Idom Thomas Inyabri

This research sets out to interrogate the imagery of the environment in poetry from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. With particular focus on the works of four representative poets such as J. P. Clark (Bekederemo), Tanure Ojaide, Joe Ushie and Ogaga Ifowodo, the research explores the imagery of the environment as an embodiment of human and non-human nature, which effective characterization highlights the travails of a traumatized nation. The research exploits, primarily, the theoretical tool of Postcolonial Eco-criticism, which recognizes that human and non-human environment are equally implicated in the literary text. Uncoupling five basic tropes through which the environment has been configured in Niger Delta poetry, the study concludes that the poetics of the Niger Delta is an eco-centric cum cultural expression of a fragmented nation which is representative of contemporary Nigeria's troubled postcolony.