ECOPOETICS IN NIGERIA: THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE IN THE POETIC METTLE OF CHRISTIAN OTOBOTEKERE

Abstract

One of the major characteristics of Eco-poetry as defined by James Engelhardt (2007) is a true connection to the world that implies responsibility. Eco-poetry is "surrounded by questions of ethics". (6) This means that Eco-poetry is located within that thin margin between man and nature. This research examines and explores the extent to which the eco-poet understudy have portrayed serious concerns for the protection and preservation of the environment from anti-natural and ecological activities through his writings. This concept stands for poetry with a strong environmental importance or meaning. In the realms of Ecopoetry lies man’s desire to be attuned with the cadences of nature. Eco-poetry becomes, man’s weapon for guarding nature’s gift from predators militating against the preservation of the environment. This paper places the works of Christian Otobotekere within the realms of Ecopoetics by x-raying the Ecotones and the languages of nature as portrayed by this sage of Nigerian poetry. This paper seeks to establish that the Ecotones in the poems of Christian Otobotekere entail strong sense of responsibility to his society and nature. This scholarship also aims at exploring the figurative and aural capacity of the language he used to evoke the natural world in this authoritative technique. Christian Otobotekere’s Beyond Sound and Voice and Live2Lives are two typical collection of poems that are deeply rooted in the ravages of the Niger Delta contemporary society have been used in this study.