'Contracted to an eye-quiet world': Sonic Census or Poetics of Place in Alice Oswald. Symbiosis 10.2 (October 2007) 167-185

about

‘Contracted to an eye-quiet world’: Sonic Census or Poetics of Place in Alice Oswald by Tom Bristow is a detailed scholarly exploration of the poetic landscapes in the works of Alice Oswald. Originally published in Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations, this essay examines Oswald’s innovative use of sound and place in her poetry, particularly in her acclaimed work Dart. Bristow delves into the auditory dimensions of Oswald’s poetics, comparing her approach to the natural world with that of William Carlos Williams. This micro-ebook is essential reading for literature students, scholars, and enthusiasts interested in ecopoetry, soundscapes in literature, and the works of Alice Oswald.

This essay was originally published in Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations, Volume 10.2

“History can be built through geography. A key question raised by the transatlantic and eco-critical academies is whether it is as important to localise writing as it is to historicise it. Two poets, William Carlos Williams, located in New Jersey, and Alice Oswald, a poet of England's south-west peninsula, meet this enquiry through their linguistic and anthropological surveys of the Passaic river and the river Dart, respectively."

author

Tom Bristow is at the University of Edinburgh