Seminar in Canadian Poetry

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Carleton University Fall 2010 Department of English ENGL 3801A – Canadian Poetry Prerequisite: ENGL 2802. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 16:05 – 17:25 Please confirm location on Carleton Central Instructor: Collett Tracey Phone: (613) 520-2600 (2328) (o) Email: [email protected] Office: 1910 Dunton Tower In order to fully appreciate the advances that have been made in Canadian poetry over the past century or more, it is essential to consider our beginnings – the historical and political contexts out of which poetry grew and developed. This seminar will provide an overview of Canadian poetry divided into four separate periods: We will begin by considering the work of the Confederation poets, Archibald Lampman, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, Duncan Campbell Scott and Bliss Carman. Next; we will look at the poetry of the early Modern poets, Frank Scott, A.J.M. Smith, A.M. Klein, followed by the later Moderns, Louis Dudek, Irving Layton, Raymond Souster. Finally we will consider some of the poetry of the post-modern period, beginning with Bronwen Wallace, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje among others. Required Texts: Available in class Course Requirements: Class Attendance & participation, 10% Seminar, 30% One Paper, 8-10 pages in length, 60% due last day of term Methodology: Given the breadth of information to be covered and the time constraints we are forced to adhere to, it is impossible to do anything more than sample one or two poems by some of our most important Canadian poets. As a result, I hope students see the course content as merely a series of appetizers that are meant to stimulate a desire to read more... Note on seminars: Seminars should be no more than one hour in length. During a presentation, students should provide the most essential background information on the poet in question and point out his or her most important poems. Finally, those who are presenting are responsible for leading the class in a reading and discussion or analysis of at least one poem. Course Schedule: September Thursday, 9th Introduction Tuesday, 14th Introduction to the Confederation Poets: Roberts, Lampman, Scott Thursday, 16th Charles G.D. Roberts Tuesday, 21st Duncan Campbell Scott Thursday, 23rd Archibald Lampman Tuesday, 28th Introduction to the Moderns: Scott, Smith, Kennedy, Klein, Page, Livesay Thursday, 30th Scott October Tuesday, 5th Klein Thursday, 7th Page Tuesday, 12th Livesay Thursday, 14th Purdy Tuesday, 19th Birney Thursday 21st Introduction to the Middle Moderns: Layton, Dudek, Souster Tuesday, 26th Souster Thursday, 28th Dudek November Tuesday, 2nd Layton Thursday, 4th Introduction to the Late Moderns: Ondaatje, Atwood, Wallace, Cohen Tuesday, 9th Webb Thursday, 11th Atwood Tuesday 16th Kroetsch Thursday, 18th Wallace Tuesday, 23rd Ondaatje Thursday, 25th Cohen Tuesday, 30th Modernism/Post-Modernism: Discussion December nd Thursday, 2 Review & Discussion Paper Due 2 .

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Introduction
Introduction Imagine you’re invited to a party. You arrive at the venue, slip past security, and Margaret Atwood is there; so are Michael Ondaatje, Anne Carson, and Dionne Brand. CanLit’s luminaries surround you, and having never brushed elbows with so many prominent writers, you turn paparazzi and start taking photographs in earnest. Point and click—easy to tell who monopolizes the spotlight and who falls back. It’s only once you focus manually, looking for an unconventional angle, that you begin to notice others: a younger, more anonymous crowd pushing at the margins, trying to bypass the guest list. So you raise your camera to include them too, at least those close enough to see clearly. Some of the shots will turn out perfectly—balanced composition, candid expressions that capture the palpable energy of the event. Some won’t. The blur of time will seep in, poor exposure rendering the photographs unusable. You might think I’m describing a Griffin Poetry Prize gala. I am, of course, but this is also the plight of prospective anthologists. Working without the benefit of hindsight, anthologists are responsible for scouting talent in little magazines, hard-to-find books, and critical periodicals. Canonization is a gamble, and time and time again Canadian editors have either gone all in or hedged their bets, offering up both generation defining compilations and remixed versions of established texts. With New Provinces, F.R. Scott curated 13 The Next Wave the first essential anthology of Canadian poetry in 1936. Providing a platform for future icons like E.J.
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I Make Contact: Contributive Bookselling and the Small Press In
i Make Contact: Contributive Bookselling and the Small Press in Canada Following the Second World War Cameron Alistair Owen Anstee A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in English Literature Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Cameron Alistair Owen Anstee, Ottawa, Canada, 2017 ii Abstract This dissertation examines booksellers in multiple roles as cultural agents in the small press field. It proposes various ways of understanding the work of booksellers as actively shaping the production, distribution, reception, and preservation of small press works, arguing that bookselling is a small press act unaccounted for in existing scholarship. It is structured around the idea of “contributive” bookselling from Nicky Drumbolis, wherein the bookseller “adds dimension to the cultural exchange […] participates as user, maker, transistor” (“this fiveyear list”). The questions at the heart of this dissertation are: How does the small press, in its material strategies of production and distribution, reshape the terms of reception for readers? How does the bookseller contribute to these processes? What does independent bookselling look like when it is committed to the cultural and aesthetic goals of the small press? And what is absent from literary and cultural records when the bookseller is not accounted for? This dissertation covers a period from 1952 to the present day. I begin by positing Raymond Souster’s “Contact” labour as an influential model for small press publishing in which the writer must adopt multiple roles in the communications circuit in order to construct and educate a community of readers.
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Selected Poems by Merle Amodeo
Canadian Studies. Language and Literature MARVIN ORBACH, MERLE AMODEO: CANADIAN POETS, UNIVERSAL POETS M.Sc. Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias. Associate Professor. University of Holguín, Cuba Abstract This paper aims at revealing universality in Marvin Orbach, an outstanding Canadian book collector and poet, and Merle Amodeo, an exquisite Canadian poet and writer. Orbach´s poems were taken from Redwing, book published by CCLA Hidden Brook Press, Canada in 2018; and Amodeo´s poems from her book After Love, Library of Congress, USA, 2014. Thus, the paper unveils for the general reader the transcendental scope of these two figures of Canadian culture. In view of the fact that they are able to recreate and memorialize their feelings and contexts where they live, and show their capacities to discern beyond the grid of nature, society and human experience, directly and masterfully exposing them, it can be safely stated that both Orbach and Amodeo reach that point where what is singular in them acquires universality, and in return what is universal crystallizes in their singularity. Key Words: universality, Orbach, Redwing, Amodeo, After Love Introduction My connection with universal poetry began during my college years. I enjoyed great English and American classics so much that I even memorized many of their poems. It proved very useful later in my professional career, as I would read excerpts from poems to my students in class. Canada, and Canadian poets, had less presence on the curricular map at the time. Fortunately, I had the chance to become acquainted with Canadian poetry through the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance (CCLA), founded by Richard and Kimberley Grove back in 2004.
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Imperial Commerce and the Canadian Muse the Hudson’S Bay Company’S Poetic Advertising Campaign of 1966–1972
Michael Ross and Lorraine York Imperial Commerce and the Canadian Muse The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Poetic Advertising Campaign of 1966–1972 In July of 1965, Barbara Kilvert, the Executive Assistant of Public Relations with the Hudson’s Bay Company, kicked off an unusual advertising campaign by buying a poem from Al Purdy. She had come across a review of Cariboo Horses in the May issue of Time magazine, and, in her words, “decided I should make contact.” As she later reminisced, “This was the beginning of it all.” “It all” referred to a promotional venture inaugurated by Purdy’s “Arctic Rhododendrons”—a series of ads featuring “new poems by Canadian poets, with layout design handled by young artists” (Kilvert, Annotation, Purdy Review). Over the next six years, the advertisements appeared in such respected periodicals as Quarry, The Tamarack Review, Canadian Literature, The Malahat Review, Cité Libre, and Liberté. Participants in the ad campaign made for an impressive roster of writers, including, besides Purdy, Margaret Atwood, Earle Birney, Louis Dudek, Joan Finnegan, Phyllis Gotlieb, Ralph Gustafson, D. G. Jones, Gustave Lamarche, Gwendolyn MacEwen, John Newlove, Alden Nowlan, Michael Ondaatje, Fernand Ouellette, P. K. Page, Jean-Guy Pilon, James Reaney, A. J. M. Smith, Raymond Souster, and Miriam Waddington. Focussing on HBC’s use of original works by Canadian poets in three of these journals—Quarry, Tamarack, and Canadian Literature—(See Appendix), this essay assesses the consequences of recontextualizing poems within a commercial frame of reference. Some of those consequences, as we will argue, were positive. Others, however, were troubling; poetic meaning could irresistibly be drawn into the orbit of HBC’s commercial objectives.
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The Poetry of Raymond Souster and Margaret Avison
THE POETRY OF RAYMOND SOUSTER AND MARGARET AVISON by Francis Mansbridge Thesis presented to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in English literature UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA OTTAWA, CANADA, 1975 dge, Ottawa, Canada, 1975 UMI Number: DC53320 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI® UMI Microform DC53320 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 TABLE OP CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. POETIC ROOTS OP MARGARET AVISON AND RAYMOND SOUSTER 8 CHAPTER II. CRITICAL VIEWS ON AVISON AND SOUSTER . 46 CHAPTER III. MARGARET AVISON 67 CHAPTER IV. RAYMOND SOUSTER 154 CHAPTER V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY 241 LIST OP ABBREVIATIONS BCP The Book of Canadian Poetry, ed. by A.J.M. Smith CT The Colour of the Times D The Dumbfounding PM Place of Meeting PMC Poetry of Mid-Century, ed. by Milton Wilson SF So Par So Good SP 1956 Selected Poems (1956 edition) SP 1972 Selected Poems (1972 edition) TE Ten Elephants on Yonge Street WS Winter Sun Y The Years 111 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks to Raymond Souster for his generous hospi tality on my trips to Toronto, and his interest and perceptive comnusnts that opened up new perspectives on his work; to the Inter- Library Loan department of the University of Ottawa Library, whose never-failing dependability saved much time; and finally to my Directress, Dr.
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Diction in Poetry
DICTION IN POETRY George Johnston M,LODERN ENGLISH is AN IMPURE and undisciplined literary language. It is style-less, a writer must make his own style in it. An important element of a style is its vocabulary. This matters in every kind of writing, but especially in poetry. Words carry their full weight in a poem and will embarrass it if they are out of place or under strain. Therefore it behoves a poet writing in English to know his words well. In structure and grammatical vocabulary English is a West Germanic lan- guage; its closest relations are Flemish, Dutch, Frisian, Platt-Deutsch and, at a slight remove, German. The first Germanic settlers of England, in the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries A.D., spoke pure dialects of West Germanic, which had a few borrowed Latin words. Then Danes and Norwegians began settling the country too, and the West Germanic dialects began borrowing their closely- related words. Somehow the language of the Celts had almost no effect on that of their conquerors, and the Romans left nothing in the language of the country they had occupied except a few place names. After the Norman Conquest, in the eleventh century, French words came into the vocabularies of these dialects in great numbers, and for nearly two centuries French was the language of Court and Church and of much literature, but not of the common people. By the fourteenth century West Germanic had re-established itself as the language of government and literature, as well as of the people. After the Reformation it was the language of the Church as well.
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Frank Davey: Publications
Frank Davey: Publications Books: Poetry: D-Day and After. Vancouver: Tishbooks, 1962. 32 pp. City of the Gulls and Sea. Victoria, 1964. 34 pp. Bridge Force. Toronto: Contact Press, 1965. 77 pp. The Scarred Hull. Calgary: Imago, 1966. 40 pp. Four Myths for Sam Perry. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1970. 28 pp. Weeds. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1970. 30 pp. Griffon. Toronto: Massassauga Editions, 1972. 16 pp. King of Swords. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1972. 38 pp. L’an trentiesme: Selected Poems 1961-70. Vancouver: Vancouver Community Press, 1972. 82 pp. Arcana. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1973. 77 pp. The Clallam. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1973. 42 pp. War Poems. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1979. 45 pp. The Arches: Selected Poems, edited and introduced by bpNichol. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1981. 105 pp. Capitalistic Affection!. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1982. 84 pp. Edward & Patricia. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1984. 40 pp. The Louis Riel Organ & Piano Company. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1985. 77 pp. The Abbotsford Guide to India. Victoria, B.C.: Press Porcépic, 1986. 104 pp. Postcard Translations. Toronto: Underwhich Editions, 1988. 32 pp. Postenska Kartichka Tolkuvanja, tr. Julija Veljanoska. Skopje: Ogledalo, 1989. 32 pp. Popular Narratives. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1991. 88 pp. The Abbotsford Guide to India, Gujarati translation by Nita Ramaiya. Bombay: Press of S.N.D.T. Women's University, 1995. 96 pp. Cultural Mischief: A Practical Guide to Multiculturalism. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1996. 70 pp. Dog. Calgary: House Press, 2002. 12 pp. Risky Propositions. Ottawa: above/ground press, 2005. 30 pp. Back to the War. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. 126 pp. Johnny Hazard! Armstrong, BC: by the skin of me teeth press, 2009.
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Ontemporary Poetry and Its Characteristics He Canadian 'Long Poem' Recent Canadian System of Thought and Belief
ontemporary Poetry and its characteristics he Canadian 'Long Poem' Recent Canadian system of thought and belief. There was a weakening of the original impulse which Poetry generated new tendencies in the creative fields as well as in man's nature and goals pertaining to changing response to life, but it is a natural phenomena that one can neither wish to isolate nor escape from the human experience for long. Poets like Dorothy Livesay and E.J. Pratt grew anxious to cultivate a new poetic style which could capture the new substance of life and at the same time make a direct appeal to its readers. Their poetry is man-centered psychologically and intellectually. Like the role of nature, the significance of poetic devices like imagery and symbol is also redefined. Though the earliest Canadian anthology of any importance was E.H. Dewart's Selection from Canadian Poets which was published in 1864, it is A.J.M. Smith's The Book of Canadian Poetry which appeared in 1943 that presented the changes of taste and quality in poetry written between 1948 and 1957. Many subsequent anthologies like Smith's Oxford Book of Canadian Verse (1960) and Modern Canadian Verse (1967) include the representative works in both English and French. To understand Canadian Poetry of the mid-twentieth century one of the fundamental approaches is to look at a historical and insightful critical process, which A.J.M. Smith and E.K. Brown encouraged. It helped in two ways. It established a canon of Canadian poetry and assessed the achievements of individual poets, and it opened up vistas for endless possibilities of having Canadian Criticism with its own traditions and vision of Canadian poetry which means "a poetry appropriate to Canadian experience" to use the words of Geroge Woodcock.
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We've Got Poetry Invisible Dogs Don Domanski Shortlisted Barry Dempster for the 2013 Governor General’S Award Bite Down Little Whisper “ Is Is
ARC POETRY MAgAzinE 74, SUMMER 2014 Arc: Canada’s Poetry Magazine, est. 1978 Published by the Arc Poetry Society, est. 1996 Managing Editor: Monty Reid Coordinating Editor: Robyn Jeffrey Editorial Assistant: Meagan Black Art Director: Serge Duguay Intern: Dave Didylowski Poetry Editor: Shane Rhodes Associate Poetry Editor: Lise Rochefort Prose Editor: Chris Jennings Reviews Editor: Brecken Hancock Reviews Coordinator: Frances Boyle Visual Art Editor: Kevin Matthews Editorial Board: Frances Boyle, Anita Dolman, Rhonda Douglas, JM Francheteau, Brecken Hancock, Jenny Haysom, Chris Jennings, Kevin Matthews, Lise Rochefort, Shane Rhodes, Evan Thornton Contributing Editors: Julia Bustos, Aislinn Hunter, Marilyn Irwin, Ben Ladouceur, Carmel Purkis, Lisa Marie Smith Volunteers: Rupert Allen, Kirsten Bussière, Conrad McCallum, John Olsthoorn The Arc Poetry Society gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa and our subscribers. Arc is published three times a year, including an annual themed issue each fall. Arc is distributed by Magazines Canada, available through EBSCO and Gale/Cengage and on microfiche from Micromedia. The contents of this journal, unless otherwise indicated, are copyright © property of the authors, 2014. None of the works may be reproduced without permission in writing from the copyright holder. Arc acquires First Canadian Serial rights. Subscriptions cost $60 for 6 issues over 2 years. Subscriptions can be ordered online at www.arcpoetry.ca, or by mailing in the subscription card found in this issue. All prices include postage and handling unless otherwise stated. Sample copies are $12.50 each. U.S. subscriptions: $80 cdn (2 years); sample issues $17 cdn.
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Strength in Numbers Exhibition Catalogue
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS The CanLit Community Exhibition and catalogue by Natalya Rattan and John Shoesmith Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto 27 January to 1 May, 2020 Catalogue and exhibition by Natalya Rattan and John Shoesmith Edited by Marie Korey and Timothy Perry Exhibition designed and installed by Linda Joy Digital photography by Paul Armstrong Catalogue designed by Stan Bevington Catalogue printed by Coach House Press Cover image: Our Land Illustrated in Art and Song . isbn 978-0-7727-6129-3 library and archives canada cataloguing in publication Title: Strength in numbers : the CanLit community / exhibition and catalogue by John Shoesmith and Natalya Rattan. Names: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, host institution, publisher. | Rattan, Natalya, 1987- author, organizer. | Shoesmith, John, 1969- author, organizer. Description: Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library from January 27, 2020 to May 1, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. Identiﬁers: Canadiana 20190235780 | ISBN 9780772761293 (softcover) Subjects: LCSH: Canadian literature—19th century—Bibliography—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Canadian literature—20th century—Bibliography—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Canadian literature—21st century— Bibliography—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Authors, Canadian—19th century—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Authors, Canadian—20th century—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Authors, Canadian—21st century— Exhibitions. | LCSH: Publishers and publishing—Canada—History—19th century—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Publishers and publishing—Canada—History—20th century—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Publishers and publishing—Canada—History—21st century—Exhibitions. | LCSH: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library—Exhibitions. | LCGFT: Exhibition catalogs. Classiﬁcation: LCC Z1375 .T56 2020 | DDC 016.8108/0971—dc23 Introduction – Strength in Numbers As any archivist or librarian who works with literary papers will tell you, the pro - cessing of an author’s collection is often an intimate experience.
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Rhythm and Sound in Contemporary Canadian
RHYTHM AND SOUND IN CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN POETRY by DOROTHY LIVESAY MACNAIR B.A., The University of Toronto, 1931 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR TEE DEGREE OF Master of Education in the Faculty of Education We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA November, I965. In present i ng this thesi s in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, i agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that per• mission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representat ives. It is understood that copying or publi• cation of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date I1* > 6 ^ > ACKNOWIEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to thank all those poets who assisted in the recording of their poems on tape: Alfred Purdy, Milton Acorn, Phyllis Webb, George Bowering, Lionel Kearns, Jamie Reid, and John Newlove. It is a matter of regret that space did not permit the'use of similar tapes made by other B. C. poets. She also wishes to acknowledge with thanks the guidance given her by Miss Ruth McConnell and Dr. D. G. Stephens in the preparation of this material. ii ABSTRACT Since World War II Canadian literary criticism has tended to be either historical or aesthetic In its emphasis. Little or no in• terest has been shown In the linguistic approach to criticism; no work has been done on Canadian poets comparable to the writing of Donald David and David Abercrombie on English poets, or of Chatman or Miles on American poets.
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The Heart Still Singing: Raymond Souster at 82
The Heart Still Singing: Raymond Souster at 82 SCL/ÉLC INTERVIEW BY TONY TREMBLAY N 1935, A YOUNG POET NAMED RAYMOND SOUSTER started appear- ing in Toronto newspapers. Almost seventy years (and some fifty I volumes) later, he is still active. Oberon Press will be bringing out his newest collection, 21 Poems, in the spring of 2003. In the span of those sixty-eight years, Ray Souster has been intimately connected to many of the major developments in modern poetry in this country, and he has known and published most of the major poets in North America. He was on hand to witness the first waves of literary modernism hit the shore in the pages of New Provinces (1936), reading Robert Finch, F.R. Scott, and A.J.M. Smith as an admiring teenager. He was also present, this time more integrally, when John Sutherland, Louis Dudek, and Irving Layton carried the modernist project further with the publication of First Statement (1942), Canada’s first truly avant-garde literary magazine. He was so impressed with Sutherland’s magazine that he started his own, Direction (1943), the first of four. A few years later, he became one-third of the sec- ond-generation modernist triumvirate in Canada. With Dudek and Layton, he appeared in the pages of Cerberus and launched Contact, a magazine and small-press initiative that revolutionized Canadian poetry, publishing most of the major poets of the 1950s and 1960s. During those decades, he also introduced Canadian poets to the larger world, opening vital channels with the Black Mountain and City Lights poets appearing in Cid Corman’s magazine Origin.
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