their views about the animals as the living creatures, in which their existence is important for human‟s life but it also encourage people‟s concern about maintaining their environment especially by taking care of their flora and fauna diversity and give them enough space for their sustainability. CONCLUSION Human culture in its diverse forms is a manufactured product; whereas, nature is more an inherent heritage for any living creature. Accordingly, each living creature either human or non-human should live in harmony with each other. Representation of animal poetics in literary texts especially poetry is one evidence and concern of humans for other non-human creatures. In terms of living harmony and conservation, human‟s superiority over non-human creatures should no longer be appropriate when we realize that nature has its own privilege and so do its wildlife and living creatures. The animal poetics in poetry then will be a medium of bridging the gap between human‟s indifference of the importance of the endangered animals conservation and the neglected privilege of the animals itself. Similarly, the poetics will hopefully evoke people‟s understanding and concern in their participation in conserving and preserving the endangered animals in particular and our environment in general. REFERENCES LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 59 Armbruster, Karla & Kathleen, R. Wallace (eds.) (2001), Beyond Nature Writing – Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism, Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia. Coupe, Laurence (ed.) (2008), The Green Studies Reader – From Romanticism to Ecocriticism. New York: Routledge. European Otter, downloaded on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otter Glotfelty, Cheryll & Fromm, Harold. (1996), The Ecocriticism Reader – Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens, Georgia: the University of Georgia Press. Greenpeace Newsletter 1st Edition (2012), “Our Blue Planet”, can be downloaded on www.greenpeace.or.id Kinsella, John (ed.) (1999), Landbridge – Contemporary Australian Poetry. North Freemantle, WA: Freemantle Arts Centre Press. Love, Glen A. (2003), Practical Ecocriticism – Literature, Biology, and the Environment. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press. Malamud, Randy. (1998), “Poetic Animals and Animal Souls”, downloaded on e- journal “Society and Animals” Volume 6 no. 3 October 1998 on www.english.gsu.edu. McClatchy, J.D.(ed.) 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