Poet, Tree: Martin Harrison's "Red Gum"

Authors

Keywords:

Martin Harrison, contemporary poetry, ecopoetry

Abstract

This essay argues that Martin Harrison's "Red Gum" (1997) showcases a phenomenological approach to natural and built environments that anticipates later developments in what would now be called ecopoetics. First, the essay analyzes the poem's rhetoric, imagery, and intertextuality, especially its half-buried allusions to David Campbell's Branch of Dodona (1970). Then, it explores the possible impact of the digital communications revolution on "writing ecology" by comparing "Red Gum" to a more recent poem, Fiona Hile's "Stripes" (2013).

Author Biography

Brian Reed, University of Washington, Seattle

Brian Reed is Chair and Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is the author of three books, most recently Nobody's Business: Twenty-First Century Avant-Garde Poetics (2013), and more than thirty articles and essays on modern and contemporary poetry and poetics.

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Published

2018-11-22

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (2018): Late Night Nerves: Poets of the 1980s and 90s

Section

Articles

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