Canadian poetry

First Nations poetry
Prior to European settlement of Canada, many if not all of the First Nations had established oral traditions of both poems and songs, but no written tradition.

The first First Nations writer of record was George Copway or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh (1818-1869). Copway became a Methodist minister, who worked on the translation of the Bible into Ojibway. He also wrote several books, including his 1847 autobiography, The Life, History, and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, which contain translations of traditional Ojibway songs.

Another notable figure in First Nations poetry was Chief K'HHalserten Sepass (?1841-1943), of the Salish of British Columbia, who in 1911 supervised the translation of all of his songs into English in order to preserve them. The translations, done by Sophia White (a daughter of missionaries who had learned Salish as a child), were published only in 1963, as Sepass Tales: The Songs of Y-Ail-Mihth.

Beginnings
The earliest works of poetry, mainly written by visitors, described the new territories in optimistic terms, mainly targeted at a European audience. One of the first works was Robert Hayman's Quodlibets, composed in Newfoundland and published in 1628.

With the growth of English language communities near the end of the 18th century, poetry aimed at local readers began to appear in local newspapers. These writings were mainly intended to reflect the prevailing cultural values of the time and were modeled after English poetry of the same period.

Oliver Goldsmith's long poem The Rising Village appeared in 1825. It was a response to The Deserted Village by his namesake and great-uncle Oliver Goldsmith.

In the first half of the 19th century, poetic works began to reflect local subjects. Acadia by Joseph Howe and The Saint Lawrence and the Saguenay by Charles Sangster are examples of this trend. Early nationalistic verses were composed by writers including Thomas D'Arcy McGee. Many "regional" poets also espoused the British political and aesthetic jingoism of the period. such as High Tory Thomas H. Higginson of Vankleek Hill, Ontario.

In 1857, Charles Heavysege attracted international (British and American) attention for his verse drama Saul.

Confederation
The first book of poetry published in Canada following the formation of the new Dominion of Canada in 1867 was Dreamland by Charles Mair (1868).

A group of poets now known as the "Confederation Poets",including Charles G.D. Roberts, Archibald Lampman, Bliss Carman, Duncan Campbell Scott, and William Wilfred Campbell, came to prominence in the 1880s and 1890s, Choosing the world of nature as their inspiration, their work was drawn from their own experiences and, at its best, written in their own tones. Isabella Valancy Crawford, Frederick George Scott, and Francis Sherman are also sometimes associated with this group.

During this period, E. Pauline Johnson and William Henry Drummond were writing popular poetry - Johnson's based on her part-Mohawk heritage, and Drummond (the "Poet of the Habitant") writing dialect verse.

Early 20th century
In 1907 Robert W. Service's Songs of a Sourdough, Kipling-type verse about the Klondike Gold Rush, became enormously popular: the book would go on to sell more than three million copies in the 20th century. His success would inspire other poets like Tom MacInnes.

Marjorie Pickthall received much critical attention in this period. In 1915, John McCrae, serving as a surgeon in the Canadian Army, wrote the famous war poem "In Flanders Fields".

After the war, in Newfoundland, E.J. Pratt described the struggle to make a living from the sea in poems about maritime life and the history of Canada; while in central Canada, poets such as Ralph Gustafson and Raymond Knister were moving away from traditional verse forms.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Montreal Group (a circle of young poets which included A.J.M. Smith, A.M. Klein, and F.R. Scott) helped inspire the development of modernist poetry in Montreal through the McGill Fortnightly Review and the 1936 anthology New Provinces. The "new poetry" valued intellect over sentimentality, or as some have put it, logic over human emotions. Under the literary editorship of Earle Birney, the Canadian Forum helped promote similar developments in Toronto. Dorothy Livesay, born in Manitoba, was an important contributor to the Toronto movement.

The Maritimes remained a holdout for traditional verse. The Song Fishermen of Halifax were a magnet for new poetic talent in the late 1920s due to having Bliss Carman and Charles G.D. Roberts as members. The most notable of the newer Maritime poets were the sonneteers Kenneth Leslie and Robert Norwood.

Indeed, traditional verse was what sold in Canadaa all through this period; and it was what Canadian Poetry Magazine, founded by Pratt in 1935, emphasized. Besides Pratt and Service, Tom MacInnes and Wilson MacDonald were bestselling Canadian poets of the time; while Pickthall's verse was still considered the best Canada had to offer.

Post-war
Following World War II, a new breed of poets appeared, writing for a well-educated audience. These included James Reaney, Jay Macpherson and Leonard Cohen. Meanwhile, some maturing authors such as Irving Layton, Raymond Souster, Harold Standish and Louis Dudek, moved in a different direction, adopting colloquial speech in their work.

In the 1960s, a renewed sense of nation helped foster new voices: Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen, Eli Mandel and Margaret Avison. Others such as Al Purdy, Milton Acorn, and Earle Birney, already published, produced some of their best work during this period.

The TISH Poetry movement in Vancouver brought about poetic innovation from bpNichol, Jamie Reid, George Bowering, Fred Wah, Frank Davey, Daphne Marlatt, David Cull, and Lionel Kearns.

Since the 1990s, several Governor General's Award-winning poets, in particular Jan Zwicky and Tim Lilburn, have been engaged in nonfiction writing that maps the relationships between poetry and philosophy. Zwicky's "Lyric Philosophy" and "Wisdom and Metaphor", as well as Lilburn's collection "Thinking and Singing", are representative works.

A younger generation of Canadian poets has been expanding the boundaries of originality: Ken Babstock, Karen Solie, Sonnet L'AbbÃ©, George Elliott Clarke and Barry Dempster have all imprinted their unique consciousnesses onto the map of Canadian imagery. Evie Christie's collection, Gutted, seems to evoke the 17th century metaphysical conceit, but in a modern, urban Canadian guise.

A notable anthology of Canadian poetry is The New Oxford book of Canadian Verse, edited by Margaret Atwood (ISBN 0-19-540450-5).

Literary prizes
Notable literary prizes for English Canadian poetry include the Governor General's Awards, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Gerald Lampert Award, Pat Lowther Award.

Mirelle
Tom MacInnes reportedly invented "a five-line stanza of his own he called the â€˜mirelleâ€™."

Viator
The Viator poem form was invented by Canadian author and poet, Robin Skelton. It consists of any stanzaic form in which the first line of the first stanza is the second line of the second stanza and so on until the poem ends with the line with which it began. The term, Viator comes from the Latin for traveller. An example of Skelton's form may be found in his excellent reference book, The Shapes of our Singing, and is entitled Dover Beach Revisited.

An unpublished example of the Viator is included below to illustrate how the line travels through the poem, its repetition adding weight to the process described. The repeating line is highlighted in boldface type.


 * Shallot Confiture

It's care in cooking slow and carefully that turns a shallot glistening golden brown; in salted water first you must weigh down the scalded bulbs to meet this recipe.

Boil vinegar and sugary spices; it's care in cooking slow and carefully the syruped shallots, gradually, then overnight, you'll rest the shallot slices.

Then two days more, you'll slow repeat your patient simmering, calmly, gently; it's care in cooking slow and carefully that yields your shallots clear and sweet.

By fourth day, time to lift them free, to pack them in that savoury sauce, preserve that silky, golden gloss; '''it's care in cooking slow and carefully. '''

Copyright by contributor, Russell Collier