A Digital History of Canadian Poetry
by Heather Pyrcz
Caveat:
A short history of Canadian poetry will not please everyone. Poets are left out, lacunae that some will think unforgivable. Frye suggested that anthologies ought to have blank pages at the end on which the reader may enter his own neglected favorites. I have used a 1945 birth date as my end point, although there are a few exceptions for reasons of inclusion. I have clustered the poets in unfamiliar groupings. There are many constellations we could form, each one revealing something different and important about the poets. This digital history page, I hope, will be thought of as a reference point, one of many in an ongoing conversation about the rich meaning of Canadian poetry.
Contents:
- In the Beginning. Songs of the Inuit and Anonymous Ballads: Read Orpingalik, Tatilgak
- Pre-Confederation--Roughing it in the Bush: Read Oliver Goldsmith, Susanna Moodie, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, William Wilson
- The Sonneteers: Read Charles Sangster, Charles Heavysege
- In the Heart of the Ancient Wood: Read William Henry Drummond, Isabella Crawford, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, Pauline Johnson
- Friends and Influences: Read Archibald Lampman, Duncan Campbell Scott
- The Lonely Land: Read Robert Service, W.W. Ross, A.J.M. Smith
- Social Injustice and Disorder: Read A. M. Klein, Dorothy Livesay, F.R. Scott, Leo Kennedy, Dawn Fraser
- The Ebb Begins from Dream: Read E.J. Pratt, Earle Birney, Anne Wilkinson
- Québec in Translation: Ne Commes les Autres Emile Nelligan, Alain Grandbois, Hector Saint-Denys Garneau, Anne Hébert
- Native Poetry (1960-2000): Chief Dan George, Rita Joe, Sarian Stump, Marilyn Dumont
- Notes from the Underground: Margaret Avison, Al Purdy, Raymond Souster, Eli Mandel, Miriam Waddington
- Politics and Diplomacy: P.K. Page, Douglas le Pan, Milton Acorn, Dennis Lee
- Interlude: Introduction to Modern Canadian Poets
- Montreal in the 40's and 50's: The Delicate Monster Patrick Anderson, Phyllis Webb, Louis Dudek, John Sutherland, Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen
- Poets, Publishers, and Critics: Fred Cogswell, James Reaney, George Bowering, Mary di Michele, Don McKay, Gary Geddes
- The experimental poets: da dee di do du deena deena bp Nichol, bill bissett, Wilfred Watson, Joe Rosenblatt, Christopher Dewdney
- I'm a stranger here myself: Jay MacPherson, John Thompson, Michael Ondaatje
- Opening the Field: Frank Davey, Fred Wah, Robert Kroetsch
- Making (a) Difference: reading and writing woman Daphne Marlatt, Nicole Brossard, Margaret Atwood, Bronwen Wallace, Pat Lowther
- Bush Work Dirt: Alden Nowlan, John Newlove, Patrick Lane, Charles Lillard
- Geo Poets: Douglas Lochhead, Andrew Suknaski, Peter Sanger
- Other Solitudes: Joy Kogawa, George Elliott Clarke, Dionne Brand
- Sustaining Voices: John Robert Colombo, Barry Callaghan, Douglas Barbour, Len Gasparini, Greg Cook, Stephen Scobie, and Richard Lemm
- In Conclusion: D.G. Jones, Elizabeth Brewster, The League of Canadian Poets
- Bibliography
