Imagining Sustainability: Ecological Ethics in the Romantic Imagination of Wordsworth and Coleridge

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-581-2_8How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Romantic Imagination; Ecocriticism; Sustainability; Wordsworth; Coleridge

Abstract

In a time increasingly shaped by environmental crisis, returning to Romantic poetry offers a different way of thinking about humanity’s relationship with nature. This paper explores how imagination in the works of Wordsworth and Coleridge can be understood as an ethical and ecological force. Rather than treating nature as a passive background, the poets present it as something active, which shapes the perception, emotion, and even moral awareness. Focusing on “Tintern Abbey,” “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” and “Kubla Khan,” the analysis builds on ecocritical perspectives and selected contemporary ecological ideas. Wordsworth’s poetry seems to suggest a more harmonious and reflective engagement with nature, while Coleridge’s work reveals the consequences of imbalance and human excess. Taken together, these texts seem to point towards an early form of ecological thinking, one that does not only anticipate the modern term “sustainability,” but engages with many of its central concerns. In this sense, Romantic Imagination can be read not merely as aesthetic expression, but as a means of rethinking human existence within the natural world.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mst. Tamima Jannat Tammi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/30
TI  - Imagining Sustainability: Ecological Ethics in the Romantic Imagination of Wordsworth and Coleridge
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Challenges and Trends in Arts and Social Sciences (ICCTASS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 91
EP  - 97
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-581-2_8
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-581-2_8
ID  - Tammi2026
ER  -