EMBLEMATIZING HOPE, INSPIRATION AND THE CALL TO RECONSIDER: AUSTRALIAN FLORA, FAUNA AND LAND IN JUDITH WRIGHT

Australian poetry of the contemporary era can trace its origins to the bush ballads. They explore themes relevant to the times and also probe into the much debated topic of the times – namely environmental problems. They offer complementary insights on protecting the nature as well as learning from nature rather than presenting poems which have the non-human environment as a mere framing device. It makes possible a literature of indubitable goodness which not only delights but also instructs. A reading of the select poems of Judith Wright clarifies why she has been hailed as the conscience of a nation and here is an attempt to sketch how the she self-consciously frames an ethics of environmental justice to the non-anthropocentric world