Alfred Gordon (poet)

by George Dance

'''Alfred Gordon (1888-1959) Alfred Gordon was a Canadian poet.

Life
Gordon was born in London, England, and educated in private schools and at Finsbury Technical College. He emigrated to Canada in 1910, and found work with the Dominion Bridge Company as a draughtsman. Losing his job with the outbreak of World War I, he worked in an insurance office, and then became managing editor of the new Canadian Spectator and Bookman.

Writing
Rev. James B. Dollard, The Globe (Toronto): "Mr. Alfred Gordon, who for some years has been residing in Montreal, is a young English poet whose work reveals extraordinary genius and distinction. No praise can be too high for some of the poems in this most promising volume of initial verse.... The changes that have come over English poetry, largely on account of the war, are seen faithfully reflected in this book, and these changes make for greater manliness, greater nobility and greater austerity of thought.... It is in the poems that make up the first section of this remarkable book that the young poet's genius shines out in all its mature and austere nobility. The 'Vision,' 'Easter Ode' and the 'Ode for Dominion Day,' with the poems 'England to France,' 'The Little Church,' 'At Evening Prayer' and 'On a Dead Modern Poet,' contain some of the finest and most exalted writing that has been done in the field of modern English poetry."

Publications

 * In Prophecy (a Recessional), and Sonnets of the European War. Toronto, 1914.
 * Poems. Toronto: Musson, 1915.
 * "Vimy Ridge" and New Poems. Toronto: J.M. Dent, 1918.