Life and Nature - Scf - State College of Florida

Introduction
“Your deepest roots are in nature. No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of
life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation.”
--- Charles Cook, Awakening to Nature, 2001
Life and Nature exist simultaneously, no matter what the medium is or location.
Life is what makes Nature grow, but Nature is what gives us Life. One completes the
other, no matter who the person is, or where the Nature grows. The three poets and
poems selected for this anthology reflect on what Nature means to them, as well as their
interpretations on Life‟s relationship to Nature. Natural poetry does not always have
to be about how beautiful a flower is or the sound of birds. It is more than that. It
embraces everything all at once; the wind whistling through the trees, the sun rising and
setting over the land exposing the farmer‟s harvest, the sensation you get when the
person of subject interacts with the nature as if they are one person. Poems are not
about what is on the surface; they are about what lies beneath the words and its hidden
meaning. Poems that include these side-by-side themes are filled with interpretations,
metaphors, personification, symbolism, and so on, and that is what makes them so
powerful and meaningful.
Interpretations and hidden meanings were not the main point for early nature
poetry. The use of Natural poetry back in the 3 rd Century started when “the Greek
poet Theocritus began writing idylls…to glorify and honor the simplicity of rural life”
(“Nature Poems”). Some modern poets, like W.B. Yeats, are able to incorporate hints
of this glorified rural life with symbolism and human life into their poems.