The following excerpt is taken from Aldo Leopold’s Marshland Elegy: “These hayme

Question

The following excerpt is taken from Aldo Leopold’s Marshland Elegy:

“These haymeadow days were the Arcadian age for marsh dwellers. Man and beast, plant

and soil lived on and with each other in mutual toleration, to the mutual benefit of all. The

marsh might have kept producing hay and prairie chickens, deer and muskrat, crane-music

and cranberries forever.

The new overlords did not understand this. They did not include soil, plants, or birds in their ideas of mutuality. The dividends of such a balanced economy were too modest. They envisaged farms not only around, but in the marsh. An epidemic of ditch-digging and land-booming set in. The marsh was gridirioned with drainage canals, speckled with new fields and farmsteads. The cranes were hard put, their numbers shrinking with the remnants of unburned meadow. For them, the song of the power shovel came near being an elegy. The high priests of progress knew nothing of cranes and cared less. What is a species of more or less among engineers? What good is an undrained marsh anyhow?”

a. What is Leopold suggesting with the terms “mutual toleration” and “mutual benefit” in the second sentence?

b. Who are the “new overlords” and what role do they play?

c. What does Leopold suggest about the environment and biodiversity consciousness of “The high priests of progress?”

Explanation / Answer

a. He was telling that all plants animals humans and soil was in peace marked by "mutual toleration" & "mutual benefit"

b. The new leaders are new overloads. They were dominating and exploiting the other elements in the societs like animals, plants and soil.

c. The conciousness levels of High priests was very less. They are ignorant and they also didnt care about what was happening with the society.

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