“and now we’re here: the Plasticene”: Ecological Awareness in Margaret Atwood’s Recent Poetry Collection, Dearly

Dearly, first published in 2020, is the latest poetry collection of the acclaimed writer,Margaret Atwood. In Dearly, Atwood revisits some of her favourite themes and subjectssuch as love, loss, time, ageing, sexuality, gender, nature, and environment. The bookis divided into five sections, and the poems grouped in the same section revolvearound a common theme. In section IV, the poems grouped under the title of “PlasticeneSuite” discuss the increasing amount of plastic waste as the distinctive anthropogenicmarker of our age. Accordingly, each poem focuses on a different aspect andconsequence of this environmental problem. The primary objective of this study isto analyse Plasticene Suite poems, namely “Rock-Like Object on Beach”, “Faint Hopes”,“Foliage”, “Midway Island Albatross”, “Editorial Notes”, “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, “Whales”,“Little Robot”, and “The Bright Side” from Dearly through the lens of ecopoetry toreveal Atwood’s criticism of the anthropogenic factors contributing to the currentecological crisis, particularly the ever-increasing generation of plastic waste, and tocomment on contemporary poetry’s awareness of and power to address the pressingenvironmental issues. The study also contends that ecopoetic readings of PlasticeneSuite poems can help raise awareness about the rise in plastic waste during and afterthe initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that sense, the ecopoetic readings ofPlasticene Suite poems can urge us to reconsider our dependence on plastic andencourage us to adopt sustainable practices and habits by promoting consciousnessabout this pressing environmental problem