From Origin to Ecology examines Merwin's poetry for its most prevalent topic - nature. It uncovers a poet who is actively seeking to understand his and his society's role toward a nature which appears ever-diminishing. From the study, we also learn of the profound feeling of a poet for the green world, perhaps all the more profound because of the possibility of its irretrievable loss. Frazier examines Merwin's poetry with regard to ecocriticism, anthropology, Merwin's fellow poets, Merwin criticism, and his own essays and interviews. Of central importance is Merwin's indebtedness to Henry David Thoreau, his sense that Thoreau guided American writing in a new direction whereby nature could be seen as something of value for itself.