Dan Wylie’s poetry and a new default discourse for the earth

Abstract

In the face of global warming, human over-population, the catastrophic consequences of being who and what we are, of what our languages have defined us to be, we need to rediscover nature’s own voice. Far from imposing a human ‘voice’ or language upon nature, we must find a way to echo, reflect and respect the many natural voices that already exist everywhere. Ironically, to get this vital message across we are obliged to use the vocabularies, syntaxes and linguistic expressions already taken for granted in a predominantly corporate, capitalist global society. But we can rearrange and adapt these into poetry. This article reflects on how the growing academic field of ecopoetics lends itself to establishing a new ‘default discourse,’ questioning the current orthodoxy to ask: how does the poetry of Dan Wylie offer an alternative construction of the world to dominant discourses? Using a selection from Wylie’s several published collections, the article shows how the work of this major South African poet employs such an ecopoetic language. The selected poems demonstrate a profound commitment to the importance of the natural environment and of ecopoetry as the best way to give it expression. Ultimately, and despite the bleak prospects currently facing Earth in the form of accelerating climate change, this article finds reasons for optimism, but it requires our adapting to changing realities. The first essential step towards such adaptation is to accept the pressing need for a revised default discourse expressed through ecopoetry.