Breathing Earth: The Polyphonic Lyric of Robert Bringhurst

Abstract

Breathing Earth: The Polyphonic Lyric of Robert Bringhurst examines the innovative poems for multiple voices composed by the Canadian poet by drawing on the main insights of biosemiotics, ecophilosophy and material ecocriticism. In seeking to emulate the polyphonic texture of reality, Bringhurst’s ecopoetry directs readers’ attention to vibrant matter and to the entanglements of (non)human and (in)animate actants in a world that is a semiotic-material unity. In light of the current climate crisis, his polyphonic poems are a timely, wise reminder of the need to rethink the way humanity relates to the more-than-human world and to restore a deep ecological bond with breathing earth.