Eco-conflict in Niyi Osundare’s Horses of Memory: An Interface between the Natural and the Built Environments.

In our exploration of eco-conflict between the natural and the built environments, we examined Niyi Osundare ” s the ” road crosses the river ” metaphor in order to examine how the poems represent the social and aesthetic values of the natural and built environments. We analyze poems adopted from poem ” XV ” in ” The Dream, the Dream is a Moon, ” in Moonsongs; ” Forest Echoes ” , ” The Rocks Rose to Meet Me ” and ” Harvestcall ” in The Eye of the Earth. We adopt a contextual analysis approach of ” Memory ” s Road ” (II.90-163) in Horses of Memory and subject same to content analyses. The study applies the eco-critical theory. Our findings show that man ” s handling of the environment is determined and limited to his knowledge of nature and his worldviews. However, there are those who are conscious of the danger of environmental degradation, but are constrained by economic, political and social considerations. While nature can do without human culture and structural beauty, the human society depends solely on the delicate balance of the ecosystem for his survival. The social and aesthetic implications of eco-conflicts are thus succinctly constructed through the literary dynamics of eco-poetics. Key words: eco-conflict, Horse of Memory, The road crosses the river metaphor, natural and built environment.