English-Canadian poetry[link]

Beginnings[link]

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. For example, High Tory loyalist & occasional poet Thomas H. Higginson of Vankleek Hill, Ontario, produced paeans to Sir Francis Bond Head (Wm. Lyon Mackenzie's opponent) and the British war effort in the Crimea (such as Sonnet to Florence Nightingale and others), while producing some interesting nature verse exemplifying the all-pervasive influence of Wordsworth's view of nature and the sublime.

In 1857, Charles Heavysege attracted international (British and American) attention for his verse drama Saul.^[1]

Confederation[link]

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[link]

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 be inspire many other poets, such as Tom McInnes.

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 new 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. Wilson MacDonald was a top selling Canadian poet of the time.

Post-war[link]

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, Lynn Crosbie, David McGimpsey, Stuart Ross, Sonnet L'Abbé, 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[link]

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

Uniquely Canadian forms[link]

Mirelle[link]

Tom MacInnes reportedly invented "a five-line stanza of his own he called the ‘mirelle’."^[2]

Viator[link]

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

French-Canadian poetry[link]

Early verse[link]

The first book written in verse by a Canadian was Épîtres, Satires, Chansons, Épigrammes et Autres Pièces de vers by Michel Bibaud, published in 1830.

Mouvement littéraire[link]

A group of French speaking poets and authors belonging to the Mouvement littéraire came to Ottawa from Quebec City when the civil service moved to Ottawa in 1870. This group included Alfred Garneau, Antoine Gerin-Lajoie, Achilles Frechette and others. They are considered some of the most important poets and writers in 19th Century French Canada.

End of 19th century[link]

Octave Crémazie is considered the father of French Canadian poetry. His poetry and that of his follower Louis Fréchette are romantic of form and patriotic in inspiration. At the same time, Pamphile Le May was writing intimist poetry about the simple farm life and Alfred Garneau wrote his feelings.

The Montreal School[link]

L'École littéraire de Montréal was not a literary school but a group of poets that met regularly. In reaction to the earlier following of the romantic Victor Hugo, they took later schools (such as the Parnassian or symbolism) as their masters. The most talented among them was certainly Émile Nelligan, a young poet who stopped writing at only 19 years of age due to mental illness.

[edit] The terroir

Outside Montreal, other poets, such as Nérée Beauchemin continued Pamphile Le May's depiction of the life of the habitants. Then came the powerful Alfred Desrochers, a precursor to the "pays" school of poetry of Gaston Miron and John Paul Ambas.

In 1937 Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau published the first book of modernist poetry in French Canada, Regards et Jeux dans l'espace. Garneau's reputation would soar in the 1950s, after publication of his Complete Poems (1949), as would that of his cousin, poet Anne Hébert.

See also[link]

	Poetry portal
	History of Canada portal

• Alberta Poetry Yearbook
• List of Canadian poets

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

• "Poetry in English" at the Canadian Encyclopedia.
• "Poetry in French" at the Canadian Encyclopedia.
• A digital history of Canadian poetry
• Canadian poetry archive
• Canadian Poetry Online, University of Toronto
• Canadian poetry sites, League of Canadian Poets.
• Sheniz Janmohamed | Canadian Poet, Author, Spoken Word Artist
• Poetry Resource a website for students of poetry
• Canadian Panorama poetry book by José Tlatelpas about Native Canada and multiculturalism

Shane L. Koyczan (born 22 May 1976) is a Canadian poet and writer. Born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Koyczan grew up in Penticton, British Columbia. In 2000, he became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the US National Poetry Slam.^[1] Together with Mighty Mike McGee and C. R. Avery, he is the co-founder of spoken word, "talk rock" trio, Tons of Fun University (T.O.F.U.). In August 2007 Shane Koyczan and his work were the subject of an episode of the television documentary series Heart of a Poet, produced by Canadian filmmaker Maureen Judge for broadcaster Bravo!.^[2]

Koyczan has published two books, poetry collection Visiting Hours, and Stickboy, a novel in verse. Visiting Hours was selected by both the Guardian and Globe and Mail for their 2005 Best Books of the Year lists.

Koyczan’s "We Are More" and Ivan Bielinski’s "La première fois", commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission, were unveiled at Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on 1 July 2007.^[3] Koyczan performed a variation on his piece at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.^[4]

Koyczan also collaborated on Vancouver-based musician Dan Mangan's Roboteering EP on the track Tragic Turn of Events - Move Pen Move.

Bibliography[link]

• I'm Calling you friend
• Help Wanted
• I Drew That For You
• Visiting Hours (2005, House of Parlance Media; ISBN 978-0-9738131-0-4)
• Stickboy ( 2008, House of Parlance Media ISBN 978-0-9738131-6-6)^[5]

Discography[link]

• Perfect
• 2nd Time Around
• Visiting Hours
• American Pie Chart
• Shut Up And Say Something

With Tons of Fun University (ToFU):

• The Them They're Talking About (2005)
• Hard to Tell (2009)

As Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long:

• A Pretty Decent Cape in My Closet (2007)
  • includes "The Crickets Have Arthritis"

As Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long:

• "Remembrance Year" (2012)

Filmography[link]

• The 2000 National Poetry Slam Finals (2000, The Wordsmith Press)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long at MySpace
• Text of "We Are More", as recited at the 2010 Olympics opening

James Deahl (born 1945) is a Canadian poet and publisher.^[1]

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Deahl grew up in the city and in and around the Laurel Highlands region of the Appalachian Mountains. He moved to Canada in 1970 and holds dual American/Canadian citizenship. He is a founding member of the Canadian Poetry Association.

A cycle of his poems is the focus of a one-hour television special, Under the Watchful Eye (1993), the audio tape of which was later released by Broken Jaw Press.

Deahl has taught creative writing and Canadian literature at Norwell District Secondary School, Seneca College, and Ryerson University. He is currently the publisher of Unfinished Monument Press.

Deahl lives in Hamilton, Ontario. His wife, the editor and artist Gilda Mekler died in February 2007, suddenly.

Bibliography[link]

• Real Poetry - 1981
• In the Lost Horn's Call - 1982
• Steel Valley - 1984
• No Cold Ash - 1984
• Blue Ridge - 1985
• Into This Dark Earth - 1985
• A Stand of Jackpine - 1987 (with Milton Acorn)
• Geschriebene Bilder - 1990 - ISSN 0938-1767
• In Memoriam: Milton Acorn - ISBN 0-919957-31-5, 1991
• Opening The Stone Heart - 1992
• Canada or True North - 1993
• The Beauty that Endures - 1993
• Heartland - 1993
• Even This Land Was Born of Light - 1993
• Tasting the Winter Grapes - 1995
• The Future of Poetry - ISBN 0-919957-39-0, 1995
• Under The Watchful Eye - 1995 ISBN 0-920976-29-8
• Blackbirds - 1999
• When Rivers Speak, Unfinished Monument Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1-884206-09-3
• The River's Stone Roots: Two Dozen Poems by Tu Fu, Serengeti Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-9738458-0-5
• If Ever Two Were One, Aeolus House, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9732411-5-0
• No Star Is Lost, Lyricalmyrical, 2009, ISBN 978-1-897275-59-7
• Opening the Stone Heart(second edition), Aeolus House, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9811272-5-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview with James Deahl
• German biography and official translations of his poems

Milton James Rhode Acorn (March 30, 1923 – August 20, 1986), nicknamed The People's Poet by his peers, was a Canadian poet, writer, and playwright. He was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Acorn was a World War II veteran. On a trans-Atlantic crossing, he suffered a wound from depth charges. The wound was severe enough for him to receive a disability pension from Veterans Affairs for most of his life. He returned to Prince Edward Island and moved to Montreal in 1956. He spent several years living at the Hotel Waverly in Toronto.^[1]

In Montreal, he published some of his early poems in the political magazine, New Frontiers. He also self-published a mimeographed chapbook, In Love and Anger, his first collection of poems.

He was for a short time married to poet Gwendolyn MacEwen^[2]

In 1967, Acorn helped found the then-"underground" newspaper The Georgia Straight in Vancouver, BC.^[3]

Acorn was awarded the Canadian Poets Award in 1970 and the Governor General's Award in 1976 for his collection of poems, The Island Means Minago.^[4]

In July 1986, he suffered a heart attack and was admitted to the hospital. Acorn died in his home town of Charlottetown on August 20, 1986, due to complications associated with his heart condition and diabetes. According to fellow poet and close friend Warren Kinthompson, he had "lost his will to live after the death of a younger sister."^[4]

Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award[link]

In 1987, the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award was established in his memory by Ted Plantos. It is presented annually to an outstanding "people's poet." The award is $250 (since raised to $500) and a medallion, modelled after the one given to Milton Acorn.

Acorn on film[link]

The National Film Board of Canada produced two films on Acorn's life and works. The first is entitled In Love and Anger: Milton Acorn - Poet, and came out in 1984. The NFB's abstract of the film reads:

Acorn left Prince Edward Island in the late 1940s to earn his living as an itinerant carpenter, and wound up in Toronto as one of Canada's most highly regarded poets and one of its most outrageous literary figures. Dubbed "The People's Poet" by fellow poets, he won the Governor General's Literary Award in 1976. Subject to bi-polar disorder and burned out by personal crises, Acorn moved back to Charlottetown in 1981. This film, directed by a P.E.I. filmmaker, brings out Acorn's wit, love of nature, unorthodox political views, and sometimes infuriating personal contradictions."[1]

The second is called A Wake for Milton. It was produced in 1988. The NFB abstract for this film reads,

"Canadian poet, Milton Acorn, is remembered with feeling and eloquence in this tribute that takes the form of a wake. Cedric Smith acts as the singer of Acorn's life and art, while such friends as Al Purdy, Pat Lane, and former wife Gwendolyn MacEwen recall the man known as 'The People's Poet.' Evoked here is the unique mixture of intense emotion, wit and radical politics that identified Acorn as a man and a poet." [2]

Bibliography[link]

• In Love and Anger (1956)
• Against a League of Liars (1960)
• The Brain's the Target (1960)
• Jawbreakers (1963)
• I've Tasted My Blood (1969)
• I Shout Love and On Shaving Off His Beard (1971)
• More Poems for People (with Warren Kinthompson, 1972)
• The Island Means Minago (1975)
• The Road to Charlottetown (with Cedric Smith, 1977)
• Jackpine Sonnets (1977)
• Captain Neal MacDougal & the Naked Goddess (1982)
• Dig Up My Heart (1983)
• Whiskey Jack HMS Press (Toronto)(1986) ISBN 0-919957-21-8
• A Stand of Jackpine (with James Deahl, 1987)
• The Uncollected Acorn (1987)
• I Shout Love and Other Poems (1987)
• Hundred Proof Earth (1988)
• To Hear the Faint Bells (1996)

Anthologies[link]

• Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada, ed. Anne Compton, Laurence Hutchman, Ross Leckie and Robin McGrath (Goose Lane Editions, 2002)

Discography[link]

• More Poems for People Audio CD reading Canadian Poetry Association, (1986 audio tape / 2001 CD) ISBN 0-919957-42-0

Literary Awards[link]

• 1970 Canadian Poets' Award, more commonly known as the People's Poet Award and Medal
• 1976 Governor General's Award
• 1977 Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree (from the University of Prince Edward Island)
• 1986 Life member Canadian Poetry Association

References[link]

1. ^ Fraser Robinson and Josef Szende, "Spadina iTour." Heritage Toronto, 2009
2. ^ http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/macewen/comments.htm
3. ^ Coupey, Pierre. "Straight Beginnings: The Rise & Fall of the Underground Press", The Grape weekly newspaper #8, pages 12 and 13, March 8, 1972, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
4. ^ ^{a b} Downey, Donn. "Award-winning poet honored by peers", Globe & Mail. August 22, 1986.

External links[link]

• Canadian Poetry Online: Milton Acorn - Biography and 6 poems (The Island, I Shout Love, What I Know of God is This, Hummingbird, Live With Me On Earth Under the Invisible Daylight Moon, The Natural History of Elephants)
• Milton Acorn's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia

Don McKay, CM (born 1942) is an award-winning Canadian poet, editor, and educator.

Born in Owen Sound, Ontario and raised in Cornwall, McKay was educated at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Wales, where he earned his PhD in 1971. He taught creative writing and English for 27 years in universities including the University of Western Ontario and the University of New Brunswick.

McKay is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Long Sault (1975), Lependu (1978), and Apparatus (1997). He has twice won the Governor General's Award, for Night Field (1991) and Another Gravity (2000). In June 2007, he won the Griffin Poetry Prize for Strike/Slip (2006).

Although McKay has been publishing since 1973, literary writing on his poetry is recent. Much critical examination of his work is yet to be done.

He has made a wide impression as a teacher and editor. He is the co-founder and manuscript reader for Brick Books, one of Canada's leading poetry presses, and was editor of the literary journal The Fiddlehead from 1991-96. He has participated in the Sage Hill Writing experience in Saskatchewan and he is Associate Director for poetry at the Banff Centre for the Arts Writing Studio. He has edited many books by fellow poets, including Ken Babstock, George Elliot Clarke, Tim Lilburn, Barbara Colebrook Peace, and Michael Redhill.

McKay is an avid birdwatcher; and bird themes and flight are dominant topics in his poetry. In Birding, or Desire (1983), the quirky protagonist is never far from his Birds of Canada hobbyist's field guide. McKay's passion for birds and nature percolates throughout all of his work. McKay sees his writing as “nature poetry in a time of environmental crisis.”^[1] McKay's poems are ecologically centred, inspired by the conflict between inspiration and spiritual, instinct and knowledge. Other members of this emerging group of “ecopoets” include Tim Lilburn, Dennis Lee, Roo Borson, Robert Bringhurst, and Jan Zwicky.^{[by whom?]}

His book of poetic philosophy Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness, details many of McKay's beliefs on metaphor, wildness, and the homing instinct. McKay's essay “Baler Twine,” touches on his main poetic themes as well as those of Matériel and poetic attention.

In 2008, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.^[2]

Bibliography[link]

Poetry[link]

• Air Occupies Space (1973)
• Long Sault (1975)
• Lependu (1978)
• Lightning Ball Bait (1980)
• Birding, or Desire (1983) (nominated for a Governor General's Award)^[3]
• Sanding Down this Rocking Chair on a Windy Night (1987)
• Night Field (1991) (winner of the 1991 Governor General's Award for poetry)^[3]
• Apparatus (1997) (nominated for a Governor General's Award)^[3]
• Another Gravity (2000) (shortlisted for the 2001 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize)^[4]
• Varves (2003; chapbook)
• Camber (2004) (shortlisted for the 2005 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize)^[4]
• Strike/Slip (2006) (winner of the 2007 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)^[4]
• Field Marks: The Poetry of Don McKay edited by Méira Cook (2006)
• Song for the Songs of Birds, audiobook (2008)
• Leaf to leaf-Foglio a foglia (Italian translation by Sara Fruner and Filippo Mariano), edited by Angelo Longo (2010)
• Paradoxides (2012)

Other[link]

• Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness (2002) (nominated for a Governor General's Award for Nonfiction)
• Deactivation West 100 (2005)
• The Muskwa Assemblage (2009)
• The Shell of the Tortoise: Four Essays and an Assemblage (2012)

Secondary sources[link]

• Brian Barlett, ed. Don McKay: Essays on His Works. (2006)

See also[link]

Poetry portal

• List of Canadian writers
• List of Canadian poets

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Pond" from Strike/Slip, on CBC Words at Large
• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize readings, including video clips
• "The Poetry of Don McKay" by Stan Dragland (from University of Toronto Quarterly)
• "Faulty Lines: The Poetry and Poetics of Don McKay" by Zachariah Wells
• Gaspereau Press interview with Don McKay
• Poet of the Month from CBC Words at Large (April 2007)
• Don McKay contributes to the What Is Stephen Harper Reading? project
• Don McKay Papers, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
• Don McKay fonds, Library and Archives Canada