Ecological Lamentation and Advocacy in Eka Budianta’s Selected Poems

Abstract

Writing about environmental issues before and after climate change and other human-made ecological damages, Eka Budianta has continually taken up environmental topics in his oeuvre. The study presented in the present article aims to scrutinize 6 (six) selected poems by Eka Budianta to see how the poet has dealt with ecological debate throughout the years. The study draws insights from criticisms within Environmental Humanities framework and uses a qualitative-interpretative method. The six poems comprise four poems written in 1984, i.e., “River Notes”, “The Yearning of the Wind”, “Song for Tiom”, and “Song of a Townsman”; a poem written in 2012 titled “Setelah Sudaraku Tenggelam”; and the most recent one, written in 2020, “Sungai Sejati”. The lines and stanzas of each poem are read and interpreted according to their respective themes, poetic devices, and contents to see if they demonstrate the principles of Ecopoetry. The study results in the following findings. First the lamentation for the loss of nature is present in “River Notes”, “The Yearning of the Wind”, and “Song of a Townsman”. Second, “Song for Tiom” and “Setelah Saudaraku Tenggelam” are elegies for, respectively, ecological destruction in Papua and the Situ Gintung Lake tragedy. Third, optimistic tone is palpable in Eka Budianta’s newest poem “Sungai Sejati”. Fourth, the inclusion of non-human agency like landscape, plants, and animals helps reinforce the green messages the poet seeks to express. This study concurs that literature can partake in exposing global climate change as well as advocating sustainable living in a way often ignored in ecological praxis that only celebrates concrete results.