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diff --git a/old/65557-0.txt b/old/65557-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 42d0fdb..0000000 --- a/old/65557-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14314 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Highways of Canadian Literature, by J. D. -Logan - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Highways of Canadian Literature - A Synoptic Introduction to the Literary History of Canada - (English) from 1760 to 1924 - -Author: J. D. Logan - Donald G. French - -Release Date: June 7, 2021 [eBook #65557] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Al Haines, Cindy Beyer & the online Distributed Proofreaders - Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIGHWAYS OF CANADIAN -LITERATURE *** - - - - - - - [Cover Illustration] - - - - - Highways _of_ - Canadian Literature - - _A Synoptic Introduction to the Literary_ - _History of Canada (English)_ - _from 1760 to 1924_ - - - - _By_ J. D. Logan - M.A. (Dalhousie), Ph.D. (Harvard), Hon. Litt. D. (Acadia). - Lecturer on Canadian Literature, Acadia University, Nova Scotia - - _and_ Donald G. French - Honorary President Canadian Literature Club of Toronto. - Author of _The Appeal of Poetry_; Editor - _Standard Canadian Reciter_, Etc. - - - - M c C L E L L A N D & S T E W A R T - P U B L I S H E R S - - T O R O N T O - - - - - Copyright, Canada, 1924 - by McClelland and Stewart, Limited, Toronto - - Printed in Canada - - - - - TO - COLONEL WILLIAM ERNEST THOMPSON, LL.B. - District Officer Commanding Military District - No. 6 During the World War, - - A Governor of Dalhousie College, - - for - The Gift of His Loyal and - Inexhaustible Friendship. - - - - _There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,_ - _Save laughter and the love of friends._ - —_Hilaire Belloc._ - - - - - Preface - -_Highways of Canadian Literature_ provides teachers and students in -educational institutions and readers in general with a complete history -of the Canadian literature extant in the English language. In very -recent years Canadian universities and colleges have added to their -curricula systematic study of the verse and prose of the chief writers -born in or resident in the Dominion. Also, teachers in Canadian -academies and high schools, as occasion affords opportunity, inform -their pupils about the lives and work of Canadian authors. Further: as -expressive of the new and increasing interest in Canadian Literature, -Literary Clubs, Reading Clubs, and Reading Circles have been formed, and -constantly are being formed, to promote ‘community’ study of the -writings of Canadian men and women of letters. - -Hitherto, however, those who wished to be informed on the literary -history of Canada and the status of Canadian Literature, had to depend -on Anthologies, summary annalistic Sketches, and biographical Compendia. -The earlier anthologies comprise verse either chronologically or -topically arranged, but some of them contain, in an Appendix, -biographical notes on the authors represented in the volumes. The later -anthologies, as, for instance, Garvin’s _Canadian Poets_, contain, -besides the ‘selections,’ biographical and critical introductions. These -anthologies, though comprehensive, informing and delightful -‘source-books,’ do not, by themselves, disclose the _development_ of -Canadian Literature. The annalistic sketches or compendia, on the other -hand, are too sketchy, too annalistic. They do not tell the story of the -development of Canadian Literature with any attempt at perspective or at -disclosing its social and spiritual origins. - -There was, therefore, pressing need for a comprehensive Synoptic History -of Canadian Literature. Such a work would furnish the teacher, the -student, and the general reader with a ‘method’ of reading Canadian -Literature with philosophical insight or with historical and critical -perspective. It would distinguish certain ‘epochs’ and ‘movements’ in -the literary history of Canada, and make clear how Canadian poets and -prose writers are related to one another and have influenced one -another, and how, gradually, they expressed in literature the slowly -emerging consciousness of a national spirit and a national destiny in -the Dominion. - -That is what _Highways of Canadian Literature_ attempts to do. In scope -it is a complete or comprehensive survey of literary ‘epochs’ and -‘movements’ in Canada, beginning with the Puritan Migration from the -American Colonies in 1760 and closing at the end of the first quarter of -the 20th century. In method it is both historical and critical. It -orientates the ‘backgrounds’ of Canadian Literature, traces the social -and spiritual origins of that literature, remarks special ‘influences,’ -demarcates several ‘epochs’ and ‘movements,’ discusses the importance of -outstanding Canadian authors, and supplies critical estimates of -Canadian prose and poetry. - -It is designed for the use of teachers and students in universities, -colleges, academies, seminaries, and high schools, and of general -readers. Together with suitable anthologies or selections it will -furnish teachers and students with adequate equipment for a systematic -study of Canadian Literature, and general readers and members of -literary clubs equally adequate equipment for ‘home’ or ‘club’ study of -the development of Canadian Literature. - -The Chapters on Post-Confederation Fiction (Chapters XVI and -XVII—Novelists and Short Story Writers of the First Renaissance and -Chapter XXI—Fiction Writers of the Second Renaissance) were written, -expressly at my solicitation, by Mr. Donald G. French, whose wide and -intimate knowledge of the forms, technics, and history of Canadian -fiction is recognized throughout Canada. For many years he has been -assiduous, as an essayist and lecturer, in reviewing and promoting the -study of Canadian imaginative prose fiction, and his experience of many -years as reviewer, and later as literary editor for a book publishing -house, has given him special opportunities to study the history and -observe the evolution of Canadian imaginative prose. Moreover, since Mr. -French is also well versed in the forms, history, and technics of -Canadian poetry, and since he has a temperamental patience, which -engenders in him the ‘wise passiveness’ essential to the just critic, I -engaged for the book as a whole his taste and judgment, in regard to -treatment and style, and his knowledge of facts of Canadian literary -history. The text of the book is therefore enhanced in treatment and -style, as well as in critical justice, by Mr. French’s contribution, and -by his critical revision of the whole work. - -I wish, here, specially to remark my ideal and aim in writing _Highways -of Canadian Literature_. It is, I believe, the duty of the literary -historian and critic to respect his subject and to present it under its -most significant and engaging aspects in order that he may win others to -equal respect for his subject. Canadian Literature is important at least -to Canadians; and, whatever be its comparative aesthetic and artistic -dignity, it is an integral part or branch of English Literature. This -book will justify itself if it compels Canadians to recognize the -importance of their own literature, and wins other peoples to a decent -respect for a literature which, while still in its adolescence, shows -evidences of attaining to independent and vigorous adult estate—in the -event of which Canadian literary creation, taste, and judgment will be -based, not on the work of British or of American masters of poetry and -imaginative prose, but on that of Canadian masters. Meanwhile, this book -aims to disclose to Canadians the social and spiritual importance of -their own literature and to determine its place or distinction in -English Literature—in short, to promote in Canada and abroad what may -aptly be called ‘the higher study’ of Canadian Literature. - -To Mr. Newton MacTavish, M.A., Editor of _The Canadian Magazine_, Mr. R. -H. Hathaway, Mr. M. O. Hammond, Dr. Duncan Campbell Scott, Mr. John -Murray Gibbon, Mr. S. Morgan-Powell, Literary Editor of _The Montreal -Star_, Mr. John Garvin, B.A., Editor of _Canadian Poets_, _Canadian -Poems of the Great War_, etc., Dr. Ray Palmer Baker, author of _A -History of English-Canadian Literature to the Confederation_, and Mr. T. -G. Marquis, author of _English-Canadian Literature_, I am indebted for -advice, criticism, and much practical aid in preparing the text. To Miss -Annie Donohoe, Librarian of the Nova Scotia Legislative Library and Mrs. -Mary Kinley Ingraham, M.A., Librarian of Acadia University, I am -indebted for assistance in research; and to Miss Laura P. Carten, Editor -of The Children’s Page, Halifax Herald, for reading the ‘galley proofs’ -of the text. To Colonel William Ernest Thompson, LL.B., Honorary -Secretary of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University, my -indebtedness is great and is acknowledged in the Dedication to this -book. - - J. D. Logan. -Acadia University, Wolfville, N.S. - - - - - Contents - - PAGE - Dedication 3 - Preface 5 - Preliminary Survey 15 - - I. PRE-CONFEDERATION LITERATURE (1760-1887) - - CHAPTER I - Social and Spiritual Bases 33 - The Social and Spiritual Bases of Canadian Literature—The - Puritan and Loyalist Migrations—The Significance of the - Scots Migration—The Primacy of Nova Scotia in the Creative - Literature of Canada—Literary Species in Ontario and Quebec. - - CHAPTER II - Incidental Pioneer Literature 44 - The Incidental Pre-Confederation Literature of - Canada—Alexander Henry’s Travels—Mrs. Brooke’s Novels—Mrs. - Jameson’s Nature-Studies—The Émigré Pre-Confederation - Literature of Canada—Mrs. Susanna Moodie—Adam Kidd—John - Reade—George Murray—Archibald McLachlan—William Wye Smith - and Isabella Crawford. - - CHAPTER III - Joseph Howe 55 - The Nativistic Literature of Canada—Joseph Howe as Founder - of the Independent Prose, Creative Journalism, Political - Literature, Literary and Forensic Oratory—as Patriotic, - Descriptive, and Humorous Poet—and as the Discoverer and - Sponsor of Thomas Chandler Haliburton. - - CHAPTER IV - Thomas Chandler Haliburton 63 - The Nativistic Literature of Canada—Thomas Chandler - Haliburton—First Systematic Humorist of the Anglo-Saxon - peoples—Creator of a New Type of Satiric Humor and Comic - Characterization. - - II. POST-CONFEDERATION LITERATURE - (1887-1924) - - _A. The First Renaissance_ - - CHAPTER V - Romance and Poetry 89 - The Nativistic Literature of Canada—The Historical - Romancers—John Richardson—Rosanna Mullins—and Others. The - Poets—Goldsmith—Sangster—Mair. - - CHAPTER VI - The Systematic School 105 - The First Renaissance in Canadian Literature—The Systematic - School and Period—Roberts and his Colleagues. - - CHAPTER VII - Charles G. D. Roberts 110 - Roberts Sponsor to Lampman—Literary Father of Bliss - Carman—Master of Verse Technique—Forms of his Verse, and its - Qualities. - - CHAPTER VIII - Archibald Lampman 127 - An Interpreter of the Essential Spirit of Canada—Study of - Lampman’s ‘Sapphics’—Power of Humanizing Nature—Excellence - of his Sonnets—Consummate Artist of Natural Beauty. - - CHAPTER IX - Bliss Carman 139 - As a World-Poet—Creative Melodist—Periods of his - Poetry—Singing Quality and its Method—Lyrist of the Sea and - of Love—Treatment of Nature. - - CHAPTER X - Duncan Campbell Scott 159 - Influences on his Work—Old World Culture—Austere - Intellectualism—Music and Painting—Association with - Lampman—Scott, Campbell, and Lampman compared—Influence of - English poets—Technical Excellences—Revelation of the Indian - Heart—Mystical Symbolism. - - CHAPTER XI - Wilfrid Campbell 184 - As an Objective Nature Painter—Humanized Substance of his - Verse—Patriotism and Brotherhood—Dramatic Monody—Poetical - Tragedies and Dramas. - - CHAPTER XII - Pauline Johnson 195 - Her Ancestry and its Influences—Literary and Musical - Qualities of Work—Stages of Development in Spiritual - Vision—Picturesque Color Verse. - - CHAPTER XIII - Parker and Scott, F. G. 210 - Parker as a Sonneteer of Spiritual Love—Origin and Theme of - a Lover’s Diary—Musical and Colorful Lyrical Verse—Scott’s - Poetry a Reflection of his Personality—Distinguished as the - ‘Poet of the Spirit’—Chief Qualities of his Poetry. - - CHAPTER XIV - Minor Poets 219 - The Term ‘Minor’ Defined—Ethelwyn Wetherald—Jean - Blewett—Francis Sherman—A. E. S. Smythe—S. Frances - Harrison—Arthur Stringer—Peter McArthur—Isabel Ecclestone - Mackay. - - CHAPTER XV - Elegiac Monodists 229 - The Elegiac Monodists of Canada—Charles G. D. Roberts—Bliss - Carman—Wilfred Campbell—Duncan Campbell Scott—William - Marshall—James De Mille. - - CHAPTER XVI - Novelists 241 - The Fictionists of the Systematic School—The Historical - Romancers—Lighthall—Saunders—Parker—Marquis—Maclennan and - McIlwraith—Agnes C. Laut—Wilfred Campbell—Charles G. D. - Roberts—The Romancers of Animal Psychology—Thompson - Seton—Roberts—Saunders—Fraser—The Evangelical - Romancers—Ralph Connor—R. E. Knowles. - - CHAPTER XVII - Short Story Writers 258 - The Short Story Fictionists of the Systematic School—E. W. - Thomson—Duncan Campbell Scott—Charles G. D. Roberts—Gilbert - Parker—Ernest Thompson Seton—W. A. Fraser. - - _B. The New Genre_ - - CHAPTER XVIII - William Henry Drummond 265 - The New Canadian Genre of Idyllic Poetry—William Henry - Drummond, Interpreter of the Habitant—Poet of Social - Democracy in Canada. - - _C. The Decadent Interim_ - - CHAPTER XIX - The Vaudeville School 271 - The Decadent Interim in Canadian Literature—The Vaudeville - School of Poets—Robert W. Service, Robert J. C. Stead, and - Others. - - _D. The Second Renaissance_ - - CHAPTER XX - The Restoration Period 280 - The Restoration or Second Renaissance Period in Canadian - Literature—New Forms, Themes, and Social Ideals—The - Poets—Marjorie Pickthall—Robert Norwood—Katherine Hale—and - Others. - - CHAPTER XXI - Fiction Writers 298 - The Community Novel—Montgomery—Keith—McClung—Le Rossignol. - Institutional Fiction—Packard—Sullivan—Duncan—Wallace and - Others. Realistic Romance—Service—Cody—Stead, etc. - Historical Fiction—Snider—Anison - North—Teskey—McKishnie—Cooney. Imaginative - Fiction—Pickthall—Mackay. Miscellaneous - Types—McKishnie—Sullivan—Hémon—Sime. The New - Realism—Salverson—de la Roche Cornell, etc. - - CHAPTER XXII - The Poetic Dramatists 314 - The Poetic Dramatists of the Second Renaissance—Arthur - Stringer—Robert Norwood—Marjorie Pickthall, and Others. - - CHAPTER XXIII - Humorists 322 - The Humorists of Canada: - Pre-Confederation—Haliburton—Howe—De - Mille—Duvar—Post-Confederation—Lanigan—Cotes—Drummond—Ham: - New School—Leacock—Donovan—Davis—MacTavish—McArthur—Hodgins. - - CHAPTER XXIV - National Stage Drama 333 - The Rise of Native and National Realistic Stage Drama in - Canada: The Little Theatre and the Work of Carroll Aikins - and Merrill Denison. - - III. SPECIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS (1760-1924) - - CHAPTER XXV - The War Poetry of Canada 339 - Mrs. Moodie—Annie Rothwell Christie—Isabella Valancy - Crawford—John McCrae—Canadian Poems of the Great War. - - CHAPTER XXVI - Hymn Writers 354 - The Hymn Writers of - Canada—Alline—Clelland—Scriven—Murray—Scott—Rand—Dewart—Walk - er—and Others. - - CHAPTER XXVII - Literary Criticism 362 - Literary Criticism in Canada—Schools, Aims, Methods, and - Defects—New Synoptic Method Applied to Poetry of Overseas - Dominions. - - CHAPTER XXVIII - Essayists and Color Writers 374 - The Essayists and Color Writers of - Canada—Carman—MacMechan—Blake—Katherine - Hale—King—Deacon—Leacock. - - CHAPTER XXIX - Anthologies 380 - Canadian Birthday Book (Seranus)—Dewart’s Selections from - Canadian Poets—Lighthall’s ‘Songs of the Great - Dominion’—Oxford Book of Canadian Verse—Garvin’s Canadian - Poets, etc. - - CHAPTER XXX - Canadian Journalism 388 - Canadian Journalism in Relation to Permanent Canadian - Literature; A Summary Critical History of the Chief Canadian - Newspapers and Magazines. - - CHAPTER XXXI - Narrative Literature 395 - Narrative - Literature—History—Biography—Exploration—Travels—Sport or - Open-Air Life. - - INDEX 405 - - - - - Preliminary Survey - -To write properly a Synoptic History of Canadian Literature, the -historian must first evaluate extant Canadian verse and prose from the -point of view of the Whole. Secondly, he must treat Canadian Literature -as a Whole in respect to its Genetic bases and relations. In presenting -this synoptic history, Canadian Literature is considered not as a -special, isolated, and chance product, but as the definitive outcome of -racial, naturalistic, social, economic, and political conditions within -the vast Dominion itself, and of other conditions brought into existence -by racial affinities and social, political, economic, and spiritual -relations with the people of the United States and the United Kingdom. - -The general treatment proceeds on an _a priori_ presumption and a -critical principle. The _a priori_ presumption is that in Canada where -verse and prose which possess all degrees of worth have for more than a -century and a half been produced in the English language and which had -English poetry and prose for models, there must be a respectable residue -of authentic literature written by native-born and resident _émigré_ -Canadian authors. In a phrase, the _fact_ of a Canadian Literature is -presumed. The critical principle employed in the treatment is this: that -however insignificant, from the point of view of world literature, -Canadian Literature may be, it is _important to Canadians themselves_. -For however unimportant Canadian historical romances, Canadian humor, -Canadian nature-poetry, Canadian poetic drama, Canadian realistic -fiction, Canadian monodies may be when compared with the same _genres_ -in English Literature, they are the representatives of Canadian culture -and of the Canadian creative spirit; if they were not extant there would -be no Canadian Literature at all; and thus the Canadian people would be -spiritually poorer and less significant not only to themselves but also -to the world. - -Some fair show of the fact of an authentic Canadian Literature may be -evident from the following considerations. Let it be granted, as -axiomatic, that verse and prose rise to the dignity of literature when -they express and promote existence ideally—by delighting the aesthetic -senses, by consoling the heart, by inspiring the moral imagination, by -exalting or transporting the spirit. Judged by this four-fold test, the -best Canadian poetry and imaginative prose will compare favorably with -the admittedly authentic poetry and prose of many of the significant -British and United States authors in the mid-Victorian era. In Canadian -verse in English are genuine ‘gems’ of poetry, which, for vision, -imagery, passion, lyrical eloquence, verbal music, and mastery of form -and technique, are hardly, if at all, surpassed by the poetry of -Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Swinburne. - -If this is doubted, in part or in whole, then apply this concrete -pragmatic test:—For exquisite tenderness and simple pathos: with -Tennyson’s _Break, Break, Break_, compare Charles G. D. Roberts’ sweetly -sad lyric, _Grey Rocks and Greyer Sea_. For delicacy or for poignancy in -expressing the passion and meaning of love: with Swinburne’s _These Many -Years_, compare Roberts’ _O Red Rose of Life_, or with Browning’s -_Evelyn Hope_, compare Roberts’ _A Nocturne of Consecration_. For power -to visualize the ghostly and ghastly: with Coleridge’s _The Ancient -Mariner_ compare the vivid, uncanny pictures of a spectral ship and crew -in Bliss Carman’s _Nancy’s Pride_. For beauty of descriptive imagery, -verbal music, and expressive correspondence of emotion with the mood of -the season in nature-poetry: with Keats’ _Ode to Autumn_, compare -Archibald Lampman’s lovely lyric of earth, _September_. For dignity of -thought and mastery of technic: with the finest sonnets of Wordsworth, -compare Roberts’ _The Sower_, or those noble sonnets by Lampman, -beginning, ‘Not to be conquered by these headlong days,’ ‘Come with -thine unveiled worlds, O truth of Night,’ and ‘There is a beauty at the -goal of life.’ For dramatic power in sounding the depths of elemental -passion and emotion: with Tennyson’s _Rizpah_, compare Campbell’s -profound utterance of the heart of woman in _The Mother_, or with the -more subtle of Browning’s dramatic monologues compare Campbell’s -psychological revealments in _Unabsolved_, and in _The Confession of -Tama the Wise_. For the dainty, piquant expression of all those -experiences which delight and console us in our humaner moments of -reflection and reverie, let these pure lyrics be a daily rosary:—F. G. -Scott’s _The Cripple_, _Van Risen_, and _A Reverie_; Campbell’s _The -Hills and the Sea_, _Vapor and Blue_, and _Lake Huron_; Lampman’s _We, -too, Shall Sleep_, _The Weaver_ and _The Passing of Autumn_; Carman’s -_Spring Song_, commencing ‘Make me over, mother April,’ _The Ships of -St. John_, and _The Grave Tree_; Roberts’ _The Lone Wharf_, _Lake -Aylesford_, _Afoot_, _Kinship_, and _Recessional_; Duncan Campbell -Scott’s _The End of the Day_, and _A Lover to His Lass_; and Pauline -Johnson’s _In the Shadows_. Consider, too, that the satiric humor and -comic characterization of Thomas Chandler Haliburton are not only in -some respects unsurpassed by the art of Cervantes, Dickens, Daudet, and -Mark Twain, and that Haliburton’s comic epigrams and moral maxims and -certain of his comic characters have become part of the warp and woof of -English literature. It is also indubitable that the two volumes of short -stories of Duncan Campbell Scott—_In the Village of Viger_ and _The -Witching of Elspie_—are not excelled either in originality of -conception or in technical artistry, and certainly not in spiritual -beauty and pathos, by the short stories of Maupassant in France, of -Stevenson or Hewlett in England, of Cable or Mary Wilkins Freeman in the -United States. - -In two other fields, the elegiac monody and poetic drama, Canadian poets -have produced distinctive and impressive literature. It is admitted by -British and United States critics that the threnodies of Campbell, -Carman, Roberts, Duncan Campbell Scott, Marshall, and De Mille are -distinctly noble in conception and imagery and artistically finished, -and would be worthy of the genius even of Milton, Shelley, Keats, -Arnold, and Emerson, and deserve to be placed in the company of the -other fine threnodies written in the English language. It is also -admitted by British and United States critics that the poetic dramas of -Mair, Campbell, and Norwood, whether embodying Biblical, Arthurian, or -Canadian legends and romantic characters, show authentic genius of -dramatic conception and a notable distinction in technical structure and -artistry while, to their credit, avoiding what Edmund Gosse has called -the ‘violences and verbosities’ of the Elizabethan Tradition and of the -Restoration and later poetic drama. - -In England, at least as early as the ‘nineties’ of the last century, the -fact of a respectable Canadian literature received a sort of spasmodic -recognition. A genuine interest in it, or at least in Canadian poetry, -was evoked in the United Kingdom by the visit of the late Pauline -Johnson to London and her recitals there in 1894. As a matter of fact, -Pauline Johnson’s first volume of verse _The White Wampum_ was published -originally in London in 1895. Again: with the permanent residence of Sir -Gilbert Parker, and other Canadian men and women of letters, as, for -instance, Miss Jean McIlwraith and Miss Lily Dougall, in England, the -interest in Canadian Literature, on the part of the British people and -critics, was very considerably intensified. - -When the World War caused, first, an intenser sense of the unity of the -Motherland and Canada, and, secondly, a plethora of verse and prose, -especially verse, by Canadians in the field in France and in Flanders, -and by Canadians at home, there arose in England a definite and -systematic movement to promote in the United Kingdom the recognition and -study of the literary history and literature of Canada, or at least -Canadian literature written in the nineteenth century and first quarter -of the twentieth century. Sir Herbert Warren, President of Magdalen -College, Oxford, who for some time during the late war was Professor of -Poetry at Oxford, engaged in a serious and sympathetic study of the -literature of Canada, and lectured on Canadian literature at the -Colonial Institute, London, and elsewhere. Moreover, Sir Herbert Warren, -then also President of the Poetry Society of London, had a by-law passed -which stipulated that living Canadian authors should be recognized as -non-resident members of the Poetry Society of London; and Canadian -authors were invited to send copies of their published verse and prose -to the Librarian of the Poetry Society, for cataloguing and exhibition -in the reading room of the Society. Besides Sir Herbert Warren, two -other British lecturers of established reputation—Miss Louise Bagley -and Miss Julie Huntsman—devoted themselves to systematic lecturing on -Canadian literature, verse and prose, in certain notable educational -institutions in London and in provincial centres in England. Moreover, -since the late war the works of Canadian authors have been in increasing -numbers either published in England simultaneously with their -publication in other countries, or have been first published in England -and later republished in Canada, and in the United States. - -In these facts, therefore, we have a kind of empirical proof or -pragmatic test that in the United Kingdom there has existed for a -considerable time a genuinely respectful recognition of the fact of a -Canadian literature in the English language. - -For the purposes of a Synoptic History of Canadian Literature in the -English language a significant year is that of 1760. For that year marks -both the Fall of Montreal (following the Fall of Quebec in 1759) and the -Puritan Migration from New England to Maugerville, on the St. John -River, and to the valleys of western Nova Scotia, in ‘Nova Scotia,’ -which at the time embraced the mainland of what is now Nova Scotia, as -well as New Brunswick, and part of Maine. - -The significance of this date for a History of Canadian Literature in -English will be realized by reflecting that from 1760 onwards until -Confederation in 1867,—that is, a period of one hundred years—the two -pioneer Provinces of the later Dominion, Quebec and the original Nova -Scotia, and, in due time, Ontario, came under the influence of a -specific British and a specific New England and Loyalist civilization -and culture which essentially determined the political, social, and -spiritual ideas and ideals of the English-speaking people in Canada. -These specifically pioneer and pre-Confederation ideas and ideals form -the social and spiritual bases of Canadian Literature in English, from -1760 to 1867. - -More particularly, it is important to note that the struggle of the -British North American Provinces to realize the ideals of Responsible -Government, which the Puritan settlers brought with them and which were -effected in 1848 in three of the Provinces later confederated, caused -the first awakening of the literary spirit, and the actual creation of -the first nativistic literature, in Canada. This struggle for -Responsible Government and of other higher spiritual interests and -ideals before 1848 and afterwards, including the later struggle for -political union (Confederation) of the Provinces, not only incited -Canadian poets and prose writers to literary expression during the -period, but also largely determined the form, substance, and mood or -temper of that literature. - -A distinction must be drawn between (1) the literature written in or -about Canada by British authors, visiting or sojourning in the Canadas -and the Maritime Provinces, as, for instance, Tom Moore’s _Canadian Boat -Song_ (1804) and much other verse and prose down to Louis Hémon’s -realistic romance of French-Canada, _Maria Chapdelaine_ (1922), all of -which will be noted but will be denominated the ‘Incidental’ Literature; -and (2) the literature which was written by permanently resident -_émigrés_ and by native-born citizens in the _separate_ (unconfederate) -Provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canadas, up to the year -of Confederation, which will be designated the ‘Nativistic’ Literature; -and (3) the literature, after Confederation, written by native-born -Canadians, which will be called the ‘Native and National’ Literature of -Canada. These literary distinctions themselves are demanded by an -important demarcation in the social groups which, from the Fall of -Montreal in 1760 and the Puritan Migration from New England in the same -year up to the last Loyalist Migration, in 1786, from New England and -the other revolutionary States, formed the social and cultural units of -the Anglo-Saxon civilization in what, after the acknowledgment of -American Independence and up to the Confederation of the Canadian -Provinces, was known definitively as British North America. - -Following 1760 and the British Occupation of Montreal and Quebec City, -the civilization and culture of the social groups in these centres and, -later, in the Loyalist centres in Ontario, were on another and lower -level than the culture and civilization in Nova Scotia and New -Brunswick. Moreover, the literature written by the groups of -English-speaking people, sojourning or permanently resident in the -Canadas, neither sprang from the social and spiritual necessities which -created the literature of the Maritime Provinces in their Puritan and -Loyalist period, nor possessed the aesthetic and spiritual qualities of -the literature produced in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the Puritan -and Loyalist period of their history. - -The Anglo-Saxon civilization and culture in Montreal and Quebec, after -the British Occupation (1760), was highly military and practical; that -is to say, materialistic. For the English-speaking people in Quebec were -concerned wholly with the civil and military administration of Quebec -City and Province, and the English-speaking people in Montreal were -concerned chiefly with the development of trade, particularly the fur -trade, under men who were adventurers much more than they were -colonizers and civilizers. Naturally, therefore, Canadian Literature in -English in the Province of Quebec chiefly consisted of chronicles, -annals, and narratives (historical, or of adventure); and, secondly, -whenever it happened to be pure literature, comprised verse and prose -written by cultured visitors from the Motherland; and thus in all cases -this ‘Incidental’ Pioneer Canadian Literature in English in the Province -of Quebec was British in inspiration, form, and aim. - -On the other hand, the Puritan and Loyalist migrations to New Brunswick -and Nova Scotia, particularly Nova Scotia, from 1760 to 1783 and later, -comprised groups of English-speaking people who were intellectually -cultured and spiritually-minded. The literature, verse and prose, which -they produced was the urgent expression of political, social, and -spiritual needs; and, being for the most part satiric, was modelled on -the pre-revolutionary literature of their relatives in New England and -the other Atlantic States, which, in its time, had been modelled on the -satiric neo-classical verse and the polemic and satiric prose of the -eighteenth century in England. - -So that the genius of the literature written in the Province of Quebec -from the British Occupation of Montreal to the triumph of Responsible -Government in 1848, and somewhat later, was pragmatic rather than -literary; whereas the genius of the literature produced in the same -period in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, particularly in Nova Scotia, -was definitively literary in spirit and form. - -The civilization and culture of the Loyalist centres in Ontario, brought -in by the Loyalist Migrations, 1783-1786, and later by the settlements -of British-born _émigrés_, chiefly discharged soldiers, officials, and -mechanics, after the close of the Napoleonic wars, 1815, were -essentially practical and materialistic. On the whole the literature -produced in Ontario, particularly up to the triumph of Responsible -Government was, as in Quebec Province, a literature of annals and -chronicles and narratives. However, during this period and onwards to -Confederation, particularly after the war of 1812 and during the -rebellion of 1837, there appeared in the Canadas some genuinely -aesthetic verse and prose, written by British-born sojourners or -permanent _émigrés_ and by native authors. - -There were, in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, several -other migrations of small groups of English-speaking people to Nova -Scotia and the Canadas, notably a group of Scots. The English Migration -in 1749, under Cornwallis, to Halifax was of no significance in the -literary history of Canada; nor were the Swiss and German Migrations to -Nova Scotia of literary significance. On the other hand, the Scots -Migration to Pictou, Nova Scotia, 1773, had a most decided -_intellectual_ influence not only on Nova Scotia, but also on the whole -of what is now known as Canada. It had, however, no influence on -specific _literary_ culture and literary creation, save Journalism, in -Canada as a whole. - -Meanwhile, it must be observed that in literary culture and the -production of literature in the English language in Canada from 1760 to -Confederation, taking these merely as convenient dates, Nova Scotia -(including New Brunswick) during the Puritan and Loyalist period and up -to the triumph of Responsible Government, and even still later, not only -produced the most significant and authentic literature, but also Nova -Scotia is to be regarded as the first home of an originally ‘Nativistic’ -Literature produced in Canada. - -Up to Confederation there could not be, as there was not, any innate and -natural sentiment of Canadian nationality in the hearts of the people. -The motive of Confederation was not based on sentiment but on practical -political vision and expediency. The ideal of Confederation, before it -was achieved, was wholly an intellectual concept. If, therefore, the -Canadian Confederacy were to endure, it was imperative that the -intellectual ideal, for the factual realization of it, should become -powerful over the hearts and imagination of the Canadian people after -the fact of Confederation in 1867—that there should develop, or be -developed, in the souls of the Canadian people a definitive sentiment of -nationality. - -This meant that following the consummation of Confederation the people -of Canada should find themselves pledged to and engaged in a distinctly -new and novel political and social program. This program was chiefly one -of political and social consolidation and of industrial and commercial -expansion. It was most astutely and effectively, though slowly, carried -out. With the ever-increasing political and social unification of the -people and the intellectual and commercial expansion of the country, a -genuine sentiment of Canadian nationality gradually developed, until by -the time of the Great World War, 1914-1918, and largely in consequence -of Canada’s part in that war, the sentiment of Canadian nationality -suddenly acquired a pervasive intensity and evolved into a definite and -profound sense of distinct nationhood. - -Now, with this development in political and social consolidation, and -territorial, industrial, and commercial expansion, and the evolution of -a sentiment of nationality and, later, nationhood, it was inevitable -that there should be not only a change in the literary ideals, -inspiration, and aims of Canadian men and women of letters, but also -that, with this change in aesthetic and artistic conscience, the -literature produced in Canada, after Confederation, should be different -in substance, form, and technical artistry or craftsmanship from the -literature produced prior to Confederation. It was also inevitable that -immediately upon Confederation, when, naturally, political and social -consolidation and the sentiment of nationality were virtually at zero -point or at least were inchoate, the literary ideals of Canadian men and -women of letters should be, in substance and form, for a decade or so, -traditional and derivative, not indigenous and originally Canadian. It -was indeed so: for at least a decade there was hardly any independent or -original native Canadian literature, or in it even a simmering of the -sentiment of Canadian nationality, though there was a considerable -quantity of ‘journalistic’ and imaginative poetry and prose which -possessed distinctive and even engaging aesthetic and artistic -qualities, written both by permanently resident _émigrés_ and by -native-born Canadians. - -In 1868, for instance, Charles Mair, a native-born Canadian, published -his _Dreamland and Other Poems_; and in 1870 John Reade, an Irishman -long resident in Canada, published a volume of verse, _The Prophecy of -Merlin and Other Poems_: but while Mair’s poems contained Canadian -sentiment and color they were the sentiment and color of _objective_ -Nature in Canada; and while John Reade’s volume was written in Canada -and though the poet really felt and was in sympathy with all the -political, social, and spiritual aspirations of Canada, Reade’s poems -themselves were based chiefly upon Arthurian legend and were written in -a derivative English romantic manner of form, music, and color. - -Mair and Reade and others were having an influence, however, in holding -up the ideal of authentic literary creation in Canada while during that -decade and the following decade a group of young native-born Canadians -were growing into manhood, and were having engendered in their hearts -and imagination a distinct innate sentiment of Canadian nationality and -were to become the first native-born group of _systematic_ poets and -prose writers in Canada. Their work, in poetry and prose, may fairly be -signalized as the First Renaissance in Canadian Literature. - -This group, for the purposes of literary history, we have denominated -the Systematic School of Canadian poets and prose writers. For with the -publication of Chas. G. D. Roberts’ _Orion and Other Poems_ in 1880, a -native-born leader for native-born men and women of letters appeared in -Canada; and with the publication of Roberts’ _In Divers Tones_ in 1887 -in Canada (in U. S. 1886), there appeared at length the first ‘Voice’ of -the Spirit of Canada, expressed in poetic literature, artistic in -structure and noble in inspiration. The authentic beginning of strictly -so-called Canadian Literature in English must, therefore, be dated from -1887. Roberts and his colleagues, Lampman, Carman, Campbell, D. C. -Scott, F. G. Scott, Pauline Johnson, Gilbert Parker and Marshall -Saunders are designated the Systematic School of Canadian poets and -prose writers. - -The First Renaissance in Canadian Native and National Literature may be -said to close either with the publication of Pauline Johnson’s last -volume of poems, _Canadian Born_, in 1903, or with the publication of -Robert Service’s first volume of verse, _Songs of a Sourdough_ (1907). -By this is not meant that after twenty years of leadership and influence -the first Systematic Group had not continued to hold up the ideal to the -younger or later Canadian poets and prose writers or that there were no -Canadian poets and prose writers who were continuing the older ideal and -tradition. As a matter of fact, the creative and artistic ideals of the -first group of systematic poets and prose writers had become engendered -in the aesthetic and artistic conscience of the younger or later men and -women of letters in Canada; and the poetry and prose produced by the -younger or later Canadian men and women of letters were notably refined -in sentiment, beautiful in structure and imagery, and noble in spiritual -substance and appeal. They continued, and still continue, as do also -Roberts, Carman, Duncan Campbell Scott and the other living members of -the original Systematic Group, the tradition of aesthetic and artistic -verse and prose. - -But in 1907 another singing voice was heard; and there developed a group -of poetasters and picaresque fictionists whose leader was Robert -Service. Their special literary _métier_ was verse, though Service and -his literary _confrères_ also essayed fiction. This group we call the -Vaudeville School of Canadian Poetry. Its vogue lasted for an -insignificant period of five years, or from 1908 up to the beginning of -the Great World War. - -In 1913 appeared a new group of younger Canadian poets and prose -writers, who may be regarded as having begun the Second Renaissance in -Canadian literature. They inaugurated, as it were, a Restoration Period -in Canadian literature, inasmuch as, with some changes in ideals of form -and craftsmanship, they essentially ‘restored’ the literary principles -and aims of the First Renaissance Group. All these distinctions in -nomenclature and dates are, of course, only used for expository or -pedagogical purposes. Accordingly, it is convenient to mark the -beginning of the Second Renaissance, or the Restoration Period, in -Canadian Literature with the publication of Marjorie Pickthall’s first -volume of verse, _Drift of Pinions_, in 1913. - -This period in Canadian Literature in English is still in process. It is -showing definitive originality in several ways, including original -developments in modernity of theme and moral substance, in formal -novelty, and in fresh expression of neglected or hitherto unessayed -literary _genres_, such as, for instance, poetic and stage drama, and -essays strictly in _belles-lettres_. - -Contemporary with the poets of this period is a group of fictionists, -who have produced and are producing novels, romances, and tales which -are Canadian in theme, in social background, and in color. This group -may be distinguished as the Realistic School of Canadian Fiction. - -These distinctions thus determine the scope of the present work as a -Synoptic History of Canadian Literature. The literature considered or -treated comprises—(I) Pre-Confederation Literature (1760-1887); and -(II) Post-Confederation Literature (1887——?). The Pre-Confederation -Literature, which, for purposes of exposition or treatment, is viewed as -running over into two decades beyond 1867, will be considered under -three rubrics—(1) Incidental Pioneer Literature; (2) Emigré Literature -and (3) Nativistic Literature. Post-Confederation Literature will be -treated under a single rubric—Native and National Literature of Canada; -and this indigenous Canadian literature will, for expository and -pedagogical purposes, be considered under five Schools (or Periods)—(1) -the Systematic School and Period (First Renaissance); (2) the Vaudeville -School and Period (Decadent Interim); (3) the Restoration School and -Period (Second Renaissance); (4) the Realistic School and Period of -Fiction; and (5) the Rise of Realistic Native or National Drama. But -these formal divisions cannot be kept mathematically rigid and there -will necessarily be overlappings and special consideration of both -imaginative and aesthetic Canadian literature, such as poetic drama, -_belles-lettres_, hymnody and literary criticism, journalism, and the -literature of travel, exploration, history, and biography. - -The method of treatment and criticism employed in the present work is -also Synoptic or Philosophical. The synoptic method adopts the point of -view of Canadian literary history and literature as a spiritual Whole. -It has distinct and desirable advantages over the other critical and -pedagogical methods. For the synoptic method assists the imagination to -view Canadian authors and their literature in an inclusive historical -perspective, and thus to discover in Canadian Literature the evolution -of a people’s social and spiritual ideals, their national and world -conceptions, and how and what each individual poet or prose writer, or -each group or school of poets and prose writers, has contributed to the -vision of the people’s social and spiritual ideals and to the evolution -of them in the people’s social conscience. Further: the synoptic method -disengages and discriminates the essential excellences of the poetry and -prose of particular individuals and groups, and enables the critic or -historian rightly to estimate the social and spiritual significance and -value of Canadian authors ideas on Nature, Society, human Existence, and -Endeavor. - - - - - Part I - - - - Pre-Confederation Literature - 1760-1887. - - - - - CHAPTER I - - - Social _and_ Spiritual Bases - - THE SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL BASES OF CANADIAN LITERATURE—THE PURITAN - AND LOYALIST MIGRATIONS—THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SCOTS MIGRATION— - THE PRIMACY OF NOVA SCOTIA IN THE CREATIVE LITERATURE OF CANADA— - LITERARY SPECIES IN ONTARIO AND QUEBEC. - -Creative literature in the Provinces which now form the Dominion of -Canada, really or most significantly began in Nova Scotia. The social -bases of this Nova Scotian pioneer literature, its literary forms, and -even its inspiration were of New England origin. It is highly important -clearly to understand all this. In 1760, or two years after the -proclamation of Governor Lawrence and the establishment of a Legislative -Assembly in Nova Scotia, seven thousand Puritans emigrated from -Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut to Maugerville on the St. -John River, and to the valleys of western Nova Scotia. The expulsion of -the Acadians had left the fertile farms of western Nova Scotia deserted. -These lands were naturally attractive to the people of New England, -inasmuch as the soil was not only fertile, but the country itself was, -at the time, part of British North America, as was New England itself. -As soon as the Acadians had been expelled, the Governor of Nova Scotia -set up military control and government. Moreover, the Anglican Church -was the dominant creed. In New England civil and religious liberty were -regarded as absolutely necessary to the life of the people. When, then, -in 1758, Governor Lawrence brought about the formation of a Legislative -Assembly and proclaimed civil and religious liberty for Nova Scotia, the -New England Puritans felt free to come to Nova Scotia, which promised -them an acceptable new home, both for the obtaining of material -possessions and the free expression of their spiritual ideals. - -In 1763 other groups of New Englanders, with their characteristic -ideals, came to Nova Scotia. In 1783, 1785 and 1786, following the War -of American Independence, thirty thousand United Empire Loyalists -emigrated from the Atlantic States and settled in Nova Scotia; ten -thousand settled in Lower Canada (Quebec); and twenty thousand settled -in the district which later became the Province of Ontario. So that, in -a period of twenty-five years, about one hundred thousand _émigrés_ from -the United States coast had become permanent residents of the Maritime -Provinces and the Canadas. That is to say, the bases of Canadian -civilization and culture, following the Fall of Montreal and beginning -with the first Puritan Migration, were definitively the social, -political, intellectual, and literary ideals of New England. - -In 1749 there was a migration of English from the Motherland to Halifax. -They founded the City of Halifax. These English _émigrés_, however, -found conditions of life at Halifax so forbidding by way of hardships -and so socially unsettling that many of them removed to Boston and to -New York. Subsequently their descendants came from New England and New -York to Halifax. It was they, not their fathers, who really founded the -City of Halifax and did most for the development of commerce and culture -in that community. Later, when Halifax became a British Military and -Naval Station, it took on an English ‘air.’ But essentially its culture -and commerce were of New England Puritan origin. - -In 1773 occurred the Scots migration to Pictou, on the North shore of -Nova Scotia. These colonists were but a little band of two hundred; yet -they brought with them two ideals which eventually pervaded the -civilization and culture of Canada. - -Viewed, then, synoptically, the civilization and culture of the Dominion -of Canada, as we conceive and appreciate the significance of Canada -to-day, had their origins in Puritanism and Calvinism—in the ideals -brought into Nova Scotia and the Canadas by the New England and the -Scots Migrations in the 18th century. Specifically, the New England -colonists, especially the Loyalists, brought, with them the literary -ideals which were to become the creative principles of the first -native-born poets and prose writers of Nova Scotia and the Canadas. -Specifically, the Scots colonists brought into Nova Scotia two ideals of -spiritual import; namely, the ideal of the supreme worth of the -individual human spirit and its salvation, and the ideal of sound -intellectual education as the basis of the life of the spirit both for -this world and the world to come. - -To appreciate critically the results of the Loyalist ideals on the -creative literary spirit in Nova Scotia, we must hark back to -pre-Revolutionary times in New England and the other Atlantic Colonies -and to the social conditions and spiritual problems of the people of -Nova Scotia following the Loyalist Migrations. In pre-revolutionary days -in the New England and the other Atlantic Colonies, the weapon used both -by those who were for separation from England and those who were loyal -to the British Crown was a literary weapon—prose and poetry. Naturally -pre-revolutionary literature in the American Colonies was modelled on -the mood and form of the satiric verse and pamphlets of the 18th century -poets and prosemen of England. The American colonies became alive -especially with poetic satirists. When, therefore, the Loyalists settled -in Nova Scotia and the Canadas, and when, in due course, they themselves -had to face the discussion and solution of new social and political -problems, inevitably they adopted the 18th century forms of literary -expression. - -But what of the Puritan settlers in Nova Scotia? They were in the land -for at least a decade before the coming of the Loyalists. They had -social and religious problems for discussion and solution. Did not these -problems of the Puritan _émigrés_ issue in a literature? They did. But -the Puritan literature in Nova Scotia was not in mood, aim, form, or -result at all significant, or as genuinely creative as the Loyalist -literature, and may be shortly noticed and dismissed. The Puritans were -Congregationalists, and brought with them the old New England ideals of -the ‘Town Meeting’—Responsible Civic Government and Religious Liberty. -They were political and religious Democrats. But Church interests were -paramount. Congregationalism, though essentially a democratic form of -Church government, developed all the formalism, of an aristocratically -conducted religion. The inevitable happened. There were -‘fundamentalists’ and ‘modernists’ in those days as in ours. Under -Whitefield a schism occurred in Congregationalism. The leader of the -schism in Nova Scotia was Rev. Henry Alline (1748-84). Under Whitefield -in the American Colonies and Henry Alline, ‘the Whitefield of Province’ -of Nova Scotia, the ‘New Lights’ (as they were called) triumphed over -the Orthodox or Formalistic Congregationalists in America. But, oddly, -this religious schism also resulted in a political schism. It resulted, -in short, in a separation of the Puritans in Nova Scotia from the -Puritans in the New England Colonies. So that the Puritan colony in Nova -Scotia became a community apart, with a new and distinct sentiment of -British connection. They retained, however, their New England ideals of -responsible municipal government and absolute religious liberty. Nova -Scotia thus became the home of a new experiment in Political and -Religious Democracy. - -But since, with the Puritans, Church or Spiritual interests were -paramount, and since the separation between the Nova Scotia Puritans and -the New England Puritans was merely sentimental and followed the -religious schism, the Puritan literature of the period in Nova Scotia -was wholly religious and theological. On the theological side, it took -the form of controversial and polemical literature for the promotion of -the ‘New Lights’ schism. On the religious and creative sides, it took -the form of homilies, sermons, devotional works, prayers, and hymns. - -The chief creative writer of the Puritan period was Henry Alline. During -the conflict between the Orthodox Congregationalists and the ‘New -Lights’ Henry Alline published a polemical pamphlet, _The -Anti-Traditionist_, and five books of _Hymns and Spiritual Songs_. After -his death his _Life and Journal_ was published. It is interesting only -to students of religious psychology and the varieties of religious -experience. - -But Alline’s _Hymns and Spiritual Songs_ is a genuinely creative work. -It contrasts admirably with the too often spiritually inept and -doggerelized hymns and evangelical songs that have found a place in the -hymnody of the Churches. Alline’s hymns and spiritual songs disclose on -his part an authentic lyrical faculty, a sure sense of rhythm and of -decent rhyme, and a respect for dignified diction and imagery. Though -Alline’s work in prose and verse has no significance in the evolution of -Canadian Literature, inasmuch as he did not even ‘influence’ Canadian -hymnography, yet the literary historian must give him the distinction of -being the first of the Pioneer Hymn Writers of Canada. The Puritan -period in Nova Scotia had, however, no importance in the development of -Canadian Literature. - -The literature produced by the Loyalists in Nova Scotia, on the other -hand, was fundamental in the evolution of Canadian Literature. For the -most part, the Loyalists were members of the cultured Tory or -aristocratic families of New England and the other Atlantic Colonies, -and were highly cultured themselves. Many of them were teachers, -clergymen, lawyers, jurists and officials—all graduates of Harvard, -Yale, and other leading educational institutions in the lost colonies. -The Loyalists brought with them their social and cultural ideals; and -many of them were practised in literary expression, after the manner of -the 18th century prose and verse. They were thus fitted by education and -powers of literary expression to reconstruct, as they did, the -civilization and culture of Nova Scotia, and to produce, as they did, -the first Nativistic Literature of Canada. How they accomplished these -creative results is an instructive study by itself. - -During the American Revolution the Loyalists were aristocratic families -with an ardent British sentiment. They wished to retain British -connection and to promote their own institutions, with New World -modifications, modelled upon British institutions. The persecutions they -endured during the whole of the Revolutionary times and their forced -exile to Nova Scotia did but intensify their sentiment for British -connection in their new home in Nova Scotia. Yet the love for their old -homeland remained, and became with them a rather poignant nostalgia. It -was, however, the old _homeland_ they loved; but for the _people_ of the -United States they had no sentiment save scorn and hate. - -All the while, therefore, they retained in their minds and hearts the -so-called ‘United Empire’ ideal. But at length this became a problem -which took the form of an inner debate as to whether they should cast -aside all thoughts of bringing about a re-union of British North America -(that is, the Canadas and the Maritime Provinces) and the United States, -or whether they should promote a _new_ United Empire in the land over -the border from the United States. It must be admitted, however, that on -the side of ardency of sentiment the Loyalists in Nova Scotia really -felt more a nostalgia for their old homeland than they felt a love for -Great Britain and the establishment of a great British nation in the -lands north of the United States. - -It is this nostalgia which first finds expression in the Loyalist -literature produced in Nova Scotia; and it finds its fullest expression -in verse. Several names—Jacob Bailey, Jonathan Sewell, Joseph -Stansbury, Jonathan O’Dell, Adam Allen, James Moody, Mather Byles, -Walter Bates—are noted by literary historians as paramount in the early -Loyalist literature. There is, however, nothing of genuine literary -merit in their poetry, prose narratives, and diaries. Of these early -Loyalist writers Jonathan O’Dell is somewhat significant. He introduced -into Nova Scotia the verse forms and temper of the 18th century poetic -satirists, Dryden and Pope. - -Time, at length, wrought changes in the hearts of the Loyalists, and -they began to look away from the United States and to take a pride in -their new home; to look with affection upon Nova Scotia and to express a -decent regard for England, the Motherland. As it were, the grapes in the -United States had soured, and the Loyalists in Nova Scotia began to look -on the Revolutionists as their inferiors in birth, culture and -civilization. The true ideals, in their view, were in the aristocratic -culture and the political system of the new Provinces and England. Once -this spirit of contempt for United States culture and civilization -became thoroughly engendered, the separation of the Loyalist community -in Nova Scotia from all United States connection was complete. Whereupon -the Loyalists felt that the only right course to pursue was for them to -unite with the Puritan settlers who had preceded them to Nova Scotia, -and to develop a civilization and culture all their own. - -This they proceeded to do by laying the foundations of Journalism in -Nova Scotia. The first journalistic ventures in Nova Scotia happen also -to be the first in Canada. The first newspaper had been founded at -Halifax in 1752: that is, eight years before the Puritan Migration; but -it was a government organ and not a real newspaper. But on March 17th, -1776, when the British troops evacuated Boston, John Howe, Loyalist and -printer, also left Boston and with him went the press of the Boston -_News-Letter_. Eventually it reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the -_News-Letter_ was amalgamated with the Halifax _Gazette_. In 1789 _The -Nova Scotia Magazine_ was founded, printed, and edited by John Howe. -This was the first literary magazine published in British North America. -Thus, under Loyalist auspices and literary traditions, journalism began -in Nova Scotia, that is, in Canada. - -Further: Loyalist newspapers and Loyalist magazines, founded at Halifax, -and later at St. John, that is, Loyalist Journalism, laid the -foundations of literary expression and literary creation in Canada. It -is beside the point to animadvert upon the aesthetic values of the -substance and form of the original prose and verse which appeared in the -Loyalist newspapers and magazines. For, up till the time of Joseph -Howe’s becoming sole owner and editor of _The Novascotian_, in 1828, all -the literary work that had preceded was but a preparatory school of -journalism and literature. When _The Novascotian_ was founded by Joseph -Howe, and when Thomas Chandler Haliburton, with Howe himself and others, -began to contribute to it, journalism itself became literature, and the -first Nativistic Literature of Canada was created. - -The Loyalists, we must remember, though they came from a country in -which the social and political ideals were democratic, were themselves -aristocratic. When, therefore, they bethought themselves of founding a -college, their ideal was that of a college which would preserve the -curriculum of Colleges open only to those who were well to do. The -University of King’s College was begun as an Academy at Windsor, Nova -Scotia in 1787, was granted a Collegiate Charter in 1789, and was -formally opened as a College in 1790. It was indeed open to all the -Province—to all those who could _afford_ to attend. But in 1802 this -policy of seeming democratic inclusiveness was abrogated by an Imperial -Government Act which limited the privilege of matriculation to members -of the Church of England. Since seventy-five per cent. of the population -of Nova Scotia were members of other communions, the great majority of -possible students were shut out from King’s College. When, therefore, -the Scots _émigrés_ who settled at Pictou in 1773, found their children -debarred from education at King’s College, they established in 1819 a -new College. Education at Pictou Academy, as it has always been called, -was open to students of all creeds, races, and color, as it is to this -day. From that Academy went forth men and women who held up to the -people of their own country and the rest of Canada the two ideals of the -supreme worth of the individual human spirit and of sound elementary -education as the basis of constructive good citizenship. From Pictou -Academy went forth men and women who became leaders in thought and -practical endeavor in Canada—superior teachers and presidents of -Colleges, eloquent preachers, distinguished scientists, men of practical -vision and achievement in the professions, in government and -statesmanship, and in industry and commerce. Their influence, however, -was intellectual and practical. Save in the field of journalism, they -had no influence on literature and literary creation in Canada. - -In Lower Canada and in the district that became Upper Canada, or -Ontario, the earlier Loyalist Migrations brought with them a lower level -of culture than that which was brought into the Maritime Provinces by -the Loyalists who had migrated to Nova Scotia, which at the time -included the territory that in 1784 became the Province of New -Brunswick. This is not a matter of opinion or prejudice; it is a matter -of fact. For the Loyalists who migrated to Nova Scotia were from the -most cultured families in the Old Colonies, and even the men of the -Loyalist Regiments were of a superior order of character and mind. So -that the Loyalists who settled in Nova Scotia formed, as Dr. Baker -phrases it, ‘an educated class seldom found in a pioneer community—a -homogeneous community unique in origin, with a local pride not found in -other sections.’ - -The so-called Overland Loyalists, on the other hand, who moved into the -Niagara Peninsula and into Quebec were on the whole of humbler social -status—agricultural workers, artisans, and a considerable number of -irresponsible adventurers, who joined the Migrations in the hope of -obtaining cheap lands and something for nothing. They were led, of -course, by men of parts, but even these men had neither literary culture -nor literary interests. Their interests were material, and they ‘headed’ -a Loyalist motley so as to have the means and labor necessary to occupy -the lands and clear them for their own materialistic ends. And so it -happened that while in Quebec and in the settlements in the district -which was to become Ontario there were literary activities, and even -newspapers and magazines, the Overland Loyalists did not contribute -constructively to the literary spirit and the creative literature of -Canada. - -The first genuine Nativistic Literature of Canada was created in Nova -Scotia—in the Satiric Comedy or Humor of Haliburton, in the Sketches, -Essays, Legislative Reviews, Speeches and Public Letters and the Poetry -of Joseph Howe, and in the Poetry of Oliver Goldsmith, 2nd, a -great-nephew of the author of _The Deserted Village_. Still, this -pre-eminence given to Nova Scotia is, in a way, based on a half-truth. -It is true that, to put it colloquially, Nova Scotia had her creative -literary ‘innings’ early in the game. It lasted from the publication of -Joseph Howe’s _Western Rambles_, in 1828, or from the publication of -Haliburton’s _Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia_, in -1829, to Haliburton’s last volume, _The Season Ticket_, published -anonymously in 1859—that is, a period of thirty years. - -Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were again to have an ‘innings’ when -Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Marshall Saunders, of the -Systematic School of native poets and prose writers, began publishing in -the late ‘eighties’ of the 19th century. The Maritime Provinces, as a -whole, by the addition of Lucy M. Montgomery to the native prose writers -and William E. Marshall and Robert Norwood to the native poets, had a -still further short ‘innings.’ But, it must be recalled, -contemporaneously with Haliburton and Howe in Nova Scotia, certain -writers in Ontario and Quebec, namely, first, John Richardson, Rosanna -Mullins, and William Kirby, produced historical romances, or a -‘nativistic’ literature in prose, and, later, through the poetry of -Sangster and Mair, Ontario produced Nativistic Literature in verse. -Since the rise of the Systematic School, the centre of literary creation -in Canada has shifted from Nova Scotia to Ontario and Western Canada. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - - Incidental Pioneer Literature - - THE INCIDENTAL PRE-CONFEDERATION LITERATURE OF CANADA—ALEXANDER - HENRY’S TRAVELS—MRS. BROOKE’S NOVELS—MRS. JAMESON’S - NATURE-STUDIES—THE ÉMIGRÉ PRE-CONFEDERATION LITERATURE OF CANADA - —MRS. SUSANNA MOODIE—ADAM KIDD—JOHN READE—GEORGE MURRAY— - ALEXANDER M^{c}LACHLAN—WILLIAM WYE SMITH—ISABELLA V. CRAWFORD. - -Broadly taken, the Incidental Pioneer Literature of Canada was produced -by the wits and _bon vivants_ amongst the officers of the British army -and navy during or after the taking of Louisburg and Quebec, and by -certain ‘birds of passage,’ British-born men and women, who were -sojourning in the Canadas. It was considerable in quantity, embracing -verse, narratives, social and nature studies and sketches, and even -fiction. But it did not affect the life and ideals of the people. It was -simply literature produced in the Canadas—incidentally. - -From Louisburg to Quebec and Montreal the poets in the British navy and -army exhibited a special preoccupation with a species of war poetry. In -1759, for instance, when the British frigate’s guns were breaching the -walls of the French stronghold, Louisburg, Valentine Neville penned his -poem _The Reduction of Louisburgh_. In 1760, George Cockings produced -another war poem for the delight of London—_The Conquest of Canada_, or -_The Siege of Quebec: A Tragedy_. In this species of literature, the -most remarkable performance was Henry Murphy’s _The Conquest of Quebec: -An Epic Poem in Eight Books_. It was published at Dublin in 1790 and -runs to the amazing length of eight thousand lines. Quantity, not -literary quality, was the only distinguishing mark of these early -Canadian poems of heroism in war. - -A really remarkable book, with genuine literary quality was the elder -Alexander Henry’s narrative of his experience as a traveller and -explorer, published in 1809 under the title _Travels and Adventures in -Canada and the Indian Territories_. In point of publication it was -anticipated by narratives dating as early as 1736, when John Gyles wrote -his memoirs of _Odd Adventures_, an account of his experience while -exploring the region through which runs the St. John River. There were -many volumes of narratives, but the most of them lacked literary style -and are of interest chiefly to the antiquarian. - -Two women, however, deserve special notice as contributors to the -Incidental Literature of Canada. These were Mrs. Frances Brooke, who was -the wife of a chaplain of the forces at Quebec in the last quarter of -the 18th century; and Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson. While a resident of -the Province of Quebec, Mrs. Brooke wrote what has been called ‘the -first Canadian novel,’ _The History of Emily Montague_. Published in -1769, it ran into several editions. Mrs. Jameson possessed a rare -pictorial sense of beauty in nature; and while visiting the Canadas she -wrote _Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada_. Published in three -volumes at London in 1838, this work remains to this day the finest -example of ‘color writing’ in the whole range of Canadian Literature. - -With the exception of Mrs. Brooke and Mrs. Jameson, the writers of the -Incidental Pioneer Literature of Canada merely took a passing view of -what had interested them and put it into literary form decent enough for -publication. It was the substance of what they wrote, not the style or -literary art in their books, that interested their public in the -Canadas, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The only faculty -these books satisfied or delighted was the faculty of curiosity; and the -only delights they really gave readers were vicarious thrills of -adventure and wonder. - -The Incidental Literature of Canada, therefore, must be merely noted as -fact. In nowise, whether it be literature or not, had it any real -influence in developing a Canadian sentiment or in awakening a Canadian -literary spirit. Mrs. Brooke wrote her novel, _The History of Emily -Montague_, strictly in imitation of the first English novelist, Samuel -Richardson. But Canadian fiction, in any real sense, did not begin with -Mrs. Brooke. It began with a native-born Canadian, John Richardson, who -wrote historical romance, notably _Wacousta_, after the manner of, -though not in imitation of, Fenimore Cooper. - -By the Emigré Literature of Canada we mean in general the poetry and -prose written in Canada by permanent residents who were not born in any -of the British North American Provinces. It is a moot question whether -the literary historian should class the poetry of Isabella Valancy -Crawford and of William Henry Drummond under the category of Emigré -Canadian Literature. They were born outside of Canada; but they came to -Canada at an age when their minds were young and unformed and readily -susceptible to Canadian influences, naturalistic, social, and spiritual. -Poets like Heavysege and John Reade came to Canada when their minds were -mature and their attitudes to life were fixed. It is certain that -Valancy Crawford and W. H. Drummond did write from the Canadian point of -view and did influence Canadian literature, as well as contribute, -somewhat uniquely, to its quantity and quality. It is equally certain -that several of the maturely minded _émigré_ writers influenced, by -their presence and example, the development of Canadian Literature. - -From the point of view of influence, both of production and example, we -include in the one category of Emigré Literature the poetry and prose of -the permanent residents who came to Canada when mature in mind and of -those who came in childhood. With the exception of the poetry of Miss -Crawford and W. H. Drummond the Emigré Literature of Canada is -derivative in form and substance. In Miss Crawford’s case we discover a -considerable element of Canadian theme and a form of her own. In the -case of Drummond we come upon what Louis Fréchette has called a -‘Pathfinder’—a poet with a new substance and a new form absolutely and -uniquely indigenous to Canada. - -Though Confederation in 1867 sounded the death knell of the Emigré -Literature of Canada, actual production of it continued for a decade or -two past Confederation. It may be said to have lasted for about a -hundred years; or from the Fall of Montreal in 1760 till the publication -of Charles G. D. Roberts’ _In Divers Tones_ (1887) twenty years after -Confederation. - -In the first form, it was strictly pioneer literature, and naturally had -the crudity of thought and structure which belong to literature composed -under unsettled conditions. Gradually it came to have better aesthetic -substance and artistic form. This growth in it from crudity to decent -literary form evolved according to the social and spiritual development -of Canada in the Pioneer and the later Pre-Confederation periods. As -existence in Canada became more and more settled, and education and -culture became more and more distributed and appreciated, the literature -produced in the country was written more and more to appeal to the -aesthetic sensibilities and the artistic conscience. The reason for this -is that when an _émigré_ writer, such as Mrs. Susanna Moodie, undertook -to write social and nature sketches, the substance counted for -everything, and the form and movement were free, unhampered by -traditional laws of expression. It was speech transcribed on paper. But -the _émigré_ poets were bound by English models according to which they -must write, or not write at all. In _émigré_ verse, therefore, rather -than in _émigré_ prose, we observe evidences of an evolution in -substance and artistic structure. - -John Fleming came to Montreal early in the 19th century. Suddenly his -imagination grew poetic wings, and forthwith he produced _An Ode of the -Birthday of King George III_. He made his poem as intellectualized and -stilted with imitative poetic phrases as he possibly could. There was -nothing Canadian about it. In 1830 Adam Kidd, who came to Canada from -Ireland, produced a volume of poetry, _The Huron Chief and Other Poems_, -which is definitively Canadian in theme and is remarkable for really -engaging descriptions of Canadian scenery. It is in a traditional -English form, but from the point of view of its substance it may be -regarded as the first example of a genuinely Canadian poem by an -_émigré_ writer, as distinguished from a ‘nativistic’ writer, as, for -instance, Oliver Goldsmith, 2nd, who was born in Nova Scotia and -published _The Rising Village_ in 1825. - -The names and work of the _émigré_ versifiers might be extended so as to -include several significant poets, such as Charles D. Shanly, James -McCarroll, Alexander McLachlan, William Wye Smith, Thomas D’Arcy McGee -and others down to John Reade, who published _The Prophecy of Merlin and -Other Poems_ in 1870. In their verse we note a constantly increasing -regard for aesthetic substance and artistic craftsmanship. The name and -work, however, of one _émigré_ poet deserves special notice, more -particularly because he is constantly being classified as a Canadian -poetic dramatist. This was Charles Heavysege. - -Heavysege was thirty-seven years of age when he arrived in Canada. The -accident of his having remained in Canada and of having published at -Montreal his _Saul_, which, as a matter of fact, had been conceived in -England, does not give him as much right, if any at all, to be -considered a Canadian _émigré_ poet as attaches to Kidd or Mrs. Moodie. - -_Saul_ was published in 1857. As a poetic drama there is no other poem -which was written in Canada that is so much in the grand manner. Its -theme is Biblical, and it is really treated with epic grandeur and -romantic intensity. But with all its excellences, it had no influence, -by way of example, on subsequent Canadian poetic dramatists, such as -Charles Mair, Wilfred Campbell, or Robert Norwood. The first Canadian -poetic dramatist, native-born, was Charles Mair. Though the theme of his -_Tecumseh_ is not so sublimated as Heavysege’s _Saul_, it is Canadian; -and though its style is not so altiloquent as that of _Saul_, Mair’s -_Tecumseh_ is an original and notable contribution to the ‘nativistic’ -literature of Canada. - -It was really, however, the later _émigré_ men of letters, particularly -John Reade and George Murray, who by their own work in verse and in -literary criticism held up the ideal of native production of worthy -poetry in Canada. They were active in the first and second decade after -Confederation. They did much to awaken the literary spirit in Canada and -to correct the literary or artistic conscience of native-born writers. -But when they had done this, their work for Canadian Literature was at -an end. - -Archibald McLachlan came to Canada in his twenties and he followed, in -much of his writing, the themes, the dialect, and even the stanza-forms -of Robert Burns. Both poets were intensely patriotic, both sang the -gospel of the brotherhood of man. To both life was very much a mystery, -a mystery tinged with pathos. The work of McLachlan which may be -regarded as purely Canadian in tone and subject is found chiefly in the -depiction of scenes of pioneer life, treated objectively: _The Fire in -the Woods_, _The Old Hoss_, _The Backwood’s Philosopher_; and in _The -Emigrant_ he projected a pioneer epic, which opens with an apostrophe to -Canada and traces the progress of the emigrant from the old land to his -arrival and settlement in the new. The cutting of the first tree, the -building of the log-cabin and the Indian battle are successive incidents -of the poem. The style of the poem is rather formal, and recalls Scott’s -_Lady of the Lake_, but is without so much life or color. The poet loved -the spirit of freedom and independence which he found in the new land -and voiced this love in some stirring patriotic lyrics, such as _Hurrah -for the New Dominion_. - -Although William Wye Smith left Scotland in his infancy and was for -almost four score years a Canadian by adoption, almost all his writings -show the influence of the language, the literature, the history, the -religious and philosophic spirit of his homeland. A deep spiritual note -is present in many of his lyrics. Yet he did on occasion enter fully -into the Canadian spirit and show an appreciative understanding of -Canadian conditions, the beauties of Canadian landscape, historic themes -and national aspirations. Some of his best known poems are: _The Second -Concession of Deer_, _The Sheep-washing_, _Ridgeway_, _The Burial of -Brock_, _Here’s to the Land!_, _Canadians on the Nile_. - -There was one _émigré_ poet who deserves detailed appreciation as a -creative interpreter of Western _chevalerie_ and as a lyrist with an -exquisite fancy and delicate artistry. This was Isabella Valancy -Crawford. Born in Ireland in 1850, she came to Canada when but a child -of eight years, her family settling in Ontario, and, later, moving to -the Kawartha Lakes. Her father was a physician and it must be presumed -that the daughter came under cultural influences in her home. More -important is the fact she lived in Canadian districts which must have -peculiarly affected her young, impressionable, and receptive mind. -Undeniably she was born a poet; that is to say, she was born with a -genius for seeing spiritual beauty and meaning in all common things, -natural and human. Thus gifted and thus left free to be impressed by -Canadian Nature and life around her, and also by Nature and life in the -Western prairie regions, of which she had read, Valancy Crawford set -about imaginatively to interpret and express in verse her appreciation -of Nature and life in Canada. - -Whether it was her sheer genius that created her sympathy with pioneer -and cowboy life in Western Canada, or whether it was her imaginative -sympathy with that life that fired her poetic faculty, is a question in -literary psychology that does not here require discussion. The -outstanding fact is that Miss Crawford’s most notable faculty was a -profound sympathy with and a clear vision of the elemental dignity of -the heart of men and women whose lot was cast in rude and -unspiritualizing circumstances. It was out of this sympathy that she was -able to handle her themes of Western _chevalerie_ with a subtle, -veracious, and genuinely human but not coarse humor. Miss Crawford saw, -as no one in Canada before her or since has seen, the poetry and the -poetic or religious significance of life and _chevalerie_ in the early -days in Western Canada. She took the rude material and sublimated it, -not with rhetoric, but rather with verisimilitude of diction and phrase -and imagery, to the dignity and beauty of authentic poetry. - -We may summarize the qualities of her poetry of Western _chevalerie_, as -in her _Old Spookses’ Pass_, under four distinctions. It is noted for -dramatic (not melodramatic) force, rugged but characteristic humor, -graphic character-drawing, and power of conveying to us the sense of the -war of the elements which is felt by the wild creatures, such as cattle -herds, who become the ‘playthings’ of those elements. The extraordinary -fact is that, though all these qualities were, on her part, sheer -imaginative invention, yet they are truer to the facts than if they had -been written by an actual eye-witness. In short, Miss Crawford, as a -poet of Western _chevalerie_, stands out as gifted with sheer and -intense imaginative power and as an authentic imaginative creator. - -Nevertheless, her art is all authentic realism, totally free from crass -and hectic melodrama. Moreover, Miss Crawford achieved, not solely -because she had imagination and a true sense of realistic values, but -also because she saw that _style_ in poetry was the only antiseptic for -picaresque realism and hectic melodrama. She had genius, not merely a -tale to tell. - -Certainly Lowell, Bret Harte, John Hay, and others of their school, -writing in dialect, did no better work than did Miss Crawford in _Old -Spookses’ Pass_; and most certainly Robert Service did nothing so -elementally human and so spiritualizing with his material from rude or -picaresque life in Canada. - -We shall not wait to detail the qualities of Miss Crawford’s art in -other species of verse. We observe, however, that her long poem -_Malcolm’s Katie_ is specially remarkable for fine imagery, colorful -descriptive passages, and for a glowing impressionism which is taken -directly from Canadian Nature. Moreover, it is notable for its lyrical -interludes, which as lyrics, are as dainty and as delicately -constructed, as full of fancy and imagination in small form, as any one -of the kind in English literature. Miss Crawford’s lyrical interlude, -beginning ‘O, Love builds on the azure sea,’ is beyond criticism, and is -‘the gem’ of several Canadian anthologies. We quote the whole lyric:— - - O, Love builds on the azure sea, - And Love builds on the golden sand; - And Love builds on the rose-winged cloud, - And sometimes Love builds on the land! - - O, if Love build on sparkling sea, - And if Love build on golden strand, - And if Love build on rosy cloud, - To Love these are the solid land! - - O, Love will build his lily walls, - And Love his pearly roof will rear - On cloud, or land, or mist, or sea— - Love’s solid land is everywhere! - -As an outstanding example of Miss Crawford’s genius and art in lyrical -impressionism, Canadian Literature contains nothing more colorful and -musical than her ‘Lily-Song’ from _Malcolm’s Katie_:— - - While, Lady of the silvered lakes— - Chaste goddess of the sweet, still shrine - The jocund river fitful makes - By sudden, deep gloomed brakes— - Close sheltered by close warp and woof of vine, - Spilling a shadow gloomy—rich as wine - Into the silver throne where thou dost sit, - Thy silken leaves all dusky round thee knit! - - Mild Soul of the unsalted wave, - White bosom holding golden fire, - Deep as some ocean-hidden cave - Are fixed the roots of thy desire, - Thro’ limpid currents stealing up. - And rounding to the pearly cup. - Thou dost desire, - With all thy trembling heart of sinless fire, - But to be filled - With dew distilled - From clear, fond skies that in their gloom - Hold, floating high, thy sister moon, - Pale chalice of a sweet perfume, - Whiter-breasted than a dove, - To thee the dew is—love! - -When, in 1884, Isabella Valancy Crawford’s unpretentious little volume -of poems appeared, it won high praise from the critics of the London -_Athenaeum_, _The Spectator_, _The Graphic_, and _The Illustrated London -News_. They all noted that she had an excess of riches in fancy and in -imagination, and a poetic style of her own which was distinguished both -by beauty and exquisite artistry. In 1905 her poems were collected and -edited by John W. Garvin, B.A., and published with a critical -Introduction by Miss Ethelwyn Wetherald. This remains the definitive -edition of the poetry of Isabella Valancy Crawford, whom Miss Wetherald -describes as ‘a brilliant and fadeless figure in the annals of Canadian -literary history.’ - -The Canadian Emigré writers in the Pre-Confederation period, are, then, -to be appreciated by the literary historian as men and women who, first, -drew attention to the fact that Canadian life and culture needed -expression and, next, awoke in native-born sons and daughters of the -Dominion the ambition to undertake this expression in verse and prose. -We must, therefore, honor the earlier and later _émigré_ poets and prose -writers of Canada, not for the intrinsic merit of their work, but for -the fact that they engendered in the native-born the ideal of expressing -the consciousness of a Canadian homeland and spirit in literature which -should possess originality in substance, and beauty in form and in -technical artistry. - - * * * * * - -The quotations from Isabella Valancy Crawford’s work in this chapter are -from _The Collected Poems of Isabella Valancy Crawford_, edited by John -W. Garvin, B.A., (Ryerson Press: Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER III - - - Joseph Howe - - THE NATIVISTIC LITERATURE OF CANADA—JOSEPH HOWE AS FOUNDER OF THE - INDEPENDENT PROSE, CREATIVE JOURNALISM, POLITICAL LITERATURE, - LITERARY AND FORENSIC ORATORY—AS PATRIOTIC, DESCRIPTIVE, AND - HUMOROUS POET—AND AS THE DISCOVERER AND SPONSOR OF THOMAS - CHANDLER HALIBURTON. - -The epithet nativistic as applied to Canadian Literature marks a -two-fold contrast. On one side, it distinguishes the literature written -by natives of any of the Maritime Provinces and the Canadas (Ontario and -Quebec) from the earlier Incidental or Émigré Literature. On the other -side, it distinguishes the literature written by native-born men and -women _before_ Confederation from the Native and National Literature -written by native-born poets and prosemen _after_ Confederation. -Nativistic Literature is ‘native’ only in the sense of being the -indigenous product of the Unconfederated Provinces; but it is neither -‘native’ nor ‘national’ in the sense of being the product of the -Confederated Provinces which form the Dominion of Canada. But since this -Nativistic Literature was written by native-born sons and daughters of -the Provinces in a period when these Provinces were, so to put it, ‘on -the way’ to political union, and since it has permanent significance, it -is classified retroactively as part of the genuine literature of Canada. -Thus Richardson’s romances (written and set in Ontario), Haliburton’s -satiric comedy (written and set in Nova Scotia), Sangster’s and Mair’s -poetry (written and set in Ontario) belong to the Nativistic Literature -of Canada. But the poetry of Roberts, Lampman, Carman, Campbell, D. C. -Scott, Sir Gilbert Parker, and Pauline Johnson, and the prose fiction of -Miss Marshall Saunders, Roberts, Parker, and Scott, as well as the verse -and prose of later native-born writers, belong to the Native and -National Literature of Canada. Yet both the Nativistic and the Native -and National Literature are equally _Canadian_, inasmuch as each -expresses with beauty or truth the spirit and life of the people and the -physiognomy and moods of Nature in her seasons in Canada. - -The most significant writer, at least by versatility of genius and -variety of achievement, in the history of the Nativistic Literature of -Canada, was Joseph Howe, born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1804. Solely -as a man of letters, Howe must be regarded as having been, from the -point of view of Nova Scotia and of Canada, a man of superior creative -genius. He, along with Haliburton, inaugurated the Epoch of the -Independent Prose Literature of Canada. He laid the foundations of -Canadian Creative Journalism and Canadian Political Literature. He was -the ‘father’ of Canadian Literary and Forensic Oratory. He gave fresh -life and novel humorous quality to the Familiar Sketch or Light Essay, -after the manner but not in imitation of Addison and Goldsmith. He was -the first writer in British North America to attempt the Short Story of -Mystery, and with engaging success. He was a Poet of greater authentic -genius than many other Canadian poets who have a wider reputation. For -he wrote poetry of Nature and the Commonplace with the beauty and -distinction of Goldsmith and Burns. He infused into the Patriotic Song a -new music and what may be regarded as the first expression of the -National spirit in verse of that species. He gave to the Convivial Song -a fresh Western ‘tang’ of breeziness and genial humanity. He -revitalized, with novel originality and piquancy, the Poetry of Humor, -so originally indeed as to make his humorous poetry almost a species by -itself. Finally, he discovered the genius of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, -trained him, sponsored him, and introduced him to the world as the first -systematic humorist of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. - -In 1704, or just one hundred years before the birth of Joseph Howe, the -Boston _News-Letter_, the first New England newspaper, was established. -On March 17th, 1776, or seventy-two years after the founding of the -_News-Letter_, the press of that journal departed from Boston for -Halifax, _via_ Newport, R.I., in the care of John Howe, father of Joseph -Howe; and was set up in the office of the Halifax _Gazette_, founded in -1752, the first newspaper published in any of the Provinces which later -became the Dominion of Canada. The _News-Letter_ was amalgamated with -_The Gazette_. The latter, however, was not a genuine newspaper; it was -a governmental organ which published chiefly military and official -intelligence. The _News-Letter_ was, in our sense of the word, a genuine -newspaper. On the face of the fact, the amalgamation of the New England -and the Nova Scotia newspapers appears as a simple, unmeaningful -_business_ matter. Really, however, it was an important factor in the -evolution of Canadian literature. - -John Howe was a printer, and a cultured Loyalist. He brought to Nova -Scotia two ideals. These were, first, the ideal of the free and -democratic expression of the spirit in word and deed; and, secondly, the -ideal of the expression of thought in strictly literary form. When, -therefore, the Boston _News-Letter_ was amalgamated with the Halifax -_Gazette_, Loyalist culture and journalistic ideals and practice -infected and enhanced Nova Scotian (that is, Canadian) journalism. The -amalgamation changed the scope and quality of Canadian journalism. For -in 1828 Joseph Howe became sole owner and editor of _The Novascotian_, -and proceeded systematically, and with better effect, to put into -practice the social, journalistic, and literary ideals of his father. - -When Joseph Howe assumed absolute control of _The Novascotian_, in the -same year (1828) he also brought together the band of Nova Scotia -writers known as ‘The Club.’ In the twenty years from 1828, when Howe -became active in creative journalism, to 1847, when the struggle for -Responsible Government in Nova Scotia ended and Howe retired from _The -Novascotian_, Howe raised journalism to the dignity of literature. He -achieved this in two ways: first, by publishing in _The Novascotian_ his -own and Haliburton’s original ‘Club’ prose sketches, Haliburton’s first -series of _The Clockmaker_, and the prose and verse of other -contemporary Nova Scotia writers; and, secondly, by establishing, in his -own narrative and descriptive sketches, essays, legislative reviews, -reported legislative speeches, pamphlets, and public letters, a _new -standard of literary prose_. Those twenty years—1828 to 1848—may be -called the Epoch of the Independent Prose Literature of Canada. - -The epithet, ‘independent,’ as applied to the literature of that period -in Nova Scotia means that Howe, along with Haliburton, set up standards -of prose which in substance and style broke away from English traditions -and models. Howe’s and Haliburton’s writings were not only an indigenous -product of Nova Scotia, a _native_ literature, but also a _new_ -literature, absolutely independent of other literatures—in matter, -form, and style. Moreover, _The Novascotian_, in which were published -the skits, sketches, essays, and letters of ‘The Club,’ the sketches and -essays of Howe, the first of the _Sam Slick_ humorous sketches, and, -later, the texts of Howe’s literary and forensic orations and public -letters, circulated not only in the Maritime Provinces and the Canadas -but also in the United States and Great Britain. _The Novascotian_ thus -introduced Howe and Haliburton, as creative prose writers, to the -literary world. We may, therefore, mark the twenty years from 1828 to -1848 as the Epoch of the First Nativistic Literature of Canada. - -Howe’s own creative literary work by itself deserves particular notice, -inasmuch as it was a distinct contribution to the genuine Nativistic -Literature of Canada. In 1828 Howe himself began a series of narrative -and descriptive writings, intimate, gossipy ‘genre’ and ‘color’ -sketches, which he published in _The Novascotian_ and which he named -_Western Rambles_. In 1830 he followed these with a similar series which -he named _Eastern Rambles_. In 1838 and in 1839, while he and Haliburton -were in Europe, Howe published in _The Novascotian_ two series of -essay-like sketches, _The Nova Scotian Afloat_ and _The Nova Scotian in -England_, in which it appeared that Howe was developing for himself a -new literary style. For though these sketches are somewhat in the manner -of Goldsmith they have a merely outward essay-like formality, but are -distinguished by an originality of their own, an inward spirit of fresh -humor and a humanity, almost urbanity, which are wholly Howe’s own -creation. - -In another department Howe added creatively to the prose literature of -Canada. He laid the foundations of a political literature, which was not -journalism, but authentic literature. He did this, first, by his -inimitable so-called _Legislative Reviews_, when, in 1830, he began what -is admitted by all critics to be in literary form and style a brilliant -series of discussions of public affairs. Again: Howe enhanced the -political literature of Canada by his pamphlets, public letters and his -speeches and addresses, which were all published in the press. - -It is not, however, by his legislative reviews, pamphlets, essays, -sketches and public letters that Howe must be given a unique status in -Canadian creative prose literature. He wins his unique status by virtue -of his Speeches and Orations. They are really ‘great’—noble in thought, -beautiful in literary style and finish, extraordinarily fine examples of -a Western reincarnation of the rhetorical and literary gifts of such -consummate parliamentarians and statesmen as Edmund Burke, John Bright, -and William Ewart Gladstone. - -Finally: Howe contributed to the Nativistic creative literature of -Canada considerable journalistic verse which, in virtue of its humanity, -and sincerity, its imaginative beauties, pleasing conceits and -sentiments, and flowing rhythms (though it lacks somewhat in original -verbal music) is quite on the plane of the journalistic verse of the -18th century neo-classical school, especially the verse of Goldsmith, -upon which most of the verse of Howe was modelled. Howe wrote -inspiriting Imperial verse, as, for instance, his _Flag of Old England_, -a really fine example of patriotic poetry. He wrote colorful and musical -descriptive verse, as, for instance, his long unfinished poem _Acadia_ -(in the 18th century rhymed couplet). He wrote infectious humorous -poetry, as, for instance, _The Blue Nose_, _To Mary_, _A Toast_ (to -Haliburton), which is as near poetry as that species of verse ever -reaches. - -If Johnson and Goldsmith raised journalistic verse to the plane of -poetry, so did Joseph Howe. Or, concretely, if Goldsmith’s _Deserted -Village_ is authentic poetry, so is Howe’s _Acadia_. Consider this -excerpt from Howe’s _Acadia_:— - - Pearl of the West!—since first my soul awoke - And on my eyes thy sylvan beauties broke, - Since the warm current of my youthful blood - Flowed on, thy charms, of mountain, mead, and flood - Have been to me most dear. Each winning grace - E’en in my childish hours I loved to trace, - And, as in boyhood, o’er thy hills I strode, - Or on thy foaming billows proudly rode, - At ev’ry varied scene my heart would thrill, - For, storm or sunshine, ’twas my Country still, - And now, in riper years, as I behold - Each passing hour some fairer charm unfold, - In ev’ry thought, in ev’ry wish I own, - In ev’ry prayer I breathe to Heaven’s high throne, - My Country’s welfare blends—and could my hand - Bestow one floweret on my native land, - Could I but light one Beacon fire, to guide - The steps of those who yet may be her pride, - Could I but wake one never dying strain - Which Patriot hearts might echo back again, - I’d ask no meed—no wreath of glory crave— - If her approving smile my own Acadia gave! - -Are those lines any less true, human, sincere, winning poetry than the -opening apostrophe of Goldsmith’s _Deserted Village_?— - - Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain; - Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain, - Where smiling Spring its earliest visit paid, - And parting Summer’s lingering blooms delayed: - Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease, - Seats of my youth, when every sport could please, - How often have I loitered o’er thy green, - Where humble happiness endeared each scene! - How often have I paused on every charm. . . . - -and so on. ‘Pearl of the West!’—in just as short, apt, and felicitous -poetic phrase as Goldsmith’s apostrophe ‘Sweet Auburn!’ Howe signalizes -Nova Scotia, her natural beauty and magic, her ‘homeland’ thrall over -the heart and imagination of her native sons, a thrall of mountain, -mead, and wood, and flood, of kinship with nature and of pride in her -resources on land and sea. His _Acadia_ is all authentic poetry. - -As a lyrist of the beauty and pathos of the Commonplace, after the -manner of Burns, Howe ranks well, as in his lyrics of this species, _To -The Linnet_, _The Deserted Nest_, and _To the Mayflower_ (trailing -arbutus). It is, however, as a Poet of Humor that Howe must be regarded -as somewhat unique in the literary history of Canada. For in his -humorous verse Howe does not indulge in the ludicrous or in sheer -absurdity, as did George T. Lanigan. Rather Howe employs an -unconventional method of dignifying the human spirit, as in his playful -manner of signalizing the heart qualities of the Nova Scotian in his -poem _The Blue Nose_ and in _A Toast_ (to Haliburton). Seldom did Howe -use satire in humorous verse. But whenever he did so, he employed the -manner of Burns, and in the form of epigram, as in _To Ann_ and in this -smart epigram, _To a Lady (whose Eyes were Remarkably Small)_:— - - Your little eyes, with which, fair maid, - Strict watch on me you’re keeping, - Were never made to _look_; I’m ’fraid - They’re only fit for _peeping_. - -Joseph Howe was a ‘poet frustrate.’ Had he been able to devote himself -wholly to verse, there is no doubt that he would have left a -considerable body of authentic poetry. The bad in his verse is like the -bad in the verse of his superiors, but the best of Howe’s verse is -genuine poetry. Yet however high or low individual critics may estimate -the aesthetic and artistic qualities of his verse, Joseph Howe has a -right to a place in the history of Canadian poetry, and to a distinctive -place in the history of Canadian humorous poetry. - -As the inaugurator of the Epoch of the Independent Nativistic Prose -Literature of Canada, as an authentic creator of Literary Journalism and -Literary and Forensic Oratory, and as a significant, though frustrate -Poet, Joseph Howe was, as Samuel Johnson said of Goldsmith,—‘a very -great man.’ - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - - Thomas Chandler Haliburton - - THE NATIVISTIC LITERATURE OF CANADA—THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON— - FIRST SYSTEMATIC HUMORIST OF THE ANGLO-SAXON PEOPLES—CREATOR OF A - NEW TYPE OF SATIRIC HUMOR AND COMIC CHARACTERIZATION. - -It is the chief glory of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, born at Windsor, -Nova Scotia, in 1796, that he was _the first systematic humorist and -satirist of the Anglo-Saxon peoples_. This distinction will appear as -almost obvious once its meaning and scope are properly understood. From -the founding of the American Colonies till the American Declaration of -Independence there were no Anglo-Saxon _peoples_. Up to -pre-revolutionary times the colonists in the Maritime Provinces, in -Canada, and in the Atlantic Colonies thought of themselves as British -people merely separated from the people in the Old Country by the main -of the Atlantic. It was a separation only in geographical distribution. -The British ‘family spirit’ was still intact, and the Old Country was -still ‘over home.’ It might be thought that there were two British -peoples on the American continent after the Fall of Montreal (1760). As -a matter of fact, the British people in the Maritime Provinces and -Canada had been, as it were, always ‘under the wing’ of the New England -Colonies, at least in the sense of a military and naval protectorate. So -that after the Fall of Montreal to the Declaration of Independence the -whole of the vast areas occupied by the British in the New World was -definitively British America. - -With the American Declaration of Independence and the revolution, there -resulted in sentiment and aim a political separation between the British -people of one section in America and the people of the Old Country. For -the first time the British ‘family spirit’ was disintegrated. In 1786, -with the granting of the independence of the Atlantic Old Colonies, a -real political separation of the British in North America was -permanently established. There was effected a separate United States and -a separate British North America (Maritime Provinces and Canada). Thus -there were, politically viewed, two Anglo-Saxon peoples in America, and -one in the United Kingdom. For the first time in history the phrase ‘the -Anglo-Saxon _peoples_’ denoted a real distinction in political and -social entities. The process of time, of course, only increased the -sense of separation of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. - -Unless we think of this 18th century division of the Anglo-Saxons into -three separate peoples, politically as well as sentimentally, we shall -regard Jonathan Swift as the first systematic satiric humorist of the -Anglo-Saxon peoples. This is impossible, however, for the reason that -Swift’s satires—_The Tale of a Tub_ and _The Battle of The Books_ -(1704) and _Gulliver’s Travels_ (1726)—were not only written prior to -the revolution in America but also were addressed solely or specifically -to the English people of the United Kingdom. Further, Swift was not a -consciously systematic satirist. He simply wrote, as occasion demanded, -satiric _pièces-a-thèse_. For the same reasons Laurence Sterne cannot be -regarded as the first systematic humorist of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. -Sterne’s _Tristram Shandy_ (1759-67) and _A Sentimental Journey_ (1768) -were published before there was a United States Republic and a British -North America as separate political entities. When Charles Dickens -published his _Pickwick Papers_ (1836-37), the Anglo-Saxon _peoples_ as -such—in the United States, in British North America, and in the United -Kingdom—had been a political fact for more than fifty years. Yet -Dickens cannot be regarded as the first systematic satiric humorist of -the Anglo-Saxon peoples. He definitively addressed the English people in -England. He was a benevolent humorist, aiming by comic characterization -to create sympathy with our common humanity. He also aimed to bring -about certain social reforms, but his method was that of the kindly -humorist. The satirist aims to cause pain as a remedial measure. But, -above all, Haliburton had anticipated Dickens both in time and in -method. For _The Clockmaker_, with Sam Slick as the central comic -character, was published serially in _The Novascotian_ in 1835, or a -year before the publication of the first of _The Pickwick Papers_, and -was in method a combination of humor and satire, with a distinct -political and social thesis, namely, to promote a _zollverein_ of the -Anglo-Saxon peoples. Dickens aimed mostly to entertain his own people. -Haliburton aimed to change the vision of the Anglo-Saxon peoples in the -United States, British North America, and the United Kingdom, and thus, -if possible, to effect a world-wide Anglo-Saxon union or unity. In -short, Haliburton’s works in satiric humor were not conceived and -written primarily as literature, but as social and political propaganda. -The humor in them—the ‘soft sawder’—was introduced to relieve the pain -of the satiric truth just as the comic episodes in Shakespeare’s -tragedies relieve the emotional poignancy of the tragic strain. - -To take this point of view about the aim and significance of Haliburton -as a satiric humorist is the first step towards a proper approach to his -humorous writings, and the only way rightly to estimate his importance -in Canadian, American, English, and world literature. It is a simple -matter to trace the origin of his genius and to show his place and -influences on Canadian, American, and English Literature. - -Briefly, Haliburton’s satiric mood or temper was a recrudescence of the -revolutionary Loyalist mood or temper. He also inherited the Loyalist -love of British connection and an antipathy to republican institutions -and civilization, as in the United States. Further, in his time the -realistic revolt against the historical romance in fiction was under -way. Born with an inherited satiric temper, and finding to hand a great -problem, namely, the effecting of the Anglo-Saxon dream of Imperialistic -unity amongst the peoples of British origin, Haliburton decided to be a -satiric realist, and to have his satiric writings reach and move the -hearts of his compatriots in the Maritime Provinces and Canada and of -the people of the United States and in the United Kingdom. But as a -satirist he saw all the facts with a humorous appreciation, and in -presenting the facts of life, the psychology of society, the -idiosyncrasies of peoples, political institutions and culture and -civilization, as he saw them, Haliburton decided to write with realism -and truth but without rancor. - -He was the _protégé_ of Joseph Howe; and when Howe founded ‘The Club,’ a -coterie of Nova Scotia wits, Haliburton contributed his share of the -skits in political and personal satire for which ‘The Club’ was famous. -These skits were derivative in manner. But in 1835 Haliburton invented a -method of his own and definitively set out on his career as a systematic -humorist, presenting his thoughts, ‘as the sunny side of common sense,’ -in a series of sketches entitled _The Clockmaker; or The Sayings and -Doings of Sam Slick of Slickville_. These sketches were published in -Joseph Howe’s newspaper _The Novascotian_ (1835-36). There were -twenty-three of them. These were augmented to thirty-three, and were -published in book form by Joseph Howe, at Halifax, in 1837, and by -Richard Bentley, at London, in the same year. Bentley published a second -Series in 1838, and a third Series in 1840. Reprints appeared in the -United States, and translations in France and Germany. - -His reputation as a satiric humorist having been made by _The -Clockmaker_, Haliburton became a thorough systematic creative humorist, -publishing _The Letter-Bag of the Great Western_ (1840), _The Attaché_; -or _Sam Slick in England_ (1843-44), _The Old Judge_; or _Life in a -Colony_ (1849), _Sam Slick’s Wise Saws and Modern Instances_ (1853), -_Nature and Human Nature_ (1855), and _The Season Ticket_ (1860). -Besides these works in creative satire and humor, Haliburton applied -himself to editing humorous works, and published _Traits of American -Humor by Native Authors_ (1852), and a sequel, _The Americans at Home_ -(1854). All his creative works and his compilations of humor were -published on both sides of the Atlantic and ran into innumerable -editions and pirated reprints, and _The Clockmaker_ and some others were -translated into French and German. So that, on the face of original -production, Haliburton appears as the first and foremost systematic -satiric humorist of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. - -The core of all his works in creative humor is some problem of the -larger politics—British Connection, Imperial Federation, Free Trade, -the Independence of the British North American Colonies, their -Annexation with the United States, Anglo-Saxon Alliance or Union, -Responsible Government in the Maritime Provinces and the Canadas, -Confederation of the Provinces, Voting by Ballot, Universal Suffrage. -For instance, in _The Clockmaker_ (second series) he presented the -desirability of British connection, but in _Nature and Human Nature_ -declared for the independence of the British North American Colonies as -against their annexation with the United States, because he fancied -independence would be better for them and the motherland. In _The -Clockmaker_ (second series) he advocated Imperial Federation in the form -of a union or alliance of the Anglo-Saxon peoples for reciprocal -security and economic development. But in the same work and in _The -Attaché_ he opposed Responsible Government for the Colonies out of a -fear of mobocracy, a fear that had been engendered in his heart by the -Rebellion of 1837. An inherited prejudice against republican -institutions and a dread of mobocracy caused him to oppose Confederation -of the Provinces and Universal Suffrage. In every one of his works of -humor or satire we find some special thesis, but chiefly satiric -arguments for the union or unity of the Anglo-Saxon peoples to which he -bends all his power of humor, satire, ridicule, and epigram. - -Hitherto Haliburton’s originality and greatness have been based on two -claims. He created one of the perduring or unique comic characters of -humorous literature; and he is regarded as the ‘father’ of American -humor. Neither of these distinctions constitutes his real originality -and greatness as a satiric humorist and man of letters. He is really -great on account of his distinct and definable influences on three -literatures. - -Beginning with Canadian Literature, we remark that Haliburton’s -influence in Canada is popularly conceived, not as literary, but as -political. It is true that Haliburton’s themes or theses were highly -social and political. It is also true that, so far as his humor is -concerned, he was unappreciated and even unread in Canada. It is true, -still further, that he has had no successors as a humorist in Canada -(for Stephen Leacock is not a successor, neither being a native son nor -following the method of Haliburton). Nevertheless, Haliburton achieved -two important results for Canadian Literature. Along with Joseph Howe, -Haliburton ushered in the Epoch of the New or Independent Prose -Literature of Canada. Again: he not only produced an original prose -literature but also wrote it with such originality and novelty of matter -and style that Haliburton’s prose, that is, Canadian prose, has a -significant and permanent place in English and World Literature. - -It may sound strange or startling to learn that Haliburton’s work in -satiric humor and comic characterization actually _displaced_ in England -the vogue of such popular American prose writers as Irving and Cooper. -The fact is important, but the reason is more important. Between 1820 -and 1840 Irving, with _The Sketch Book_ and _Bracebridge Hall_, and -Cooper, with _The Spy_, _The Pioneers_, and his _Leatherstocking Tales_, -won popular appreciation in England. By 1840 two Canadian authors, John -Richardson, with his historical romance _Wacousta_, and Thomas Chandler -Haliburton, with _The Clockmaker_ series, also won popular appreciation. -But Haliburton’s work was appreciated for an altogether different reason -from that which caused the vogue of Irving, Cooper, and Richardson. The -English were caught by the _new matter_ in the work of Irving, Cooper -and Richardson, but they felt that it was all in an _old manner_, the -manner respectively of Goldsmith and Sir Walter Scott. They were -reading, they felt, _English_ Literature, done by two Americans and one -Canadian. Save in mere matter and ‘properties’ there was nothing in the -work of Irving, Cooper, and Richardson that might not have been done by -a visiting Englishman who had gone to the United States or to the -Canadas for new material and local color. It was English, not strictly -_original American_, literature. And so it had a mere vogue. - -When, however, the English people read Haliburton’s satiric comedy and -comic characterization, they came, _for the first time_, upon an -absolute or sheer literary novelty—literature that was _not_ English, -_not_ English-American, _not_ English-Canadian, but an original -_American_ species, absolutely new and unique. Here in Haliburton’s work -was literature in the English language, but not English in matter, -manner, or tone. Here were such novel satiric humor, such arresting and -vitalized comic characterization, and such a strange medley of practical -wisdom in moral maxims and epigrams, and all expressed in a unique -lingo, that the like of it never was before in any literature which had -come even from America. - -At once a change took place in the minds of the English people in -England. Hitherto America had looked across to England for fresh -literature, and had based its own literature on English models. But when -Haliburton produced a wholly original American literature, England -looked, for the first time in history, across to America both for fresh -and original literature, and for models which the English writers might -follow. At least in one instance English humoristic literature actually -modelled itself on Haliburton. There is no argument possible in the -matter. For the fact is that Dickens did read _The Clockmaker_, which -appeared serially a year earlier than Dickens’ _Pickwick Papers_, and -that Sam Weller is an English version of Haliburton’s Sam Slick (not -conversely). - -It is a literary phenomenon by itself that Haliburton’s work enjoyed an -‘unprecedented popularity’ in England but also displaced in popularity -the work of Irving, Cooper and Richardson. The popularity of -Haliburton’s work was not a mere vogue. It remains to this day. His Sam -Slick has been admitted to the gallery of the chief comic characters, -not only in English, but also in world, literature—to a place beside -Sterne’s Uncle Toby, Dickens’ Pickwick and Micawber, Cervantes’ Don -Quixote, Daudet’s Tartarin, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. It is also a fact -that Haliburton’s epigrams and moral maxims have become part of the -English colloquial speech and at least English popular literature. - -Most remarkable were the influences of Haliburton and his works on -American Literature. Rightly to appreciate these influences, it is -necessary to understand what Haliburton was not. He was not, as has been -alleged, ‘the father (or founder) of American humor.’ He was not ‘the -creator of the American type in literature.’ He was not ‘the first -American in literature.’ His Sam Slick is not ‘the typical American.’ -These alleged distinctions are half-truths and are based on ambiguities. - -There is considerable truth and point in calling Haliburton ‘the Apostle -of American Humor.’ As to progenitorship, the fact is that Benjamin -Franklin is the ‘father’ of indigenous American humor. In 1765 Franklin -sent to a London newspaper what is the first example of that species of -satiric burlesque, that preposterous or extravagant nonsense, said with -a grave air of veracity, which is accepted as the characteristic matter -and manner of American humor. Franklin was versatile in genius and so -variously occupied in his long career that hardly can he be regarded as -systematic in any calling. Yet he was as systematic as a humorist and -satirist as he was in anything else. He began his literary career as a -humorist when, in 1722, he contributed pseudonymously to _The New -England Courant_ the series of imitative Addisonian skits known as the -‘Silence Dogood Papers.’ Seven years later, he continued his humor in -_The Pennsylvania Gazette_ with the sprightly letters of ‘Busybody,’ -‘Anthony Afterwit,’ ‘Alice Addertongue,’ and ‘Bob Brief,’ and with -satiric burlesques in _A Meditation on a Quart Mug_, _A Witch Trial at -Mount Holly_, and other squibs. Quite systematic was the humor of -Franklin’s Prefaces to _Poor Richard’s Almanack_ (1732-1758) and of some -of the aphoristic wit and wisdom in the Almanacks when the epigrams or -maxims were Franklin’s own invention, as, for instance, ‘Never take a -wife till you have a house (and a fire) to put her in.’ Though most of -the proverbial wisdom in _Poor Richard_ was borrowed, the form and -wit—the ‘Yankee smartness’—of it were Franklin’s creation, and he -became the ‘father’ of all those New World humorists who wrote -aphoristic wit and wisdom, down to Haliburton and from Haliburton down -to Westcott (‘David Harum’). Masterpieces in mordant satire worthy of -Dean Swift are Franklin’s _Of the Meanes of disposing the Enemies of -Peace_ (1760), _An Edict by the King of Prussia_ (1773), _Rules by which -a Great Empire may be Reduced to a Small One_ (1773), _Speech of Sidi -Mehemet Ibrahim_ (an ironical justification for the enslaving of the -Christians by Mohammedan Africans, 1790). Also to be mentioned are -Franklin’s _bagatelles_ (1778-80), written during his stay at Passy, -France, of which the most famous are _The Ephemera_, _The Story of the -Whistle_, _The Morals of Chess_, and _The Dialogue between Franklin and -the Gout_. - -The foregoing enumeration of Franklin’s humorous and satiric writings -show that if collected in one or more volumes they would bulk large and -prove that he was very considerable a systematic humorist. But only the -Letter of 1765 to the London Press and the four masterpieces of irony or -satiric burlesque written in 1760, 1773 and 1790 are in the manner which -is recognized as the characteristic American humor—a commingling of -extravagant nonsense and fact, uttered with such an air of veracity as -to make the passage from fact to nonsense and conversely imperceptible -and the detecting of it, on first reading, impossible. On the side of -aphoristic wit and wisdom, the work of Franklin is indigenous, and, -though in substance frequently derived, is original in form and style. -So that while we must regard Franklin as the real ‘father’ of American -humor, we must also see wherein Haliburton is even more original than -Franklin and had an even more important a constructive influence on -American humor than had Franklin. - -What was meant by Artemus Ward and others who distinguished Haliburton -as ‘the ‘father’ (or ‘founder’) of American humor,’ as the ‘creator of -the American type in literature,’ as ‘the first American in literature,’ -and Haliburton’s Sam Slick as ‘the typical American,’ was a three-fold -distinction which these formulae do not truly express. First, Haliburton -‘naturalized’ in America a method of humor in dialect, so that it became -the method of certain of his successors (Ward, Billings, Westcott, -Dunne) and a method of exaggeration or humorous mendacity and comic -characterization, so that it became the method of certain other -successors (notably Mark Twain). Secondly, Haliburton ‘popularized’ his -method of humor in dialect and his comic characterization, especially -Sam Slick, so that they became accepted in England and Europe as -peculiarly American—the one as the indigenously original American -method of humor, and the other as the typical New Englander, whom the -English cartoonists transmuted in caricature into ‘Uncle Sam,’ that is, -into the embodiment of _some_ typical American characteristics. Thirdly, -though American (United States and British North America or Canadian) -authors, Irving, Cooper, Richardson, who were contemporaries of -Haliburton, had a vogue in England, Haliburton had produced satiric -humor and comic characterization which were not only _un_-English in -method and conception, but also so original as to be absolutely unlike -any other humor and humorous characterization in the world. If any -literature was, in substance and manner, strictly American, it was -Haliburton’s humorous writings. - -In short, the ‘naturalization’ of a method of humor in dialect—in -America, and the ‘popularization’ of the chief phases of what became -accepted throughout the world as American, though really New England, -humor of thought, speech, and character—that is what is really meant by -saying that Haliburton is the ‘father’ of American humor, and is also -his great achievement so far as he constructively influenced American -(United States) Literature. But it is not his greatest distinction from -the point of view of creative originality. - -His prime originality lay neither in his dialect nor in the creation of -his chief character, Sam Slick, but in something which is ultimate and -unique in satiric genius, and which entitles him to a place beside Swift -as a subtle creator of mordant satire. As regards the dialect and the -conversational method of narrative of his chief character Sam Slick, the -variations in morphology and phonetics, and the piquancy and liveliness -of it all convince one that Haliburton independently developed the -dialect or lingo of his humorous characters. But there are facts which -prove that he developed it on a groundwork of a real New England -diction. When we compare, on the one side, the ‘Down East’ dialect of -Seba Smith’s _Letters of Major Downing_ in the Portland _Courier_ -(1833-34), which were imitated by Charles Augustus Davis in the New York -_Daily Advertiser_ (1835), and on the other side, the New England -diction in Lowell’s _Biglow Papers_ (Boston _Courier_ 1846-48; _Atlantic -Monthly_ 1862-67), with the diction which Haliburton puts into the mouth -of Sam Slick, we find that Sam Slick’s dialect is more ‘outlandish’ in -morphological and phonetic corruption than the ‘Down East’ diction in -Smith’s and Davis’ _Letters_, but nearer to the New England dialect in -Lowell’s _Biglow Papers_. Lowell, who was a scholar and linguist, and -whose own appreciation of the New England diction is embodied in the -learned disquisitions of Rev. J. Wilbur on dialectical morphology, -certainly would not burlesque and degrade the speech of his fellow -countrymen. The dialect of Lowell’s _Biglow Papers_ must be accepted as -a real, indigenous New England dialect. Haliburton had read Smith’s -_Letters_, which had circulated throughout the Maritime Provinces, and a -New England of ‘Down East’ dialect was familiar in Nova Scotia. -Haliburton’s diction, then, in faithfulness to the real New England -diction, falls midway between the diction in Lowell’s _Biglow Papers_ -and the first journalistic forms of that diction as represented in the -_Letters_ of Smith and Davis. Haliburton’s is his conception of that -diction and his independent development of it into a novel humorous -dialect. - -As to the originality of Haliburton’s chief character, Sam Slick, the -truth is that the humorist created, on a realistic basis, a transcript -of the ‘composite’ order, the main outline being derived from a real -peddler-clockmaker, named Seth, familiar in Nova Scotia, and from -Haliburton’s own coachman, Lennie Geldert, and a friend Judge Peleg -Wiswell, who were ‘smart’ in wit and who were first-rate _raconteurs_. -Haliburton also had as material the stage peddler who had made his -appearance in dramatic literature as early as 1811, and who by 1830 was -a stock character of the acted drama, having the same comic function as -the stage Irishman of the late Victorian age. Neither Sam Slick himself -nor his conversational dialect were absolute inventions of Haliburton, -but were based on a real and living dialect and character. He employed -his creative faculties in giving the one a humorous piquancy and -liveliness and the other the individuality and reality of a real person; -so that Sam Slick remains as one of the immortal characters of fiction. - -But the slightest reflection reveals the fact that Sam Slick is not a -_single_ person of many characteristics, not a _type_ of character, but -a _composite_ creation, the _epitome_ of so many distinct and -contradictory traits that they could not reside in a single person but -only in persons. Sam Slick, in short, was conceived and drawn to -personify _a people_, and his characteristics are an immanent criticism -or satirizing of the virtues and vices of republican democracy. - -What is Sam Slick? He is a disreputable plebeian creature—slangy, -coarse, conceited, boastful, mendacious, irreverent, yet shrewd, wise, -practical, acute in perception of social and political ideals, -courageous, self-reliant, quick-witted, critical of standards and -values, frank in speech, and direct in action. What does he represent? -Haliburton’s conception of _typical Americanism_. What was he designed -to achieve? Haliburton aimed to present in the character, sayings, and -doings of Sam Slick, the _reductio ad absurdum_ of republican culture, -institutions and civilization in America. - -President Felton, of Harvard University, in 1842, writing in _The North -American Review_, and George William Curtis, writing later in _Harper’s -Magazine_, were only partially right in attacking Haliburton for having -burlesqued and caricatured in _The Clockmaker_, and, particularly in the -character of Sam Slick, American culture and civilization. It was -mis-representation by sectional and class typification; the illogic of a -part for the whole. But they were wrong in their fundamental -presumption, namely, that the English people would accept Sam Slick and -his sayings and doings as typical Americanism. Cultivated English people -no more accepted Sam Slick as the typical American than cultivated -American people accepted the London Cockney, Sam Weller, as the typical -Englishman. What really happened was a two-fold result in literary -appreciation. That such an uncultured and socially inferior creature as -Sam Slick should appear as the social and political critic of -Anglo-Saxon institutions and civilization struck the imagination of the -English people as a most novel and daring creation in satiric comedy, -and Sam Slick himself as the most egregiously comic figure in modern -literature. The second result was that since the English people accepted -Sam Slick and his sayings and doings as a novelty in creative comedy and -the American people took it all as a caricature of their culture and -civilization, Haliburton’s satiric humor enjoyed, as it does to this -day, an ‘unprecedented popularity’ in England but had less popularity in -the United States. Haliburton’s unprecedented popularity in England had -also the effect of causing the English people for the first time to look -across the Atlantic to America for novel literary creation and -entertainment. - -Did Haliburton really mis-represent? Did he really present only -sectional and class culture and civilization in America? Was he -justified in choosing an obscure, socially disreputable creature from a -section of American society to be the critic of American institutions -and civilization? Why did he not choose someone socially higher—an -American gentleman—to represent typical Americanism? The truth is -Haliburton actually did represent all phases of American culture and -civilization. There is the interlocutor in _The Clockmaker_—the Squire, -Rev. Mr. Hopewell, and Mr. Everett, who was a real person, a president -of Harvard and a diplomat, and there are pictures of the finer social -and intellectual life of Nova Scotia and the United States. Felton and -Curtis missed all this. How did they happen to miss it? Because -Haliburton’s lesser characters were just bits of _genre humor_, whereas -Sam Slick was such an outstandingly clear and vivid—unique—creation in -comic characterization that Felton and Curtis saw only Sam Slick and -immediately conceived him as a mis-representation of the whole of -American culture and civilization. That they did so is a tribute to the -genius of Haliburton. For it contains the answer as to what is -Haliburton’s real originality as a creative humorist. The answer is -this: The fact that Haliburton created a composite character, uncultured -and socially inferior, to be the supreme critic of his social and -intellectual betters and of American or republican culture, -institutions, and civilization, is an _absolutely original achievement -in creative satire and comic characterisation_. With a single stroke of -genius Haliburton places himself beside Dean Swift as a satirist, and -raises himself to the status of one of the world’s perduring satirists -and humorists. - -Finally: Haliburton influenced not only American humorous literature but -also American _fine_ literature. We note, first, the constructive -influence of his editorial labors in compiling and distributing in the -United States and other countries the best American humorous fiction, as -in his _Traits of American Humor_, and _The Americans at Home_. Too much -has been said of his influence on Artemus Ward, Josh Billings, and other -American humorists writing in dialect in prose. But his influence on -American humor in dialect in _verse_ has hardly, if at all, been rightly -or fully appreciated. Lowell came under the influence of Haliburton in -writing his humorous verse. In his _Biglow Papers_ Lowell not only -imitated, but also actually borrowed, ludicrous conceits and situations -from _The Clockmaker_ series. This fact is important, because in the -last analysis Haliburton produced his humorous effects more by grotesque -conceits and ludicrous situations than by dialect. - -Haliburton had a potent influence also on American journalism of his -time. The newspapers reprinted ‘Yankee Stories’ and ‘Yankee Yarns’ and -‘Letters,’ which were the titles of pirated editions of Haliburton’s -_The Americans at Home_, and American newspaper staff humorists wrote -imitations and burlesques in the manner of Sam Slick. This in turn -influenced other American humorists, and they produced imitations of Sam -Slick, commercializing them as ‘By the Author of Sam Slick,’ knowing -that thus they guaranteed sure and large sales. - -It may be granted that Haliburton’s influence on American romantic -poetry was only accidental and pragmatic. But the fact is that -Longfellow was actually inspired to versify the ‘story’ of the Acadian -maiden Evangeline, not when he heard a mere incident of it from -Hawthorne, or when he heard it more in detail from his own pastor, who -got it from an aunt of Haliburton, but when he read in Haliburton’s -_Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia_ (1829) the full -pathetic tale of the Expulsion of the Acadians. More important is the -fact that Francis Parkman derived from his reading of Haliburton’s -_Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia_ his own romantic -method of writing history. So that, as far as America is concerned, -Haliburton may be called the ‘father’ of the romantic method of writing -history. - -_Versatility_ of powers or genius and _variety_ of literary creation -distinguish Haliburton as a man of letters. He was a first-rate satirist -or epigrammatist, narrative and descriptive writer, anecdotist or -raconteur, character-delineator, nature-painter, and, in one respect, he -was a prose stylist of first rank. Such versatility is unusual and even -exceptional, and seemingly marks Haliburton as a specially gifted -writer. But Haliburton’s versatility also exhibits certain -peculiarities. Oddly, though he is saliently the humorist or satirist or -aphorist or story-teller or descriptive writer or nature-painter or -character-limner in one or another of his works, he is, almost without -exception, all these in any work. More oddly, while a certain gift or -power predominates in a given work, all his works, taken successively, -disclose no development of powers either in invention or in literary -mechanics. There are differences in each successive work, but only of -sheer _variety_ in literary substance, not of greater and still greater -advance in novel conception and artistic handling of his matter. -Summarily: Haliburton’s gifts in humorous story-telling and aphoristic -wit and wisdom are salient in the first and second series of _The -Clockmaker_, _Wise Saws_, _Nature and Human Nature_, and _The Season -Ticket_. His gifts in narration and description are salient in _The -Clockmaker_, _The Attaché_, and _The Old Judge_. His gifts in -character-portraiture and naturalistic description are salient in _The -Old Judge_. But if any work contains all Haliburton’s best -qualities—ingenious and unfailing invention, novel and colorful -imagination, rare perception of the humorous and ludicrous, acute -insight into human nature, and extraordinary powers of vivid narration -and realistic description—that work is _The Old Judge; or, Life in a -Colony_. - -As a satirist Haliburton employed two forms—realistic satire and -humorous exaggeration or mendacity (‘tall stories’ Haliburton called the -latter). A prime example of his realistic satire is his description of a -fashionable wedding in London; another of a ‘rube’ or bucolic wedding in -Slickville, both in _The Attaché_. In this sort of ‘take-off’ Haliburton -has never been surpassed by modern journalistic humorists. A first-rate -example of Haliburton’s gifts in humorous mendacity or burlesque is his -‘tall story’ of the sale of his horse Mandarin as related in _Nature and -Human Nature_. This is the prototype of Westcott’s horse deal burlesques -in his _David Harum_. More in the manner made familiar by Mark Twain is -the humorous mendacity of Haliburton’s tales of ‘The Gouging School’ and -‘The Black Stole,’ both in _The Attaché_. There are anticipations -a-plenty of the Mark Twain manner of ironic exaggeration and mordant -satire in the second series of _The Clockmaker_, _The Old Judge_, and -_The Season Ticket_. - -As a Humorist Haliburton obtained his effects—and won his popularity -with all classes—by character typification, story-telling, aphorisms, -epigrams, and homely moral maxims, jests, waggish conceits, jocular -phrases, and puns, including _double entendres_. He employed two methods -of character typification; one being humorous definition; the other, -humorous classification. Almost all Haliburton’s characters have names -that are essentially what we mean by nick-names, to indicate distinctive -mental or moral qualities of the individuals. It is by this method, -rather than by character-drawing, that Haliburton succeeded in -individualizing each character. It is the method of individualization by -suggestion. The name Sam _Slick_, for instance, at once conveys the type -of individual or character, namely, the kind of person who ‘lives by his -wits,’ who gains profit by subtle or sharp practice. Such a person is -‘slick,’ an epithet derived by a vulgar pronounciation of the adjective -‘sleek.’ Other instances are The Honourable Lucifer _Wolfe_, The -Honourable Alden _Gobble_, General Conrad _Corncob_, Captain Ebeneezer -_Fathom_, Mr. _Pettifog_ the Justice, _Nabb_ the police constable, -Deacon _Flint_, Rev. Joshua _Hopewell_, Dr. _Query_, and Old _Blowhard_. -The moral connotations of these nick-names are obvious, but Haliburton -himself in the proper place always names the character and adds a -summary of moral qualities to show the aptness of the name and its -connotation. The Honourable Alden Gobble is satirically or humorously -thus named because he was ‘dyspeptic and suffered great oneasiness arter -[and from] eatin’.’ A signal example of Haliburton’s method of -typification by humorous classification is found in _The Clockmaker_, -(third series, chapter 13). There he classifies patriots into ‘rebel -patriots, mahogany patriots, spooney patriots, place patriots, and raal -genu_ine_ patriots.’ - -General popular character types which are familiar in American humor -indubitably had their prototypes in Haliburton’s characters. Sam Slick, -as a horse trader, is the prototype of David Harum; and, as an aphorist -and practical philosopher, is the prototype of Mr. Dooley. Mrs. Figg in -Haliburton’s _Letter-Bag_ is the prototype of Shillaber’s Mrs. -Partington. In the same work Haliburton has an ‘enfant terrible’ who is -the prototype of Peck’s ‘Bad Boy’ and of later examples of ‘awful -children,’ down to Tarkington’s Penrod. - -Haliburton was an egregious punster, and he even indulged in _double -entendres_ which were coarse and sometimes obscene, but which may be -excused on account of their humorous point or satiric wit. As an -anecdotist, ‘spinner of yarns,’ ‘tall stories,’ ‘stretchers,’ with a -decided tendency to employ the coarse and irreverent, Haliburton -anticipated similar traits in Mark Twain, as in Twain’s _Roughing It_ -and _Innocents Abroad_. Haliburton’s occasional coarseness and -irreverence are to be explained by his hatred of sham and insincerity, -of conventionalized prudery, of concealed indecency of thought, of the -real evil caused by men and women who are outwardly ‘whited sepulchres.’ -It must, however, be admitted that, traceable to his Border Scots -ancestry, there was in him a love of plebeian or coarse fun for its own -sake. But it must also be said that his coarseness of wit was never -based on impurity of heart, and that he had the highest respect for the -moral beauty and dignity of womanhood. He did remark playfully the -engaging vanities and foibles of women, but for pure love and motherhood -and all the sweet charities of woman he had the finest and tenderest -respect. Unsurpassed in world literature is Haliburton’s tender and holy -sublimation of woman’s spiritual winsomeness and dignity, as in this -immortal metaphor:— - - A woman has two smiles which an angel might envy; the smile that - accepts a lover before the words are uttered, and the smile that - lights on the first-born baby and assures him of a mother’s - love. - -As to the original humor of Haliburton’s ingenious metaphors, similes, -outlandish coinage of expressive word morphology (such as -‘absquotulate,’ ‘spiflicate,’ ‘conflustigation,’ ‘conniption fit,’ -reechoed in Artemus Ward and Josh Billings), and of his wealth of -aphoristic wit and wisdom, so much are they in the permanent warp and -woof of the popular literature of humor and of common speech that they -need not here be specially remarked and illustrated. - -But there is one matter in which Haliburton has not been properly -appreciated, and which demands fresh treatment. He has been charged with -a lack of prose style. The truth is that Haliburton not only wrote with -a positive Theory of Style in mind, but also anticipated Matthew Arnold -and Herbert Spencer by actually publishing his theory or philosophy of -prose style. Those who criticized Haliburton as a stylist did so without -knowing that he had actually applied a definite theory of style to his -structure and color. From that point of view, the critics of Haliburton -as a stylist were irrelevant. But they also missed or ignored the fact -that he was, if infrequently, a master of descriptive prose style. - -Haliburton formulates his theory of prose style in two works—in _The -Attaché_, and in _Wise Saws_ (chapter 19). The first work contains his -‘Apologia’ for his _utilitarian_ style; the second briefly explains the -_psychology_ of his style. The ‘Apologia’ justifies, as Matthew Arnold -would have justified, a certain promiscuity and rise and fall in his -style; the second work anticipates Spencer’s philosophy of the -conservation of mental energies as applied to particular styles. -Haliburton himself distinguishes between his conversational, colloquial, -humoristic—his consciously _utilitarian_—style, and his artificial or -literary—his _aesthetic_—style as in his descriptive prose. - -In _The Attaché_ he points out, in what we have called his ‘Apologia,’ -that his aims, which were utilitarian, did not call for either -architectonic skill or verbal artistry, but that his colloquial, loose, -prolix, promiscuous, repetitious, diffuse, and digressive style in _The -Clockmaker_ and _The Attaché_ was inevitable and was consciously adopted -as best fitted to the heterogeneous themes or matter of these works. -‘Prolixity,’ he adds, ‘was unavoidable from another cause. In order to -attain my [practical] objects, I found it expedient so to intermingle -humor with the several topics as to render subjects attractive that in -themselves are generally considered too deep and dry for general -reading.’ - -In particular, Haliburton justifies his sentential structure on -psychological grounds. In _Wise Saws_ he says that he purposely designed -the structure and rhythms of his sentences so that their length and -abrupt translations would spur the mind to attention, and that he -employed a conversational style and dialogue to create interest and keep -the attention alive. He wished his works, since they had a utilitarian -end, to be read by all classes. He resolved to adapt the style of his -works to assuring their popularity—‘in the parlor and the kitchen.’ His -themes were discursive and therefore he resolved that the stylistic -treatment should be discursive. So Haliburton consciously employed a -style which, by novelty of dress, by being written in natural language -and illustrated with droll humor, and which by colloquial sentential -structure would, like ‘oral chat,’ sustain interest or excite attention, -and inevitably be read in the parlor and the kitchen. ‘Why is it,’ asks -Sam Slick in the _Wise Saws_, ‘if you _read_ a book to a man you set him -asleep? Just because it is a book and the language ain’t common. Why is -it if you _talk_ to him he will sit up all night with you? Just because -it’s talk, the language of natur’.’ - -Haliburton’s humoristic or utilitarian prose style is justified, as he -himself justified it, by its successful adaption of means to end. In his -‘Apologia’ he noted the ‘unprecedented circulation’ of his works on -‘both sides of the Atlantic.’ He wrote _The Clockmaker_ in a people’s -style for people’s ends, and the style, in his own view, admirably -succeeded. We must therefore hold that academic criticism which scores -Haliburton’s humoristic style on the ground that it is loose, prolix, -repetitious, digressive, vulgar, colloquial, that it is not ‘_fine_ -style,’ commits the fallacy of irrelevant conclusion. In the writing of -humoristic, utilitarian, conversational style, precisely adapted to its -end, Haliburton was a master. But he was also, at least on occasion or -whenever he essayed fine style, as in his descriptive prose, especially -of Nature, an artist of first rank, worthy of a place beside Ruskin, -Stevenson, and Hardy. - -As regards Haliburton’s aesthetic style we may instance as example of -graphic realism in ‘local color’ his description of the dress and -characteristics of an Acadian people (_Nature and Human Nature_) and of -a Low German people (_The Old Judge_). An example of his fine artistry -in painting social life is his idyllic picture of the home of Captain -Collingwood’s sister, Aunt Thankful (_Wise Saws_). As a picture of the -sweet and gracious social life in old colonial days, it is a -masterpiece. But for sheer pathos of ‘thoughts that lie too deep for -tears,’ Haliburton’s description of the Duke of Kent’s Lodge, against a -background of Nature (_The Clockmaker_, third series), is worthy of -Ruskin or Hardy. - -But Haliburton’s _forte_ in descriptive prose was naturalistic -impressionism. In the technique of nature-painting Haliburton employed -the whole palette of pigmentation, but especially the color-tones of -carmines, yellows, greens, citrons, indigos, with white and black. His -description of a Silver Thaw in February in Nova Scotia (_The Old -Judge_) is unsurpassed in literature, and, if the authorship were -unknown, might be mistaken for a bit of aesthetic prose by Ruskin:— - - This morning I accompanied the Judge and Miss Sandford in their - sleigh on an excursion into the country. The scene, though - rather painful to the eyes, was indescribably brilliant and - beautiful. There had been, during last night and part of - yesterday, a slight thaw, accompanied by a cold fine rain that - froze, the moment it fell, into ice of the purest crystal. Every - deciduous tree was covered with this glittering coating and - looked in the distance like an enormous though graceful bunch of - feathers; while, on nearer approach, it resembled, with its - limbs now bending under the heavy weight of the transparent - incrustation, a dazzling chandelier. The open fields, covered - with a rough but hardened surface of snow, glistened in the sun - as if thickly strewed with the largest diamonds; and every rail - of the wooden fences in this general profusion of ornaments was - decorated with a delicate fringe of pendent ice that radiated - like burnished silver. The heavy and sombre spruce, loaded with - snow, rejoiced in a green old age. Having its massy shape - relieved by strong and numerous lights, it gained in grace, what - it lost in strength, and stood erect among its drooping - neighbors, venerable but vigorous, the hoary forefather of the - wood. The tall and slender poplar and white birch . . . bent - their heads gracefully to the ground under the unusual burden, - and formed fanciful arches which the frost encircled with - numerous wreaths of pearls. . . . The boles of the different - trees and their limbs appeared through the transparent ice; and - the rays of the sun, as they fell on them, invested them with - all the hues of the prism. . . . - -In that passage, besides realistic impressionism or color-writing, we -find first rate _style_ in composition—artistic sentential structure -and rhythmical periods, along with pure and dignified diction. In all -Haliburton’s works we can find passages which show his firm grip on the -technique of prose style, and a special power of vivifying his -description and color-impressionism with psychological suggestion that -enhances the effect on the sensibilities and imagination. In all -literature the allurement of sylvan summer in Nova Scotia or Canada is -not more winningly or colorfully presented than in Haliburton’s -impressionistic idyll ‘A Day on the Lake’ (_Nature and Human Nature_). -In psychological suggestion the acme has been attained by Haliburton in -his descriptive sketches, ‘A Hot Day’ (_Wise Saws_) and ‘Inky Dell’ -(_The Old Judge_). - -Whoever charges that Haliburton lacks style errs either by irrelevancy -or by making the wrong accusation. It is not style that Haliburton -lacks; for he has two styles, each of which is right in the right -place—a conversational style for conveying unpopular practical ideas in -a popular way, and an aesthetic style for conveying ideas which are -delightful in themselves as beautiful pictures of Social Life and of -Nature. What Haliburton really lacked was architectonic skill—the power -of designing artistic structural unity and plot. This is best -illustrated by his character-delineation. His major characters have not -character-unity but characteristics or character-promiscuity. Sam Slick, -for instance, is never _one_ character as Micawber or Swiveller in -Dickens’ gallery is one character, unmistakably and always. Sam Slick is -a ‘mass of contradictions.’ Neither is the Rev. Joshua Hopewell a -unity—speaking and acting, that is, consistently with one character. -Yet they have a unity. How do they get it? It is not a moral but the -_functional_ unity of _Spokesmen_ of Haliburton’s ideas. The reason that -Slick and Hopewell have so much promiscuity of character is that -Haliburton, as he pleased and without any regard to consistency, made -Slick and Hopewell and any other of his major _dramatis personae_ the -Spokesmen of his various thoughts or ideas. He ‘picked on’ Slick for the -mouthpiece of this idea, and Hopewell for the mouthpiece of another -idea, without ever asking if the speech he put into the mouth of Slick -was consistent with Slick’s mental and moral character, or if the speech -he put into the mouth of Hopewell was consistent with Hopewell’s -intellectual and moral character. The result is that Slick, as we read -Haliburton, has ideas, makes speeches, and relates experiences that are -impossible in one of his culture and knowledge; and so with Hopewell and -others. In short, Haliburton’s major characters are _puppets_, -_marionettes_. Back of them is the Showman, Haliburton; and the speeches -we hear are not theirs but ‘their master’s voice.’ - -Oddly, Haliburton himself maintained in _The Old Judge_ that this was -not a defect in character-delineation or in artistry but was made -necessary by his practical aim and the content of his thought. The -promiscuous structure of his themes and composition or style and the -promiscuousness, or lack of unity, in his characters correspond to the -content and movement of his thought—which was swarming with ideas, full -of details of all sorts, loose, and diffuse, bent on expressing at all -hazards his ideas and opinions on matters of practical import, and not -on creating fine literature. The purpose of his writings, he declared, -was to inform and to amuse while informing. His humor was designed and -manufactured as the sugar-coating of his social and political ideas. -Consequently, the only unity his characters have is the thread that runs -through _his_ thought; their speeches, jests, anecdotes, aphorisms, and -moral maxims are but _his_ facts, ideas, opinions, strung on the various -_dramatis personae_. Thus inevitably, so Haliburton submitted, his works -and their style appear prolix, repetitious, diffuse, digressive, and -lack artistic unity. Still they each have their own unity of essential -thought; his characters have unity of function; his style, unity of -propriety—and the whole, unity of purpose, meaning, and achievement. - -Haliburton consciously conceived a noble ideal. As a man of letters he -aimed to bring about an alliance or _zollverein_ of the Anglo-Saxon -peoples. To do this he employed an original method of satiric humor and -comic characterization. He was unmistakably a great satirist, and the -first and foremost systematic satiric humorist of the Anglo-Saxon -peoples. This is his chief glory. But while he thus was the first -native-born writer to bring Canadian literature into a high and -permanent place in English and world literature, he also was coadjutor -with Howe in inaugurating the Epoch of the Independent Prose Literature -of Canada. Considered from the sides of versatility of invention, -variety of production in literary species, and of mastery of style, -Thomas Chandler Haliburton remains to this day the Greatest Prose Writer -of Canada. Yet, at the same time, his achievements in creative satiric -comedy and comic characterization stamp his genius and work as not for a -single country or a specific age, but for all time and the world. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - - Romance _and_ Poetry - - THE NATIVISTIC LITERATURE OF CANADA—THE HISTORICAL ROMANCERS— - JOHN RICHARDSON—ROSANNA MULLINS—AND OTHERS. THE POETS—GOLDSMITH - —SANGSTER—MAIR. - -Nativistic romantic fiction in Canada begins with the historical novels -of Major John Richardson. In 1832 he published his _Wacousta; or, The -Prophecy_; and in 1840 its sequel, _The Canadian Brothers; or, The -Prophecy Fulfilled_. These are authentic novels of the romantic type, -having, as they do, respectably constructed plots, and being filled with -the romance of the passion of love, heightened with thrilling adventure -and incident, and colored with pictures of aboriginal character and life -against a background of Nature in the wild. - -Richardson was born near Niagara Falls, in 1796 (in the same year as -Thomas Chandler Haliburton, and seven years after James Fenimore -Cooper). He spent his childhood and early adolescent days, till he was -sixteen years of age, that is, up to the outbreak of the War of 1812, in -the vicinity of the Falls and in Detroit. Then, although but a mere lad, -he enlisted in Brock’s army. Up to that time young Richardson, during -his most impressionable and receptive years, was entertained by his -grandparents and parents with tales of Pontiac’s siege of Detroit, and -with stories of the thrilling, romantic, and tragic events in the -history of the Niagara and Detroit districts—events which were surely -amongst the most enthralling and stirring in the vividly romantic -history of Canada and the United States. Those early days of -Richardson’s were thus replete with rare and unique formative -influences. They created in him the love of romance, of the heroic past -of his own country, and, later, when he came to write, furnished him -with the inspiration and the material for authentic Canadian historical -novels or romances. - -Two other formative influences, besides those exercised over his heart -and imagination by his grandparents and parents, determined Richardson’s -genius, inspiration, and creative method. In the war of 1812 he had -fought side by side with the noble Indian warrior Tecumseh. Further: -Richardson, on his own confession, had, as he put it, ‘absolutely -devoured three times’ Cooper’s Indian romance, _The Last of the -Mohicans_. Some critics, therefore, hold that Richardson was a mere -imitator of Cooper; that, first, Richardson studied the mind, and -character, and ways of Indians at second-hand in the pages of Cooper’s -romance; and that, secondly, Richardson acquired from Cooper’s novel the -art or craft, the mechanics, of writing fiction. - -For the view that Richardson got his knowledge of Indian mind and -character from Cooper, there is no ground in historical fact. The War of -1812, during which Richardson fought side by side with Tecumseh and his -Indians, began fourteen years before the publication of _The Last of the -Mohicans_ (1826), or long before Richardson could have read a page of -Cooper. Richardson’s imagination was romantically formed in his early -days when, during his association with Tecumseh, he came to know Indian -psychology and character at first-hand. That is indisputable fact. For -the view that Richardson acquired the technique of novel-writing from -reading Cooper, there is some justification. It is highly probable that -by his reading of _The Last of the Mohicans_, Richardson really got some -‘coaching’ in the mechanics of writing romance. But this concession -fails to prove that Richardson was a mere imitator of Cooper and not a -genuinely independent creator. Internal evidences point to independence. -For when we compare the diction, the sentential structure, the -descriptive epithets and imagery, and the general style of the two -romancers, Richardson appears, except as a plot-maker, the superior of -Cooper as a craftsman and stylist. It is proof presumptive that on the -whole the Canadian romancer developed independently his literary -technique. Moreover, in the fine art of character-drawing, Richardson is -more veracious and incisive—a better artist—than Cooper. When we -compare the American novelist’s Indian characters with those of the -Canadian, we discover that Cooper’s are more like ‘studies’ from books -than pictures from real life, whereas Richardson’s Indians are very near -to the real Indian, very lifelike. The heroic in them is heroic enough; -that is to say, human and natural. Richardson’s Indian characters, then, -are original creations—absolutely his own. Also his own are his other -characters (soldiers, fur-traders, French-Canadians, and the rest of the -motley), his plots, all the stirring incidents, and the ‘color’ of the -Canadian background from nature. - -Of his romances, _Wacousta_, and _The Canadian Brothers_, the only -aesthetic criticisms worth while making are that not infrequently -Richardson forces the dramatic in them into the melodramatic, that he -puts into the mouths of his characters utterances which are unnatural or -not in keeping with the position and circumstances of the speakers, and -that he suits his historical facts to his own purposes. Sometimes, too, -construction and development are sacrificed to the ‘theatrical’ in -situation, to over-drawing of character, and to ‘color-writing.’ _The -Canadian Brothers_ has these defects in a larger degree than _Wacousta_. -Yet, on the whole, Richardson’s two chief romances are aesthetically -satisfying, and are clean, strong, wholesome, and engaging—quite -deserving of a place in permanent creative literature. - -Summarily: since Richardson had his genius romantically formed, and had -engaged in the art of fiction, long before he had read Cooper, the only -possible influence Cooper could have had on Richardson was to incite him -to emulate the American romancer. Emulation incited by a contemporary -author does not imply imitation, and has no significance in original -literary creation. Taken, then, by and large, John Richardson had -first-rate powers of invention, and was a respectable literary -craftsman. He was not a great novelist, but he was sufficiently great as -a creator of historical romances to produce novels which have been read -during almost a century since publication, and are still read, along -with Kirby’s and Sir Gilbert Parker’s historical romances of life and -love and heroism in far-off days in Canada. - -Moreover, if not in _Wacousta_, at least in _The Canadian Brothers_ -Richardson embodied in romantic fiction, as Sangster and Mair did in -poetry, the first incipient expression of the spirit of Canadian -nationality. Both on account of the superior inherent qualities of -Richardson’s romances as creative fiction, and on account of their -containing the earliest expression of the embryonic spirit of Canadian -nationality, Richardson must be marked as of first-rate importance in -the literary history of Canada. He was indeed the creator of the -Canadian nativistic historical romance as Haliburton was the creator of -the nativistic fiction of satiric comedy and comic characterization. In -truth it may be said that if all Canadian imaginative prose were lost, -save the romances of Richardson and the satiric comedy of Haliburton, -Canada would still have a literature. - -_The Literary Garland_ (1838-51) had considerable to do with promoting -letters in Canada, especially by encouraging native-born writers. -Amongst those who contributed to _The Literary Garland_ was a young -girl, Rosanna Eleanor Mullins, a native of Montreal, who, in time, -became the wife of J. L. Leprohon, also a native of Quebec. Rosanna -Mullins’ first novel, _Ida Beresford_, was written when the author was -but sixteen years of age, and was published serially in _The Literary -Garland_, in 1848. In 1859 she published _The Manor House of de -Villerai_, and in 1864, _Antoinette de Mirecourt_, and has several other -novels to her credit. Her characters, properties, and settings are -largely Canadian, and she evidently set out consciously to create a -nativistic literature by writing romances which should definitively -portray life and manners in the society of the Old French _Régime_ and -after the Fall of Quebec and Montreal. - -In fact, Rosanna Mullins, much more than Richardson, was inspired by a -desire to express the incipient national spirit of Canada. In _The -Canadian Brothers_ Richardson disclosed an _awakening_ consciousness in -himself of a sense of the spirit of nationality. Miss Mullins, on the -other hand, was the first Canadian novelist to have a _distinct_ -consciousness of that spirit and to desire to express it for its own -sake. It is from this point of view, rather than from the point of view -of intrinsic literary merit, that Miss Mullins’ romances have a right to -a permanent place in the nativistic literature of Canada. Technically -she wrote with a finer pointed stylus than Richardson—with more grace -and a finer limning of character, and with a more engaging urbanity. In -fact, her style was informed by an Irish and French humaneness that made -her work as popular with the French-Canadians (for whom several of her -novels had been translated into French) as with the English-Canadian -people. - -Rosanna Mullins is entitled to another distinction. On the side of -nationality she disputes with William Kirby the right of primacy in -calling the attention of the later Canadian romancers, especially Sir -Gilbert Parker, to the wealth of novelistic material that lay in the -life and manners and culture of society under the old French _Régime_ -and the Occupation. For Kirby was foreign-born, whereas Rosanna Mullins -was native-born. As a matter of fact, however, it was Kirby’s romantic -fiction that opened the eyes of later Canadian novelists to the -abounding material for novelistic treatment that lay in the social and -political history of the Canadian past. - -William Kirby was born in England, but came to Canada in 1832, the year -which saw the publication of Richardson’s _Wacousta_. He was then but -fifteen years of age and his mind unformed. He lived for the greater -part of his life at Niagara. So that from his fifteenth year onwards, -having taken a deep and special interest in Canadian history and -civilization, Kirby really formed his mind and imagination on Canadian -ideals and absorbed the Canadian nationalistic spirit. - -His historical romance _The Golden Dog_, which was published in 1877, or -ten years after Confederation, really belongs to the _émigré_ literature -of Canada. But because of its constructive and inspirational influences -on certain members of the Systematic School of Canadian fictionists, in -particular on Sir Gilbert Parker, and because Kirby, though -foreign-born, was in spirit essentially a genuine Canadian man of -letters, we must regard _The Golden Dog_ as more important in the -_development_ of Canadian fiction than are Richardson’s and Rosanna -Mullins’ romances, and as worthy of a more significant status in -Canadian creative literature. - -Summarily: _Wacousta_ and _The Golden Dog_ were the literary progenitors -of a series of romances which have a Canadian historical basis and which -are Canadian in incident and color. As to his creative and artistic -powers, Kirby was a finer artist than Richardson, in plot-making and -character-drawing. But, in view of certain faults—a somewhat too -theatrical grand manner in character-drawing and a too great indulgence -of his notable gifts in color-writing, Kirby and Richardson may be -classed as equal sinners. - -_The Golden Dog_ is, aesthetically and artistically, that is, in -plot-making, character-drawing, and in sustaining interest, superior to -_Wacousta_ as an historical romance. Still _The Golden Dog_ is a -genuinely great novel—great inherently as an imaginative and artistic -creation, and great as the progenitor of the romantic fiction of Parker, -Roberts, Campbell, Saunders and other creators of the native and -national fiction of Canada. - -James De Mille, who was born in New Brunswick, also must be considered -as a creator of Canadian Nativistic Literature. De Mille was a prolific -writer of mysterious, thrilling, extravagant, and sentimental fiction, -showing the influence of such masters in those genres as Poe and Wilkie -Collins. De Mille certainly possessed a creative imagination of his own, -was considerable of an artist in plot-making and in sustaining interest, -and had a distinct sense of dramatic values, which saves such an -extravagant tale of adventure as his _A Strange Manuscript found in a -Copper Cylinder_ from developing into the merely grotesque and -sensational. But because the settings of his novels and tales are not -Canadian, and because they in nowise express anything of the growing -sense of the Canadian national spirit, they are not, on that side, -significant in the literary history of Canada. They merely increase the -quantity of Canadian Nativistic Literature. - -If we have regard for the historic process in all spiritual and social -achievements, and ask: What was it that, on the psychological or -spiritual side, brought about Responsible Government in the various -Provinces that came to form the original Dominion of Canada, and What -was it that brought about Confederation? we must answer that the people -in the British North American Provinces were gradually coming to see -themselves, their country, civilization, and institutions from the -_Canadian point of view_, and were gradually expressing, with more and -more of conscious fervor and power, in prose and poetry, their growing -interest in and love of Canada and the Canadian point of view. The -nativistic prose writers expressed the growing spirit of ‘Canada First,’ -as in the writings of Haliburton and Howe, and also in the romances of -Richardson, Rosanna Mullins, and Kirby. We turn to observe how the -spirit of national ideals was gradually expressed in the work of the -nativistic poets. - -Nativistic poetry in Canada did not take form till the last year of the -first quarter of the 19th century. In 1825 Oliver Goldsmith, a -great-nephew of the author of _The Deserted Village_, published his -idyll or descriptive poem, _The Rising Village_. Oliver Goldsmith was -born at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, in 1781, and died at Liverpool, -England, in 1861, after a long official service in his native country. -_The Rising Village_, in substance or theme, aimed to describe the -habitat, sufferings, achievements, and prospects of the Loyalist -settlers. As regards its matter, therefore, the poem has the semblance -of a genuine Canadian poem. But the form, the metre, rhythm, and rhyme, -the diction and imagery, the characters and the settings, and even the -‘properties,’ are in slavish imitation of the elder Goldsmith’s idyll of -‘Sweet Auburn’ in Ireland. That is to say, the Nova Scotian’s Muse is -not the Nova Scotian or the Canadian but the British Muse transplanted. -Moreover, _The Rising Village_ is to be distinguished from Howe’s -_Acadia_ in that Howe, though imitating the form and manner of the elder -Goldsmith, expresses his love of his homeland, Nova Scotia, whereas the -younger Goldsmith, though a Nova Scotian, fills his poem with an -unpatriotic nostalgia. He loves the land where there is some ‘Sweet -Auburn,’ not his native land which he describes as ‘bleak and desert.’ -The nostalgia is real and pervasive—so much so that he removes to -England and there dies. But since it is a poem of the habitat and -experiences of the Loyalist settlers in Nova Scotia, and since it is -correct in versification and is musical and possesses naturalistic -truth, _The Rising Village_ may be regarded as a genuine poem of -_documentary_ value, and as the beginning of Canadian nativistic poetry. - -The strictly Canadian ‘note’ in nativistic poetry is first clearly heard -in the verse of Charles Sangster. He was born near Kingston, Ontario, in -1822, and published _The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, and Other -Poems_, in 1856, and _Hesperus and Other Poems_ in 1860. The title poem -of the first volume is in the Spenserian stanza as employed by Byron and -is also otherwise imitative. But it is distinctly Canadian in its -lyrical interludes, in which there is a poetic _abandon_, to the beauty -and magic of Nature in Canada, as, for instance, in Sangster’s _Lyric to -the Isles_, beginning:— - - Here the spirit of Beauty keepeth - Jubilee for evermore; - Here the voice of Gladness leapeth, - Echoing from shore to shore - • • • • - Here the spirit of beauty dwelleth - In each palpitating tree, - In each amber wave that welleth - From its home beneath the sea; - In the moss upon the granite, - In each calm, secluded bay, - With the zephyr trains that fan it - With their sweet breath all the day. - On the waters, on the shore, - Beauty dwelleth evermore. - -Faulty as Sangster’s first poems are in versification and derivative in -diction, we must mark his lyrical interludes, as in the foregoing -example, as expressing a _new_ note, _the_ Canadian note in Canadian -poetry. It is, however, a _nature_ note, not or hardly the _national_ -note—clear and confident and strong. In Sangster’s second volume, -_Hesperus and Other Poems_, published just seven years before -Confederation, we hear the Canadian national note loudly vocal and -inspiring. We catch it unmistakably in Sangster’s _Brock_—a really -noble hymn to the memory of a national hero, who had ‘saved Canada’ for -the Canadians, but a hymn that much more expresses the deeply felt unity -of the Canadian people:— - - One voice, one people, one in heart - And soul and feeling and desire. - Relight the smouldering martial fire - And sound the mute trumpet! Strike the lyre! - The hero dead cannot expire: - The dead still play their part. - - Raise high the monumental stone, - A nation’s fealty is theirs, - And we the rejoicing heirs, - The honored sons of sires whose cares - We take upon us unawares - As freely as our own. - -We observe for the first time in Canadian poetry, the consciously felt -sentiment of national unity—the first express utterance of the ideal of -Canada and its people as a political and spiritual entity apart—in -Sangster’s line, ‘A _nation’s_ fealty is theirs.’ Henceforth we shall -often hear this distinction—Canada and its people as a _nation_—in the -verse of Canadian poets. Sangster, then, is important as the poet who, -in aesthetically and artistically respectable verse, first uttered, -_consciously_ and clearly, in Canadian nativistic poetry the people’s -sense of a national spirit and destiny. - -Again: Sangster, in _The Rapid_ and in _The Falls of Chaudière_, is the -first nativistic poet to express in verse that close or intimate kinship -with Nature which we discover much more profoundly expressed in the -poetry of Roberts, Lampman, and Carman. Sangster utters this new -naturalistic note in these authentically inspired lines from _The Falls -of Chaudière_: - - I have laid my cheek to Nature’s, placed my puny hand in hers, - Felt a kindred spirit warming all the life-blood of my face. - -_I have laid my cheek to Nature’s!_ We shall observe Lampman lay his -cheek to Nature’s with more intimacy, with a more profound sense of -spiritual companionship than Sangster. We shall note Carman ‘place his -puny hand’ in Nature’s—and have Nature as Mother April ‘make him -over’—with a far more intimate giving of self to the ‘heart of the -world’ than Sangster. Nevertheless, we must remark Sangster’s -priority—in spirit as well as in actual poetic production—in -expressing that special and singular kinship with Nature which must be -denoted as peculiarly Canadian. Still, in this respect, he is only the -first forerunner of Roberts, Lampman, Carman, Pauline Johnson, Campbell, -and Duncan Campbell Scott. - -A much more lyrically eloquent and influential forerunner is Charles -Mair. He was born at Lanark, Ontario, in 1838, and published, in 1868, -his _Dreamland and Other Poems_. Technically, Charles Mair is a much -finer craftsman than Sangster; for the latter was self-educated, whereas -Mair was a university graduate who was well read in the modern English -poets and had studied the forms of verse and the mechanics of -versification. What, however, really constitutes Mair as the authentic -forerunner of Roberts, Lampman, Carman and Pauline Johnson as nature -poets, is not the fact that he was an artistic poet of Nature in Canada, -but that his _method of treating Nature_ was a _new_ method with -Canadian poets. - -Two ‘features’ mark and distinguish the treatment of Nature in the -poetry of Charles Mair—impressionistic painting of the face of Nature -and the choice of the commonplace or the lowliest creatures in Nature as -the subjects of his poetry. The first may have been inspired by Keats, -and may be regarded as in the manner of Keats. But the second feature of -Mair’s lyrical poetry—his conscious attempt to give distinction to the -Commonplace in Nature in Canada;—that is original with Mair himself, -and appears for the first time in Canadian poetry in Mair’s work. It is -_Canadian_ in and by itself. - -Wilfred Campbell has alleged that Mair influenced Roberts and Lampman as -Nature poets. All three were influenced by Keats, and certainly Roberts -and Lampman knew the poetry of Keats more intimately than that of Mair. -At least, Mair in a sense did but anticipate Roberts and Lampman in -actually treating Canadian Nature. But Mair’s treatment of the -commonplace was objective—being mostly a sort of philosophical or -religious reflection on the meaning of the commonplace, whereas -Lampman’s treatment of the same kind of subject was psychological. Mair -merely looked on and interrogated Nature, Lampman communed with his -lowly companions, such as the trees and the frogs, entered into their -hearts, and spoke out for them, expressing their moods, feelings, and -reflections. - -The passage from the objective treatment of Nature to the subjective -interpretation of the commonplace in Nature by Canadian poets, has its -_termini_ marked by Mair at the one end and Lampman at the other. Mair -merely interrogates and wonders what the answer ought to be to his -questions. Lampman communes with his lowly and animate companions in -Nature, and, by imaginative sympathy, answers for them. - -These distinctions between Mair as an impressionistic Nature-_painter_ -and an objective _interrogator_, and Lampman as a subjective interpreter -of Nature, are nicely illustrated in Mair’s exquisitely beautiful and -sensuously lovely poem, _The Fire-Flies_:— - - I see them glimmer where the waters lag - By winding bays, and to the swallows sing; - And, far away, where stands the forest dim, - Huge-built of old, their tremulous lights are seen. - High overhead they gleam like trailing stars, - Then sink adown, until their emerald sheen - Dies in the darkness like an evening hymn,— - Anon to float again in glorious bars - Of streaming rapture, such as man may hear - When the soul casts its slough of mortal fear. - And now they make rich spangles in the grass, - Gilding the night-dews on the tender blade; - Then hover o’er the meadow-pools, to gaze - At their bright forms shrined in the dreamy glass - Which earth, and air, and bounteous rain have made. - One moment, and the thicket is ablaze - With twinkling lamps, which swing from bough to bough; - Another, and like sylphids they descend - To cheer the brook-side where the bell-flow’rs grow, - Near, and more near, they softly come, until - Their little life is busy at my feet; - They glow around me, and my fancies blend - Capriciously with their delight, and fill - My wakeful bosom with unwonted heat. - One lights upon my hand, and there I clutch - With an alarming finger its quick wing; - Erstwhile so free, it pants, the tender thing! - And dreads its captor and his handsel touch. - - Where is thy home? On what strange food dost feed, - Thou fairy hunter of the moonless night? - From what far nectar’d fount, or flow’ry mead, - Glean’st thou, by witching spells, thy sluicy light? - -Is not that poem _Canadian_ definitively and through and through—and is -it not also authentic poetry, far in advance, aesthetically and -artistically, of any poetry previously written in Canada? They who, with -master artistry, write delineative poetry, shall hardly achieve, in -short and single phrase, so apt and clear and vivid a picture of the -Canadian firefly as Mair’s incisively realistic and genuinely poetical -line:— - - Thou fairy hunter of the moonless night. - -That is masterly, and yet how it fails before such a tremendously -pregnant crystallization of the subjective treatment of Nature as Bliss -Carman’s pervasive thrall of the senses and the imagination in his -imperishable line:— - - The resonant far-listening morn. - -The glory that is Carman’s in pure poetry, is not Mair’s, and the glory -that is Lampman’s in the sympathetic interpretation of the moods and -thoughts of lowly animate Nature, is not Mair’s. Yet unquestionably Mair -is the authentic forerunner of those perfervid Nature-worshippers, -Roberts, Lampman, Carman, Pauline Johnson, Campbell, and Duncan Campbell -Scott, the creative Poets of the Systematic School, who wrote the first -native and national literature of the Dominion of Canada, and wrote it -so that the world heard and has acclaimed them Master Poets and their -poetry authentic Literature! - - * * * * * - -_The Fireflies_ is quoted from _Dreamland and Other Poems_ by Charles -Mair. - - - - - Part II. - - - - Post Confederation Literature - (1887-1924) - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - - _The_ Systematic School - - THE FIRST RENAISSANCE IN CANADIAN LITERATURE—THE SYSTEMATIC - SCHOOL AND PERIOD—ROBERTS AND HIS COLLEAGUES. - -The years 1860, 1861, and 1862 may be regarded as the most significant -in the literary history of Canada. In the year 1860 were born Charles -George Douglas Roberts and Charles William Gordon (_pseud._, Ralph -Connor). In the year 1861 were born William Bliss Carman, Archibald -Lampman, William Wilfred Campbell, E. Pauline Johnson (_pseud._, -Tekahionwake), Margaret Marshall Saunders, and Frederick George Scott. -In the year 1862 were born Duncan Campbell Scott and Gilbert (now Sir -Gilbert) Parker. The most gifted and eminent of Canadian poets and -imaginative or creative prose writers, these ten Canadians comprised a -single group, and they began, under the influence of the awakening -spirit of Canadian nationality, the first systematic writing of poetry -and prose, inaugurating a period of original literary creation, which we -shall term, for expository purposes, the First Renaissance in Canadian -Literature. - -These ten writers were born, bred and educated (intellectually and -aesthetically) in the four Provinces—Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, -Ontario, and Quebec—which formed, on the proclamation of the British -North America Act, 1867, or shortly after the birth of this group of -writers, the Dominion of Canada. From the point of view of their -nativity and education the members of the literary group born in 1860, -1861, and 1862, are the first strictly so-called _Canadian_ poets and -prose writers. - -Again: they were the first native-born poets and prose writers to begin, -under the Confederacy, a systematic literary career. The term -‘systematic’ defines their conspectus and aims. To this literary group -the free and impassioned expression, in verse and prose, of beauty and -truth, as beauty is in Nature in Canada and truth in Canadian thought, -activities, and institutions, appeared as their own specific function -and ideal life. They were thus the first Canadians consciously to -undertake a literary career which should be, in its way and degree, -commensurate with the growing spiritual, social, political, and -commercial life of the Great Dominion, and to find their inspiration -chiefly, if not wholly, in the natural beauty and sublimity of their -homeland, and in the spiritual import of their country and of the lives -of their compatriots. In short, their literary conspectus was thoroughly -Canadian; and their inspiration and ideals, too, were Canadian. In fact, -their inspiration and ideals were a moral necessity born of a loyal -obedience to the same creative impulse that was active in other -Canadians who also were bent on constructive achievement in other -spheres of Canadian endeavor. - -Moreover: the literary group born in 1860, 1861, 1862, may be -distinguished as having been the first Canadian poets and prose writers -who, by actual performance, showed the nations, largely the peoples of -the Motherland and the United States, that the political and -commercially lusty young Confederacy was, on its own account, decidedly -active in letters. The truth is that, in the decade following 1887, -which witnessed the publication of the first work in verse and in prose -by the systematic group of Canadian men and women of letters, Canadian -poetry and imaginative prose, though they were derivative in form and -frequently derivative in theme, quite gained the decent regard, and, in -some instances, the admiration, of distinguished men of letters in -England and in the United States, and furnished a pledge of greater -achievement in literature. - -The Canadian poets and prose writers born in 1860, 1861, and 1862, -distinguish themselves and the years in which they were born as the -first systematically creative School and Period in the literary history -of Canada. Their creative activities and their poetry and prose we have -denominated as the First Renaissance in Canadian Literature. - -What is meant by the First Renaissance in Canadian Literature? In 1880 a -young native-born Canadian, Charles G. D. Roberts, published a book of -poems. The critics of England and the United States thought well of the -verse. There was in it a quality that had not been in previous books of -verse by native-born Canadians. The poems were marked by a certain -noteworthy _artistic finish_ in the craftsmanship. - -This was significant. Hitherto native-born Canadian poets had not been -adroit in technique; they had been very careless about it, and some of -them had no respect or feeling for it at all. Poetry was poetry, they -thought, whether it was well dressed or not. With the publication of his -_Orion_, Roberts sounded the death knell of slovenly or indifferent -technique in Canadian poetry. Working with him, and largely under the -influence of his ideal of technical finish in verse, were Lampman, -Carman, Campbell, Pauline Johnson, Duncan Campbell Scott, Frederick -George Scott, and others. They all cared supremely for fine technique in -poetry. - -In the second decade after 1887 there arose in Canada a group of poets -who were not solicitous about the technique of their verse. With them -fine artistry in Canadian verse declined. This Decadent Interim lasted -but a few years. A later band of poets arose who went back to the -‘technical’ ideals which were exemplified in the poetry of Roberts and -his colleagues. This younger band of poets ‘restored’ the ideals of the -first literary group and began the Restoration Period in Canadian -poetry. Collaterally, a similar course of distinction, decadence, and -restoration of technical ideals can be observed in Canadian imaginative -and aesthetic prose. - -In another sense the period which began with Roberts and his _confrères_ -may properly be denoted as the First Renaissance in Canadian Literature. -It happens that the best of the Pre-Confederation Literature, produced -either by _émigrés_ or by native sons of the Province, was the work of -‘old minds.’ Consider, for instance, the historical romances of Major -John Richardson and the satiric humor of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, the -poetry of Oliver Goldsmith, 2nd, and of such _émigrés_ as Charles -Heavysege and John Reade, the romantic poetic dramas of John -Hunter-Duvar and the prose tales of James De Mille. We observe that, -despite certain engaging novelty in themes and treatment, it is all the -work of old men; that is to say, of minds which were attempting to -‘transplant’ old traditional methods and the forms of a past literature -in a soil which was naturally hostile to their growth and gave them a -mean and dry exotic existence. - -If we fancy that we discover in the best Pre-Confederation literature -the fresh beauty and vitality of youth, we shall discover, if we look -critically, that this vitality and beauty are the last hectic or pale -flowering of an exotic English literature, and that, commingled with the -beauty, are the wrinkles of sapless age. To be sure, there is the flame -of creative fire in, for example, Richardson and Haliburton. -Notwithstanding, it is the flame which flares up, with a startling -brilliancy, just before it dies out. - -In truth, then, Pre-Confederation Canadian Literature was essentially a -transplanted Old World literature. Inevitably it was alien to the soil -of Canadian life, genius, and ideals. It, therefore, lacks real -vitality, vigor, and truth. Except in Nova Scotia, in the time of -Haliburton and Howe, it was the outcome of personal, not necessary -social expression. - -But, after Confederation, expression of the spiritual and social needs -of the Great Dominion became a national necessity. This expression, -being born out of the spiritual and social needs of Canada, must be -considered, however derivative the mere forms employed, as a genuine -literary Renaissance. The period or movement begun by the systematic -groups of poets and prose writers born in Canada in 1860, 1861, and 1862 -may, then, properly be denoted as the First Renaissance in Canadian -Literature. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - - Charles G. D. Roberts - - ROBERTS SPONSOR TO LAMPMAN—LITERARY FATHER OF BLISS CARMAN— - MASTER OF VERSE TECHNIQUE—FORMS OF HIS VERSE, AND ITS QUALITIES. - -Whether Charles G. D. Roberts had a genuine formative influence on -Canadian literature, particularly Canadian poetry, or whether he should -be regarded merely as ‘the eldest brother’ of the first systematic group -of Canadian poets and prose writers may, possibly, be a moot question. -Of a certainty he was the first native-born Canadian to take the leading -role in making real and permanent, both by singular influences and by -actual production in poetry and imaginative prose, a native and national -literature in Canada. - -First: Roberts was the literary _sponsor_ of Archibald Lampman. In 1884, -while editor of _The Week_, Roberts published in that periodical the -very first poems which Lampman contributed to the public press (_The -Coming of Winter_, and _Three-Flower Petals_). This is much more -significant than appears on first view. It must be remembered that -Roberts, though but twenty-four years old at the time of his editorship, -had already published, in 1880, his _Orion and Other Poems_, which had -been well received by the critical press in England and the United -States. This distinction, abetted by his editorial connection with -Goldwin Smith, the founder of _The Week_, gave him some of the glory of -a new literary ‘star’ and made him an authority whose good opinion of -another’s verse was very inspiring when it took the form of introducing -a young unknown native poet to the Canadian public. In 1884 Lampman was -a young man, human, sensitive, and shy. Roberts was the first to -recognize Lampman’s authentic genius and the first to give him that -practical encouragement which alone counts constructively—a first and -right start, _per aspera_ indeed, but, for Lampman, _ad astra_. - -Roberts was also the ‘literary father’ of Bliss Carman. In 1885 Roberts -was appointed Professor of Literature at King’s College, Windsor, Nova -Scotia. It was Roberts who really trained Bliss Carman in the poetic -perception of Nature and in poetic technique and who inspired him to -begin a poetic career. It all happened in this way: To Roberts’ home, at -Windsor, came Bliss Carman, a cousin of the elder poet. Here Carman -spent several of his growing, most impressionable, and most receptive -years, coming directly under the pervasive influences—the aesthetic -culture and a tutorship in poetic technique—of the elder poet. Further: -with Windsor as a centre, and Roberts as a companion and guide, Carman -made excursions over the lovely and glamorous scenes and haunts of -beauty near and beyond Roberts’ home. Carman, with Roberts, dwelt and -communed with Nature intimately, visited the hiding places of earthly -beauty, fed his senses with pure delight of stream, lake and marsh, -woodland and sky, tuned his heart to hear, with peculiar meaning and -joy, the cries of the denizens of the woodland, the murmurings, -dronings, and shrillings of insects, and the dulcet lilting voices of -birds. Also, in fancy and peaceful reverie, Carman lived over again all -the rare moments and joys of sensation and spiritual ecstasy experienced -by him in that lovely area of country conscribing Windsor, the land of -Evangeline, the Gaspereau valley, the Basin of Minas, and the Tantramar -marshes. - -Thus the young Carman’s senses and imagination discovered the beauty, -glamor, and glory of land and sea. Inevitably, at length, he was -inspired to emulate the elder poet, Roberts, and to begin the systematic -writing of the winning lyrism which, in the years that followed, has -given Carman a name _sui generis_, not only amongst the poets of his -homeland, Canada, but also amongst the poets of the English-speaking -races. - -Again: two years after taking up his residence at Windsor, Roberts -published his really epoch-making volume of poetry, _In Divers Tones_ -(1887). This was his second volume of verse and, in it, his genius and -art shone with greater glory, especially in the eyes of the critics and -poets of the United States who were not likely to think, at any rate in -that day, that anything could come out of Canada, particularly Nova -Scotia, except pulpwood, coal, fish, and potatoes. Roberts and his -poetic work disillusioned the young Canadian poet’s American cousins and -taught them that Canada produced mind, and even poetic genius. - -Roberts was related to Carman by blood and temperament and poetic -tutorship. These facts of various relationship between Roberts and -Carman became known in the United States; and the light of Roberts’ -literary reputation was reflected on his cousin, Bliss Carman. It was, -therefore, natural that the editor of _The Atlantic Monthly_ should, as -actually happened, publish in that magazine Carman’s first significant -poem, _Low Tide on Grand Pré_ (1887), which became the title poem of his -first volume of verse, _Low Tide on Grand Pré: a Book of Lyrics_ (New -York, 1893). All this is more significant than it seems. - -For a young poet, story-teller, or essayist to have his work published -in _The Atlantic Monthly_ is a literary distinction by itself. The -imprimatur of _The Atlantic Monthly_ is as a royal seal in the kingdom -of letters on the American continent. Largely through the sponsorship of -Roberts’ reputation, Carman was favorably known to the editor of _The -Atlantic Monthly_. When, therefore, the magazine published Carman’s -first important poem, the poet was properly and most significantly -introduced to the literary world. For _The Atlantic Monthly_ enters only -the homes of the most cultured readers in the United States, Canada, and -the United Kingdom. The placing of its imprimatur on the verse of Bliss -Carman was a declaration to the world that Canada had produced another -new and engaging poet. - -Once more: at least in one matter Roberts had a considerable influence -on several of the other members of the first systematic group of -Canadian poets. He was the first native-born Canadian poet to be -solicitous about poetic technique, and had thus won the notice and even -commendation of critics and poets in England and the United States. In -his _Orion_ and in his _In Divers Tones_ Roberts held up the ideal of -finished technique in poetry. Roberts’ success from 1880 to 1887 became, -therefore, an inspiration to other poets in the first systematic group, -and inspired them to accomplish a body of verse excellent enough, at -least in technique, for publication in volume form without danger of -discrediting themselves and their country. So, in fact, it happened: -Lampman and Scott (F. G.) published their first volume of verse in 1888; -Campbell his first in 1889; Carman his first in 1893: Scott (D. C.) his -first in 1893; Pauline Johnson her first in 1895. - -Still further: it was Roberts’ two volumes of verse that first called -the attention of the literary public in the United States and in England -to the fact that _systematic_ literary activity was going on in Canada, -and that first awakened critical curiosity about the new Canadian poets -and their verse whenever a volume by Roberts or any of his poetic -compatriots was published. Roberts’ renown obtained for the others a -ready and just ‘hearing.’ This achieved, the quality of their verse, -especially of their nature-poetry, brought them, it is fair to say, very -favorable appreciation from the critics and poets of the United States -and England. - -Finally: Roberts is related to the first systematic group of Canadian -poets and prose writers, not only pragmatically as sponsor, inspirer, -and leader: but also in a special way. He was the ‘Voice’ of the -Canadian Confederacy. Seven years after the publication of his _Orion_, -suddenly the Canadian people heard Roberts trumpeting a new song. In it -there was nothing classical in theme, and nothing cold and correctly -formal in artistic structure and finish. Roberts had changed from an -Artist to a Prophet, from an Artificer in verse to a Voice—the Voice of -one crying in the wilderness and trying to make straight the paths of -the Canadian people. He was still a young man but he had been vouchsafed -vision and he called magniloquently to his compatriots, thus:— - - O Child of Nations, giant-limbed, - Who stand’st among the nations now - Unheeded, unadorned, unhymned, - With unanointed brow,— - - How long the ignoble sloth, how long - The trust in greatness not thine own? - Surely the lion’s brood is strong - To front the world alone! - -He repeated his trumpeting to the Canadian to awake to a national -consciousness of destiny and to achieve that destiny—he repeated the -‘call’ in language even more magniloquent—in his _Ode to the Canadian -Confederacy_. - -Perhaps these were only ‘occasional’ poems, artificially inspired. At -any rate Roberts’ Vision of Canadian nationality and his interest in -expressing it forsook him. A few years after uttering the ‘Call’ he left -his native Canadian habitat (in 1895) for New York. Yet in the fifteen -years from 1880 to 1895 in the homeland, or till his removing to New -York, by his own fine artistry and by the influence, at least of his -example, on his contemporaries in Canada, Roberts was considerably, -perhaps chiefly, potent in raising native Canadian poetry to a degree of -technical finish that was never before reached or even attempted by -native-born Canadian men and women of letters. - -Summarily: as discoverer and sponsor of Lampman, as inspirer and sponsor -of Carman, and as exemplar, at least in technical ideals, to the first -native-born group of systematic poets of the Dominion, Charles G. D. -Roberts wielded a constructive influence on Canadian native and national -poetry. That without his influence there would still have been a -Systematic School of Canadian Poets, of which Lampman, Carman, or D. C. -Scott might have been the most conspicuous creator, is a high -probability. But it is a theoretical probability. We cannot, however, -gainsay the fact of Roberts’ constructive influence on his _confrères_ -in the Systematic School of Canadian Poets. On the grounds, therefore, -of his triple role as sponsor, inspirer, and exemplar, and of his own -creative poetic art, Charles G. D. Roberts is justly to be distinguished -as the Inaugurator of the First Renaissance in Canadian Literature. - -Roberts’ own poetry may be critically appreciated (1) as a recrudescence -of the English classical idyll; (2) as poetry of nature, with special -reference to its distinction from the nature-poetry of Lampman; (3) as -elegiac poetry; and (4) as poetry of modern eroticism. - -At the outset it is important to emphasize two singular facts. First, -with the single notable exception of Roberts’ spasmodic ‘Call’ to the -Canadian people to achieve a national destiny, and with the further -exception of a national or Canadian setting and color in some of his -nature-poetry, Roberts’ verse is anything but Canadian. Secondly, -Roberts’ poetry is signally an example of poetry which is not, to use -Mathew Arnold’s formula, ‘a profound and beautiful application of ideas -to life.’ It is characteristic of the essential Canadian genius that its -attitudes to the universe and to existence are moral and religious, that -it values the fine arts, including literature, as a means for the ideal -enhancement of life, and loves the Beautiful in the fine arts as the -only visible instance of the union of the real and of the ideal, which -is, philosophically viewed, our only pledge of the ultimate supremacy of -the Good. The only really deadly criticism, therefore, that can be -applied against the poetry of Roberts is that he has missed in his own -verse the supreme ethical note or ideal which is in the poetry of one of -his masters, Keats:— - - Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - -and that he did not engage himself to write poetry, with the intent -which was really the aim of Keats, as well as of Arnold, namely, as a -profound and beautiful application of ideas to life. Aware now of the -unethical intent and quality of Robert’s poetry, we can the better and -more justly appreciate his development as a poet and his achievements in -poetic substance and technique. - -It was natural and inevitable that an undergraduate introduced, at -College, into the world of letters through the poetry of the Greek and -Latin classics and the highly lyrical and sensuous poetry of Shelley, -Keats, and Tennyson, should, when he himself felt impelled to write, -produce poetry which, in substance and style, was based on classical -themes, and colored with sensuous images, and that, when critically -estimated, this poetry should be valued as a sincere but finished -academic exercise in verse. Roberts’ first volume, _Orion and Other -Poems_, was just such an academic exercise in verse. Yet it was an -exercise by a lad just out of college who not only informed his verse -with a respectable showing of classical scholarship and with an engaging -Arcadian setting and color but also wrote with so careful a technique -that when his verse was compared with that of earlier Canadian poets, it -was found to be unprovincial in scope and appeal, and more finished in -technique than any previous Canadian verse. It was indeed derivative, -literary, academic. It was vitiated with youthful crudities in thought -and manner and certain borrowings. But, on the whole, it was as -excellent a first book of verse as might be issued by any young Oxford -or Cambridge undergraduate or, conceivably, by Shelley, Tennyson, or -Swinburne in their undergraduate days. Indeed, critics and poets in -England and in the United States, in reviewing _Orion and Other Poems_, -noted the volume as a respectable performance in verse and a fair -promise of excellent future poetry from the Dominion. - -Roberts’ first volume _Orion and Other Poems_ is a significant -disclosure, both positively and negatively, of his essential genius and -art. Positively, the bias or bend of his genius was towards English -neo-classical idyllism and sensuous impressionism. Negatively, his -genius lacked, and has continued to lack, original imagination or -imaginative power. In his first volume, his ‘properties,’ to use a term -borrowed from the stage and employed by Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate, -are the same ‘properties’ as appear in the Keatsian idyll. In Roberts’ -earliest verse masquerade mythical Greek deities and heroes, sylvan -demi-gods and demi-goddesses, Arcadian denizens and shepherds, painted -with rich sensuous color against a background of pastoral or idyllic -landscape, to the accompaniment of impressionistic verbal music; -alliteration, consonance, assonance, and vowel-harmony. All this is a -recrudescence, unmistakably, of the same qualities in Keats, Tennyson, -and Swinburne. In short, Roberts appears as an unoriginal or -unimaginative nature-and-figure-painter and verbal melodist. A single -example from _Orion_ will suffice:— - - For there the deep-eyed night - Looked down on me; unflagging voices called - From unpent waters falling; tireless wings - From long winds bear me tongueless messages - From star-consulting, silent pinnacles; - And breadth, and depth, and stillness - Fathered me. - -In that passage criticism at once notes that Roberts, as a very young -poet, begins his professional career as a clever ‘word virtuoso.’ That -passage certainly suggests, as no doubt it imitates, the sensuous -impressionism of the Choric Song in Tennyson’s _Lotus Eaters_. Its -verbal music carries the same kind of vague impressionism which we hear -in the gossamer tone-painting of Debussy’s orchestral prelude -_L’Après-midi d’un Faune_. No one will doubt the sincere ambition of -Roberts to be a poet, and the sincerity of his choice of themes and -properties, diction, and poetic style. Yet, while noting the -artificiality of it all, one does wonder that a tyro poet could, in a -first volume of undergraduate verse, so consummately simulate, as -Roberts did, the art of the supreme masters of English neo-classical -idyllism and impressionism. - -As yet, then, Roberts’ poetry discloses only talent in him, nothing of -genius, or originality, or imagination. His poetry is, after all, a -cleverly sublimated academic exercise. Literary psychologists cannot -escape the feeling that Roberts deliberately ‘manufactured’ his first -volume of verse—cannot help picturing the young poet diligently -figuring away in his student’s cloister at the properties, forms and -metres of his imitative idyllism and impressionism. It is all Artifice; -all artificial. As yet in Roberts’ verse there is no ‘note’ of -inspiration awakened by the magic and mystery of the great Dominion—no -New World ‘note’ caught from Canadian Nature, or from Canadian romantic -life and contemporary civilization. - -In his second volume of poems, _In Divers Tones_, there is an advance in -variety of inspiration, in his forms and metres, and in finish of -technique. Still, on the whole, the themes and properties, rhythms, -metres, and color are those of English neo-classical idyllism and -impressionism. There is, however, some suggestion of a change away from -his former too imitative adherence to the subject, manner, and style of -the English idyllists. There is, for instance, a suggestion of a -structural, but not ethical, influence from Browning. There is, in this -regard, a Browningesque coinage of unconventional or awkward diction, an -adoption of a Browningesque metre and an introduction of ‘medley’ as -when he inserts, after the Browning manner, a lyrical interlude, -unexpectedly and with no logical justification, into the text of a -broader, more serious movement and more ethically informed subject. His -second volume of poetry, _In Divers Tones_, shows that Roberts has -talent, but is still unimaginative and artificial. Yet his second volume -is much more significant than his first, not by its being more various -in its themes and forms, but by its exhibiting new tendencies in the -bent of the poet’s mind and imagination. There is a tendency towards -ethical influences and to get away from his early preoccupation with -English neo-classical idyllism and impressionism. There is also the -merest show of a tendency to occupy his imagination with ideas of the -Canadian ‘spirit’ and the beauty and wonder of Nature in Canada. There -is, however, no distinctive embodiment of inspirational ideas or moods -awakened by the Great Dominion or the New World. - -Notwithstanding, in his second volume Roberts is taking his first step -on the way to the expression of the essential form and manner of his -creative genius as a poet. He was born to lilt, in simple lyrical and -descriptive verse, the aesthetic sensations and the emotional nuances of -Canadian life and external nature. In short, Roberts was born to become, -as he did become, the most engaging and artistic, though not the first, -native-born Canadian idyllist. _In Divers Tones_ he first appears as a -really significant creative Canadian poet. But whenever, in his later -literary career, Roberts forsakes his light or simple idyllic and -impressionistic treatment of Canadian life and external nature, as he -forsakes it in the monody, in his poetry of city life, and in his poetry -of modern eroticism, he may be engaging or arresting or impressive, but -in nowise is he creatively significant. - -In the same volume, _In Divers Tones_, Roberts exhibits two manners. In -some poems in the volume he clings to his old manner of English -Classical Impressionism. In other poems in the same volume he essays his -new manner of Canadian Impressionism. The first is distinguished by -overweighted sensuousness, by over-burdened luxurious color of -descriptive epithet and verbal music. An impressive example is _Off -Pelorus_, the sensuous quality of which may be suggested by the -following single stanza:— - - Idly took we thought, for still our eyes betray us, - Lo, the white-limbed maids, with love-soft eyes aglow, - Gleaming bosoms bare, loosed hair, sweet hands to slay us, - Warm lips wild with song, and softer throat than snow! - -Roberts’ strictly Canadian Impressionism is colorful and musical, but -the structure of the verse is simple, as, for instance, _On the Creek_, -an idyllic lyric, full of Canadian color, and highly alliterative, -beginning:— - - Dear heart, the noisy strife, - And bitter harpings cease. - Here is the lamp of life, - Here are the lips of peace. - -Roberts developed other ‘manners’ or styles. But, unquestionably, this -Canadian idyllic impressionism, simple in thought and form, yet colorful -and musical, is his natural _forte_—his _natural, characteristic -manner_. It is exemplified, in the same volume, by other Canadian idylls -in the simple style of _On the Creek_, as, for instance, _In The -Afternoon_, _Salt_, _Winter Geraniums_, _Birch and Paddle_; by distinct -and deliberate suffusions of Canadian Nature in dactylic hexameters, as -in _The Tantramar Revisited_, and in the sonnet-form (somewhat -anticipating the nature-poetry of Lampman), as in Roberts’ genuinely -noble sonnets _The Sower_, and _The Potato Harvest_. - -We may turn now to a general consideration of Roberts’ poetic treatment -of Nature. In Roberts’ first volume, in his strictly Arcadian poetry, -there is nothing of Canadian Nature, nothing of Canadian scenery, nor -the color and sentiment of Canadian life in the habitat of the -distinctive Canadian spirit. In the second volume, _In Divers Tones_, -there is a definitive engagement, on his part, with Canadian Nature, or -with Canadian life and sentiment pictured against Canadian backgrounds; -and also a change in the form and style of Roberts’ poetic composition. - -The natural forms of Roberts’ art are light, simple, lyrical, and -descriptive verse, which he treats with charming naturalness, almost -_naiveté_, with simple tunefulness of ballad or folk rhythms, and which -sometimes he delicately suffuses with a contemplative revery, a gentle -melancholy, or a subdued sentimental reflection on the magic and mystery -of Nature and life, somewhat in the manner of Herrick and Tennyson, and -Longfellow. But Roberts’ lyrical idyllism or nature-description is not -always wholly soft or sentimental, pretty, or gentle, or charming, nor -is his new manner always in folk rhythm in form. At times, even when -simple, his verse is picturesque, even brusque, vigorous, and -overweighted with descriptive details as if, in the last matter, he must -‘paint in’ all the features and properties of Canadian Nature and leave -nothing of its physiognomy to be added by the imagination of the reader. - -Roberts, however, has one singular limitation, an innate defect of his -genius. He cannot limn the human person or figure as one of the -properties of his poetry of Canadian woodlands or pastoral scenery and -life. In the matter of human portraiture against a background of Nature -Roberts, as poet, is abstract and faltering in drawing, lifeless, -unveracious, ineffective. Otherwise in the Canadian idyll or in -nature-description he is concrete, veracious, simple but graphic, nearly -always winningly musical and on the whole satisfying. In short, Roberts -discloses in his new manner, in the Canadian idyll and his Acadian -nature-poetry, the sure possession of the secrets of color, movement and -music, and of real Canadian national sentiment, in the presence of life -and nature. He is an adroit nature-colorist and verbal melodist. - -Absent, however, from his genius and art are all gifts in spiritual -portraiture and the fine and noble interpretation of Nature which -Lampman discloses in his nature-poetry and his interpretation of the -essential Canadian spirit from the embodiment of that spirit, as Lampman -discerns it, in Nature in Canada. - -Roberts’ treatment of Nature may be illustrated by examples taken from -his second volume, _In Divers Tones_ (1887), and from _The Book of the -Native_ (1896), in the latter of which are some poems that really -belong, in form, and spirit, to the time when he was changing his -abstract _Arcadian_ manner to his concrete _Acadian_ manner as in his -_In Divers Tones_. Illustrative of Roberts’ change to a Canadian theme -and to the modern simple method of treating Nature, in the -pseudo-classical style, an apt example is _The Tantramar Revisited_, -composed in the dactylic hexameter, a form, suggested, no doubt, by -Longfellow’s pretty story of Evangeline. In this poem Roberts treats -Canadian Nature with an impressive originality in properties, color, and -sentiment, and certainly with a pervasive directness and veracity which -prove his sincerity and which convince the reader that the poet was -moved by the beauty and pathos of his Acadian subject:— - - Ah, the old-time stir, how once it stung me with rapture,— - Old-time sweetness, the winds freighted with honey and salt! - Yet will I stay my steps and not go down to the marshland,— - Muse and recall far off, rather remember than see,— - Lest on too close sight I miss the darling illusion, - Spy at their task even here the hands of chance and change. - -What a change in Roberts—this change from the abstract, artificial, -academic, over-sensuous treatment of Nature in Arcadia to his direct, -simple, concrete treatment of real nature in Acadia, with his poet’s -eyes directly ‘on the object.’ There we have the real, the genuine -Roberts, the original authentic poet of Canadian Nature and life and -nationality. - -For an example of his colored realism or idyllic naturalism tinged with -a sort of Wordsworthian plainness or austerity of style and ethical -revery, consider his sonnet _The Sower_. It has been called Roberts’ -‘popular masterpiece.’ As a sonnet, it is perfect in artistic structure, -and is as faithful to Canadian Nature and sentiment as, say, Millet’s -paintings, _The Reapers_ and _The Angelus_, are true to French pastoral -life and religious sentiment. - -But this sonnet is a good example of Roberts’ ineffectiveness in human -or spiritual portraiture. How effectively it pictures for us the land, -the sky, the birds, the human properties of the Acadian landscape in -Nova Scotia. The poem visualizes vividly for us all the features and -elements of external Nature; yet it fails to visualize the Sower -_himself_, to limn him effectively, graphically, impressively against -the background of Nature as, on the other hand, Millet has graphically -limned the human figures in his paintings against the French landscape. - -Finally: a poem which is a really fine example of Roberts’ -characteristic genius and art in the authentic Canadian idyll and in -nature-description, and which, perhaps, contains his nearest approach to -graphic figure-poetry, namely, his lyric _The Solitary Woodsman_, is -specially noteworthy. Though published in _The Book of the Native_, it -really belongs to the period of _In Divers Tones_ when Roberts was -changing over to his natural and characteristic manner of Canadian -idyllic impressionism. For it is a gentle, natural, and simple lyrical -idyll of Canadian Nature and life, tinged with a delicate mood of -contemplation and pathos. A touch more of ‘personal detail,’ of moral -characterization, would have made _The Solitary Woodsman_ as universal -and popular a portrait as the genre picture of the hardy, happy village -blacksmith in Longfellow’s poem with that subject. Nevertheless, the -poem has vigor, action, life-likeness; it is veracious and picturesque. -In it Roberts is at his best in the Canadian lyrical idyll and in -figure-portraiture. - -Strict analysis of Roberts’ nature-poetry reveals both the positive -qualities and the defects of his genius and art. As a poet of Nature in -Acadia he hardly more than effects _glimpses_ of Canadian scenery and -pastoral life, colorful, no doubt, and tinged with a homely or even -tender naturalistic sentiment. His pictures of Canadian scenery and -pastoral life are indeterminate _pastels_ of the general features of -Nature in Canada rather than rich, broad paintings done with the -forthright, broad brush-work of a master artist. It is all pretty, or -charming, and faithful to Nature in Acadia. But it is all based on -superficial observation and is devoid of poetic, that is to say, -profound and beautiful application of ideas to life. It is not to be -expected that the Canadian people will treasure these pastels of -Canadian scenery and pastoral life. For though they be beautiful, -simple, and realistic, the ethical element in them is always a -reflection, a moral platitude, from the poet’s own moralizing, or a -recrudescence of some older poets’ moralizings. - -The public is quick to detect insincerity in a poet. While it would not -be just to accuse Roberts of insincerity whenever he attempts to -moralize in his nature-poetry, or to give it a moral or religious -significance, it is still true that Roberts’ nature-poetry is too -superficial, too obviously ‘an effort’ to make pretty or charming -pastels of Canadian scenery and pastoral life, too lacking in thoroughly -humanized treatment of Nature, to be popular or cherished for its own -sake by the Canadian people. - -His pure lyrical pastels, as for instance, _On the Creek_, and _The -Solitary Woodsman_, are more likely to remain permanently popular than -are his Nature poems in other forms, as, for example, the genuinely -important sonnet-sequence in his _Songs of the Common Day_ (1893). In -these sonnets, however, he shows no increase of descriptive power but -only the variety of his word-painter’s palette. Moreover, in these -sonnets there is a felt insincerity of aim. Though fine in structure, -faithful to Canadian Nature, variously treating the aspects of Canadian -Nature, and often sentimental and moralistic, they impress the reader as -having been designed and written deliberately to show forth the poet’s -powers in realistic or naturalistic impressionism, in the philosophical -interpretation of Nature, and in technical artistry. Notwithstanding, it -must be admitted that in these sonnets Roberts, as an impressionistic -painter of Canadian Nature, is a master, and has his analogues, in the -pictorial painting of Nature, in Corot and Millet, and in the tonal -painting of Nature, in MacDowell and Debussy. These sonnets were -consciously designed to be ‘works of art,’ and to impress the -philosophically minded poets and critics of poetic form. Fine and -masterful as they are in technical artistry, and impressive, too, with a -resurgence of moral ideas, nevertheless they appeal neither to the -popular heart nor to the philosophical imagination. For they create in -the heart of the reader the sense only of a splendid achievement in -poetic artistry, but never any sense of the poet’s own enrichment of -life from his interpretation of beauty in Canadian Nature, civilization, -and life. - -Summarily: as an original Poet, Roberts’ _forte_ is the treatment of -Canadian Nature and pastoral life in impressionistic pastels, to an -accompaniment of verbal music in folk rhythms or simple lyric forms. -Thus accepted and appreciated he is a satisfying nature-colorist and -melodist. But, impressive and magnificent, as he is, in more formal or -larger poetic genres, as for instance, the sonnet and monody, he fails -to give us in both a vital application of ideas to life. - -Consideration of Roberts’ poetry of modern eroticism reveals only what -has been called a variety of Roberts’ ‘ethical heterogeneity.’ This, -however, is a defect in the man rather than in the poet, and only -negatively affects Roberts’ significance in the literary history of -Canada. Roberts’ work as a threnodist, romantic novelist, and inventor -of a species of animal psychology in the romance is considered -elsewhere. It is, however, as the inaugurator of the First Renaissance -in Canadian Literature, both poetry and prose, rather than as a poet of -Canadian Nationality and Nature, that Roberts has a right to a supremely -significant status in the literary history of Canada. - - * * * * * - -The quotations from Charles G. D. Roberts’ works are found in the -individual volumes mentioned in the text. There is also issued a -collection entitled, _Poems_ by Charles G. D. Roberts—New complete -edition—(Copp, Clark Co., Toronto, 1907). - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - - Archibald Lampman - - AN INTERPRETER OF THE ESSENTIAL SPIRIT OF CANADA—STUDY OF - LAMPMAN’S ‘SAPPHICS’—POWER OF HUMANIZING NATURE—EXCELLENCE OF - HIS SONNETS—CONSUMMATE ARTIST OF NATURAL BEAUTY. - -In 1887 Charles G. D. Roberts had, with his poem beginning ‘O Child of -Nations’ and again with his magniloquent _Ode to the Canadian -Confederacy_, issued a ‘call’ to the Canadian people to realize a -national consciousness and to achieve a national destiny. He appeared as -the ‘Voice’ of Canada. But he was a mere ‘Voice.’ For aside from simply -uttering the ‘call’ he did nothing else to awaken in the Canadian people -a consciousness of their own native or national spirit and a love of -country, except to publish some impressionistic word pictures of -Canadian scenery and pastoral life. - -Meanwhile Swinburne had told the world that out of Canada or Australia -would come a great New Voice of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. In 1889, or two -years after Roberts had trumpeted his ‘call’ to Canadians, Theodore -Watts-Dunton, poet, novelist, and the most far-visioned of British -critics then living, in an article on Canadian poetry made the same -prophecy as had Swinburne. ‘Canada,’ he said, ‘had excellent poets, and -with the development of a national consciousness of the history, -resources and wealth of the country, would produce great poets.’ In -1918, or practically thirty years after the prophecies of Swinburne and -Watts-Dunton and the ‘call’ of Roberts, Sir Herbert Warren, President of -Magdalen College, Oxford, and Professor of Poetry at Oxford, in an -address on ‘Overseas Poetry,’ as he called it, before the Royal Colonial -Institute, London, also confessed to a vision of great poets arising in -Canada and said that, in his view, so far Canada had produced only ‘some -_good_ poets.’ It is probable that the prophecies of Swinburne and -Watts-Dunton were merely generous pleasantries or, possibly, ‘guesses at -the truth.’ In any case what they were really concerned about was the -appearance of a great _Imperial_ poet in Canada or some other one of the -British Overseas Dominions. - -What Canadians themselves should be concerned about is not whether -Canada has produced a significant Imperial poet but whether the Dominion -has produced a signally excellent poet who, if not the prophetic Voice -of the Dominion, is the true _Interpreter_ of the essential Canadian -spirit. - -When Sir Herbert Warren declared that Canada had produced only some good -poets, he had in mind Roberts, Carman, Pauline Johnson, Valancy -Crawford, W. H. Drummond, and Robert Service. But the greatest poet that -Canada has produced, greatest as a nature-poet, and as an interpreter of -the essential mind and heart of the Canadian people and country, is -Archibald Lampman. If Lampman is not great in the sense that Shelley or -Keats or Wordsworth or Tennyson or Browning or Swinburne is great, at -least he is more than a good poet. He is a consummate artist. But more -important, he is a subtle interpreter of the Canadian national spirit by -way of a new and philosophical interpretation of Nature in Canada. He is -_par excellence_ the poet of Canadian Nature and Nationality. - -For inductive proof of ‘nationality’ in literature, consider critically, -and at some length, from Lampman’s poetry, an impressive example of -wholly indigenous expression of the Canadian genius and the Canadian -view of Nature and of Life. Justly it may be held that this example of -interpretative nature-poetry by Lampman, which goes under the name of -_Sapphics_, is, for faultless technic, for spiritual vision of Nature -and for the beautiful application of noble ideas to life, an indubitable -contribution to poetic art, and is peculiarly Canadian. This is not too -high praise; for the poem itself, with analyses of its form and beauty, -together with a commentary on its spiritual meaning, will furnish -sufficient evidence that it must be given a unique place in Canadian -Literature. For easy expository purposes the poem may be divided into -three parts, which contain its three themes and their inspiration:— - - I - Clothed in splendor, beautifully sad and silent, - Comes the autumn over the woods and highlands, - Golden, rose-red, full of divine remembrance, - Full of foreboding. - - Soon the maples, soon will the glowing birches, - Stripped of all that summer and love had dowered them, - Dream, sad-limbed, beholding their pomp and treasure - Ruthlessly scattered: - - Yet they quail not; Winter, with wind and iron, - Comes and finds them silent and uncomplaining, - Finds them tameless, beautiful still and gracious, - Gravely enduring. - - II - Me, too, changes, bitter and full of evil, - Dream by dream have plundered and left me naked, - Gray with sorrow. Even the days before me - Fade into twilight, - - Mute and barren. Yet will I keep my spirit - Clear and valiant, brother to these my noble - Elms and maples, utterly grave and fearless, - Grandly ungrieving. - - III - Brief the span is, counting the years of mortals, - Strange and sad; it passes and then the bright earth, - Careless mother, gleaming with gold and azure, - Lovely with blossoms— - - Shining white anemones, mixed with roses, - Daisies mild-eyed, grasses and honeyed clover— - You and me, and all of us, met and equal, - Softly shall cover. - -The pure beauty of that poem, of its spiritual imagery, of its rhythmic -flow and cadences, _andante tranquillo_, and the noble mood and emotion -it induces—how it all affects the heart and imagination like music -heard in dim cathedral aisles, or recalls us from the vulgar -distractions of life to sequestered retreats in the Canadian wildwood, -there to contemplate existence with a subdued joy and tender peace! Nay -more, we rise from communing with the poet, as he did from his communion -with Nature, anointed with a new spiritual grace and with a new strength -to achieve, amidst ten thousand vicissitudes of fortune, a right worthy -destiny—‘grandly ungrieving.’ - -Each of the three parts of the poem has its own theme and inspiration. -The first section gives us the poet’s vision of Nature and of Nature’s -own (as well as the poet’s) autumnal mood. This is an important -distinction. It distinguishes a peculiar Canadian pictorializing and -humanizing vision of Nature. Who can mistake in what land comes that -autumn, ‘clothed in a splendor,’ and ‘beautifully sad and silent,’ in -what land flourish those woods, ‘golden, rose-red,’ and in what land -rise those hills, ‘full of divine remembrance’? Those are indisputably, -unmistakably, Canadian woods and hills, in their precise autumnal garb -and mood. - -Some would contend that this way of pictorializing Nature is Grecian or -even English. Rather is it peculiarly Canadian. It is so for this -reason: The Greeks, as it were, ‘decked out’ Nature solely for the -sensuous enjoyment of a world made lovely to look upon or pleasant to -dwell in. The external beauty of Nature was with them, as with Keats and -Wordsworth, when these two did not assume the moralizing attitude, the -sufficient reason for their impressionistic word-painting. With Lampman, -as with the Kelts (and Lampman was a Gael on his mother’s side), the -physical loveliness of the face and garb of Nature is an essential, -living aspect of earth. For does not Nature herself, as if conscious and -reflective, change her aspect and garb becomingly with her seasons and -moods? Lampman’s attitude to Nature is not the attitude of an -impressionistic landscape painter, but of one for whom physical -loveliness is supremely a spiritual revealment. This, however, might be -wholly Keltic, and not Canadian. But it is Canadian, and not Keltic, -because the interior revealment expresses a special view of Nature and a -special mode of intimate communion between the Canadian heart and the -spirit of Nature in Canadian woods and streams and hills. - -Part second of the poem gives us an altogether novel and original -spiritual interpretation of Nature’s mood and temper. It is a mood or -temper, be it remarked, not expressed by Nature in any land save Canada, -and not to be divined, and sympathized with, by any other racial genius -save by the mind and heart indigenous to Canada, sensitive emotionally -to the varying aspects and manner of Nature in Canada, as children to -the meaning of changes in the facial expression and manner of a mother. - -The uncritical, having in mind that inveterate sermonizer Wordsworth, -may think that Lampman in this poem does but ‘moralize’ Nature. Far from -it, Lampman ‘humanizes’ Nature in a peculiar way, namely, by reciprocal -sympathy. We must mark that—‘reciprocal sympathy’—as an original -Canadian contribution to the poetic interpretation, the spiritual -revealment, of Nature. Lampman, as he says himself, is ‘brother’ to -Nature. Her reflections on her own vicissitudes are as his own on his -fortunes of life. The Poet and Nature, though two physically, are one by -mutual bonds of sympathy. The poet sympathizes with Nature as he himself -feels that she sympathizes with him. Thus does he humanize, not -sentimentally, but nobly, the Canadian maples and birches, which, as he -says:— - - Dream, sad-limbed, beholding their pomp and treasure - Ruthlessly scattered: - - Yet they quail not . . . . - -‘Yet they quail not’—there we have envisaged the mood and temper of -Canadian Nature! The Gael, visioning the maples and birches, with his -racial melancholy sentiment for glories departed, might say of them that -they ‘dream, sad-limbed.’ But only a Canadian, or a Canadian Gael, -apprehending, through sympathy, their inmost mood, could say of them, -nobly, inimitably: ‘Yet they quail not.’ And so Lampman, divining, with -a more than Keltic subtlety of vision, the spirit of the Canadian woods -in autumn, sympathetically responds to their mood, and is heartened to -endure, as they do, ‘silent and uncomplaining.’ - - Yet I will keep my spirit - Clear and valiant, brother to these my noble - Elms and maples, utterly grave and fearless, - Grandly ungrieving. - -‘Yet I will keep my spirit clear and valiant!’—Mark that as the -authentic _spiritual_ note of the Canadian genius. It is not Canadian, -however, merely because it is the expression of indomitable courage and -serenity, but because the idea, the inspiration, of a self-controlled -destiny, achieved with clearness of vision and valiant heart, first -comes to the mind and heart and moral imagination of the Canadian poet -_as a gift from Canadian woods_. He, for his part, conveys that gift to -his compatriots, by his poetic envisagement of the ‘brotherhood’ of Man -and Nature in this land of glowing birches, noble elms and maples. That -‘note’ of clear-visioned faith and courage and serenity is in Canadian -poetry of earlier days, long before the Confederacy, as well as in these -days of social and commercial progress. It was in the poetry of Sangster -and Mair in Ontario, and in the Gaelic verses of James MacGregor in Nova -Scotia. But it is most articulate and vocal in the poetry of Archibald -Lampman. - -Considering now the first two parts of Lampman’s poem as a whole, we -become aware that the first distinctively ‘national’ note in the -literature of the Canadian Confederacy is a unique humanizing of Nature, -singularly apparent in the Nature-poetry of Lampman—a sympathetic -identity of mood and temper, a reciprocal sense of brotherhood, between -Man and Nature. This is a psychological phenomenon by itself, belonging -solely to the Canadian genius and expressing itself, with fine art, -solely in Canadian poetry. - -Like other poets, British and American, Canadian poets have notable -pictorializing gifts, and can visualize a scene so vividly as to give a -reader of their verse the intimate view of an eye-witness of the -reality. They can, as aptly as Wordsworth, also moralize Nature and -convey a noble preachment. But of them all Lampman stands alone in -this—_the power to humanize Nature into personality, and -sympathetically identify her spirit with his own, in mood and will_. - -Lampman also stands alone in this—_in his love of local beauty and his -power to individualize and vitalize it_. This, too, is a ‘national’ note -and a psychological phenomenon by itself. His is not a love of Nature’s -beauty abstracted from a particular time and place, but of those very -scenes and haunts where first he beheld Nature in all her physical -loveliness and many moods and became her intimate companion and lover. -Lampman so individualizes and vitalizes his fields and woods, as -Campbell his lakes, Roberts his woods and marshes, and Carman his tide -and mists and April morns, that the reader can localize the region, and -‘time’ the season, of their inspiration with the nicest perception. So -singularly is this quality present, most notably in poetry of Lampman, -though also in the poetry of Roberts, Carman, Campbell, Duncan Campbell -Scott and Pauline Johnson, that a reader can, with absolute surety, say -not only, ‘This is Canadian nature-beauty,’ but also, ‘This is Canadian -nature-beauty in Nova Scotia, in New Brunswick, in Ontario.’ Surely, -then, this peculiar imaginative interpretation of Canadian Nature -whereby Lampman and his _confrères_, first, localize Nature, and, next, -humanize her noblest mood and temper into an identity with their own is -a supreme expression of the national spirit and raises -Post-Confederation poetry to the dignity of authentic literature. - -Canadians are, in the eyes of the older nations, a notably sane and -happy people. They are so because they keep their souls, in the phrase -of Lampman, always ‘clear and valiant,’ having, as Lampman, and even as -Roberts and the other poets of the First Renaissance in Canadian -Literature, a sure vision of the greatness of their country’s destiny -and of the means to it. The peculiar moral qualities of the Canadian -people are an inviolable faith in themselves, an indomitable courage, -and an imperturbable serenity. The ground and inspiration of these -qualities are in Canadian woods and hills and waters, and Archibald -Lampman, in his nature-poetry, interprets these qualities of the -Canadian people and country with sweet reasonableness and genuine -nobility. - -In two of his finest sonnets, rich both in aesthetic and in spiritual -beauty, and worthy both of Keats and Wordsworth, possibly suggesting the -spirit of their finest sonnets, Lampman has summarized his poetic and -philosophical creed. So beautiful in structure and imagery, so noble in -their expression of the courage and serenity and faith which obtain in -his _Sapphics_, and yet so wistful of the heavenly beauty and so infused -with the pathos of life are these sonnets, that they move the soul and -subdue the spirit with ‘thoughts too deep for tears.’ If there is any -genuine meaning to Arnold’s conception of the moral dignity and -spiritual function of poetry as ‘the profound and powerful application -of ideas of life,’ these two sonnets by Lampman quite match the finest -sonnets of the same degree of poetic vision by Keats, Wordsworth, and -Arnold:— - - I - Not to be conquered by these headlong days, - But to stand free; to keep the mind at brood - On life’s deep meaning, nature’s altitude - Or loveliness, and time’s mysterious ways; - At every thought and deed to clear the haze - Out of our eyes, considering only this, - What man, what life, what love, what beauty is, - This is to live, and win the final praise. - Though strife, ill fortune, and harsh human need - Beat down the soul, at moments blind and dumb, - With agony; yet, patience—there shall come - Many great voices from life’s outer sea, - Hours of strange triumph, and, when few men heed, - Murmurs and glimpses of eternity. - - II - There is a beauty at the goal of life, - A beauty growing since the world began, - Through every age and race, through lapse and strife, - Till the great human soul complete her span: - Beneath the waves of storm that lash and burn, - The currents of blind passion that appal, - To listen and keep watch till we discern - The tide of sovereign truth that guides it all; - So to address our Spirits to the height, - And so to attune them to the valiant whole, - That the great light be clearer for our light, - And the great soul the stronger for our soul: - To have done this is to have lived, though fame - Remembers us with no familiar name. - -Certainly these sonnets breath a higher spiritual air than do the finest -sonnets of Roberts, as, for instance, _The Sower_ and _The Potato -Harvest_. As certainly, in sustained serenity and moral import, as well -as in profound spiritual beauty, Lampman’s sonnet-sequence _The Frogs_ -surpasses Roberts’ sonnet-sequence in his _Songs of the Common -Day_,—not only technically and in nature-color and music but also in -transporting the spirit with inevitable ‘murmurs and glimpses of -eternity’:— - - And slowly as we heard you, day by day, - The stillness of enchanted reveries - Bound brain and spirit with half-closèd eyes, - In some divine sweet wonder-dream astray; - To us no sorrow or upreared dismay - Nor any discord come, but evermore - The voices of mankind, the outer roar, - Grew strange and murmurous, faint and far away. - - Morning and noon and midnight exquisitely, - Rapt with your voices, this alone we knew, - Cities might change and fall, and men might die, - Secure were we, content to dream with you - That change and air are shadows faint and fleet, - And dreams are real, and life is only sweet. - -There we have, not talent cleverly performing an academic exercise, but -serene and noble genius profoundly and finely interpreting and -appreciating Beauty and Good in the universe and in existence. -Indubitably Lampman is a master of the sonnet, a master whom those -greatest masters of the sonnet, Keats and Wordsworth, would welcome to -their company, and of whose company, as a nature-poet working in the -sonnet or the lyric forms, he really is. - -But Lampman is more than a philosophical interpreter of the mystery and -wonder of Nature and Life. He is also a consummate artist in revealing -to others his vision of the natural magic and beauty of Nature in -Canada. He is even a finer colorist and melodist than is Roberts. He is -such because he has finer powers of observation, and notes not merely -the general superficial beauty of the face of Nature but also the -minutest details of Nature’s physiognomy and garb, and the gentler, more -gracious of Nature’s moods. - -Unlike Roberts, Lampman is not a mere sensuous impressionist. He is an -artist with the same gifts as those of Thomas Gray for discerning, -appreciating, and envisaging in lyric verse the subtler and lovelier -beauties of fields and woods and hills and streams and sky, and for -interpreting to the spirit the meaning of pastoral beauty and life in -Canadian woods. Roberts paints charmingly indeed at times the mere face -of Nature. Lampman not only paints exquisitely and daintily the physical -loveliness and garb of Nature but also conveys her most winsome moods -and her daintiest messages for the refreshment and sustenance of the -spirit. Moreover, Lampman has Gray’s gift in limning the human figure, -of adding, with graphic nicety, a humanistic touch to his spiritual -portraits. As a poet who paints and interprets Nature with the intimate -vision and delicate brush of the artist, not with mere impressionism but -with minute and lovely truth and realism, and also as a poet who -humanizes Nature with graphic portraits and interprets Nature subtly and -intimately to the spirit, Lampman is a master by himself. - -Whatever influences Keats may have had on Lampman’s art, it must be -observed that fundamentally, as an artist and as an interpreter of -Nature, with the power to add here and there graphic bits of human -portraiture, Lampman is nearer to Gray than to Keats or even to -Wordsworth. All these qualities are incisively exemplified in Lampman’s -lyric _Heat_. In this poem Nature and pastoral life in Canada, on a day -of sultry summer heat, are painted with the nicest realistic detail; and -in it the bit of human portraiture, the wagoner ‘slowly slouching at his -ease,’ is as graphic and as true to life as Gray’s bit of human -portraiture, the plowman homeward plodding his weary way, is graphic and -true to English pastoral and natural life. - -If any Canadian poet ever entered the sanctuaries of Nature and revealed -the intimate observation and consummate artistry which marks the art of -all the exquisite poets of Nature—that Canadian poet is Archibald -Lampman. He is, however, a greater poet than he is an artist. As a poet -he is the superior of Roberts. As an artist he has no superior save -Duncan Campbell Scott. But as a poet of Nature, interpreting from Nature -the essence of the Canadian spirit, Lampman is superb, -supreme—unmatched, and even unrivalled by any other poet that Canada -has yet produced. - - * * * * * - -The quotations from Archibald Lampman’s work in this chapter are from -_The Collected Poems of Archibald Lampman_, edited, with a memoir by -Duncan Campbell Scott—new edition, 1923 (Musson Book Co.: Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - - Bliss Carman - - AS A WORLD-POET—CREATIVE MELODIST—PERIODS OF HIS POETRY—SINGING - QUALITY AND ITS METHOD—LYRIST OF THE SEA AND OF LOVE—TREATMENT - OF NATURE. - -Bliss carman is the only Canadian-born poet who reasonably and -inevitably challenges comparison with English and United States poets of -admitted distinction. He is, in the continental sense of the term, more -American than he is Canadian; more English than American; and more a -world-poet than Canadian, or American, or English, in the sense that -famous poets writing in the English language, from Chaucer to Masefield, -are world-poets. His genius and poetry, as do the genius and poetry of -no other Canadian poet, challenge criticism to define the qualities of -his mind and art. Unless, therefore, those who have written _con amore_ -about Carman and have denoted him as the greatest Canadian poet -distinguish in what respect or respects he is so to be designated, the -distinction is unmeaning. Carman is not the greatest Canadian poet in -versatility of genius, variety of themes and forms, and perfection of -technic or craftsmanship. He is surpassed by Roberts in versatility of -genius and variety of forms. He is not the greatest Canadian -nature-colorist or impressionistic word-painter in verse. There again -Roberts surpasses him. Carman is not the greatest Canadian poetic -interpreter of nature in Canada and of the Canadian spirit. Lampman is -his equal, and, in one respect, his superior. Nor is Carman the greatest -Canadian artist in narrative verse. Pauline Johnson and Edward W. -Thomson surpass him. Further, Carman is not, save in a special sense, -the greatest Canadian melodist. Pauline Johnson and Marjorie Pickthall -have a more dulcet singing lilt and sensuous music. Finally, Carman is -not the greatest, that is, the nearest to perfection, in technical -artistry, of Canadian poets. Duncan Campbell Scott is his unrivalled -master in that respect. - -Yet indubitably Bliss Carman is the very foremost of Canadian-born -poets. In Carman’s genius and poetry there are an originality and power -and beauty and distinction that, first, make him unique amongst Canadian -poets and that, secondly, compel the critical world to admit that he is -the only Canadian-born poet who, whenever he is the supreme lyrist and -the inspired technician in verse that he can be, has made a distinct, -singular, and enduring contribution of his own to English or world -poetry, and, on that account, is in the direct line of the Chaucerian -succession. Whenever, that is, Carman excels in sheer genius, and as a -nature-painter, nature-interpreter, story-teller in verse, melodist and -technician, he surpasses each and all his Canadian compatriot poets at -their best in their specialty. They each excel in one or two powers. -Carman excels in all their combined powers, to the maximal degree. -Moreover, none of his Canadian compatriot poets is his equal or even -rival in originality and power of imagination, in sheer vision of the -metaphysical meanings of nature and existence, in intensity of passion, -in romantic atmosphere, in satiric humor, in free and potent diction and -inevitable imagery, and in light or ecstatic lyricism. So great is -Carman as a poet of the Sea that he has made a distinct contribution in -this _genre_ to English poetry. As a lyric poet of romantic and -Spiritual Love, he has no superior, if even an equal, in Canada or -America, and few in any other country. His Elegies are lovely lyric -memorials of the Spirit. His poems of sheer joy of living or of satiric -humor have no prototypes. His symbolistic or so-called mystical poetry, -as an interpretation of the universe and as a means of solace and -serenity in the midst of seeming Satanic triumphs, are as noble and -grateful to the spirit and as sustaining as the breath of life from his -own Maritime sea-winds and woodsy zephyrs. But when he sings most freely -and liltingly, then is Bliss Carman the supreme melodist, and Chaucer is -heard again in the land, and the troubadours, and all those upon whom -Nature bestowed the gift of verbal _bel canto_. - -While, then, it is the challenging quality of Bliss Carman’s poetry, as -if he were directly of the strain of Chaucer, Burns, Wordsworth, -Browning, Tennyson, Swinburne, Masefield, and as if his verse, like -theirs, stood, as it does, upright on its own feet, that gives it its -first and most important general distinction, it possesses other -distinctions, one of which, namely, its special verbal music, of Keltic -origin and form, is unique in Canadian poetry and rare in modern English -poetry. It is these particular distinctions which stamp Bliss Carman as -an extraordinary creative poet and melodist, and as the one Canadian -poet who has a right to an indisputable place beside the finer and more -compelling poets of England and the United States. These claims may be -abundantly substantiated by a study of the texts of what may be called -the Popular Collected Poems of Bliss Carman, namely, _Ballads and -Lyrics_ and _Later Poems_ (with an appreciation by R. H. Hathaway), and -by a study of such interpretative commentaries as Odell Shepard’s _Bliss -Carman_ and H. D. C. Lee’s _Bliss Carman: A Study of Canadian Poetry_, -together with Hathaway’s ‘Appreciation’ in _Later Poems_ by Bliss -Carman. In this chapter Carman is considered and treated from the three -sides in which he is unique amongst Canadian poets: namely, as, in the -light of the history of English poetry, a singularly original and -inventive Vowel Melodist; as a Nature-Poet whose impressionism and -‘readings’ of earth differ from those of Roberts and Lampman; and as a -Philosophical or Mystical Poet who perceives in Beauty the only -manifestation of the union of the Real and the Ideal and regards it as -an intuitive proof of the Supremacy of Good in the universe. - -However well-intentioned the attempts to divide the poetical activity of -Bliss Carman into _Periods_, on the whole they are not pedagogically -successful. Three Periods have been remarked—a so-called Romantic -Period, represented by _Low Tide on Grand Pré_ and the _Songs of -Vagabondia_ series; a Transcendental Period, represented by _Behind the -Arras_, subtitled ‘A Book of the Unseen,’ which indicates its mood, and -_The Green Book of the Bards_; and a Synthetic Period, in which his -appreciation of the beauty of earth is not contrasted with the -evanescence and the mystery of life, but in which there is a joyous -acceptance of both. This Synthetic Period is represented by _The Book of -the Myths_, _Sappho_, and _April Airs_. Yet in each volume, from _Low -Tide on Grand Pré_ (1893) to _April Airs_ (1916), there is in varying -degree the same ‘touch of manner,’ the same ‘hint of mood,’ the same -occupation _both_ with the beauty of earth and with the mystery and -meaning of existence and the universe. Really there is no development of -Carman’s genius and art—no periods of growth—after his first book, -_Low Tide on Grand Pré_, except an increase in ready mastery, not of -technic, but of _clear expression_ of thought and meaning. Some of his -finest verbal melody and some of his most compelling lines are in his -earlier volumes, and with them also embodiments of his essential thought -about life and the universe. But we do note, in each succeeding volume, -a gradual decrease in Carman’s _sense_ of world-pain (_weltschmerz_), -and an increase in _clearer expression_ of his thought about the mystery -of life. To use musical language: in his earlier books Carman heard -_discords_ in the universe. They were really not discords but -_dissonances_. As he grew older and reflected more philosophically, he -was able to resolve these dissonances; and as he gradually achieved -this, the more he combined, with clarity and surety, his fine natural -powers of lyrical utterance with, to use Meredith’s phrase, his ’reading -of earth,’ his intuitions of the ultimate supremacy of the Good. - -Since he fully recovered from the illness which attacked him about 1919, -Carman has entered on what promises to be his greatest, most -constructive period, the keynote of which is his characteristic lyrical -utterance in the expressing of a confident synthesis of Sight and Faith, -of Beauty and Goodness. It is all the same verbal melody and the same -love of beautiful sound, color, and form as in _Low Tide on Grand Pré_, -but all the felt dissonances that existed for thought have been -resolved, and now existence is filled with an ineluctable joy and a -tender peace which are a pure gain for the spirit. The poems which -represent the _new_ Carman or the Carman of the _new_ and final period -exist, for the most part in manuscript, though a few have been published -fugitively. We quote one of these new fugitive poems, _Vestigia_ (1921), -in which the notable qualities, aside from verbal melody and color, are -a confident synthesis of Sight and Faith, Earth and God, and absolute -simplicity and clarity of the diction and images:— - - I took a day to search for God - And found Him not. But as I trod - By rocky ledge, through woods untamed, - Just where one scarlet lily flamed, - I saw his footprints in the sod. - - Then suddenly, all unaware, - Far off in the deep shadows where - A solitary hermit thrush - Sang through the holy twilight hush— - I heard his voice upon the air. - - And even as I marvelled how - God gives us Heaven here and now, - In a stir of wind that hardly shook - The poplar leaves beside the brook— - His hand was light upon my brow. - - At last with evening as I turned - Homeward, and thought what I had learned - And all that there was still to probe— - I caught the glory of His robe - Where the last flowers of sunset burned. - - Back to the world with quickening start - I looked and longed for any part - In making saving Beauty be . . . . - And from that kindling ecstasy - I knew God dwelt within my heart. - -Of the manuscript poems belonging to this fourth period, I may merely -mention the titles, as, for instance, _Wa-wa_, a mystical interpretation -of the wild-goose honk, _The Truce of the Manitou_, and, above all, -_Shamballah_, which is the perfection of Carman’s mystical -interpretations—a poem of - - The City under the Star, - Where the Sons of the Fire-Mist gather, - And the keys of all mystery are. - -Fugitive poems representing this final period are _The Mirage of the -Plain_, _The Rivers of Canada_, _Kaleedon Road_, and _Vancouver_, which -contain mystical interpretations ’suggested,’ as Carman has said, ‘by -the vast spaces of Canada.’ _Apropos_ of the mood, manner, and -interpretations of Nature in this period, Carman has observed: ‘All -Nature poems are more or less mystical.’ - -What we really observe, then, in Carman’s genius and poetry is not -genuine, clearly marked Periods, but rather _Periodicities_—waves of -poetical activity, in which the crest of the wave is either lyrical -ecstasy, the singing of the Beauty of Earth for its own sake and out of -love of beautiful sound and color, or mystical ‘readings’ of Earth, -transcendental interpretations of the meaning of the life of sentient -and spiritual creatures, but below the crest of the wave are poems of -transcendentalism if the crest is lyrical naturalism or poems of lyrical -naturalism if the crest is transcendental. Yet in these periodicities -there is a sure and well-demarcated development, not of technic, but of -clarity of thought and expression—from that earlier so-called mysticism -which was only mystification, to the genuine mysticism which is the -immediate intuition of God in the universe and especially the immediate -perception of the oneness of the spirit of Nature with that of Man and -of God. But all the while, as the development goes on, even to his final -period, Carman remains the superb melodist and colorist. So that Bliss -Carman must be regarded as at once both the most lyrical of Canadian -philosophical poets and the most philosophical of Canadian lyrical -poets. - -Carman’s prototype in sheer singing quality is Chaucer—the first, -freest, and sweetest of the English poets, whom Tennyson apostrophized -in avian metaphor as a ‘warbler.’ So in the same way Carman sings with -the natural lilt, abandon, and melodiousness of the lark and linnet. He -is a ‘warbler.’ It is an irrelevant criticism to say, as has been said, -that Carman ‘sings on and on,’ frequently in his earlier poems, out of -his own ecstasy over hearing the beautiful verbal melody he is making, -whether a given poem makes sense in thought or not. He is not -ecstatically singing on and on from love of beautiful sound, but because -he cannot clearly express what he means in his thinking; and so we hear -the singing as if it were the accompaniment to the thought which we -cannot, any more than he, articulate. But how lovely, how melodious the -accompaniment! - -As a matter of truth, however, we shall get at the secret of Carman’s -unique singing quality if we ask what is the _method_ of his warbling. -It is in his method that he differs from all modern English poets and -has made an original and distinct contribution to English lyrical -poetry. This is the fact: Bliss Carman is a belated troubadour or 16th -century English lutanist or Keltic harpist. Lutanists and harpists -created the text for their songs; and the prime end was melody or at -least melodiousness. The ultimate element or unit in verbal melody with -the lutanists or harpists was the _word_, and the core of the word, for -melodic purposes, was the vowel. Poets arose in England, but more -especially in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland, who aimed to -make the melody of unaccompanied poetry imitate the melody of the -lutanists’ and the harpists’ accompanied verses. The lutanists, -harpists, and melodic poets, who aimed to imitate music, passed, and new -generations of poets substituted metrical and stanzaic structure and -alliterative arrangement of consonants for the old vowel-melody. The -unit in English poetry, after the 16th century, became the _line_, not -the word or the vowel in the word. - -It is the chief glory of Bliss Carman, as a creative poet, that he -brought back into English poetry the _word_ and the pure unimpeded -_singing vowel_, with the same intent as the Italian _bel canto_ -composers, as the unit in verbal melody. Some critics have made -considerable point of the fact that Carman is a ‘great’ poet, _in spite_ -of the fact that he employs chiefly the rhymed octosyllabic line or -measure, or iambic tetrameters and trimeters, with trochaic and -anapaestic substitutions and other metrical mechanics for variety. The -truth is that Carman wrote his poetry as a melodist, not as a technical -musician; that he aimed to _sing_, like the lark or linnet, not to -_compose_, like a musician. His measures were chosen, whenever he meant -to be lyrical, because they were _singing_ measures and his diction was -chosen for the melody inside the words, for the ‘vowel-chime’ in them. -In Carman’s lyrical poetry the word determines the line, or rather the -word alone counts, and the line is insignificant. Dulcet vowel-melody or -delicate vowel-harmony is Bliss Carman’s chief original contribution to -Canadian and English poetry. Examples are innumerable. Consider the -clarion tones in this line, which as a line by itself is perfect:— - - The resonant far-listening morn. - -There are no closed vowels in those words, and the word ’resonant’ is -precisely resonant in vowel-melody and harmony. It is the open vowels -that count melodically in this stanza:— - - _But in the yule, O Yanna,_ - Up from the round dim sea - _And reeling dungeons of the fog,_ - I am come back to thee! - -What a superb singing line is the first, and what booming sonorities are -in the eloquently descriptive third line, ‘the reeling dungeons of the -fog.’ Repeat it orally (for with Carman poetry is an _oral_ art) and all -the melody will be found in the vowels. And what bright vowel-melody -resides in the single words of this line:— - - The glad indomitable sea! - -For an example of just the kind of vowel-melody, dulcet and delicate, -which is of the lutanist or harpist order, all in the words _per se_, -not in the lines as lines, consider this stanza:— - - A golden flute in the cedars, - A silver pipe in the swales, - And the slow large life of the forest - Wells back and prevails. - -This is the music or melody which Pan must have piped and with which he -hushed to peace the wild-creatures of the ancient forests—it is -silvery, pastoral reed music, and in verbal reed melody Carman is a -modern Pan. - -Carman can make beautiful line-melody, line-harmony when he wishes to do -so; and he is a master of alliteration, quite the peer of Tennyson or -Swinburne. For instance, these alliterative lines:— - - The gold languorous lilies of the glade. - • • • • - Burying, brimming, the building billows. - • • • • - Silent with frost and floored with snow. - • • • • - And softer than sleep her hands first sweep - • • • • - And down the sluices of the dawn. - • • • • - And like green clouds in opal calms. - • • • • - Behind her banners burns the crimson sun. - • • • • - While down the soft blue-shadowed aisles of snow - Night, like a sacristan with silent step, - Passes to light the tapers of the stars. - -Carman is as adept as Kipling in employing, for the sake of verbal music -and variety of rhythm, such devices as shifting of accent, slurring, and -elision, and, further, he invents beautiful measures, as, for instance, -the dimeter of _Ilicet_, or the six-line stanza of _The White Gull_ -(Shelley):— - - O captain of the rebel host, - Lead forth and far! - Thy toiling troopers of the night - Press on the unavailing fight; - The sombre field is not yet lost, - With thee for star. - -Carman is also singularly adept in the use of what may be called musical -onomatopœia. In this quality his ear is specially sensitive to -_pianissimi_ in Nature, the soughing of the winds, the sighings and -whisperings of the zephyrs, the fifings and murmurings of the insects -(with Carman the crickets always ‘fife’ and the bees ‘murmur’), and, to -use his own phrase, all the ‘tiny multitudinous sound’ of rustling -leaves, dancing grasses, crooning brooks, tinkling rain, which make the -instrumentation of the Toy Symphony of Nature:— - - Outside, a yellow maple tree, - Shifting upon the silvery blue - With tiny multitudinous sound, - Rustled to let the sunlight through. - -It is, however, in the use of rhythmical onomatopœia that Carman is even -more inventively masterly than in mere sound imitation. An outstanding -example of the imitation of the ‘fife and drum’ marching rhythm, with an -exact imitation of the fife in the word ‘whistle’ and of the rattle-roll -of the drum in the word ‘rallied,’ is Carman’s lovely nature-lyric -_Daisies_, second stanza:— - - Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune - I saw the white daisies go down to the sea - • • • • - The bobolinks rallied them up from the dell, - The orioles whistled them out of the wood; - And all of their singing was, ‘Earth, it is well!’ - And all of their dancing was, ‘Life, thou art good!’ - -Always, from his very first book, _Low Tide on Grand Pré_, to his -latest, _April Airs_, published almost a quarter of a century later, -Bliss Carman has been the master troubadour, the master melodist, -constructing his melody chiefly by an exquisite but subtle use of -vowel-tones, vowel-harmonies. But never has he aimed to be the -consciously meticulous technical musician, laboring at involved and -intricate metrical and stanzaic structure, assonance and alliteration. -His verbal melody is in the word and vowel as his ear naturally picked -these up from everyday speech, and is just as spontaneous and simple. -His melody did not come by ‘working at’ it in the study. We may often -note Roberts, and even Lampman, assiduously busied with constructing the -perfect musical line. Carman’s melody wells out of him in the ‘great -outdoors’—natural and spontaneous as the lark’s or linnet’s. By virtue, -then, of this spontaneous lyrical melodiousness of Carman’s poetry, a -melodiousness _newly based_ on the vowel-tones and harmonies in words, -simple words of actual humanized speech, and not on modern intricacies -of line or stanzaic structure and consonantal systems, Bliss Carman is -one of the master-melodists of English poetry. - -Thus as a melodist in general. Canada, however, has produced no poet who -is Carman’s equal as a lyrist of the Sea and of Love. It is indubitable -that he has made a distinct and superb contribution to the authentic Sea -Poetry in the English language. His sea ‘speech’ is the native speech of -his soul, the expression of an innate personal sympathy with the moods, -powers, and deeds of the Sea, a sympathy which is, in Carman, an -_identity_ of the spirit in Nature with the spirit in the Man or Poet. -Melodiously he declares this personal sympathy and identity with the Sea -in his autobiographical poem, _A Son of the Sea_:— - - I was born for deep-sea faring; - I was bred to put to sea; - Stories of my father’s daring - Filled me at my mother’s knee. - - I was sired among the surges; - I was cubbed beside the foam; - _All my heart is in its verges,_ - _And the sea-wind is my home_. - - All my boyhood, far from vernal - Bourns of being, came to me - _Dream-like, plangent, and eternal_ - _Memories of the plunging sea_. - -No English poet of distinction so often even mentions the Sea or creates -such Homeric epithets for the Sea as does Bliss Carman. A catalogue of -Carman’s original epithets for the Sea, if complete, would be a poetic -phenomenon by itself. Some of the most apt and fetching may be -noted—‘the hollow sea,’ ‘the curving sea,’ ‘the old gray sea,’ ‘the -plunging sea,’ ‘the shambling sea,’ ‘the brightening sea,’ ‘the -troubling sea,’ ‘the lazy sea,’ ‘the open sea,’ ‘the heaving sea,’ ‘the -eternal sea,’ ‘the ruthless noisy sea,’ ‘the misty sea,’ ‘the ancient -ever-murmuring sea,’ and that supreme achievement in English poetry, -Carman’s inevitable, perfect line:— - - The glad indomitable sea! - -For lovers of sea poetry Carman’s _Ballads of Lost Haven: A Book of the -Sea_ (1897) is a genuinely unique anthology by itself—‘one hundred -pages,’ as a London critic has said, ‘of salt sea without a trace of -Kipling, and yet having a sea-flavor as unmistakable as his, and with a -finer touch—with less repetition, less of mere technicality, and a more -varied human interest.’ For Carman the Sea is a _human personality_. Its -moods and deeds embrace all the contradictory moods and deeds of human -beings. But whatever mood or deed of the Sea is expressed by Carman, he -does it with pure and perfect lyricism. Carman is said to have no gifts -for spiritual portraiture. Yet what English or American poet has matched -Carman’s portrait of the Sea as a shambling, fierce, grim, rollicking, -burly, cruel, crooked, old man, and at the same time created such a -brave and lilting song of the Sea, as in _The Gravedigger_, with its -inimitable burly refrain?— - - Then hoy and rip, with a rolling hip, - He makes for the nearest shore; - And God, who sent him a thousand ship, - Will send him a thousand more; - But some he’ll save for a bleaching grave, - And shoulder them in to shore,— - Shoulder them in, shoulder them in, - Shoulder them in to shore. - -When a poet gives us such realistic portraiture and such inimitable -lyrical melody and rhythm as does Carman in _The Gravedigger_, it is a -futile criticism to find fault with his sea poems on the side of lack of -dramatic elements, and weakness in narrative, since the _strength_ of -the poems was meant by the poet to be their inherent passional intensity -and melody. Carman’s sea poems were not meant to be strictly dramatic -narrative tales of the sea, but to be ballads or songs of the _romance_ -of the sea. We may remark, as a general observation, that as a balladist -of the Sea, Carman does not aim at dramatic narration, but at singing, -with the freedom and picturesque vernacular and technical slang of -sailors, as they would sing their chanteys, the romance, happy or grim, -of the sea. As songs, his so-called ballads of the Sea are a supreme -achievement in verbal melody, the glory of Canadian sea poetry, and one -of the glories of English poetry. - -As the master melodist or musician of the Sea, Carman brilliantly -achieved, but he is equally the master melodist or musician of Romantic -and Spiritual Love. His Love Poetry is best represented in _Songs of the -Sea Children_ (1904) and in _Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics_ (1904). Earlier -he had written lightly, as it were flirtingly, about love. But in _Songs -of the Sea Children_, while he wrote as daintily or delicately as in his -earlier poems dealing with the passion, he has at last realized the -spiritual intent and meaning of pure devoted love, and has been moved -deeply and inspired by the passion. Though copyright restrictions forbid -full quotation, the spirit or mood or temper, and the pure melody, of -_Songs of the Sea Children_ may be gathered from this single stanza:— - - O wind and stars, I am with you now; - And ports of day, Good-bye! - When my captain Love puts out to sea, - His mariner am I. - -The rhymeless stanzas of the love poems in _Sappho_ are high-minded, but -are a poetical _genre_ by themselves. They are a _tour de force_ in -‘poetical restoration,’ and, perhaps for the first time, we actually -observe Carman at work in the study as the technical verbal artist and -musician. They have a technical perfection, and a quiet beauty of their -own, and though there is in them a large degree of spontaneity, -naturally they are not informed with the characteristic Carman lyrical -ecstasy and melody. They are, as love poems, perfect as the love poetry -of Sappho was fleckless with a Greek perfection of form and grace. - -Bliss Carman is not properly called a nature-_interpreter_. To -understand his point of view we must contrast his with that of Lampman. -For Lampman Nature is one kind of being and Man is another—two -separated entities—and Man may only commune with Nature by ‘reciprocal -sympathy.’ So Lampman goes out to his Canadian maples and elms, fields -and streams, and _talks to_ them, _as if_ they were human, and can -sympathize with him. This is all simulated imaginative sympathy and -communion on the poet’s part. The maples and elms, fields and streams, -are really dumb, and the poet does but attribute to them what speech or -answer he wants back from them for the solace of his spirit. Always with -Lampman, Nature and Man are _two_. He does but humanize Nature for his -own purposes, by conscious, deliberate _objective symbolism_. - -Carman, on the other hand, is a spiritual monist. Nature and Man are not -two. There is, in Carman’s poetical psychology and metaphysic, no mind -_and_ matter. The whole universe is spiritual through and through, and -the vital spirit which is in Nature is the same spirit which is in Man -and which is God. The universe is wholly spirit. We may call this ‘the -higher pantheism;’ but even in pantheistic doctrine, matter does exist -as alien to mind or spirit. Carman has no such attitude. He differs from -Lampman in conceiving himself as able, by spirit or will, to _identify -himself personally with Nature_. This power of personal identification -with Nature begets personal sympathy; and the communion which the poet -has with Nature is a ‘heart-to-heart talk,’ for spirit with spirit can -meet. This new philosophy of personal identity of the human spirit with -Nature is expressly declared by Carman:— - - I blend with the soft shadows - Of the young maple trees, - And mingle in the rain-drops - That shine along the eaves . . . - - No glory is too splendid - To house this soul of mine, - No tenement too lowly - To serve it for a shrine. - -But specially to be noted is the fact that Carman does not stand apart -from Nature, from the woods, and flowers, and hills, and streams, and -become an _interpreter_ of Nature’s moods and emotions. Nay, the poet -enters into the tree or flower and becomes one with their soul or -spirit, their body becomes his body, and their voice, as heard in his -poetry, is but his voice articulating to the world what they are unable -to articulate. Nature, in Carman’s poetry, is become vocal; and the poet -himself is her very Voice. Metaphors in the nature-poetry of Carman are -not metaphors at all; they are direct experiences of spirit:— - - Just where one scarlet lily flamed, - I saw His footprint in the sod. - • • • • - I caught the glory of His robe - Where the last fires of sunset burned. - -This personal identity of the human spirit with the spirit in (or of) -Nature, this personal sympathy with the poet’s _kin_ in wild Nature, and -this taking on as a body the matter and form of a tree or flower or bird -or other creature of Nature, and becoming vocal for them, and thus -uttering _their_ thoughts, and feelings, and emotions, is new in Nature -poetry, and original with Bliss Carman. It is not Greek; it is not -English; but it is Canadian and unique. It is Carman’s most notable -contribution to world poetry. - -This spiritual monism in Carman’s poetical attitude to Nature explains -the seemingly strange commingling of songs of pure delight in the beauty -and bounty of Nature and of joy in existence with poems which are the -expression of a poet who has ‘kept watch o’er man’s mortality.’ It -explains such contradictions as the joyousness of some poems and the -metaphysical questings of others in Carman’s From the _Green Book of the -Bards_ (1903). It explains, in particular, why Carman, who, when he -wishes, can surpass Roberts as a nature-colorist and whose poetry is -actually rich in idyllic impressionism, never seems to set out, with -conscious intent, to be a nature-colorist or word-painter for the sake -of sheer impressionism. No other Canadian poet can make or has made such -a brilliant use of primary colors or such an exquisite use of delicate -tints and evanescent play of light on color as has Bliss Carman. In all -his nature description or impressionism, Carman’s aim has been -two-fold—first, ‘to better the world with beauty,’ and to compel -appreciation of Nature wherever her sweet or solacing spirit abides, to -reveal the haunt where Nature affords spiritual communion and -refreshment. His aim, in short, is to have men go out and meet Mother -Nature. To effect this, not to show how flashily she is dressed, Carman -paints her face and garb sometimes brilliantly, sometimes with a -grey-eyed loveliness. Carman’s poetry of Nature is only Nature herself -‘calling’ to each vagabond to rise and go out to meet her, ‘wherever the -way may lead.’ This two-fold aim of Carman’s nature-painting or poetic -impressionism is compellingly expressed in _A Vagabond Song_:— - - There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood— - Touch of manner, hint of mood; - And my heart is like a rhyme, - With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time. - - The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry - Of bugles going by. - And my lonely spirit thrills - To see the frosty asters on the hills. - - There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir; - We must rise and follow her, - When from every hill of flame - She calls and calls each vagabond by name. - -The quiet or subdued call of Nature is winsomely uttered in _The -Deserted Pasture_ where - - The old gray rocks so friendly seem, - So durable and brave . . . - - There in the early springtime - The violets are blue, - And adder-tongues in coats of gold - Are garmented anew . . . - - And there October passes - In gorgeous livery,— - In purple ash and crimson oak, - And golden tulip-tree. - -Though the keynote of Carman’s poetry is Joy in the universe, he is no -mere hedonist. The beauty he loves is uranian, the Joy he aims to get -from Beauty and to share with the world through his poetry is -_spiritual_ joy. What he has always been sure of was that the -dissonances in the world and in existence were resolvable, but he -himself gradually had to resolve those dissonances, and win full and -complete joy in Nature, in Love, and in Religion. If we call him a -Philosophical Poet, we must do so only after we understand that his -belief in the supremacy of the Good or of God is intuitively derived. -Carman is not philosophical by virtue of having employed the faculty of -relational thinking for the attainment of his belief in the moral -meaning of life and the universe. He perceived Beauty in the world, and, -after much obfuscation of the immediate meaning of Beauty, Carman at -length perceived it as a symbol and pledge of the union of the Real and -the Ideal. Only in the sense that Beauty is a symbol of perfection does -Carman regard Nature as a symbol of God; and only in the sense that God, -like Beauty, can be directly or immediately perceived, is Carman a -mystical poet. If there is one thing of indubitable ill that science and -philosophy have accomplished, it is their dogmatizing that because -science and metaphysics with their categories cannot find out God as an -actuality, much less can the senses. The pseudo-mystics took science and -philosophy at their word, and said the only way to find God is by the -use of the religious imagination. Whereupon they so strained the -imaginative faculty to achieve what they called mystical union with God -that their mysticism only resulted in mystification. Science, with its -categories, only cast a veil over Truth, over the face of God. -Pseudo-mysticism only placed an opaque void between God and the Sons of -God called Men. - -It is because Carman was in his early manhood caught on the wheels of -agnostic science, transcendental metaphysics and pseudo-mysticism that -in his earlier poems this lover of Beauty sings entrancingly of Beauty -and winsomely paints her dwelling-places, but while doing this he also -mystifies his readers with regard to the meaning of his poetry. The -music is all accompaniment to something that Carman himself does not in -his own soul clearly understand. Hence the wistfulness and melancholia -observable in many of Carman’s earlier poems; hence his sad engagement -with the problem of death, as in _Pulvis et Umbra_ and _The -Eavesdropper_. - -Carman could not have written _Vestigia_ at that period. For that poem -is based on an immediate _sense_-intuition of God in Nature and in the -heart of Man. It was his gradual negation of the categories of science -and metaphysics and vacuous pseudo-mysticism, and an instinctive return -to an intuitive perception of the meaning of Beauty in Nature and Love -and Religion that cleared his vision, and gave him a sure and clear -understanding of the supremacy of the Good or God, and that thus won for -him triumphant spiritual Faith, Joy in existence, and Peace with God. -This is the true mysticism, the true union with God. - -It is an interesting excursion in spiritual history to trace Carman’s -gradual escape from ‘mystical mystification’ into the triumphant faith -of true, earth-born, sense-perceived mysticism, as in _Behind the Arras_ -(1895), _By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies_ (1898), _Last Songs -from Vagabondia_ (1901), _From the Book of Myths_ (1902), _From the Book -of Valentine_s (1905), and _Collected Poems_ (1904). It was a -‘mystified’ Carman who wrote _Pulvis et Umbra_. It was a truly mystical -Carman, possessed of a triumphant faith who a full twenty years -afterwards wrote _Te Deum_, the concluding verses of which follow:— - - So I will pass through the lovely world, and partake of beauty to feed - my soul. - With earth my domain and growth my portion, how should I sue for a - further dole? - In the lift I feel of immortal rapture, in the flying glimpse I gain - of truth, - Released is the passion that sought perfection, assuaged the ardor of - dreamful youth. - - The patience of time shall teach me courage, the strength of the sun - shall lend me poise. - I would give thanks for the autumn glory, for the teaching of earth - and all her joys. - Her fine fruition shall well suffice me; the air shall stir in my - veins like wine; - While the moment waits and the wonder deepens, my life shall merge - with the life divine. - -The immediate sense-perception of God through Beauty and the acceptance -of Beauty as a factual proof of the union of the Soul with Nature, of -the Real with the Ideal, and thus a proof of the supremacy of Good in -the universe—this is the formula of Carman’s philosophical ‘reading’ of -Nature and Existence. Always a poet of fine and assured artistry and of -lyrical eloquence and spiritual power, Bliss Carman stands alone amongst -Canadian poets as a verbal melodist, as a lyrist of love and the sea, -and as a mystical interpreter of the moral and spiritual meaning of -nature and existence. As an original verbal melodist and poetic -impressionist and as an unexampled creator of songs of the sea, Bliss -Carman has added significantly to English and to world poetry and to -him, therefore, we may apply the distinction Great. - - * * * * * - -Quotations in this chapter, with the exception of a few lines, are from -_Later Poems_, and from _Ballads and Lyrics_, by Bliss Carman, -(McClelland & Stewart: Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER X - - - Duncan Campbell Scott - - INFLUENCES ON HIS WORK—OLD WORLD CULTURE—AUSTERE INTELLECTUALISM - —MUSIC AND PAINTING—ASSOCIATION WITH LAMPMAN—SCOTT, CARMAN, AND - LAMPMAN COMPARED—INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH POETS—TECHNICAL - EXCELLENCIES—REVELATION OF THE INDIAN HEART—MYSTICAL SYMBOLISM. - -In the poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott there is more and finer -expression of the pageantry of Nature in Canada and of the essential -Canadian spirit than in the verse of any other Canadian poet. But, -paradoxically, the genius and poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott are also -more informed with an Old World culture and art than are the genius and -verse of any other Canadian poet. Unless the reader and the critic of D. -C. Scott’s poetry first realize that the mind and art of the poet are a -product of Canada and of the Old World, a rare commingling of Canadian -and European cultures, they will fail to understand how he is at once -the least prolific and, to give him his outstanding distinction, the -most exquisite artist of Canadian poets, not excepting Lampman and Bliss -Carman. In his poem _Frost Magic_, Scott has written the formula of his -own exquisite artistry:— - - Silvered in quiet rime and with rare art. - -That line, however, rather distinguishes the characteristic excellence -of his poetry on the technical side. It does not disengage the quality -which makes him unique amongst Canadian poets. His _differentia_—the -quality or power which distinguishes his poetic genius and craftsmanship -from the mind and the art of all other Canadian poets—is Style. Duncan -Campbell Scott is the one Canadian poet of whose verse it may be said -that, after the manner of the English tradition, it possesses _Style_. -Lampman’s and Carman’s, Pauline Johnson’s and Marjorie Pickthall’s, -poetry each possess a style. But in their cases the style is imitable; -it is a _manner_, original or ingenious no doubt, but not an essential -and inevitable expression, of their poets’ minds or personalities. -Duncan Campbell Scott’s poetry has style, quite as individualistic as -the others’, but it is an essential expression of his personality and -character, and is therefore inimitable, or like the man himself, is in -‘the grand manner’—which is not at all a manner but just that subtle -spiritual quality which distinguishes individuals in species. The genius -and poetry or art of Duncan Campbell Scott, then, impose on us a special -and somewhat recondite study in literary psychology. - -The key to Duncan Campbell Scott’s genius and poetry is this singular, -if not anomalous, spiritual fact that his Art always, corresponds with, -and never contradicts, his Thought and Life. In this ‘tri-unity’ of -complete ‘correspondence’ of Thought, Life, and Art, Scott’s analogue is -Matthew Arnold. The English poet was, above all things, the austere -intellectualist. So, too, Duncan Campbell Scott is the austere -intellectualist. But, unlike Arnold, Scott’s ‘austerities and -rejections’ are not those of the substance of poetry but of its temper -and technic. While it is true that Scott is the remorseless idealist as -man and active citizen, and while the light that chiefly plays on his -poetry is the ‘dry light’ of the intellect or imaginative reason, it is -equally true that in his heart there is the warm fire of love of -humanity and Nature and all the humanizing arts, and that the dry -intellectual light which most notably illumines his poetry is colored, -at times delicately or subtly, at times brilliantly, at other times -magically, with the substance and color of Nature in Canada and of -modern music and painting. As in the man and citizen, as in his Thought -and Life, there is a high plane of refined and serene vision, feeling, -and deed, so in his poetic Art and Style the outstanding qualities are -serene Dignity and exquisite Beauty. It is always a manly and refined -art; and its sensuous Beauty is made spiritual by sincerity, delicacy or -nobility of thought and by imaginative truth. Never in it is there -sentimentality, or vulgarity, but always _humane_ beauty and dignity -which derive from delicacy of spiritual vision and sincerity, and from -restraint in technical artistry. As an example of these excellences in -Duncan Campbell Scott’s poetry—of its dignity and beauty, refinement -and restraint—we quote this surpassing compliment to woman’s spiritual -loveliness and charm, _Portrait of Mrs. Clarence Gagnon_ (from Scott’s -_Beauty and Life_):— - - Beauty is ambushed in the coils of her - Gold hair—honey from the silver comb - Drips and the clustered under-tone is warm - As beech leaves in November—the light slides there - Like minnows in a pool—slender and slow. - A glow is ever in her tangled eyes, - Surprise is settling in them, never to be caught; - Thought lies there lucent but unsolvable, - Her curved mouth is tremulous yet still, - Her will holds it in check; were it to sleep - One moment—that white guardian will of hers— - Words would brim over in a wild betrayal, - Fall sweet and tell the secret of her charm, - Harm would befall the world, Beauty would fly - Into the shy recesses of the wood— - Be seen no more of mortals, be a myth - Remembered by a few who might recall - A nerveless gesture, a frail color, a faint stress, - Some vestige of a vanished loveliness. - -This ‘strong and delicate art’ of Scott’s was itself the outcome of -years of training in delicate perception or visioning of Nature and the -human Spirit and in the practice of spiritual refinement and restraint -in art or technical craftsmanship; and also of assiduous cultivation in -the technical appreciation of modern music and painting. Born in 1862, -Duncan Campbell Scott did not publish verse till he was some years past -his majority, and did not publish his first book of poems till he was -thirty-one years of age (_The Magic House and Other Poems_, 1893). For -more than forty years he has been in the Civil Service of Canada, and -for some years has been Deputy Superintendent General (a title and -function equivalent to Deputy Minister) of the Department of Indian -Affairs of the Dominion. Archibald Lampman was a contemporary and a -close friend of Scott. Lampman was a student of the poetry of Keats and -much influenced by the verse of the English poet. In 1894 Scott married -an accomplished lady, who was a violin virtuoso. He had published -fugitive poems in magazines before 1893. (His poetry was later the -subject of a very complimentary critical appreciation by William Archer -in _Poets of the Younger Generation_). He had finished his academic -studies at the public schools and at Stanstead College by his -seventeenth year, and had then entered the Civil Service of Canada. So -that the three influences on his mind and art are, first, that which -began with his friendship with Lampman; secondly, his marriage with a -cultured musician, and, thirdly, his long tenure of office in the -Department of Indian Affairs of the Dominion of Canada. To his -association with Lampman, rather than to his teachers at school and -college, must be attributed his reading of the English poets and the -cultivation of poetic technics. It is not until after his marriage and -after his long association with certain Canadian painters that we find -in his poetry any ‘color’ from music and painting. His connection with -the Department of Indian Affairs resulted in those lyrics and legends -which have for themes the Indian, the French-Canadian, and the Beauty of -Nature. Lampman as co-student of the English poets, especially Keats or -the idyllic impressionists, and as a co-worker in creative poetry, -especially the poetry of Nature, was the most potent or subtle influence -on Scott. This, however, was an influence _ab extra_. The most important -_inner_ influence on Scott was his own intellectual rigorism and austere -respect for chaste or faultless craftsmanship. But for this rare virtue, -which was innate in him, Scott would or might have been a more prolific -poet, and might have been a close imitator of the English impressionists -or Lampman himself as a nature-poet, or of Bliss Carman as a lyrist of -Nature and of Love. - -There is no denying that Lampman had considerable influence, negative -and positive, on Scott, and that the negative influence was the more -important. At any rate, by choice Scott decided to be a poet who, while -caring as much for Nature as did Lampman and Carman, would care -supremely for refined perfection of technical artistry in his verse. It -is easy to observe the general differences between Lampman and Carman -and Scott in attitudes, and in methods of poetic conception. Lampman is -the more subjective, the more interested in his own emotions; Scott is -the more objective, disclosing a delight in the object for its own sake -or a philosophical interest in humanity and life. Lampman is the more -passionate; Scott the more restrained or austere (without being -ascetic). Lampman is the more sensuously luscious (though not always); -Scott the more lucid and luminously colorful. Carman is the more -naturalistically sensuous, and his pigmentation is limited to the -pageant of Spring and Autumn; Scott is the more imaginatively sensuous, -and paints every phase of the pageantry of Nature in the cycle of the -seasons of the whole year. Carman is more a melodist, basing his melody -on vowel-chime in words; Scott is more the musician, the technical -virtuoso—or, in other words, Carman _sings_ or _lilts_, like the lark; -Scott _performs_, like the violin or flute virtuoso, though each in his -way is as entrancingly lyrical. Carman is the more vernacular in -diction, employing considerably the actual speech of everyday life; -Scott is the more recondite, and therefore the more meaningful, in -diction—‘a word virtuoso.’ But it is not true to say, as has been said, -that Scott is a ‘poet’s poet.’ He is, when he aims to be, just as -lyrical, musical, colorful, and simple in diction as Lampman or Carman, -but he is also more delicate or chaste, more fanciful or imaginative, -more lucid or luminous, and always more subtle in diction and exquisite -craftsmanship. So that whenever Scott envisages or interprets Nature in -Canada and the essential spirit of Canada, more than any other -native-born poet he puts more of Canada in it and does it with a -singular and surpassing beauty of diction, imagery, music, color, and -general technical artistry. - -Thus, in outline, as regards the Canadian influences on Scott’s genius -and poetry. It is necessary also to note the influence of Old World -culture on his genius and art. For, like Bliss Carman’s, there is a -challenging quality in Scott’s poetry which compels favorable comparison -of it with the verse of English and United States poets of distinction. -But while influences of certain English poets are remarked, this does -not mean that Scott is derivative in inspiration or method of treatment, -but that the influence was either on his ideals of what poetry is or on -his meticulous practice of technical artistry in verse; or, in a phrase, -their influences have been those of inspiring him to distinction in -Style and Technic. In Scott’s noble monody in memory of his father, _In -the Country Churchyard_, the formal structure and the elegiac elevation -of thought fill the heart with a serene beauty which discloses the -influence of Gray. There is a distinct Wordsworthian spirit and flavor -to _Above St. Irénée_. A haunting beauty, which is of the quality of -Tennyson, pervades Scott’s title poem of his first volume, _The Magic -House_. Unmistakable is the influence of Rossetti on the form and -tone-color of Scott’s sonnet sequence, _In the House of Dreams_, but -there is enough of Scott’s own originality and ingenuity in inventing -Western-world metaphors and in vowel-melody and alliteration to -distinguish it as Scott’s or as Canadian or Western. The sonnet form is -Rossettian, the mediaeval atmosphere and setting are Pre-Raphaelite, as -are also the personages:— - - The Lady Lillian knelt upon the sward, - Between the arbor and the almond leaves; - Beyond the barley gathered into sheaves; - A blade of gladiolus, like a sword, - Flamed fierce against the gold; and down toward - The limpid west, a pallid poplar wove - A spell of shadow; through the meadow drove - A deep unbroken brook without a ford. - -The first line of the octave is, of course, Rossettian, but the fourth -line (‘A blade of gladiolus, like a sword’) is not only Western but the -phrase ‘like a sword’ is a common simile with Scott. In the sestet, -quite Western is the picture in the second and third lines:— - - On the soft grass a frosted serpent lay, - With oval spots of opal over all. - -The extraordinary ingenuity of the tone-unisons (not harmonies) in the -third line (‘With oval spots of opal over all’) must have struck the -fancy of the poet himself, because he repeats the very same vowel -unisons, thus turning art into artifice, in _Spring on Mattagami_ (from -_Via Borealis_, 1906, reprinted in _Lundy’s Lane and Other Poems_, -1916):— - - While like spray from the iridescent fountain, - Opal fires weave over all the oval of the lake. - -Quite Rossettian, at least in word-painting of fabrics and jewelry, is -Scott’s picture of the drowned lady in his poem _After a Night of Storm_ -(from _Beauty and Life_, 1921). It is here quoted, not only to show the -Rossettian influence, but also to furnish an example of how Scott works -as lovingly and as painstakingly as a lapidary at his technic:— - - After a night of storm, - They found her lovely form - They said she was a wondrous thing to see, - All dazzling in her bridal dress, - A miracle of foam and ivory. - Her satin gown was smoothened by the wave, - Her rippled ribbons, all her wandering laces - Set in their places. - Her hands were loosely clasped without a gem, - But clad with mitts of silken net. - Diamonds in the buckles of her shoon - All fairly set, - And one great brooch the color of the moon - Held her lace shawl. - A snood had slipped back from her hair, - Her face was piteous, so fair, so fair, - And gleaming small - Upon her breast there seemed to float - A wedding ring, - Threaded upon a crimson and green string - Around her throat. - -Surely there is the art of a poet who has lingered long in the studios -and ateliers, watching painters, lapidaries, and designers at work on -pigments, precious stones, and delicate fabrics! Again, whose influence -do we find or feel in certain parts of _Spring on Mattagami_ and _The -Anatomy of Melancholy_?—is it the influence of Keats or of Swinburne? -It might be either in these lines from _Spring on Mattagami_:— - - She would let me steal,—not consenting or denying— - One strong arm beneath her dusky hair, - She would let me bare, not resisting or complying, - One sweet breast so sweet and firm and fair; - Then with the quick sob of passion’s shy endeavor - She would gather close and shudder and swoon away . . . - -But there is no mistaking the Swinburnian manner of imaginative color -and of alliterative and sensuous music in these lines from _The Anatomy -of Melancholy_ (from _Beauty and Life_):— - - Lifted the dragon-guarded lid—and lo! - Faint and uncertain, - _Frail rose-ghosts of rose-gardens all in blow_ - Haunted the room, - _The spangled dew, the shell-tints and the moonlight_ - Lived in the fume. . . . - -All the English poets mentioned were, however, not formative influences. -At best what seems imitations of the manner of Gray, Tennyson, Rossetti, -Keats, Swinburne are but recrudescences, quite unconscious and original, -in Scott’s poetry. Scott is a nature-colorist, or impressionist, verbal -musician and metrist, romanticist, and philosophical interpreter of -Nature and Life on his own account. The real formative influences in -Scott’s genius and art were the climate, atmosphere, seasons, and the -color and drama of varied Nature and Humanity, of Canada; his compatriot -poet of Nature, Lampman, and perhaps Carman, and these three English -poets, Browning, Arnold and Meredith; and, finally, his appreciation and -knowledge of the technic of music and painting. - -Considering his qualities as a verbal musician and metrist, we may note -that while Scott employs all the technical artifices of other Canadian -and English poets, such as vowel-melody and harmony, alliteration and -consonantal changes, beautiful measures and rhythms, he differs from his -compatriot poets by informing, as did Browning, the substance of his -poetry with an intimate use of the technical language of music, -allusions to musical literature, and the aesthetic values of music. The -texts of his poems show that he is acquainted technically with the music -of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Grieg, such romantic moderns as Raff and -MacDowell and such ultra-moderns as Debussy and Ravel. To anyone who has -heard Beethoven’s Fifth (C-minor) Symphony, how arresting and -emotionally impressive is the allusion to the principal motive of that -great work, in these lines from Scott’s _The Fragment of a Letter_!— - - Then quick upon the dark, like knocks of fate, - There fell three axe-strokes, and then clear, elate - Came back the echoes true to tune and time, - Three axe-strokes—rhythmed and matched in rhyme. - -Again: it is not poetical pedantry on Scott’s part when, in his elegiac -monody _On the Death of Claude Debussy_, he rhapsodizes the forms, -content, properties, color, and musical structure—‘the mood -pictures’—of Debussy’s opera _Pellèas et Mélisande_, his orchestral -prelude _L’Après-midi d’un Faune_, and his orchestral sketches _La Mer_. -No musical journalist or critic, writing in prose, has done this so -summarily and with such vividness and veracity as Scott has accomplished -it in twenty-five lines of trimeter and tetrameter unrhymed iambics and -trochaics. It is for the sake of illumination and the substance of true -poetry that Scott thus finely incorporates his knowledge of music into -the text of his poetry. And, as Browning made compelling use of the -technical language and meanings of musical structure, notably in his -_Abt Vogler_, so, in the Debussy monody, Scott twice finely affects the -spirit and illuminates the substance of his poem with such recondite -musical technology as:— - - And under all, the _pedal-point_ - Of the deep-bas(s)ed ocean, - Hidden under the mists, - Chanting, infinitely remote, - At the foot of enchanted cliffs. - Then with a turn of illumination, - An _enharmonic_ change of vision, - Death and Debussy - Become France and her heroes, - As if all her sacred heroes - Were in that one form, - Clasped in the bosom of France, - Enfolded with her ideals and aspirations. - -The felicity of the phrase ‘the pedal-point of the deep-bas(s)ed ocean’ -is apparent to anyone who is musically trained and who immediately hears -the sustained stationary bass of the sea reverberating while mingling -with its thunder are chords and progressions of wave plashings and wind -harmonies, all combining to make the sublime Symphony of the Sea. Still -more remarkable and illuminating is Scott’s use of the phrase ‘an -enharmonic change . . . . Death and Debussy.’ In music an enharmonic -change is but a change in notation of intervals and chords, the sound of -them remaining the same. And so how felicitous Scott’s use of ‘an -enharmonic change of vision!’—Death, Debussy (who died in the last year -of the late war), France, and her war heroes. These terms are all -synonymous of ‘one form,’ the spirit of France; there is only an -enharmonic change in notation or name. - -All this is, on Scott’s part, a brilliant and—as far as Canadian poetry -is concerned—a unique achievement in incorporating musical ideas and -essences and technics to color, illuminate, and enhance poetic meanings. -But Scott surpasses himself in this matter, creating something really -unique in poetic literature, in his _Variations on a Seventeenth Century -Theme_. It is the most ingeniously conceived poem, if not in English -poetry, at least in continental American poetry; and it is a signal -illustration of that Old World culture which was remarked as part of the -challenging quality in Scott’s poetry. The poem is ‘programmatic’ in -scheme, comprising ten sections which are ‘free variations’ on a Nature -theme (the yellow of the primrose), inspired by two lines from Henry -Vaughan (17th century):— - - It was high spring, and all the way - Primrosed, and hung with shade. - -The ten sections or ‘variations’ or ‘movements’ of the poem are such -niceties in imitation of the forms of music that they should be properly -indicated with form or tempi nomenclature, inasmuch as the poet has not -done this at the head of each section or ‘variation.’ Variation I is a -Prelude (in the old style), the diction of which is Chaucerian or early -15th century English. Variation II is a triple-time Vivace movement (old -form of the Scherzo)—a fetching bit of lively ballad-song. Variation -III is a Largo movement, noble and impressive. A short Nocturne follows -in Variation IV, which is succeeded by a movement that may be styled -Dramatico, a short poignant ‘play within a play,’ dealing with the -tragedy of romantic love. Variation VI is an Intermezzo, a contrasting -change on ‘Youth is a blossom yellow at the edge.’ Variation VII is a -Funeral March for fairies, and is fairy-like in imagery and music. By -itself it is as pretty and winning a poem for children as any in our -language:— - - For dead fairies go nowhere, - Leaving nothing in the air. - - Their clear bodies are all through - Made of shadow, mixed with dew. - - When they change their fairy state, - They, like dew, evaporate. - - But we fairies that remain, - The dead fairy’s funeral feign, - - Place within a shepherd’s purse - Primrose pollen; for a hearse - - Lady-birds we harness up - To an empty acorn cup. - - This we bury, deep in moss:— - Then we mourn our grievous loss, - - Mourn with music, piercing thin, - Cricket with his mandolin, - - Many a hautboy, many a flute, - Played by them you fancy mute . . . . - -Variation VIII is a very human Burlesca—a ‘_genre_ picture’ of the -comedy of life in Old London, with the ‘motive’ of a socially outcast -old woman looking at pots of primroses, labelled ‘Only a quarter,’ and -fingering a coin, trying to decide whether to buy primroses or spend it -on beer for herself and ‘dear old Jerry.’ The pathos of its realism is -relieved by the piquancy of the spiritual portrait of the outcast old -woman, in whose soul there is still a fine redeeming loyalty to a real -heart-love. Variation IX is a Folk Song in the manner of Burns. It is -followed by a Finale, which returns to the Vaughan theme, and closes -with its couplet. The Finale is ennobled with tender reflections or -philosophical interpretations of the drama of earth and existence, in -which Scott beautifully maintains and expresses Serene Faith in the -permanence of Beauty and Love. From this magnificent and genuinely -unique poem, we quote Variation IX, as an example of Scott’s gifts as a -song-writer. If it is in the manner of Burns or an imitation of one of -his best-known songs, it is as informed also with the spirit of Herrick, -but it is melodious, by vowel-music, alliteration, and rhythm, in a way -which was not in the power of Herrick or Burns:— - - My Love is like the primrose light - That springs up with the morn, - My Love is like the early night - Before the stars are born. - - My Love is like the shine and shade - That ripple on the wood, - (The shadow is her dark green plaid, - The light her silver snood). - - They never meet with eager lips, - And mingle in their mirth, - They only touch their finger-tips, - And circle round the earth. - - My Love’s so pure, so winsome-sweet, - So dancing with delight, - That I shall love her till they meet, - And all the world is night. - -In that song-lyric we find Scott’s characteristic dignity and beauty. -But fine and beautiful as it all is, the music of it is not the -_natural_ melodiousness of Herrick or Burns, of the lark or linnet, but -the music of the adroit technical musician who is a ready master of all -the resources of modern versification and metrics. - -As regards these technical resources of verbal melody and -music—vowel—‘tone-color’ and harmonies, alliteration, assonance, -rhythm of line and stanza and other metrical structure, and even what is -called in music as such ’suspension’—Scott challenges the art of Keats, -Tennyson, Swinburne, Arnold, and the Laureate, Sir Robert Bridges. In -one instance, Scott has made the most happy and ingenious use of what -musicians call ‘chord suspension’—that is, the retaining in any chord -some notes (or tones) of the preceding chord. Scott achieves it finely -in this cadence:— - - With the thrushes fluting _deep, deep_, - _Deep_ on the pine-wood hill. - -This effect of ‘suspension’ in verbal music is not new in poetry, but it -is infrequent in the poetry of the Anglo-Saxon people. A melodious -example is the opening stanza from Collins’ _Ode to Evening_:— - - If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song, - May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear, - Like thy own solemn _springs_, - _Thy springs_, and dying gales. - -With Collins the ‘suspension’ is an artifice rather than an inspiration. -With Scott, it is, in the example instanced, an inspiration. No other -modern poet, certainly no other Canadian or American poet, has Scott’s -gift of verbally phrasing, with the utmost concreteness, imitative -realism, and charm the ‘notes’ of bird songs and their meaning. In the -cadence quoted, the effect of the ‘suspension’—‘deep, deep, deep’—is a -happy realistic imitation of the tone-color of the thrush’s flute-like -notes, and the triple reiteration affects the imagination with that -charm which we distinguish as ‘haunting.’ Carman has not this gift of -concreting bird-songs. Carman uses only the general epithet. One bird -simply ‘whistles;’ another ‘flutes.’ Carman would have written the lines -quoted from Scott not only without ‘suspension’ but also without any -concrete, realistic imitation of the thrush’s notes and suspensions, -thus:— - - With the thrush’s fluting - On the pine-wood hill. - -Scott not only makes a masterly and felicitous use of concrete -tone-color epithets in phrasing the songs of birds, but he also knows -how important and eloquent in music as such, as well as in the songs of -birds, are pauses or silences, and uses this appreciation of silences -exquisitely. Scott’s artistry in both these respects is finely shown in -these lines:— - - Hidden above there, half asleep, a thrush - Spoke a few _silver words upon the hush_— - _Then paused self-charmed to silence_. - -Scott, in truth, on the side of exquisite realistic concretion of the -notes and cadences of bird-songs, has the ear of a _naturalist_—and a -better ear than Thoreau or Burroughs. Scott is the ‘bird-musician’ _par -excellence_. Witness the naturalist’s exquisite ear for concrete realism -in these lines:— - - She would hear the partridge drumming in the distance, - Rolling out his _mimic thunder_ in the sultry noons; - Hear beyond the silver reach in _ringing wild persistence_ - Reel remote the _ululating laughter_ of the loons. - -Carman would have stopped with the general word ‘drumming’ in the phrase -‘hear the partridge drumming’—not so Scott; he must realistically -concrete the reverberance of the drumming in the phrase ‘rolling out his -mimic thunder.’ And what realistic concretion is in the phrases ‘in -ringing wild persistence,’ and ‘ululating laughter!’ Carman half hears. -Scott hears with the ear of the naturalist _and_ the musician. - -Again, only the ear of the naturalist and the musician in Scott could -have so exquisitely, veraciously, concreted the ‘note’ of the -white-throat sparrow and the lovely cadences of the vireo as in these -lines:— - - While the white-throat never-resting, - Even in the deepest night _rings his crystal bell_. - -And:— - - A vireo turns his _slow_ - _Cadence_, as if he gloated - Over the last phrase he floated; - Each one he moulds and mellows - _Matching it with his fellows_: - So have you noted - How the oboe croons, - The canary-throated, - In the gloom of the violoncellos - And bassoons. - -Scott knows the ‘voices’ of instruments as intimately as those of birds -and other feathered wild creatures. How finely he combines a concrete -use of his two-fold musical knowledge in this respect in the following -ingenious and original bit of verbal instrumentation:— - - And in the two-fold dark I hear the owl - _Puff at his velvet horn_. - -The reader must be a naturalist and, as well, have been a bandsman or -orchestral instrumentalist to feel the felicitous realism and -descriptive exactitude of Scott’s art, or rather inspiration, in -inventing that figure of the owl as a musician. The humor of it also is -exquisite. - -Scott surpasses all other Canadian poets in a genius for inventing -single and double terminal rhymes, and he excels in this gift, without -ever dropping to impossible or bizarre rhymes, except when the comedy of -life in a subject naturally requires the use of a vulgarism as in this -couplet from the Burlesca movement (VIII) of _Variations on a -Seventeenth Century Theme_:— - - But I keeps my quarter, - Though—perhaps I’d orter. - -As ready and expert as Carman with such other musical resources as -vowel-melody and harmony, assonance, consonantal tone-color and -alliteration, Scott is more lyrically melodious than even Carman. -Melodiousness—dulcet melody of combined vowel and consonant and -rhythm—is the supreme musical quality of Scott’s poetry. Not Tennyson -nor Swinburne have surpassed the melodiousness of this stanza from -Scott’s _The Lover to His Lass_:— - - Crown her with stars, this angel of our planet, - Cover her with morning, this thing of pure delight, - Mantle her with midnight till a mortal cannot - See her for the garments of the light and the night. - -Matching the melodiousness of Scott’s poetry is its inimitable -‘color-music,’ a combination of sensuous color and alliteration, which -quite rivals Swinburne. Scott’s poetry indeed abounds in the most -ingenious and sensuously musical alliterative lines in Canadian verse. -Outstanding examples are these:— - - One sweet breast so sweet and firm and fair. - • • • • - Dark with sordid passion, pale with wringing pain. - • • • • - Shall find amid the ferns the perfect flower. - • • • • - With stars like marigolds in a water-meadow. - • • • • - The still, translucent, turquoise-hearted tarns. - • • • • - Rubies, pale as dew-ponds stained with slaughter. - • • • • - See Aldebaran like a red rose clamber. - • • • • - The long, ripe rippling of the grain. - • • • • - Flush and form, honey and hue. - • • • • - Still pools of sunlight shimmering in the sea. - • • • • - Languorously floating by the lotus leaves. - • • • • - Frail rose-ghosts of rose-gardens all in blow. - -Such magical melody and color are not artifice or even art with Scott. -It is all an inspiration, clear spontaneity of genius. If it were -artifice or art it would be confined to mere phrases or lines; but Scott -as readily and as magically fills stanzas with the same magical melody -and color as in _The Voice and The Dusk_:— - - The slender moon and one pale star, - A rose-leaf and a silver bee - From some fool’s garden blown afar, - Go down the gold deep tranquilly. - -There is a sylvan _earthly_ music in the poetry of Carman, Pauline -Johnson, and Marjorie Pickthall. But the music of Duncan Campbell -Scott’s poetry is the melody of a fairy fantasy, an _unearthly_ lyrical -melody suffused with color which is imaginative rather than earth-born. -Yet its vowel and alliterative melody, rhythmical refinement, and -translucent or sensuous color are never unreal but only serve to -etherealize real experience, to transport us with exquisite sensation of -ineffable, unimagined beauty. To figure him under the title of one of -his own most melodious and romantically imaginative poems, Duncan -Campbell Scott is _The Piper of Arll_—and, like Debussy, regales us -with:— - - The complaint of the wind - In the plane-trees, - The far away pulse of a horn, - Ripples of fairy color, - Rhythms of Spain, - The overtones of cymbals, - The sobs of tormented souls, - Cries of delight and their echoes . . . . - Fauns’ eyes in the vapor, - Flutes of Dionysus, - Haunting his ruined fane, - Veils of rain, quenching the tulip gardens, - Sea-light at the roots of islands . . . . - And under all, the pedal-point - Of the deep based ocean, - Hidden under mists, - Chanting, infinitely remote, - At the foot of enchanted cliffs. - -It is a question difficult of settlement whether Duncan Campbell Scott -is greater as a verbal colorist and nature-painter than as a melodist. -But there can be no doubt that as a verbal colorist and nature-painter -he has the eye both of the naturalist _and_ the impressionist. And it is -indubitable that as a colorist or impressionist he has put more of the -pageantry of Nature in Canada into his poetry than has even Bliss -Carman. All the Canadian seasons are in it, and every phase of the -light, color, and sound of the Canadian year is in it—done by ready, -flexible, graphic stroke or exquisite touch, in rich or luminous and -translucent coloring, with romantic eye and fantasy, and with singular -ingenuity and power. It must be confessed that there is a seeming -display of musical theory and technics, of musical learning, which -almost savors of pedantry, in those of Scott’s poems which contain -musical thought and imagery. This would be sophistication, were Scott -not sincere and did he not sincerely use it all to enhance the poetic -effect of his verse on the tonal sensibilities and the imagination. But -there is no sophistication, no mere display of knowledge of pigments and -the technic of painting in his work as a verbal colorist. He is a -word-painter, a nature-colorist, an impressionist,—by innate genius. As -a matter of fact, too, almost all his verbal melody is associated with -color. So that, by genius rather than by art, Duncan Campbell Scott may -be regarded as the supreme verbal colorist amongst Canadian poets. He is -this for three reasons—inclusiveness of the seasons and phases of -Nature in Canada, magic of pigmentation, and novelty and imaginative -power of coloring and description. - -If the poems of Scott abound in arresting and compelling phrases, lines, -and stanzas of alliterative beauty, the number of brilliant and luminous -color phrases, lines, and whole stanzas in his poems is astounding. The -following will serve in illustration:— - - Bright as a sun spot in a globe of dew. - • • • • - The leaves dry up as pale as honeycomb. - • • • • - Or peacock tints on pools of amber gloom. - • • • • - Like the curve of a fragile ivory hand. - • • • • - the light slides there - Like minnows in a pool—slender and slow. - • • • • - Blown on a gold black flute. - • • • • - A miracle of foam and ivory. - • • • • - In loops of silver light. - • • • • - The gold moted wood-pools pellucid as her eyen. - • • • • - Snow peaks arise enrobed in rosy shadows. - • • • • - Tawny like pure honey. - • • • • - Fragile as frost pansies. - • • • • - Rubies, pale as dew ponds stained with slaughter. - -How luminous, translucent, yet graphic and vivid, are all those colorful -lines. They are the ‘painting’ of a poet who has, above all things, the -eye of the naturalist and also a fairy fantasy. If in those lines we -find in Scott a genius for exquisite and translucent verbal coloring, -corresponding to the art of Constable or Corot in imaginative vision or -fantasy, we discover the romantic pigmentation of Rossetti (as a -painter) and the rich luminous impressionism of Monet, in the lines -following the final apostrophe to Beauty in Scott’s noble _Ode for the -Keats’ Centenary_:— - - For Beauty has taken refuge from our life - That grew too loud and wounding . . . - Beauty is gone, (Oh, where?) - To dwell within a precinct of pure air - Where moments turn to months of solitude; - To live on roots of fern and tips of fern, - On tender berries flushed with the earth’s blood. - Beauty shall stain her feet with moss - And dye her cheek with deep nut-juices - Laving her hands in the pure sluices - Where rainbows are dissolved. - Beauty shall view herself in pools of amber sheen - Dampened with peacock-tints from the green screen - That mingles liquid light with liquid shadow. - -It is not necessary to illustrate the variety of Scott’s pigmentation. -That is as remarkable as its luminous beauty. What is most compelling in -his Nature-painting is the unique ingenuity, power, and romantic beauty -of his color phrases, metaphors, and similes. The naturalistic and -imaginative intensity of them is a poetic phenomenon by itself. Consider -these phrases: ‘Sun, like a gold sword,’ ‘A blade of gladiolus, like a -sword,’ ‘A burning pool of scent and heat,’ ‘Within the windless deeps -of memory,’ ‘Bent like a shield between the silver seas,’ ‘With gulfs of -blue and summits of rosy snow.’ Consider also these lines:— - - The west unrolled a feathery wind. - • • • • - The poignard lightning searched the air. - • • • • - Stars like wood daffodils grow golden in the night. - • • • • - and dawn - Tolls out from the dark belfries of the spruces; - -and, finally, consider the compelling romantic fantasy of color and -simile in this stanza from _The Piper of Arll_:— - - There were three pines above the cone - That, when the sun flared and went down, - _Grew like three warriors reaving home_ - _The plunder of a burning town_. - -It was said that there is more of Canada in the poetry of Duncan -Campbell Scott than in the verse of any other Canadian poet. So far this -appears to be true of Scott’s painting of Nature in Canada. Scott, it -must be observed, is a Nature _painter_, never a Nature _interpreter_, -as were Lampman and Carman. Yet there is in Scott’s poetry a decided -interpretative or philosophical element. It is on the side of his -philosophical poetry that Scott’s verse contains more of the Canadian -_spirit_ than does the verse of any other Canadian poet. As a -philosophical poet Scott is, first, an interpreter of humanity and life -in Canada—and his interpretations possess highly novel distinction and -spiritual import. His philosophical poetry is contained in three -volumes, _Labor and the Angel_ (1898), _New World Lyrics and Ballads_ -(1905), and _Via Borealis_ (1906). - -In his _New World Lyrics and Ballads_, Scott aims to reveal the kind of -mind or thought which the strange humanity of the Northwest in -Canada—the Indian heart in the wild North of Canada—contains. In the -volume Indian themes predominate, and the so called Ballads are more -aptly named Legends, because Scott’s Ballads are art and the product of -a reflective mind _thinking into_ Indian mind the thoughts of a -civilized man, whereas the genuine Ballad is a spontaneous story told in -simple verse. Moreover, Scott’s genius is lyrical; but in these so -called Ballads he attempts dramatic situation and emotion. It all lands -him in recondite psychological symbolism, as, for instance, in _The -Mission of the Trees_ or in _The Forsaken_, which is later attempted in -_The Half-Breed Girl_ (from _Via Borealis_), a striking essay in Indian -introspection. What we get from these poems is Scott’s perception and -revealment of spiritual Beauty in loneliness—his half-mystical -intuition that the spirit in civilized man, in the Indian soul, and in -Nature everywhere is one and the same spirit, and that civilization has -only resulted in veiling the face of God and in separating his creatures -from one another and from the Creator. - -This vague mystical intuition of the mystery and yet identity of spirit -in man and Nature is beautifully, perhaps too sensuously, envisaged in -Scott’s _Spring on Mattagami_ (from _Via Borealis_). This poem is -seductively musical and highly impressionistic, but shows the influence -of Meredith (_Love in a Wilderness_) in its interpretation of the -conflict of Love and Law in the universe. What counts and solaces, -however, is the Vision or Light of a higher Love and a deeper Law that -lie behind the seemingly meaningless conflict of the visible love and -law. After all, the poet, like the rest of mortals, can only ‘trust’ in -the supremacy of Good in the universe:— - - Vaster than the world or life or death my _trust_ is - Based in the unseen and towering far above. - Hold me, O Law, that deeper lies than Justice, - Guide me, O Light, that stronger burns than Love. - -This abstract mystical symbolism is Old World, not Canadian, not Scott’s -own philosophy of the spirit for the Canadian spirit. His own is found -in his poem _Labor and the Angel_. It is original and noble in -conception; and, consistently with its serious didactic purpose and -ideas, or symbolism, its diction is vernacular, its form and rhythm are -suited to plain narrative; and the whole is devoid of Scott’s luxuriant -color and sensuous melody. It is a dramatic poem in the sense that it is -designed to affect the heart and the imagination with dramatic force and -truth. As a criticism of life in the Arnoldian sense, we see in the poem -the influence of Matthew Arnold. But its thought and style show more -notably the influence of Browning and Meredith, especially in its -syntactical ellipses, bald and abrupt lines. - -In its way, _Labor and the Angel_ is as finely and as impressively -achieved as Tennyson’s _Princess_. It answers a question which is -particularly pertinent to Canada where work—the gaining of material -subsistence—necessarily is paramount, because inevitable and pressing. -As with Browning, so with Scott, Woman is man’s life-star and -inspiration. In the poem _Labor and the Angel_, the Man and the Girl are -common humanity, but the Girl, who is also the Angel of Labor, is the -man’s companion and helpmate:— - - Down on the sodden field - A blind man is gathering his roots, - Guided and led by a girl; - Her golden hair blows in the wind, - Her garments, with flutter and furl, - Leap like a flag in the sun; - And whenever he stoops, she stoops, - And they heap up the dark colored beets - In the barrow, row upon row. - -Labor, the kind which is mere toil and drudgery, is without meaning and -unspiritual. But Woman was designed by God as the power which shall -inspire men to spirituality in all things. As Man, every man would be -‘blind’ and purposeless and futile. But as Man, companioned and inspired -by Woman and idealizing labor for the end of her companionship and love -and the spiritual fruits of that love, every man, who is obedient to the -ideal, transmutes the lowliest labor into spiritual purpose, meaning and -result:— - - She offers no tantalus cup - To the shrunken, the desperate lips, - But she calms them with lethe and love - And deadens the throb and the pain. - For Labor is always blind, - Unless as the light of the deed - The Angel is smiling behind. - ‘Effort and effort,’ she cries, - ‘Up with the lark and the dew, - Still with the dew and the stars, - This is the heart beat of life, - Feel it athrob in the earth.’ - -Man and Labor, Woman and Love as the star and inspiration of man in all -his work—what nobler dignity could any poet give to Woman, and what -other consolation of philosophy could he conceive and sing that would, -as it does, for men more surely - - Make mortal flesh seem light and temporal! - -_Labor and the Angel_ is unique amongst poems by Canadians, and its -noble philosophy of the spirit challenges poems of similar quality by -Tennyson, Browning, Meredith, and Emerson. - -Duncan Campbell Scott—austere intellectualist, superb verbal musician, -luminous Nature-painter, and impeccable technical virtuoso of verse -amongst Canadian poets—it is by him that we are also given in _The -Height of Land_ the finest expression of the true spiritual mysticism, -the immediate perception of God—an intuition in which Life appears - - As simple as to the shepherd seems his flock: - A Something to be guided by ideals— - That in themselves are simple and serene - Of noble deed to foster noble thought, - And noble thought to image noble deed, - Till deed and thought shall interpenetrate, - Making life lovelier, till we come to doubt - Whether the perfect beauty that escapes - Is beauty of deed or thought or some high thing - Mingled of both, a greater boon than either: - Thus we have seen in the retreating tempest - The victor-sunlight merge with the ruined rain, - And from the rain and sunlight spring the rainbow. - -Seek we in the poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott for the choice and -ineluctable goods of the spirit,—music, color, high thought and serene -philosophy—and we shall always be rewarded with Beauty ‘golden and -inappellable.’ - - * * * * * - -The quotations in this chapter are chiefly from _Beauty and Life_, by -Duncan Campbell Scott, (McClelland & Stewart). - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - - Wilfred Campbell - - AS AN OBJECTIVE NATURE PAINTER—HUMANIZED SUBSTANCE OF HIS VERSE— - PATRIOTISM AND BROTHERHOOD—DRAMATIC MONODY—POETICAL TRAGEDIES - AND DRAMAS. - -In the early nineties of the last century three young Canadian poets, -who were employed in the Civil Service Departments at Ottawa, were -closely associated in a systematic way as men of letters. They were -Wilfred Campbell, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. In the -Toronto _Globe_ they conducted a department of literary criticism and -‘causerie’ under the caption ‘The Mermaid Inn.’ Oddly, these three young -Canadian men of letters were singularly dissimilar in poetic -temperament, attitudes, vision, and ideals. As a poet Lampman was an -interpreter of the inner meaning of the beauty and moods of Nature. He -and Nature communed with each other by reciprocal sympathy, and he cared -greatly for style and craftsmanship in poetry. Duncan Campbell Scott -loved beauty for its own sake as a spiritual delight or source of -ecstasy, but perfection of form, style, artistry—‘art for art’s -sake’—pre-empted all other considerations in poetry. Wilfred Campbell -occupied a middle ground. He was an objective Nature-painter, with -tendencies to be more interested in Nature as a habitat or background of -the human spirit which had come from God and was going to God. He was -solicitous about form and imagery, color and melody in poetry, but for -him these were always a means to an end, never a mere end in themselves. -Or, harking back to influences, we may say that Lampman wrote poetry -with the eye and the spirit of Keats and Wordsworth; Scott with the eye -of Matthew Arnold for naturalistic and moral beauty and chaste artistry; -and Campbell in the spirit of Longfellow and Emerson, and, sometimes, of -Tennyson. - -With Campbell it was the substance or matter,—the ideas, thought, and -meanings for the spirit—not the formal elements or manner of poetry, -that counted for most. It is the substance of poetry, its meanings for -the spirit, that counts always for most with the people. For this -reason, though Campbell is not the greatest of the poets of the first -Systematic School, he is, and will remain, as he has been called, ‘the -poet of the people’s choice.’ - -A distinct evolution—and advance in vision—from objective -nature-painting of the spirit can be observed in the successive volumes -of Campbell’s verse. Naturally, until he had reflected on his aims as a -poet, he did not announce his poetic creed in his first volume of verse. -He did this in his fourth volume, _Collected Poems_ (1905) in his poem -_Higher Kinship_:— - - There is a time at middle summer, when, - In weariness of all this saddening world, - _The simple nature aspects seem to me_ - _As a close kindred_, sweet and kind and true, - _Giving me peace and comfort, and a joy_ - _Not of the senses, but of the inward soul_. - - The restful day, the sunny leaf and wind, - The path of blue like windows shining down, - _Do give to life a beauty and a calm_ - _And a sweet sadness, that this mighty world_ - _And all its myriad triumphs cannot give_. - - O let me live with Nature at her door, - And taste her home-brewed pleasures, simple, glad,— - The beauty of the day, the splendor of the night,— - Not in the great palace halls, great cloister domes, - The smoke of cities and the thronging din, - But out with air and woodlands, shining sun,— - These my companions, this my roof, my home! - -‘Not of the senses’—Campbell is not a lover of impressionism for its -own sake, but he loves the simple, colorful aspects of Nature for the -joy, comfort and peace which they give to ‘_the inward soul_.’ He has -his equals as an impressionistic colorist, but he is supreme when he -paints a phenomenon or aspect of Nature in monotone or in subdued tones -as in pastel, or when he etches a scene with a Whistler-like feeling for -atmosphere, shadow, and chiaroscuro, and for line. In 1888, when he was -in his twenty-seventh year, Campbell published a booklet of twenty -lyrics, _Snowflakes and Sunbeams_. In these first lyrics he disclosed -the eye of monotonist and etcher for the beauty of Nature. The verse in -this rare little volume is marked, too, by a grace and melody which -enhance the pictures. What but a ‘symphony in white’ is his _Snow_— - - Folding the forest. - Folding the farms, - In a mantle of white, - And the river’s great arms, - Kissed by the chill night - From clamor to rest, - Lie all white and shrouded - Upon the world’s breast. - -Thus, through several stanzas, he paints Nature in white, seemingly for -the joy of the senses but really for ‘the inward soul.’ For a moment he -obtrudes the ‘message’ which the snow conveys to the moral imagination— - - Falling so slowly - Down from above, - So white, hushed and holy, - Folding the city - Like the great pity - Of God in his love; - Sent down out of heaven, - On its sorrow and crime, - Blotting them, folding them - Under its rime. - -Beautiful as an original image is the thought of the snow descending -hushed and holy, ‘like the great pity of God in his love,’ but it is a -sentimental obtrusion, out of character with the snow-picture as such. -We find Campbell frequently creating the most engaging Nature pictures, -and here or there in a poem recalling the eye from the pure visual -delights to let the moral imagination reflect on some suggestion, some -similitude, for ‘the inward soul.’ What a pretty pastel, for instance, -he paints with spare use of mere tints, in the first two stanzas of _In -the Study_:— - - Out over my study, - All ashen and ruddy - Sinks the December sun, - And high up over - The chimney’s soot cover - The winter night has begun. - - Here in the red embers - I dream old Decembers, - Until the low moan of the blast, - Like a voice out of Ghost-land, - Or memory’s lost-land, - Seems to conjure up wraiths from the past. - -But Campbell does not continue the strict painting of the objective -picture. He introduces something ‘for the inward soul,’ as he does, in -the concluding stanza:— - - Then into the room - Through the firelight and gloom, - Some one steals,—let the night wind grow bleak, - And ever so coldly,— - Two white arms enfold me, - And a sweet face is close to my cheek. - -This is not a fault in Campbell’s poetry. It is an essential part of his -art. As in Longfellow, so in Campbell the _humanized substance_ of his -verse is consciously designed for the popular heart, and ensures popular -acceptance. Campbell would rather do this than to write always for art’s -sake, as in these sheer pictorial stanzas from _A Winter’s Night_:— - - Shadowy white, - Over the fields are the sleeping fences, - Silent and still in the fading light, - As the wintry night commences. - • • • • - _Calm sleeping night_ - _Whose jewelled couch reflects the million stars_ - That murmur silent music in their flight. . . . - -Yet, he can employ delineative line with swift and sure artistry just to -make a picture for its own sake, disclosing absolute mastery in economy -of means, as in his _Rododactulos_:— - - The night blows outward in a mist, - And all the world the sun has kissed. - - Along a golden rim of sky, - A thousand snow-piled vapors lie. - - And by the wood and mist-clad stream, - _The Maiden Morn stands still to dream_. - -That is an exquisite bit of naturalistic etching with a poetic meaning -intrinsically in the picture of the Maiden Morn standing and dreaming in -the mist. The picture itself delights both the visual faculty and the -imagination. Campbell also possessed the faculty of painting vividly, as -with a single sweep of the brush, as in his _Lake Huron_ (in October) -and its memorable lines:— - - Miles and miles of lake and forest, - Miles and miles of sky and mist; - -and these still more vivid lines:— - - Miles and miles of crimson glories, - Autumn’s wondrous fires ablaze. - -Campbell did not aim or strive to be a word-virtuoso. But what he could -achieve as an artist was to make at will a dainty or a glorious -_picture_, and so _localize_ the picture that one can immediately tell -which section of the Canadian land or waters is delineated. He surpassed -all his contemporaries in the gift of ‘flashing’ a vivid picture in a -single line, as, for instance:— - - The stars came out in _gleaming shoals_ - -or this tremendous line:— - - Where wrinkled suns in awful blackness swim. - -The last line quoted also discloses in Campbell a power which is not in -any other Canadian poet—the Miltonic power of conveying by description -ideated sensations of unending space and movement. Matching almost any -piece of sheer description of immensity by Milton is Campbell’s -compelling panorama of Lazarus in his flight from Heaven to Hell and the -sensations of illimitable depths downward that it creates in the reader, -as in these stanzas from his poem _Lazarus_:— - - Hellward he moved, like a radiant star shot out - From heaven’s blue with rain of gold at even, - When Orion’s train and that mysterious seven - Move on in mystic range from heaven to heaven. - Hellward he sank, followed by radiant rout. - - The liquid floor of heaven bore him up - With unseen arms, as in his feathery flight - He floated down toward the infinite night; - But each way downward, on the left and right, - He saw each moon of heaven like a cup - - Of liquid, misty fire that shone afar - From sentinel towers of heaven’s battlements; - But onward, winged by love’s desire intense, - He sank, space-swallowed, into the immense, - While with him ever widened heaven’s bar. - - ’Tis ages now long-gone since he went out, - Christ-urged, love-driven, across the jasper walls. - But hellward still he ever floats and falls, - And ever nearer come those anguished calls; - And far behind he hears a glorious shout. - -Campbell had a gift, too, for vivid color epithets and for vowel and -alliterative word-melody. Indeed he was a master of color and verbal -melody. Some of his more original and striking alliterative lines are:— - - Flooding the silence in a silvern dream. - • • • • - Low flutes the lake along the lustrous sedge. - • • • • - But dawns and sunsets fell on mute dead faces. - • • • • - Belled with bees, a pollened bevy. - • • • • - Out of the murmurous moods of your multitudinous mind. - • • • • - Dim mists of darkness rise from marsh and mere. - • • • • - The waking world leaps to the day’s desire. - • • • • - The harmonies that float and melt afar. - • • • • - Deep-sounding and surgent, the armies of storm sweep by. - • • • • - -None of Campbell’s contemporaries surpassed him in painting a simple but -vivid _genre_ picture, and enhancing it with verbal melody, as he does, -for instance, in his _Canadian Folksong_, beginning:— - - The doors are shut, the windows fast; - Outside the gust is driving past, - Outside the shivering ivy clings, - While on the hob the kettle sings; - ‘Margery, Margery, make the tea,’ - Singeth the kettle merrily. - -As a poet of humane patriotism, which has regard for international or -world relations, and which is not mere ‘drum and trumpet’ patriotism, -Campbell stands in a class by himself. He had a Keltic love of place or -home. It was a passion with him, but the passion embraced the -Anglo-Saxon peoples. So that his patriotic poetry contains a large -element of the ideal of Anglo-Saxon unity and of the imperialistic -destiny of the British peoples. Thus we find him singing with equal -warmth of Scotland, the homeland of his ancestors (as in _The -World-Mother_), of England (as in his _To England_), of the United -States (as in his _To the United States_), and of Canada, his homeland -(as in _Canada_.) - -A sincere and profound sense and love of brotherhood is the key-note of -his patriotic poetry. There is no magniloquent bombast in it, whereas it -must be admitted that Roberts’ _Canada_ and his _Ode to the Confederacy_ -have at least an air of pomp of words which sound like mere -magniloquence or bombast. But there is in Campbell’s _Canada_ a sincere -sense of history, of historical background and heroic origins, as well -as of a people whom the vastness of their habitat should impel to a -great and noble destiny. Besides, Campbell sings of the homeland in -simple octameter couplets, the very simplicity of which impresses the -spirit with a deep sense of truth and reality. The poem, with a slight -change or two for choral singing would, if set to dignified and sonorous -music, be fitted to be an inspiring and inspiriting National Hymn. It is -a colorful, lyrical poem, a Song, suffused with the qualities of the -Canadian spirit and the beauties of the Canadian habitat. We quote a few -excerpts:— - - O land, by every gift of God - Brave home of freedom, let thy sod - - Sacred with blood of hero sires, - Spurn from its breast ignobler fires. - - Keep on these shores where beauty reigns, - And vastness folds from peak to plains, - - With room for all from hills to sea, - No shackled, helot tyranny. - - Spurn from thy breast the bigot lie, - The smallness not of earth or sky. - - Breed all thy sons brave stalwart men, - To meet the world as one to ten. - - Breed all thy daughters mothers true, - Magic of that glad joy of you, - - Till liberties thy hills adorn - As wide as thy wide fields of corn. - • • • • - And round earth’s rim thine honor glows, - Unsullied as thy drifted snows. - -Wilfred Campbell, then, appears as a lyrist of Nature and poet of the -Spirit, who is an adroit and vivid objective colorist and etcher, but -who, for the most part, tinges his lyricism of Nature with meanings for -the ‘inward soul.’ With equal dexterity and truth he painted an -impressionistic or a _genre_ picture. But in doing this, he was -unexcelled by his contemporaries in Canada in economy of means for -expression. While, however, he was thus given to painting or delineating -Nature in Canada, he also appears as a poet who ‘hath kept watch o’er -man’s mortality.’ He gave proof of this in a singular way. Whatever -other distinctions belong to him, Campbell has never been equalled, by -another Canadian poet, in the Dramatic Monologue. Perhaps, in view of -the special meaning which Browning has given to this species of poetry, -it were better to use the formula Dramatic Monody. For this phrase -better describes Campbell’s poignant, compelling _Unabsolved_, _The -Mother_, and _Lazarus_. But however categorized, these poems reveal the -fact that Campbell’s genius was essentially dramatic. This dramatic -instinct in him, Campbell developed to a high degree until he essayed -the five-act poetic drama. It is as a Poetic Dramatist that Campbell -achieved a distinct and fixed place in Canadian creative poetry. - -The first poet to attempt nativistic or native poetic drama in Canada -was Charles Mair, who published at Toronto, in 1886. _Tecumseh: A -Drama_. Many of its characters are Canadian and much of its setting and -color are Canadian. Mair had created a work of real interest, of -excellent structure and dramatic development, and had used impressively -Canadian properties, character, and environment. The verse is genuinely -artistic and colorful and dramatic, and the poem as a whole is worthy of -critical consideration; but only as the first example of Canadian native -poetic drama is _Tecumseh_ to be regarded as significant in the literary -history of Canada. - -Much superior to the dramatic poetry of Mair is that of Wilfred -Campbell. It is considerable in quantity, comprising the following (as -he called them) ‘poetical tragedies and dramas:’ _Mordred_, -_Hildebrand_, _The Brockenfiend_, _Robespierre_, _Daulac_, _Morning_, -_Sanio_, and _The Admiral’s Daughter_. The quality of his poetical -tragedies and dramas distinguishes him as the first really important -creator of poetic drama in Canada. - -The titles of his poetic tragedies and dramas clearly indicate that, -with one exception, his subjects were derivative and his treatment -traditional. With the exception of his _Daulac_ he took his subjects -from Arthurian legend and European romantic history. He was considerably -under the influence of Tennyson. Though he gave us an interesting and -arresting poetic drama with his _Daulac_, it is specially notable as a -drama which is Canadian in subject, character, and setting. He was not -so successful with it as with his poetic drama based on Arthurian legend -and romantic history. The reason is that in a large degree he possessed -an ‘Old World,’ a Keltic imagination, and his imagination was deeply -impressed and moved by the romance of mediaeval heroic exploits:— - - Old, unhappy, far-off things, - And battles long ago. - -The heroism of Daulac, his combats and other heroic exploits were so -near in time to the age of Campbell himself that they could not affect -the poet’s imagination so pervasively and compellingly as do the older -mediaeval romances of heroic exploits. Campbell did not feel the -_Daulac_ story as he had felt the Arthurian or romantic legends of -Europe. He, therefore, did not, because he could not, put into his -_Daulac_ the same power of imagination and dramatic characterization and -reality that he put into his other dramas. But _Daulac_, -notwithstanding, is a noble poetic drama; and since it is Canadian -through and through, in subject, in setting, and in authorship, we may -estimate it as the first native poetic drama of genuine art and power in -the creative literature of Canada. - - * * * * * - -The quotations from Wilfred Campbell’s work in this chapter are from -_The Poetical Works of Wilfred Campbell_ (Hodder & Stoughton, Limited: -Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - - Pauline Johnson - - HER ANCESTRY AND ITS INFLUENCES—LITERARY AND MUSICAL QUALITIES OF - WORK—STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN SPIRITUAL VISION—PICTURESQUE COLOR - VERSE. - -The name, life, and poetry of Pauline Johnson affect the heart and -imagination with the arresting pathos which attaches to the imperishable -memory of a belated and beautiful spirit who came singing new and -winning music of earth, and man, and love. She was the most elementally -human of all Canadian poets. In some respects Pauline Johnson was the -most original and engaging singer in the company of the Canadian lyrists -who were born in 1860, 1861, and 1862—Roberts, Carman, Lampman, -Campbell, and Duncan Campbell Scott. - -Pauline Johnson’s grandfather, who attained special glory for his -valorous deed of setting fire, with his own hands, to the city of -Buffalo in the War of 1812, was distinguished, in times of peace, by his -tribesmen with the honorable and poetic sobriquet, ‘The Mohawk Warbler,’ -not because he could actually ‘warble’ like a present-day lyric tenor, -but because he possessed a ready flow of language which he used with -impassioned and dramatic eloquence. The old warrior’s granddaughter, in -her ballads and poems of Indian wrongs and Indian heroic deeds, wrote -with the same dramatic intensity and the same gift for dramatic picture; -and in her songs of Nature and of love sang with a lyrical lilt as -natural, musical, free, and passionate as the warblings of the thrush or -lark or linnet. - -The distinctive qualities of Pauline Johnson’s genius and poetry are -here noted summarily. In general: As a story-telling balladist she must -be ranked with the best Canadian poets who have essayed the same -_genre_, though in some of her ballads there are lines which are -rhetorical and melodramatic. On the whole, however, her story-telling -ballads are unsurpassed by her Canadian _confrères_, in emotional -intensity, rapid movement, terse phrasing, and dramatic pictorial -vividness. - -As a verbal musician, and as a nature-painter and etcher, Pauline -Johnson again must be given a very high place. Some of her poems are -marked by absolutely avian _abandon_; others by haunting melody; and -others by sweetly flowing rhythm and winning cadences, and by sensuous -vowel-harmonies and faultless rhymes. Many of her poems disclose the -gift to paint in words a picture from Nature with the impressionist’s -mastery of sensation and color. Some of them are low-keyed and full of -shadows, suggested sensations, and mystery. Others are dainty -word-etchings, picturesquely or subtly drawn and subdued in tone. - -In particular: Pauline Johnson has yet, by other Canadian poets, to be -equalled as a lyrist of the passion and pathos of romantic love, and as -an inventor of picturesque, veracious, vivid, beautiful, and compelling -poetic figures and images. Her love poems are full of the most poignant -passion and pathos. It would be easy to make a catalogue of a half -hundred or more poetic figures and images which are unique in -descriptive aptness or in emotional ‘tang.’ - -In short, the supreme spiritual and aesthetic qualities of Pauline -Johnson’s poetry are its real sincerity, its naiveté of thought, its -simplicity of structure, its lovely color images, its winning music, its -passion, pathos, and womanly tenderness. But first place must be given -to its dulcet and insinuating music and to its original and arresting -poetic figures and images. - -Pauline Johnson, taking the date engraved on the monument to her memory -at Vancouver, was born in 1861. She died at Vancouver in 1912. She was -the youngest child of a family of four born to the late G. H. M. Johnson -(Onwononsyshon) of Brantford, Ontario, Head Chief of the Six Nations -Indians, and his wife, Emily S. Howells, who was of English parentage -and born at Brixton, England. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) was born on -her father’s estate, which is on the Reserve apportioned the Mohawk -Tribe by the Canadian government. It must, therefore, pique the -imagination to know that Pauline Johnson was of pure Indian and pure -English descent, but that though she travelled from coast to coast in -Canada and the United States and twice to England, her freedom of -movement was ‘privileged’ and she was always, wherever she went, a -‘ward’ of the Canadian government. - -In Pauline Johnson’s case there are nice, though not recondite, problems -in literary psychology and interpretive criticism. For instance: Was -Pauline Johnson’s genius Indian, or English? Was it inherited, or was -she a ‘born’ poet, or how else may her gifts and tastes be explained? -The poet herself always insisted, with considerable pride, on her Indian -origin. Some critics, reasoning by quasi-inductions, abetted her in this -belief. Yet, so far as her genius is concerned, the only one of her -Indian ancestors who had anything like literary gifts was her -grandfather, ‘The Mohawk Warbler,’ and his gifts were those of the -‘tongue’ in compelling eloquence rather than aesthetic sensibility and -the power of expressing in words the beauty and the music in Nature. On -the other hand, Pauline Johnson’s English ancestors were a family who -possessed distinct literary tendencies and habits. The most -distinguished member of the branches of that family was W. D. Howells, -the American novelist, poet, and essayist. It is most probable that she -inherited her literary gifts from her English ancestors. For in _Flint -and Feather_—her complete poems—there is not one concept, or bit of -color, or rhythm, or anything else, that may be described as -specifically Indian. Rather it is all British or Universal. We do find -in her poems Indian themes, protests against British ruthlessness in -governmental treatment of the Indian, and the celebration of Indian -valor and love. But these are human utterances. Moreover, of the ninety -poems in _Flint and Feather_, only eight concern the Indian, and these -only on the side of episodes which formed good material for romantic -story-telling in verse. In these fine ballads Pauline Johnson became -indeed the ‘Voice’ of her inarticulate Indian fellows, but the voice -itself was that of a woman cultured in the forms and music of English -poetry. Pauline Johnson’s loyalty to the Indian side of her ancestry, -and her pride in it, were admirable; but, if heredity is to be accepted -as a real cause of genius, her taste for literature, and her bent -towards literary expression, must have come from her mother’s side. For -her mother was both a cultured and a romantically-minded woman. If, -however, we are to grant the poet any gift from her Indian ancestry, we -must remember her brilliant career as a reciter or dramatic reader. If -she inherited this dramatic gift, then she got it from her eloquent -grandfather, ‘The Mohawk Warbler.’ Though she used it conspicuously in -her dramatic readings, the gift is also observable in the vividly -graphic qualities, and in the emotional intensity, of her story-telling -ballads. - -Pauline Johnson was the first genuinely Canadian ‘daughter of the soil’ -who indubitably was born a poet; and her poetic development was one not -in artistic craftsmanship, but in vision. The first important fact in -her spiritual history is that at a very early age the future poet -evinced an original and intense taste for verse, expressing this taste -both by a fondness for memorizing verses read to her and for composing -childish jingles about familiar domestic objects. A pretty illustration -of Pauline Johnson’s early predilection for poetry is furnished in the -Biographical Sketch to _Flint and Feather_, in which it is related that -when she was but four years old (1865) she was asked by a friend who was -going to a distant city what he should bring her as a gift, and that the -child-poet replied, ‘Verses, please!’ - -The second important fact in Pauline Johnson’s spiritual history is that -from the time she could pen words intelligently up to the close of her -public-school days she devoted much of her leisure to self-cultivation -in the appreciation and the writing of verse. Before she was twelve -years old (1873), Pauline Johnson had thoroughly read Shakespeare and -the British romantic poets, Scott and Byron, and with their texts -cultivated her native sense of poetic diction and imagery, of verbal -rhythm and music (vowel-harmony, rhyme, consonance, assonance, -alliteration), and of color-epithets for brilliant and subtly -impressionistic word-painting. - -Pauline Johnson, with rare good sense, did not publish any of her verses -till considerable time after she had completed her formal schooling and -her personally conducted studies of versification, verbal music, and -poetic imagery. But as soon as she began to offer her verses to editors, -she seems to have found ready acceptances. The first periodical to -welcome her verse was a small New York magazine, _Gems of Poetry_, -published, presumably, in the early ’80’s of the last century. This, -however, can not be regarded as a significant event. Really significant -was the fact that _The Week_ (founded by Goldwin Smith) was the first -Canadian magazine to publish her verse. This fact assured her the -recognition and sponsorship of Goldwin Smith, himself an eminent -man-of-letters and a poet, and also, possibly, of Charles G. D. Roberts, -who was literary editor of _The Week_ in 1883-1884, and who was the -first editor to stand sponsor for Archibald Lampman. The imprimatur of -_The Week_, or the sponsorship of Goldwin Smith and Roberts, -automatically elected Pauline Johnson to the company of the Systematic -Group of Canadian poets born in 1860, 1861 and 1862, and introduced her -to the English-speaking world as a new and authentically gifted singer, -in whose music, though formally composed in the English manner of -versification, would, in due time, be heard the hitherto unheard -melancholy over-tones and wildwood notes of the aboriginal Canadian -spirit. - -The next important date in Pauline Johnson’s history is the year 1892, -when a happy social and literary _soirée_ launched the Indian poet on a -public career which, seemingly, would not affect, save negatively, -Pauline Johnson’s function and art as a lyrist. From that date and for -sixteen years (1892-1908), Miss Johnson assiduously applied her gifts as -a reciter and dramatic reader in Canada, the United States, and England, -all the while publishing intermittently in the periodical press her best -verse. - -In 1895, simultaneously at London, England, Boston, and Toronto, -appeared her first volume of poems, _The White Wampum_. In 1903 her -second volume of poems, _Canadian Born_, was issued at Toronto. In 1912, -also at Toronto, there was published the definitive and inclusive -edition of her collected poems, _Flint and Feather_. All three, upon -their appearance, were highly praised in reviews by the critics of -England, the United States, and Canada. - -It is important to appreciate the significance of Pauline Johnson’s -sixteen years of travelling over Canada, the United States, and England, -as a reciter and dramatic reader. Possibly they reduced the amount of -her poetic output. But there are no evidences in _Flint and Feather_ -that the experiences gained during these years diminished or increased -her powers of poetic vision or craftsmanship. Pauline Johnson was -self-deceived when, in a letter, she expressed her belief that the -fugitive verses published in _Flint and Feather_, pages 135-156, surpass -her poems in _The White Wampum_ and in _Canadian Born_. ‘My later -fugitive verse,’ she declared, ‘is, of course, my best work, as it is -more mature.’ There are only fifteen of these so-called fugitive poems; -but imaginative, musical, and tender as they are, notably _In Grey -Days_, _Autumn’s Orchestra_, _The Trail to Lillooet_, _The Lifting of -the Mist_, _The King’s Consort_, and _Day Dawn_, they are all in the -early manner of the poet. They are lovely and winning poems, pervaded -with seductive music, tone-color pictures of nature and of life, tinged -with a tender pathos. But they show no advance in technique, verbal -music, imagery, or emotional nuance—no lately acquired powers to -express rhythmic ecstasy with a newer and more musical lilt than obtains -in _The Song My Paddle Sings_ (1892); or to paint with more suggestive -impressionism a nature picture full of color, half-lights, or mystery, -or more finely to etch a verbal portrait than she has done in _Erie -Waters_, _Marshlands_, _Shadow River_, and _Joe_; or to catch and -envisage a mood or emotional nuance with subtler spirituality than she -accomplished in _The Camper_, _Lady Lorgnette_, _Lullaby of the -Iroquois_, _Prairie Greyhounds_, _Lady Icicle_, and _The Prodigal_. - -All these poems, whose titles have just been quoted, were composed in -the decade from 1892 to 1902, and belong to Pauline Johnson’s first two -volumes which together contained sixty-seven poems of indubitable lyric -and imaginative quality. Of the poems composed by Pauline Johnson in the -decade from 1902 to 1912, only twenty-three were deemed by the poet -worthy to stand beside her poems from _The White Wampum_ and in -_Canadian Born_ which, with the later twenty-three, form the contents of -the original edition of _Flint and Feather_. Five posthumously published -poems were added to the later editions. - -If, then, in _Flint and Feather_ we discover no advance in the technique -of Pauline Johnson’s art, wherein did her new experiences gained by -travel, by meeting men and women of foreign lands and by learning the -ways of the world, work changes worth while? Solely in the poet’s heart -and imagination. Here was a development, not in craftsmanship and art, -but in spiritual vision. It was, too, an evolution simple and natural in -its stages, and is readily traceable in the poems contained in _Flint -and Feather_. Mr. Melvin O. Hammond, an observant and judicious Canadian -critic, in a review of _Flint and Feather_ (_The Globe_, Toronto, Nov. -9th, 1912), was the first to disclose these stages of Pauline Johnson’s -development in spiritual vision. They are four:— - -First, Pauline Johnson appeared as the ‘voice’ of the Indian people, who -before her coming had been dumb or inarticulate. Her point of view was, -at this stage, Indian, and she passionately protested against the abuses -the Indians of Canada have suffered (as in _The Cattle Thief_ and _A Cry -from An Indian Wife_) or, as passionately, sang of Indian valor and love -(as in her _Ojistoh_). - -Next, her point of view became Canadian. She turned from lamenting the -free and glorious past of her Indian ancestors to paint in verse the -land of her birth, ‘Canadian life and scenery in the broad outdoors of -the North and West,’ not merely impressionistically picturing woods, -skies, plains, but also apostrophizing and humanizing both natural -creatures and objects, as if they were conscious of their estate, -function, and value to man, and had moods of their own, as, for example, -_The Sleeping Giant_ (Thunder Bay), and the dainty, fetching lyric _The -Homing Bee_. - -The third stage in Miss Johnson’s development in vision was also -Canadian. But, in this stage, her point of view became broadened in -scope. She turned to remark the progress of the Canadian national spirit -and the civilization which binds the Dominion from ocean to ocean. This -she accomplished with extraordinary virility in rhythm, with apt -descriptive epithet, and with pictorial suggestiveness in her _Prairie -Greyhounds_—a song represented as sung by the trans-continental trains -in their passage from East to West, and West to East. The poem gives the -reader vivid ideated sensations of the swish and roar and onward rush of -the trains, the sweep of the vast territory of the Dominion, and the -vision of the Greater Canada that is to be. - -The final stage in Pauline Johnson’s increase in scope of spiritual -vision was marked by cosmopolitanism, pure humanity, and by mysticism. -She had lost the Indian and the Canadian points of view when she -composed _Give us Barrabas_ (commemorative of the exile of Dreyfus). She -was wholly a human being and sexless when she composed her subtly -sympathetic _The City and the Sea_, and _Fasting_. She was genuinely -mystical when she composed her _Penseroso_ wherein she sang -persuasively:— - - Soulless is all humanity to me - To-night. My keenest longing is to be - Alone, alone with God’s grey earth that seems - Pulse of my pulse and consort of my dreams. - -To authenticate the claim that Pauline Johnson’s genius, art, and poetry -are highly original and sometimes unique, it is only necessary to cite -such of her poems as represent the stages of her development and the -special qualities of her poetic vision and artistry. - -Beginning with the first stage, we must observe that her passionate -protesting against the abuses which the Indians of Canada had suffered -as, for instance, in her poems _The Cattle Thief_, and _A Cry from an -Indian Wife_, is no proof that the fierce intensity of her utterance is -a recrudescence of ancestral Indian fire of spirit or ferocity in -herself. The poems in which this so-called Indian emotional intensity -was expressed by her did, no doubt, spring out of imaginative sympathy -with her father’s race, but these poems could have been written with the -same show of emotional intensity by any other poet who realized with -equal imaginative sympathy the wrongs that the Indians of Canada had -suffered and who had the gift of fiery expression. - -Pauline Johnson is fundamentally Indian when she is most pagan; that is, -when, first, she realizes and expresses poignantly her racial sense of -haunting presences in the natural world, and when, secondly, she -expresses a melancholy regret for the passing of her Indian race and a -yearning for free and pagan communion with the moods of Nature, with the -wild creatures of Nature, and with the spiritual presences, which, to -the imagination of the aboriginal Indian, haunted the woods, the -streams, the mists, the clouds, and the sunsets before the hated British -race destroyed the Indian’s ancestral habitat and robbed him both of his -material and spiritual birthright. Moreover, in the two or three poems -in which she protested against the wrongs which the Indians of Canada -had suffered, Pauline Johnson was really, if unconsciously, _affecting_ -to be the ‘voice’ of her Indian race. For she soon turned from such -affected poetic frenzy to expressing her admiration of the British and -her love of Canada as a free commonwealth under British allegiance and -protection, and to revealing in colorful and musical verse the spirit -and beauties of the land of her birth. - -Pauline Johnson, then, is essentially Indian, not when frenzied, but -only when she expresses in verse the inner secrets of the joy and the -pathos of her imaginative communion with past and contemporary Nature in -Canada,—when she sings, with free and infectious lilt, outdoor life in -Canada or impressionistically paints Canadian woods, skies, plains, -snow, waters, or apostrophizes and humanizes the creatures and objects -of nature as if they had a psychology of their own. - -All the world knows Pauline Johnson’s lilting and infectious lyric of -Canadian outdoor life, _The Song My Paddle Sings_. It is unsurpassed for -suggested or ideated sensations of wind and stream, of the spirit of -motion, of free life in the open, and wins one both by its vivid -pictures of outdoor life and by its simple but musical _abandon_. After -a two-stanza apostrophe to the West wind, closing with - - Now fold in slumber your laggard wings - For soft is the song my paddle sings— - -we hear the poet lilting the inspiriting song itself, opening - - August is laughing across the sky, - Laughing while paddle, canoe and I, - Drift, drift, - Where the hills uplift - On either side of the current swift. - -Specially to be noted in this poem is the descriptive and musical -realism which the poet effects by a sort of refrain in the third line of -each stanza, a monosyllabic accent which precisely conveys to the -sensibility the actual sensations experienced in canoeing through -slow-moving and rushing or weltering waters—‘drift, drift,’ ‘dip, dip,’ -‘swirl, swirl,’ ‘dash, dash,’ ‘reel, reel,’ ‘sway, sway,’ ‘swings, -swings.’ This is supreme in descriptive and imitative naturalism. - -For examples of Pauline Johnson’s poetic power to humanize objects and -creatures in Nature _The Sleeping Giant_ and _The Homing Bee_ may be -cited. The latter is also notably suffused with delicate color, moves -with a light, tripping music, and is dainty in structure, thus -exemplifying several of the other qualities of her art. The opening -lines indicate the ‘key’ in music and color:— - - You are belted with gold, little brother of mine, - Yellow gold, like the sun - That spills in the west, as a chalice of wine - When feasting is done. - -In the Canadian idyll, Pauline Johnson displayed a delicate sense of -color values, and sang as well of airy things in Nature with an airy -music, sometimes touched with a reflective melancholy, as, for instance, -in _Shadow River_. - -The tones of melancholy, of sadness, observed sometimes in Pauline -Johnson’s poetry were not all born of a mystical yearning for union with -Nature. Sometimes they were the expression of a poignant sense of the -defeat of romantic love. Hers was a simple, warm or passionate, -confiding, sensitive, but strong nature; and sensitive and passionate -but strong natures, if they belong to poets, tend to express poignantly, -rather than bitterly, any spiritual cataclysm in their lives, and, for -solace or support, to turn to Nature or to religion. It was so with -Pauline Johnson. - -Charles Mair, author of _Dreamland and Other Poems_, and _Tecumseh: A -Drama_, is the authority for the belief that Pauline Johnson went -through an experience of romantic love which, in its joy, gave wings of -ecstasy and a warm emotional coloring to her nature-poetry, but which, -when her love suffered a defeat that meant a spiritual cataclysm for -her, drew from her the most poignant expression of yearning for union -with Immortal Love. The important truth is that whichever emotion she -expresses, she remains unequalled as a lyrist of the ecstasy and the -pathos of romantic love. But her poems of the ecstasy of love are never -merely the expression of subjective emotions. They also have an idyllic -or nature setting which so colors her nature-poetry itself with the -passion of love as to distinguish it, both as nature-poetry and as love -poetry, from anything else of the kind in Canadian Literature. The -ecstasy is somewhat subdued in _Idlers_; but is passionate and -transporting, warmly colored with the light and tints of Nature, and set -to verbal music in perfect harmony with the emotion and the -nature-setting in _Wave-won_. - -The fact of the defeat of love, in Pauline Johnson’s case, may be -observed in her _Overlooked_, a poem which is notable for the invention -on her part of a metaphor that, for originality and beauty, is worthy of -the Greek idyllists or of Catullus, namely:— - - O Love, thou wanderer from Paradise. - -At length Pauline Johnson’s merely human passion of yearning for union -with the mortal companion is transmuted into a spiritualized -yearning—which, however, has not in it the sad wistfulness of the -poetry of Marjorie Pickthall—for union with Immortal Love. Defeat of -romantic love in Pauline Johnson’s case passed, first, into -renouncement, and, at last, into resignation and the total giving of -self to Immortal Love, as in _Brier_— - - Because, dear Christ, your tender, wounded arm - Bends back the brier that edges life’s long way, - That no hurt comes to heart, to soul no harm, - I do not feel the thorn so much to-day. - - Because I never knew your care to tire, - Your hand to weary guiding me aright, - Because you walk before and crush the brier, - It does not pierce my feet so much to-night. - - Because so often you have hearkened to - My selfish prayers, I ask but one thing now, - That these harsh hands of mine add not unto - The crown of thorns upon your bleeding brow. - -Pauline Johnson possessed extraordinary, if not quite unique, gifts as a -story-telling balladist. Examples of her art in this species are her -compelling story of Indian love and revenge, _Ojistoh_, her melodramatic -Indian tale, _The Cattle Thief_, and her _Wolverine_, a poem of Western -_chevalerie_, in which species, however, she does not rank with Isabella -Valancy Crawford. - -Her poetry of the development of the Canadian national spirit and -civilization, by which she marks a broadening in her own spiritual -vision, is notably exemplified in two poems, _The Riders of the Plains_ -and _Prairie Greyhounds_. In the former, however, she is more British -than Canadian. But she is Canadian in her _Prairie Greyhounds_. In this -poem she achieves an extraordinary virility of rhythm, employs apt and -dramatic epithets and fills the picture with a vivid suggestiveness of -the vastness of Canada and the vision of the greater autonomous and -powerful Dominion that is to be. _Prairie Greyhounds_, moreover, is a -supreme achievement in suggested or ideated sensations of motion. The -reader feels himself as if actually aboard the west-bound and east-bound -Canadian Pacific trains, experiencing, as does a living passenger on a -‘fast express,’ the swish, and roar, and onward rush of the trains. - -As a verbal musician Pauline Johnson must be given a very high place -amongst Canadian poets. There is an avian _abandon_ and ecstasy, an -avian lilt and warbling, in _The Birds’ Lullaby_ and in _The Songster_. -There are flowing rhythm and haunting melody of rhyme, vowel-harmony, -alliteration and cadences in _The Trail to Lillooet_:— - - Song of fall, and song of forest, come you here on haunting quest, - Calling through the seas and silence, from God’s country of the west. - Where the mountain pass is narrow, and the torrent white and strong, - Down its rocky-throated canon, sings its golden-throated song. - - You are singing there together through the God-begotten nights, - And the leaning stars are listening above the distant heights - That lift like points of opal in the crescent coronet - About whose golden setting sweeps the trail to Lillooet. - -Pauline Johnson has also achieved what may be noted in literary history -as the first strictly Canadian ‘cradle-song’—Canadian in music and in -setting—her _Lullaby of the Iroquois_. - -As a nature-colorist and etcher Pauline Johnson again must be given a -very high place. For a _genre_ etching of the human figure against a -background of nature her _Joe_, which she herself sub-titles ‘An -Etching,’ is as vividly presented and as fetching as a _genre_ drawing -by Murillo. Her _Lady Lorgnette_ is as daintily graphic and colorful and -piquant and romantic as anything done by the brush of Romney or -Gainsborough or by the later modern ‘society’ miniaturists. She had the -pictorial artist’s eye to spy out a picture in Nature, as in _At Husking -Time_. She had the impressionist’s mastery of sensuous pigmentation, as -in _Under Canvas_. She could make a picture low-keyed, full of shadows -and suggested sensations and mystery, as in _Nocturne_ and in _Moonset_. - -Finally: Pauline Johnson is certainly not surpassed, if equalled, by any -other Canadian lyrist as an inventor of beautiful color epithets and of -picturesque, vivid, and compelling metaphors. They are to be found -everywhere in her poetry. Consider these as examples—‘Russet needles as -censers swing to an altar,’ ‘The sea-weeds cling with flesh-like -fingers,’ ‘Beaten gold that clung like coils of kisses love inlaid,’ -‘The brownish hills with needles green and gold,’ ‘O Love, thou wanderer -from Paradise,’ ‘Swept beneath a shore of shade, beneath a velvet moon,’ -‘Like net work threads of fire,’ and this, - - Purple her eyes as the mists that dream - At the edge of some laggard, sun-drowned stream - -and many more as novel, colorful, musical, veracious and compelling. - -As a woman Pauline Johnson was a rare and beautiful spirit. As a poet -she was of all Canadian poets the most pervasively true to her Canadian -origin and habitat. She is not to be given always the status of Lampman -and Carman and Duncan Campbell Scott, yet to her unquestionably belongs -a place beside these Canadian singers. Her poetry had a magic of music -and a color of leafy lawns and lovely grey-eyed and tawny dusks and -clear ecstatic morns, which were all her own. She was indeed a ‘Mohawk -Warbler,’ and her songs are - - Free and artless as the avian lays - Heard in Canadian woods on April days. - - * * * * * - -The quotations in this chapter from Pauline Johnson’s poems are from -_Flint and Feather_, by E. Pauline Johnson, (Musson Book Co., Limited: -Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - - Parker _and_ Scott (F. G.) - - PARKER AS A SONNETEER OF SPIRITUAL LOVE—ORIGIN AND THEME OF A - LOVER’S DIARY—MUSICAL AND COLORFUL LYRICAL VERSE—SCOTT’S POETRY - A REFLECTION OF HIS PERSONALITY—DISTINGUISHED AS THE ‘POET OF THE - SPIRIT’—CHIEF QUALITIES OF HIS POETRY. - -It was as a poet, not as a creator of historical romances, that Sir -Gilbert Parker first appeared as a man of letters and first appealed to -the literary public. As a poet he was appreciated in Australia and in -England, but not in Canada. That as a poet he has been unknown and -unappreciated in his homeland, Canada, is due to the fact that he was -expatriate when he published his two volumes of poems, the second of -which was ‘privately printed,’ and that his greater reputation as a -novelist, particularly of old romantic Canada, made him known in the -Dominion exclusively as a writer of fiction. Sir Gilbert Parker, -however, ranks high as a sonneteer of spiritual love, and as lyrist in -_genre_ verse which has attained special reputation, particularly as -texts of songs for _salon_ and recital repertory. - -Sir Gilbert Parker was born in Ontario, in 1862. Never robust, he left -Canada in 1886 to seek recovery of health in the warmer and more -salubrious climate of Australia. While in Australia he began publishing -sonnets and lyrics in magazines. The sonnets were collected and -published in a volume entitled _A Lover’s Diary_; first edition, 1894; -second edition, 1898. Before the publication of _A Lover’s Diary_ Parker -had removed to London. While in England he privately printed a volume of -lyrics entitled _Embers_. These two volumes, the first revised, and -enlarged with twenty-five sonnets, and the second, with the addition of -other lyrics, were collected and published as Volume 17 of _The Works of -Gilbert Parker_ (1913). The volume containing his collected poems is -distinguished by a critical Introduction by Sir Gilbert Parker himself. - -In the Introduction Parker explains the origin and theme of _A Lover’s -Diary_. It is a sonnet-sequence, the composition of which was begun when -the poet was twenty-three and still resident in Canada. The sequence is -a ‘hopeless love, in form of temptation, but lifted away from ruinous -elements by self-renunciation, to end with the inevitable parting, -poignant and permanent, a task of the soul finished and the toil of the -journey of understanding paid.’ He adds: ‘The six sonnets . . . -beginning with _The Bride_, and ending with _Annunciation_, have nothing -to do with the story further than to show two phases of the youth’s mind -before it was shaken by speculation, plunged into sadness of doubt and -apprehension, and before it had found the love which was to reveal it to -itself, transform the character, and give a new impulse and direction to -personal forces and individual sense.’ - -As a poet of romantic love Parker is concerned with the spiritual -_meaning_ of it. _A Lover’s Diary_ is not concerned with the mere -emotions of romantic love but with its spiritual thrall, and with it as -a process of spiritual redemption and exaltation. As an interpreter of -spiritual love, Parker contrasts with Robert Norwood whose sequence, -_His Lady of the Sonnets_ (1915), though having a spiritualizing intent, -is highly sensuous and impressionistic in diction and imagery. Parker -breathes a less earthly air. His sonnet-sequence is addressed more to -the imaginative reason than to the aesthetic imagination. It is much -more mystically conceived and much more chastely lovely with the ‘white -beauty’ of the spirit than is Norwood’s sequence. Both sequences, -however, are authentic and noble poetic creations. - -In pure beauty of conception, imagery, and artistry, and in the -spiritual exaltation of love, the following sonnet from Parker’s _A -Lover’s Diary_, is characteristic of the whole sequence:— - - It is enough that in this burdened time - The soul sees all its purposes aright. - The rest—what does it matter? Soon the night - Will come to whelm us, then the morning chime. - What does it matter, if but in the way - One hand clasps ours, one heart believes us true; - One understands the work we try to do, - And strives through Love to teach us what to say? - Between me and the chilly outer air - Which blows in from the world, there standeth one - Who draws Love’s curtains closely everywhere, - As God folds down the banners of the sun. - Warm is my place about me, and above, - Where was the raven, I behold the dove. - -Parker’s lyrical verse, like his sonnet-sequence, is the poetry of a -young man who still possesses the enthusiasms of youth for all the -lovelier and happier things in existence, and who rejoices in living. -From the text of Parker’s lyrics it is plain that he had the gifts of a -lyrist in the original Greek meaning, of one who wrote poems to be -_sung_ to the accompaniment of the lyre. He was gifted to turn a -sentiment either seriously or playfully with simplicity and directness -of diction and with winning musical lilt. - -In truth, if he had turned to song composition, he was more ideally -equipped to write the texts of poems for songs than was the greatest of -American song composers, the late Edward MacDowell, who, for lack of -singable lyrical texts, was compelled to compose his own poems as well -as their musical settings. - -There is a spontaneity of lyrical lilt, lyrical verve, in Parker’s -lighter poems, which he composed both in literary English and in -‘Irishy.’ As an example of the musical and colorful qualities of his -lyrics in literary English, the following poem from _Embers_ will aptly -serve:— - - I heard the desert calling, and my heart stood still— - There was winter in my world and in my heart; - A breath came from the mesa, and a message stirred my will, - And my soul and I arose up to depart. - - I heard the desert calling, and I knew that over there - In an olive-sheltered garden where the mesquite grows, - Was a woman of the sunrise with the star-shine in her hair - And a beauty that the almond-blossom blows. - - I hear the desert calling, and my heart stands still— - There is summer in my world, and in my heart; - A breath comes from the mesa, and a will beyond my will - Blinds my footsteps as I rise up to depart. - -As an example of his musical quality and humor in ‘Irishy,’ the -following lyric from _Embers_ is apt and fetching:— - - It was as fine a churchful as you ever clapt an eye on; - Oh, the bells was ringin’ gaily, and the sun was shinin’ free; - There was singers, there was clargy—‘Bless ye both,’ says Father - Tryon— - They was weddin’ Mary Callaghan and me. - - There was gatherin’ of women, there was hush upon the stairway, - There was whisperin’ and smilin’, but it was no place for me; - A little ship was comin’ into harbour through the fair-way— - It belongs to Mary Callaghan and me. - - Shure, the longest day has endin’, and the wildest storm has fallin’— - There’s a young gossoon in yander, and he sits upon my knee; - There’s a churchful for the christenin’—do you hear the imp a-callin’? - He’s the pride of Mary Callaghan and me. - -As a composer of song texts, Parker is rivalled only by his Canadian -compatriot, Arthur Stringer, whose poems in ‘Irishy’ have been most -winningly and humorously set to music by their compatriot, Gena -Branscombe (Mrs. J. F. Tenney). It is indeed as a poet, whose lyrics are -inevitable texts for songs which have literary charm and simple humanity -that Sir Gilbert Parker has been most admired and appreciated. - -For this view we have the authority of Sir Gilbert himself. In the -Introduction to the volume of his poetry in his Collected Works, he -says: ‘_Mary Callaghan and Me_ has been set to music by Mr. Max Muller, -and has made many friends, and _The Crowning_ was the Coronation ode of -_The People_, which gave a prize, too ample I think, for the best -musical setting of the lines. Many of the other pieces in _Embers_ have -been set to music by distinguished composers, like Sir Edward Elgar, who -has made a song-cycle of several, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Mr. Arthur -Foote, Mrs. Amy Woodforde Finden, Robert Somerville, and others. The -first to have musical setting was _You’ll Travel Far and Wide_, to which -in 1895 Mr. Arthur Foote gave fame as _An Irish Folk Song_. Like _O -Flower of All the World_, by Mrs. Amy Woolforde Finden, it has had a -world of admirers, and such singers as Mrs. Henschel helped to make Mr. -Foote’s music loved by thousands, and conferred something more than an -ephemeral acceptance of the author’s words.’ - -Both, then, as a poet of mystical vision and sublimated emotion, and of -human sentiment and instincts which add to the humanity and gaiety of -life, Sir Gilbert Parker appears as a poet who has authentic creative -gifts and who is a master craftsman in the ‘art’ of verse. In novelty -and variety his sonnets and lyrics have significantly enhanced the -quality of Canadian poetry, and have in their own degree and way given -the work of the poets of the Systematic School and Period the character -of a genuine ‘renaissance.’ - - - -Another poet who rightfully belongs to the Systematic School and Period -of Canadian Literature is Frederick George Scott. In 1888, or in the -year following the publication of Roberts’ _In Divers Tones_ (1887), -Canon Scott published his first book of verse, _The Soul’s Quest and -Other Poems_. This volume was succeeded by five other volumes of verse, -up to 1907, in which year he published _The Key of Life: A Mystery -Play_. In 1910 appeared his _Collected Poems_. During the World War he -published a booklet of war verse, _In the Battle Silences_ (1916). - -The forms and qualities of Canon Scott’s poetry were determined by his -own moral personality and by his conception of the ‘end’ of poetry. It -is a fact that in no other verse written by a Canadian is there such an -absolute identification of the man and the poet as in the poetry of -Canon Scott. The poetry reflects the whole personality of the man. In -the world, Canon Scott is a distinguished example of the ‘Christian -gentleman’—‘a man of liberal culture and wide sympathies whose life has -thrilled with the larger life, political, social, and religious, a man -of strong courage born of reverent unquestioning faith.’ To Canon Scott, -therefore, the aim of poetry is not ‘art for art’s sake,’ but the -inspiration and consolation of the people in their hour of doubt or -darkness. His conception of the ‘end’ determined the forms and manner of -Canon Scott’s poetry. For if, like the ancient Hebraic poets, he was to -inspire and console his people, he must present his thoughts in simple -forms and in diction and imagery readily understood by the people. - -Canon Scott stands out from the rest of the members of the Systematic -School and Period as _par excellence_ the Poet of the Spirit; and his -verse is distinguished from the bulk of the verse of his colleagues in -the Systematic School as the Poetry of Faith and Consolation. There is -nothing original and distinctive in his forms: they are traditional and -simple. There is nothing original and distinctive in his message: it, -too, is traditional and simple—a message of faith and courage and of -joy in existence. His distinction is in his ‘art,’ his power to convey -beautifully, sweetly—and above all, convincingly—to the human soul -noble or profound thoughts for its sustenance, refreshment, and -consolation. But while the ethical and spiritual ‘notes’—which must be -distinguished from didacticism—are supreme in his poetry, Canon Scott -is also solicitous about the craftsmanship in his verse. Though his -verse forms are thoroughly socialized and though he never aims to be a -‘word virtuoso,’ nevertheless he is always the ‘artist’ in verse -technique. - -The chief qualities of Canon Scott’s poetry are piquant phantasy rather -than imagination, ingenious imagery, sympathy with his kind, tenderness, -wistfulness, simple or profound thought expressed in simple diction and -in simple but dulcet verbal melody. Also in his verse is a two-fold -_Canadianism_. The self-reliant faith and courage in it is Canadian, and -the color and the naturalistic imagery are derived from the woods, and -fields, and streams, and hills of his Canadian homeland, more -particularly from Nature in the Laurentian district. Indeed, Canon Scott -has been given the sobriquet of ‘the Poet of the Laurentians.’ But while -he impregnates and suffuses his verse with color and naturalistic -imagery from Nature in the Laurentians, he always transmutes his -naturalistic perceptions into spiritual imagery and import. He does not -do this with bald and stark didacticism, but with exquisite artistry, -and yet with an intimacy, apt felicity, and naturalness that make it all -an achievement in winning a reader to see the beauty and dignity of the -familiar and commonplace in Nature. Canon Scott’s poetry, in a phrase, -is the acme of _spiritual realism_. - -Of his diction, rhythm, and melody, and his Canadian imagery in verse, -Scott’s _Dawn_ furnishes a short and impressive example:— - - The immortal spirit hath no bars - To circumscribe its dwelling-place; - My soul hath pastured with the stars - Upon the meadow-lands of space. - - My mind and ear at times have caught - From realms beyond our mortal reach, - The utterance of Eternal Thought - Of which all nature is the speech. - - And high above the seas and lands, - On peaks just tipped with morning light, - My dauntless spirit mutely stands - With eagle wings outspread for flight. - -How lowly, and yet how beautiful and compelling, are these figures in -the first stanza of that poem—‘pastured with the stars,’ ‘meadow-lands -of space.’ But both are derived from Canon Scott’s boyhood days in his -homeland. They are Canadian. - -There is a Wordsworthian humanity in his poem _The Cripple_, a sympathy -with his kind and a tender wistfulness in his _Van Elsen_. There is -nobility of thought in his _Samson_, and in _Thor_, and a grandeur of -vision in his _Hymn of Empire_, which is a Canadian imperial and -patriotic poem in a kind by itself. But in one poem—a sonnet—Canon -Scott has achieved what is perhaps the most ingenious imagery in -Canadian poetry, and one of the most extraordinary in English -literature. This is his sonnet _Time_:— - - I saw Time in his workshop carving faces; - Scattered around his tools lay, blunting griefs, - Sharp cares that cut out deeply in reliefs - Of light and shade; sorrows that smooth the traces - Of what were smiles. Not yet without fresh graces - His handiwork, for oftimes rough were ground - And polished, oft the pinched made smooth and round; - The calm look, too, the impetuous fire replaces. - - Long time I looked and watched; with hideous grin - He took each heedless face between his knees, - And graved and scarred and bleached with boiling tears. - I wondering turned to go, when lo, my skin - Feels crumpled, and in glass my own face sees - Itself all changed, scarred, careworn, white with years! - -So far as derivative influences may in general be observed in the poets -of the Systematic School and Period of Canadian Literature, Roberts, -Lampman, and Carman are Hellenistic and impressionistic in feeling and -thought. They were devoted to creating poetry that would delight the -aesthetic senses and sensibilities. But Frederick George Scott is -Hebraic in feeling and thought. He created poetry to satisfy the heart -and the religious imagination, and to sustain and console the human -spirit in its sojourn on earth. He achieved these ends simply yet -beautifully. His poetry is pervaded with the most elemental and enduring -‘heart’ qualities. They give it such a direct and compelling human -appeal as to win a significant and distinctive place for it in the -authentic native and national poetry of Canada. - - * * * * * - -The quotations in this chapter are from _A Lover’s Diary_ and _Embers_, -by Sir Gilbert Parker, (Copp, Clark Co., Limited: Toronto); and from -_Poems_, by Frederick George Scott, (Constable & Co.: London). - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - - Minor Poets - - THE TERM ‘MINOR’ DEFINED—ETHELWYN WETHERALD—JEAN BLEWETT— - FRANCIS SHERMAN—A. E. S. SMYTHE—S. FRANCES HARRISON—ARTHUR - STRINGER—PETER MCARTHUR—ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY. - -It is proper to distinguish Roberts, Lampman, Carman, Campbell, Duncan -Campbell Scott, Frederick George Scott, and Pauline Johnson as the -‘major’ poets of the First Renaissance in Canadian Literature. Though of -necessity with them the writing of verse was in a sense an avocation, in -another sense it was a vocation. They were systematic both in the -writing and the quantitative publishing of it. Contemporary with them, -but, for the most part, later in production and publishing, were other -poets who wrote with beauty and distinction in poetic style. They -followed the aesthetic and artistic ideals of the ‘major’ poets, but -they were not as systematic as Roberts and his _confrères_ in writing or -in quantitative publishing. These are denoted in this work the ‘minor’ -poets of the Systematic School or Period. But nothing invidious as to -quality of verse is intended by the distinction. For a few of these -so-called ‘minor’ poets of the Systematic Period wrote some poetry as -fine in aesthetic substance and artistic finish as the poetry of Roberts -and his colleagues. The term ‘minor’ is meant to distinguish these poets -as being, first, _later_, for the most part, than Roberts and his -_confrères_, and as being, secondly, _less eminent_ than the early -systematic group of Canadian poets. The number of these so-called minor -or later poets is legion. They ‘flourished’ from 1887 to 1907, or from -the publication of Roberts’ _In Divers Tones_ to the appearance of -Robert Service’s _Songs of a Sourdough_ (the beginning of the Decadent -Interim). Detailed appreciation of the minor poets of the Systematic -Period would, therefore, require a volume by itself. Here we may only -recall the salient names, and specially remark the verse, of some of the -minor poets whose lyrical poetry is particularly representative or -noteworthy, or has become genuinely popular. - -Worthy of a place beside the major poets of the Systematic Period is -Ethelwyn Wetherald. In 1895 she published _The House of the Trees and -Other Poems_; in 1902, _Tangled in the Stars_; in 1904, _The Radiant -Road_ and in 1907, an edition of her collected poems, _The Last Robin_; -_Lyrics and Sonnets_. Perhaps the outstanding aesthetic quality of her -poetry is a tender, subdued, melancholy, spiritual grace, ‘a grey-eyed -loveliness,’ which undoubtedly derives from the characteristic -pensiveness of her Quaker ancestry. But in all her verse, which is -authentic poetry, she discloses pretty sentiment, reflective beauty, -ingenious imagery, and fine craftsmanship. _The Hay Field_, which is -Canadian in inspiration, setting, and color is an apt example of -Ethelwyn Wetherald’s art:— - - With slender arms outstretching in the sun - The grass lies dead; - The wind walks tenderly and stirs not one - Frail, fallen head. - - Of baby creepings through the April day - Where streamlets wend, - Of child-like dancing on the breeze of May, - This is the end. - - No more these tiny forms are bathed in dew, - No more they reach - To hold with leaves that shade them from the blue - A whispered speech. - - No more they part their arms and wreathe them close - Again, to shield - Some love-full little nest—a dainty house - Hid in a field. - - For them no more the splendour of the storm, - The fair delights - Of moon and star-shine, glimmering faint and warm - On summer nights. - - Their little lives they yield in summer death, - And frequently - Across the field bereaved their dying breath - Is brought to me. - -A poet who has won a distinct and fixed place in the popular heart and -imagination of Canadians is Jean Blewett. Her first volume, _Heart -Songs_, appeared in 1897 and immediately won a wide popularity. This was -increased by her next volume, _The Cornflower and Other Poems_ (1906). -Her Collected Poems were published in 1922. Jean Blewett is essentially -a ‘woman’s poet.’ By this is meant that she appeals to the domestic -heart and the imagination, that she sings of the joys of home, the ways -of children, the love of husband and wife. But Jean Blewett does this in -an extraordinary way. She treats homely subjects indeed, but while she -treats them in a homely or rather home-like way she does it with a -simple and ingratiating sincerity and charm of sentiment and artistry -which are quite her own and in the employment of which she is alone in -Canada. If her poems deal with homely subjects, her artistry is by no -means bourgeois. She rises and falls with the inherent dignity of her -subject. But her human treatment of a homely subject never issues in -vulgarity, or vivid ‘vaudeville’ verse. As an example of her genuine -artistry and dignity of treatment in a high or serious subject we quote -her _Quebec_:— - - Quebec, the gray old city on the hill, - Lives with a golden glory on her head, - Dreaming throughout this hour so fair, so still, - Of those days and her beloved dead. - - The doves are nesting in the cannons grim, - The flowers bloom where once did run a tide - Of crimson when the moon rose pale and dim - Above a field of battle stretching wide. - - Methinks within her wakes a mighty glow - Of pride in ancient times, her stirring past, - The strife, the valour of the long ago - Feels at her heart-strings. Strong and tall, and vast - She lies, touched with the sunset’s golden grace, - A wondrous softness on her gray old face. - -When her subject gives her a chance for sweep of imagination and for a -pearly beauty of imagery, Jean Blewett rises brilliantly to her theme, -as in _What Time the Morning Stars Arise_, a really splendid war poem -commemorating the heroic deed of Lieutenant Reginald Warneford, aviator, -who unassisted destroyed a German armed Zeppelin, containing 28 men, on -June 7th, 1915. We quote the first and last stanzas:— - - Above him spreads the purple sky, - Beneath him spreads the ether sea, - And everywhere about him lie - Dim ports of peace and mystery. - • • • • - He sees the white mists softly curl, - He sees the moon drift pale and wan, - Sees Venus climb the stars of pearl - To hold her court of Love at dawn. - -Jean Blewett is chiefly loved by the people for her _forte_—her -sincere, simple singing of true love and faith, of childhood, and the -field flowers, and the joys of the Canadian Spring and Winter. But, as a -_genre_ poet, she is gifted with a whimsical humor which is quite unique -in the poetic literature of Canada. _For He was Scotch and So Was She_ -is a fetching example of Jean Blewett’s humor and humorous treatment of -a simple or homely subject and is to be found in many Canadian -anthologies. - -Francis Sherman, one of the truest and most individual poets that Canada -has produced, is a relative of Charles G. D. Roberts and Bliss Carman. -His literary output has been meagre, comprising only one regularly -published volume, a small, thin booklet, _Matins_ (1896), and three or -four privately printed pamphlets of verse. But the quality is sufficient -to fix his place in the company of the authentic Canadian poets of the -First Renaissance. - -Sherman’s poetry shows a distinct tendency to mysticism. He was, -evidently, influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite School. But he had an -independent individuality. He possessed, as a poet, eyes and feelings of -his own; and could express what he saw and felt, with ready and -confident artistry. The Pre-Raphaelite influence on Francis Sherman and -his own natural gifts for individual expression are disclosed in -_Between the Battles_ (from _Matins_):— - - Let us bury him here - Where the maples are! - He is dead, - And he died thanking God that he fell with the fall of the leaf and - the year. - - Where the hillside is sheer, - Let it echo our tread - Whom he led; - Let us follow as gladly as ever we followed who never knew fear. - - Ere he died, they had fled; - Yet they heard his last cheer - Ringing clear,— - When we lifted him up, he would fain have pursued, but grew dizzy - instead. - - Break his sword and his spear! - Let his last prayer be said - By the bed - We have made underneath the wet wind in the maple trees moaning so - drear: - - ‘O Lord God, by the red - Sullen end of the year - That is here, - We beseech Thee to guide us and strengthen our swords till his slayers - be dead!’ - -Many of Sherman’s poems have the ‘great out-of-doors’ world in Canada as -their theme, and are marked by grave, meditative beauty, disclosing, on -his part, intimate communing with and brooding on Nature’s moods. These -qualities of Francis Sherman’s mind and art are observed in the -following sonnet, quoted from his _In Memorabilia Mortis_:— - - I marked the slow withdrawal of the year, - Out on the hills the scarlet maple shone— - The glad, first herald of triumphal dawn. - A robin’s song fell through the silence—clear - As long ago it rang when June was here. - Then, suddenly, a few grey clouds were drawn - Across the sky; and all the song was gone, - And all the gold was quick to disappear. - That day the sun seemed loth to come again; - And all day long the low wind spoke of rain, - Far-off, beyond the hills; and moaned, like one - Wounded, among the pines; as though the Earth, - Knowing some giant grief had come to birth, - Had wearied of the Summer and the Sun. - -A rare spirit and exquisite craftsman, as a poet, is Albert Ernest -Stafford Smythe. He was born in Ireland in 1861. He is Keltic through -and through; and because he is Keltic in his reactions to the universe, -in his perceptions of spiritual meanings in all things, he divines God -in men and God in Nature, or God _as_ man and God as Nature—spiritual -presences everywhere. In a word, Albert E. S. Smythe exemplifies in his -genius and art, as notably and profoundly as Lampman in his, but in a -different way, what Wordsworth called _natural piety_. Smythe’s -spiritual perceptions of divinity everywhere rise to a refined mysticism -which he expresses with a ‘white beauty’ in exquisitely finished verse. -As contrasted with other Canadian mystical poets Smythe is the poet of -the _Cosmic_ Spirit and Beauty. - -In 1891 he published _Poems; Grave and Gay_, and in 1923, _The Garden of -the Sun_. A sonnet (_The Seasons of the Gods_) and a lyric (_Anastasis_) -from the second volume suffice to disclose his qualities in his role as -the poet of the Cosmic Spirit and Beauty. As a sonneteer, Smythe is not -surpassed by any of his older or younger contemporaries. _The Seasons of -the Gods_ is lofty in conception, noble in thought, rich in naturalistic -imagery, dulcet in verbal melody, and perfect in formal artistry. It is -music of a soul ‘in tune with the Infinite’:— - - I sat with May upon a midnight hill - Wrapped in a dusk of unremembered years - And thought on buried April—on the tears - And shrouds of March, and Youth’s dead daffodil - All withered on a Mound of Spring. And still - The earth moved sweetly in her sleep, the Spheres - Wrought peace about her path, and for her ears - Climbed the high music of their blended will. - - The God who dreamed the Earth, as I this frame - That makes me thrall to death and coward of birth— - Dreamed He not March below some vanished Moon— - Under an earlier Heaven’s auroral flame - The cosmic April flowering into mirth - Of May and joy of Universal June? - -With what lyrical eloquence, subdued, yet direct and compelling, Smythe -calls the soul, in pure poetry, to achieve its spiritual destiny, in -this lyric, simple in diction and structure, but sublimated, in -thought:— - - What shall it profit a man - To gain the world—if he can— - And lose his soul, as they say - In their uninstructed way? - - The whole of the world in gain; - The whole of your soul! Too vain - You judge yourself in the cost. - ’Tis you—not your soul—is lost. - - Your soul! If you only knew— - You would reach to the Heaven’s blue, - To the heartmost centre sink, - Ere you severed the silver link, - - To be lost in your petty lust - And scattered in cosmic dust. - For your soul is a Shining Star - Where the Throne and the Angels are. - - And after a thousand years, - With the salve of his bottled tears, - Your soul shall gather again - From the dust of a world of pain - - The frame of a slave set free— - The man that you ought to be, - The man you may be to-night - If you turn to the Valley of Light. - -The number of women poets in the period under review is noteworthy. -Along with Ethelwyn Wetherald and Jean Blewett must be mentioned -appreciatively the names and poetry of Virna Sheard, Helena Coleman, -Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald (sister of C. G. D. Roberts), Helen M. -Merrill, Annie Campbell Huestis, Agnes Maule Machar (_pseud._ -‘Fidelis’), Isabel Ecclestone Mackay, Alma Frances McCollum, and S. -Frances Harrison (_pseud._ ‘Seranus’). Their outstanding contemporaries -amongst the men were Arthur Stringer and Peter McArthur. It is -impossible to review in detail the poetry of all these lyrists. They -followed the ideals of the older systematic group as regards original -inspiration and artistic craftsmanship. But the work of some of them may -briefly be remarked. - -In 1891 S. Frances Harrison published _Pine, Rose, and Fleur de Lis_, a -volume of really poetical verse. She is, however, more to be noted as -the compiler of the first noteworthy anthology of Canadian verse (_A -Canadian Birthday Book_, 1887), which is distinguished by the fact that -it contains a poem by the Indian Chief Tecumseh, the first -French-Canadian poem, and some of the earliest poems of Bliss Carman (a -series of quatrains). Arthur Stringer is a lyrical poet and a poetic -dramatist. His art in the latter respect is appreciated in another -chapter. In 1907 he published _The Woman in the Rain and Other Poems_, -and in 1911, _Irish Poems_. His lyrical poetry in general is -distinguished by a warm humanity and by careful craftsmanship. But he -achieved a special distinction with his poems in ‘Irishy.’ Many of them -have been set to music, and, amongst Canadian-born poets, his only rival -in that field is Sir Gilbert Parker. By themselves Stringer’s poems in -‘Irishy’ are a novel and real, if not important, contribution to the -_genre_ and humorous poetry of Canada. In 1907 Peter McArthur (‘The Sage -of Ekfrid’) published _The Prodigal and Other Poems_. He is never a mere -aesthete in form, but he is a rare Nature and humorous poet—with the -lightest and happiest touch in both departments, as in his -_Corn-Planting_ and in _To the Birds_. He humanizes Nature in a way -altogether different from other Canadian poets, perhaps whimsically but -always with an intimate, colloquial quality of diction, and a piquancy -which makes his Nature poetry spiritually refreshing, even to formalists -and dilettanti. - -Properly Isabel Ecclestone Mackay belongs to the minor poets of the -Systematic Period. For in 1904 she published her first volume of verse, -_Between the Lights_. But with that, she turned to writing fiction, and -did not publish any books of verse till the appearance of _The Shining -Ship and Other Poems_ (1919) and _Fires of Driftwood_ (1923). Her first -venture in verse was not better than passable or than good journalistic -verse. But in _Fires of Driftwood_ she disclosed a real mastery of form, -color, and music, along with a spiritual sentiment which is new in -Canadian poetry. She is occupied most with the vicissitudes and meaning -of life, but occasionally she paints objective Nature with winning color -and music. It is, however, in her poetry _of_ childhood (rather than -_for_ children), as in _The Shining Ship_, that Isabel Ecclestone Mackay -most displays original genius and has achieved genuine distinction. The -poems in _The Shining Ship_ are marked by the rarest of psychological -gifts in a poet—insight into the real heart and mind and imagination of -children, and by a diction and phrasing which appeal to the child mind -as immediately and as winningly as do the child poems of Eugene Field -and R. L. Stevenson. In fact, as Stevenson’s _A Child’s Garden of Verse_ -is to English Literature, so Isabel Ecclestone Mackay’s _A Shining Ship -and Other Poems_ is to Canadian Literature. - - * * * * * - -Sources of quotations in this chapter: - -_The Hayfield_ is found in _The Last Robin_, by Ethelwyn Wetherald -(Ryerson Press: Toronto). - -Quotations from Jean Blewett’s work, in _Jean Blewett’s Poems_ -(McClelland & Stewart: Toronto). - -From Francis Sherman’s _Matins_ (Copeland and Day: Boston). - -From Albert E. S. Smythe’s _Grave and Gay_; and from _The Garden of the -Sun_ (Macmillan Co.: Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - - Elegiac Monodists - - THE ELEGIAC MONODISTS OF CANADA—CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS—BLISS - CARMAN—WILFRED CAMPBELL—DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT—WILLIAM MARSHALL - —JAMES DE MILLE. - -Canadian Literature is rich—not relatively but absolutely—in Dirges, -Epicedes, Elegies, Threnodies, and Elegiac Monodies. That Canadian -Elegiac Monodies, or long ‘In Memoriam’ poems inspired by the death of a -real, not a mythical or imagined, person, have genuine distinction, is -indisputable. In number they equal the monodies of English Literature; -and in manner, in variety of form, and in several qualitative -excellences they surpass the monodies of American Literature. Modern -English literature possesses five great threnodies or monodies; Milton’s -_Lycidas_, Shelley’s _Adonais_, Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_, Arnold’s -_Thyrsis_, and Swinburne’s _Ave atque Vale_. American Literature has to -its credit two fine and noble monodies: Emerson’s _Threnody_ (for his -son) and Whitman’s _When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d_ (for -Lincoln). Canadian Literature boasts of six threnodies or monodies, -which all enhance New World Literature and at least two of which are a -distinct contribution to the elegiac poetry of English Literature. The -Canadian monodies are Roberts’ _Ave!_ (to Shelley), Carman’s _A Seamark_ -(to Stevenson), Campbell’s _Bereavement of the Fields_ (to Lampman), -Duncan Campbell Scott’s _Lines in Memory of Edmund Morris_ (a Canadian -painter), William E. Marshall’s _Brookfield_ (to R. R. MacLeod), and -James De Mille’s _Behind the Veil_ (which is sort of Dantean ‘Vision’ of -the Beloved in Heaven). - -That Canadian poets should have essayed the Elegiac Monody and have -excelled in it is consistent with the genuine, the essential mood, the -spiritual attitudes of the Canadian people. For while the literary -traditions, forms, and methods of Canadian poets are English, the bases -of Canadian culture and civilization are much more New England and Scots -than English, or, in short, Puritan and Calvinistic. It was as natural -for the 19th century native-born Canadian, as it was for an 18th century -New England Puritan and Loyalist and a Scots Calvinist, to be -preoccupied with thoughts of ‘otherworldliness.’ The meaning of life and -death is almost a _congenial_ subject of reflection to the -characteristic Canadian. Fortunately the _habitat_ of the Canadian mind, -Nature in Canada, recalled Canadian poets from exclusive occupation with -spiritual prosperities and great departures to thoughts of ‘the soul’s -inherent high magnificence’ in daily mundane life and to the joys, -consolations, spiritual transports, and peace which Nature affords the -distracted human spirit. Another factor saved Canadian poets from -moralistic preachments when they were moved to express in verse their -sorrow over some great departure. They had the example of the form and -color of the English elegies, from Milton to Swinburne, to save them -from chill gravity and barren moralism. The Canadian monodists, on their -own account, also loved fine technic in verse, and strove to achieve it -according to their capacity. It was therefore natural that Canadian -poets not only should essay the elegiac monody but also write that -species of poetry with genuine distinction. - -The subjects of all Canadian elegiac monodies are either presented -against a background of Nature or are suffused with ‘the color of life’ -and the beauty of Nature. The first, and in many ways the noblest, -Canadian monody is Charles G. D. Roberts’ _Ave!_ (sub-titled _An Ode for -the Centenary of Shelley’s Birth_). It is a poem of thirty-one ten-line -stanzas, in decasyllabics, closing with a rimed couplet, iambic -pentameter. The poem is not so much, as Roberts called it, an ‘ode’ as -an elegiac monody, with the subject presented against a pastoral -background. That it was written ostensibly to commemorate Shelley’s -birth, not his death, must not cause us to conceive the poem as other -than an elegy. The centenary of Shelley’s birth occurred in 1892, when -Roberts was 32 years of age. Naturally he seized the opportunity to -memorialize in verse the spirit of one of his masters, but he also -laments the passing of Shelley and his influence, after the manner of -the true elegiac monody. The poem divides not strophically but -symphonically. The first theme is a picture of the naturalistic beauties -of the Tantramar marshes and the tides that rush in over it from the Bay -of Fundy, and the influences that Nature about Tantramar had on Roberts -as a poet. He develops this theme by marking how ‘strangely akin’ -Tantramar’s marshes seem - - to him whose birth - One hundred years ago - With fiery succor to the ranks of song - Defied the ancient gates of wrath and wrong; - -and how, like these marshes, with the incoming and the outgoing floods -of Fundy’s tides, Shelley’s - - compassionate breast, - Wherein abode all dreams of love and peace, - Was tortured with perpetual unrest. - Now loud with flood, now languid with release, - Now poignant with the lonely ebb, the strife - Of tides from the salt sea of human pain - That hiss along the perilous coasts of life - Beat in his eager brain; - But all about the tumult of his heart - Stretched the great calm of his celestial art. - -A few stanzas are devoted, as they say in symphonic music, to the -‘working out’ of this similitude in all its aspects. Then in stanza XXII -Roberts formally announces the elegiac theme as such:— - - Lament, Lerici, mourn the world’s loss! - Mourn that pure light of song extinct at noon! - -Roberts develops the lyrical genius of Shelley in eight stanzas, and in -the final two stanzas returns to the original theme of the Tantramar -marshes where on the inner ear of the Canadian poet - - once more - Resounds the ebb with destiny in its roar. - -It was remarked, in a preceding chapter, that we miss the ethical note -in Roberts’ genius and poetry. Here is the exception. In his _Ave!_ he -became morally or religiously, as well as imaginatively, sublimated. In -that poem he treats life and death with the moral beauty and -significance of his exemplars and models, Shelley’s _Adonais_, Arnold’s -_Thyrsis_, and Swinburne’s _Ave atque Vale_. In form and substance -Roberts’ _Ave!_ is a true elegiac monody. - -But is it a great poem? Fault has been found with it on the side of -structure or coherency. The poem appears coherent when it is remembered -that the structure is symphonic rather than strophic. For though the -poem begins with a Canadian setting, which on the face of it is as far -away as possible from Shelley and Shelley’s England where he was born -and the Italy where he died, it is the thought of the Canadian marshes -and the floods and unrest of the tides that suggests to Roberts the -inner spirit and genius and life and death of Shelley. So that naturally -Roberts passes from the Canadian setting and its suggestions to the -subject proper of his poem, namely, Shelley; then to memorializing -Shelley’s genius and lamenting his passing, and, finally, back to the -Canadian setting which suggested the whole poem. Surely that is coherent -logic, unity in variety of structure! - -Nor is there any real contradiction between the diction and imagery of -the poem and the high magnificence of the soul which the poem -commemorates. The ‘properties,’ of course, are not classical—heroes and -nymphs, and all the mythical personages of the Greek pastoral poets. -There is genuine spiritual dignity in the Canadian setting of the -_Ave!_—the atmosphere and color of the grassy Canadian flatlands, and -tides, and mists, and air, and life, and sky. The poem, too, is in the -grand manner and is marked by a spiritual sweep and lyrical eloquence -which convey to the heart and the imagination of the reader the sense of -profound emotion and of sincerity on the part of the poet. So that, in -spite of alleged structural and dictional faults, Roberts’ _Ave!_ is -distinguished by sensuous beauty and splendor, by imaginative sweep, by -emotional intensity and moral and spiritual dignity. But above all it -is, as a pastoral elegy or monody, much more Canadian than English. As -such, it is a really fine and distinctive contribution to Canadian -creative literature. If it is not a great poem, it is a magnificent, -compelling, and noble achievement in great poetry—a poem which -surpasses any monody in American Literature and which indubitably takes -an important status amongst the elegiac monodies of England. - -In 1895 Bliss Carman published _A Seamark_[1] (sub-titled _A Threnody -for Robert Louis Stevenson_). It is a poem of thirty-eight stanzas in -rimed iambic tetrameter. It is all in the inimitable lyric manner of -Carman, and commemorates Stevenson as ‘the master of the roving kind.’ -Altiloquence is never a quality of Carman’s poetry, as it is of -Roberts.’ Subtlety in simplicity is the formula of Carman’s genius. And -he will color all his homely or simple images with the most apt felicity -of phrase and the most insinuating verbal melody. For this reason, some -miss the high spiritual, mystical, and religious note in poems which are -even more sublimated, though less grandiloquent, than Roberts’ verse. On -the face of _A Seamark_, it seems as if Carman, in commemorating the -death of Stevenson ‘as the master of the roving kind,’ composed a -colorful musical lyric, but not a highly spiritualized poem. How simple -or homely, and yet how felicitous and colorful, are the images in -Carman’s musical lines, announcing the death of Stevenson on the island -of Vailima:— - - Our restless loved adventurer, - On secret orders come to him, - Has slipped his cable, cleared the reef, - And melted on the white sea-rim. - -The hasty reader does not suspect or surmise the deeper meaning that is -to come. But Carman and Stevenson were kin of mind and heart, and their -kinship was a kinship of the love of searching out the haunts and ways -of the joy and beauty that are on the face and in the heart of Nature. -So that these master rovers are not careless, irresponsible vagabonds, -but are spiritual nomads with a spiritual function and bent on a divine -errand. Thus does Carman magnify their office:— - - O all you hearts about the world - In whom the truant gypsy blood, - Under the frost of this pale time, - Sleeps like the daring sap and flood - - That dream of April and reprieve! - You whom the haunted vision drives, - Incredulous of home and ease, - _Perfection’s lovers_ all your lives! - -What it was given to Carman to discern in the universe was the eternal -meaning of youth and to hear the ever-young voice of earth singing in -the heart of man and in the earth, in everything, and to be himself the -lyric voice of the world. Stevenson was also such a lyric voice of -earth. Carman, then, does highly spiritualize his subject when he first -presents Stevenson in the manner of the outward aspect by which he was -commonly conceived, a restless loved adventurer, who when he died was -laid down, as Carman puts it in novel and arresting paradox:— - - Beyond the turmoil of renown, - -and, next, discloses the inner meaning of the ‘wander-biddings’ that -were in the soul of Stevenson who, even in death, still kept - - The journey-wonder on his face. - -For when Stevenson died, men sorrowed and surmised not why they grieved. -But Carman in _A Seamark_ reveals why. Men thought a prince of joy had -passed forever. But Carman discloses the higher spiritual truth:— - - He ‘was not born for age.’ Ah no, - For everlasting youth is his! - And part of the lyric of the earth - With spring and leaf and blade he is. - -In form, and in musical, colorful, simple yet subtle, spiritualization -of the meaning and value of men in whom the lyric spirit of earth is -supreme and vocal, there is not another elegiac monody in English like, -or comparable to, Carman’s _A Seamark_. It, too, like Roberts’ _Ave!_ -enhances both the quality and quantity of the Canadian and the English -elegy. - -Wilfred Campbell was a myriad-minded man and had an inherited Keltic -imagination which felt acutely the magic and mystery of earth and -existence. He conceived, most beautifully and nobly, the passing of -Archibald Lampman not as a bereavement suffered by mere persons but -rather by the great and constant ‘companion’ of Lampman, namely, Nature. -With a peculiar and lovely sense of the poetic significance of death, -Campbell ennobled the spirit of Lampman, and perpetuated the meaning of -his poetry, in an elegiac monody which bears the felicitous title -_Bereavement of the Fields_. - -The poem is in a seven-lined pentameter stanza, and is infused with -Canadian Nature-color throughout. The diction and the structure are -simple, and there is no attempt at sublimated imagination. The poem is -rather in the subdued and gentle manner of Lampman himself. That is to -say, there is a gentle melancholy running through the poem, but the -melancholy is relieved by a simple spiritual beauty which conveys the -rare essence of the spirit of Lampman, who passed from earth:— - - Leaving behind him, like a summer shower, - A fragrance of earth’s beauty, and the chime - Of gentle and imperishable rhyme. - -If poetry can be accepted as literary criticism, then Campbell has -estimated better than the best prose critic the significance and worth -of Lampman as a poet and his place in the company of the great:— - - Outside this prison-house of all our tears, - Enfranchised from our sorrow and our wrong, - Beyond the failure of our days and years, - Beyond the burden of our saddest song, - He moves with those whose music filled his ears, - And claimed his gentle spirit from the throng,— - Wordsworth, Arnold, Keats, high masters of his song. - -Campbell’s threnody is simple, sensuous, and impassioned, without being -impressionistic and rhetorical. It is a sincere and noble affirmation of -the supremacy of the spirit of beauty in the world, wherein, as -Lampman’s exemplar, Keats, once said, imperishably:— - - Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty. - -Altogether in another form and with a fresh and novel poetic conception -and impressive artistry, Duncan Campbell Scott wrote his _Lines in -Memory of Edmund Morris_[2]. Scott’s art is singularly informed by a -color and beauty derived from his intimate and exquisite appreciation of -the fine arts, especially music and painting. More than any other -Canadian poet, Scott is the ‘artist in words.’ He is concerned above all -things to employ poetic diction and imagery with the same love of -refined expressiveness and emotional nuance as inspired such musical -composers or tone-painters as Ravel, Debussy, and MacDowell, and such -painters as Constable, Watteau, and Monet. Or to borrow from musical -criticism, Scott loves his performance, his executant artistry with -words and imagery, more than he loves his poetic ideas. - -Edmund Morris was a Canadian painter and his spirit perceived in -Canadian Nature and in the Indian aborigines in Canada something which -no other painter had perceived or attempted to envisage. Scott and -Morris were companions and kindred spirits—the one an artist in words; -and the other an artist in pigments. It was natural, then, that Scott, -on the tragic death of his friend, should commemorate the loss which -both the living friend and the country suffered by the passing of Edmund -Morris. But it was impossible for Scott to write any conventionalized -elegiac monody. Under inner compulsion, he wrote of life and death with -all his original genius for conceiving, as he phrases his mode of -conception, - - Meanings hid in mist; - -and with all his gifts in exquisite craftsmanship:— - - Silvered in quiet rime and with rare art. - -Scott’s _Lines in Memory of Edmund Morris_ is in some respects unique, -but particularly in form, and its simple, intimate, direct address to -the spirit. It is not a pastoral elegy in the third person but a -dramatic monologue, or an epistle in verse from one spirit to another. -There is nothing like it in all English Literature, not even in -Browning. But intimate, even familiar, and colloquial as it is, the poem -is radiant with a ‘white beauty’ of imagery and chaste artistry. More -notably still, it subdues the turbulence of our souls in the presence of -a great loss by death, transports the imagination to the mount of -spiritual vision, refines faith, sustains hope, and fills the spirit -with a serene peace. It leaves upon us imperishably the inward sense -that ‘it is not death to die’:— - - Just as the fruit of a high sunny garden, - Grown mellow with autumnal sun and rain, - Shrivelled with ripeness, splits to the rich heart - And loses a gold kernel to the mould, - So the old world, hanging long in the sun, - And deep enriched with effort and with love, - Shall, in motions of maturity, - Wither and part, and the kernel of it all - Escape, a lovely wraith of spirit, to latitudes - Where the appearance, throated like a bird, - Winged with fire and bodied all with passion, - Shall flame with presage, not of tears, but joy. - -All through this elegiac monody there is a singularly sweet humanity and -yet in it are heard the constant overtones of ‘the soul’s inherent high -magnificence,’ and the whole is suffused or informed with the color of -Canadian Nature and character and life. So that the poem is a novel and -important contribution to the elegiac monody in English. - -In another style and with another but winning effect upon the heart and -the imagination, is William Edward Marshall’s monody _Brookfield_. It is -a poem of forty-five stanzas in the Spenserian form. Structurally -viewed, however, his _Brookfield_ is considerably an achievement in that -form. Its theme is the heart and mind of a simple man, a friend of the -poet, who taught the poet to love communion with the simple creatures -and the life of Nature, and to observe in Nature, not the garment, but -the very spiritual presence of God. There is no metaphysic of Nature in -_Brookfield_. There is but the apprehension of divinity in the little -wild creatures and in the streams and hills, and in the mists, and in -all the varied life of the universal mother. Marshall’s master was -Keats, and while _Brookfield_ cannot critically be called an example of -sensuous impressionism, yet it is warmly colored with pigmentation from -the palette of Nature. But the loveliest strands running through the -warp and woof of the poem are those of love and the heavenly vision. The -sweet, gentle, even tender, Nature-quality as well as the spiritual note -in the poem, may be apprehended from the following stanza:— - - Ah, he was richly dowered of the earth! - The grain of sand, the daisy in the sod, - Awoke his heart; and early he went forth, - Through field and wood, with young eyes all abroad; - And saw the nesting birds and beck and nod - Of little creatures running wild and free, - (Which know not that they know, yet are of God) - And kept his youth, and grew in sympathy, - And loved his fellows more, and had love’s victory. - -Literary critics in the United States, in reviewing Marshall’s -_Brookfield_ signalized both its sensuous and spiritual beauty as -extraordinary, and in line with the quality of the best English elegiac -monodies. In Canada it received high praise from Sir Andrew MacPhail, -who sponsored it by publishing it in _The University Magazine_, and from -Dr. Archibald MacMechan. ‘No such poem,’ said the latter, ‘has appeared -in Canada since Roberts’ _Ave!_ In dignity and depth of feeling the -_Ave!_, De Mille’s _Behind the Veil_, and _Brookfield_ stand together—a -noble trio.’ Marshall’s _Brookfield_ is Canadian in subject and setting -and is indeed a beautiful and noble application of ideas to life—a -genuinely original contribution to the creative poetic literature of -Canada. - -James De Mille’s _Behind the Veil_, published posthumously in 1892, is a -kind of elegiac monody. The poet himself does not so sub-title it. He -designates it simply as ‘A Poem.’ Whether the ‘Loved One’ who has been -lost to the poet was a real person or an imagined companion of the -spirit, it is impossible to surmise from the poem. But the poem itself -is concerned with life and death and yearning for union with the Beloved -in Heaven, and is thus a spiritualized elegy. Essentially, however, it -is a reflective or philosophical poem. If it is reflective, it is also -highly melodramatic both in substance and in form. Part of its -melodramatic quality derives from its metrical structure which suggests -Poe’s _Raven_. It is written in stanzas of five lines in trochaic -tetrameter—a form totally unsuited to its intended high spiritual -dignity of theme. A taste of its quality is afforded from the following -stanzas:— - - Through the darkness rose a vision, - Where beneath the night I kneeled, - Dazzling bright with hues Elysian— - Congregated motes of glory on an ebon field - And a form from out that glory to my spirit stood revealed. - - ‘Son of Light’—I murmured lowly— - ‘All my heart is known to thee— - All my longing and my yearning for the Loved One lost to me— - May these eyes again behold her?’—and the Shape said, ‘Come and see.’ - -It is impossible to read one hundred and twenty-five stanzas or 625 -lines like the preceding, in which the feminine endings make fixed -caesural pauses that prevent enjambement and thus inhibit rhythmical -variety, without the reader’s feeling himself in the realm of the -musically melodramatic. So that the high seriousness of the poem suffers -a loss in impressiveness because of the metre and rhythm of the poem. It -is plain that De Mille was not an adroit verbal musician. The spiritual -dignity and seriousness of the poem can be commended, but on the whole, -it is not poetry, and is not a significant contribution to the Canadian -monody. - ------ - -[1] _A Seamark_ is found in the collection _Ballads and Lyrics_, by -Bliss Carman (McClelland & Stewart: Toronto). - -[2] _Lines in Memory of Edmund Morris_ is from _Lundy’s Lane and Other -Poems_ (McClelland & Stewart: Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - - Novelists - - THE FICTIONISTS OF THE SYSTEMATIC SCHOOL—THE HISTORICAL ROMANCERS - —LIGHTHALL—SAUNDERS—PARKER—MARQUIS—MACLENNAN AND McILWRAITH— - AGNES C. LAUT—WILFRED CAMPBELL—CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS. THE - ROMANCERS OF ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY—THOMPSON SETON—ROBERTS—SAUNDERS - —FRASER. THE EVANGELICAL ROMANCERS—RALPH CONNOR—R. E. KNOWLES. - _I. The Historical Romancers._ - -When William Kirby published, in 1877, _The Golden Dog_, he led the way -in Canadian historical romance. Major John Richardson had written -historical novels years before, but Richardson’s material was largely -first hand, from contact with a life and with a setting similar to what -he described. We might argue that Kirby ‘discovered’ to the fictionists -who were to come after him the wealth of material that lay in the -unknown and almost forgotten Canadian past, for he founded his work on -Canadian history and infused it with Canadian incident and color; and -although Mrs. Leprohon’s romances had a considerable vogue both in -English and in French, the circulation of her novels was chiefly local -and not anything like so widespread as that of Kirby’s single -masterpiece. Yet it is problematic just how much the historical or -romantic fiction of the Post-Confederation period (beginning, say, in -1888) owes to Kirby and how much it owes to a stirring impulse of -nationality. That impulse produced tangible evidences in our literature -because of a conscious realization of national ideals and a sensing of -the spirit of a courageous and romantic past in a country that, -superficially viewed, had barely reached the stage of ‘growing pains.’ - -In 1888 William Douw Lighthall published _The Young Seigneur_, a -socio-political study of life and institutions in Canada, which -according to the author himself; ‘arose out of my ideas as a young man -concerning an ideal of Canadian nationality to which I gave the color of -this province (Quebec) as I knew it in the old Seigneuries.’ Possibly -the ‘thesis’ overpowered the romantic or novel elements, for this book -is not regarded as equal in literary merit to its successors. _The False -Chevalier_ (1898) was a historical romance set partly in Canada and -partly in France. It is an attempt to depict an actual romance found in -a packet of documents at the house of the De Léry’s at Boucherville near -Montreal. It is rich in atmosphere and color both of the old land and -the new and is filled with engaging incident, but lacks somewhat in -effective novel construction, and in convincing characterization. It is -in _The Master of Life_ (1910) that Dr. Lighthall has produced a unique -and masterly piece of fiction. With Hiawatha as its hero, it is purely -aboriginal in setting and color and exhibits the author’s wide knowledge -of Indian history and archaeology. It was the result of Dr. Lighthall’s -sympathies with the Iroquois Indians, derived originally from the -ancient family records of the Schuylers (from whom the Lighthalls are -descended). They, as leading British officers and statesmen, had much to -do with keeping the Iroquois steadfast to the British Crown. Although -the impetus to its writing originated in this way, _The Master of Life_, -in its development is an example of rare constructive imagination and is -pervaded with a richly poetic interpretation that apprehends nature as -filled with spiritual presences and nature’s beauty as the garment of -the Great Spirit. - -The year 1889 saw the publication of a work of pure romance in _My -Spanish Sailor_ by (Margaret) Marshall Saunders. This was a love story -of the sea in which a Nova Scotian girl and a Spanish sea-captain are -the leading characters. Again in _Rose à Charlitte_ (1898), afterwards -published as _Rose of Acadie_, Miss Saunders essays romance, colored, it -is true, by a seemingly historic atmosphere, but yet rather a record -than a history, for the Acadian habits and customs which one might think -of as belonging to a past age were current among the people in the Bay -of St. Mary settlement when visited by Miss Saunders in the summer of -1897. Here the descendants of the Acadians had lived apart from the -English and preserved their language, traditions, customs, and their -unique manner of life. ‘The elements of strength and weakness of the -people, their patient devotion, their openness, simplicity and -generosity, their love of gossip and light-heartedness, with the shadows -of the tragic past brooding over them, are all caught in a true -perspective.’ Thus it is not until the year 1896 that we come upon a -truly legitimate successor to _The Golden Dog_. In that year appeared -Gilbert Parker’s _Seats of the Mighty_, which became one of the most -popular of his novels. The story has a strong and fairly unified and -coherent plot. It exhibits Parker’s powers of characterization and -presents to us a gallery of vividly limned historic portraits—Robert -Moray, Doltaire, Gabord, De la Darant, Bigot, Vaudreuil, Montcalm, -Wolfe—in the main true to type, human, and universal. There is not, -however, an unerring accuracy in atmosphere and color and -characterization. The writer was not sufficiently saturated with his -subject and occasional touches of modernity and tinges of contemporary -color subtract from the excellence of artistry. - -But Parker’s fiction really began with his short stories of ‘Pretty -Pierre’ in 1890. It is related that upon coming to London from Australia -he brought to Archibald Forbes, then noted as a war correspondent, a -collection of stories. Forbes’ comment was: ‘You have the best -collection of titles I ever saw.’ Parker took his manuscripts home and -promptly burned them. A day or so afterwards, while passing a shop -window filled with armor and other curios, he noticed the leather coat -and fur cap of a trapper. He went at once to his room and began to write -_The Patrol of the Cypress Hills_, the first story in the series _Pierre -and His People_. These stories dealt with the life of early Western -Canada and were followed from time to time by other volumes: _A Romany -of the Snows_, published in England under the title, _An Adventurer of -the North_, picturing French-Canadians in the woods and rural -settlements; _The Lane That Had No Turning_, stories of that Quebec -settlement which is the background of the novel _When Valmond Came to -Pontiac_; _Cumner’s Son_, sketches of life in the South Seas and in -Australia; _Donovan Pasha_, tales of Egypt and the Soudan; _Northern -Lights_, more modern stories of Western Canada. - -Parker became a prolific writer of novels and his settings range from -Canada and the South Seas to England, Egypt, and South Africa. The -treatment varies from an almost immediate transcript of near present -conditions as in _The Judgment House_ to the re-creation of the historic -past in _The Battle of the Strong_, from the delicate imaginative -romance in _When Valmond Came to Pontiac_, to a pathological study in -_The Right of Way_; he gives us a combination of melodrama and mysticism -in _The Weavers_, the revealment of innate greatness of character in -_The Translation of a Savage_, while in _You Never Know Your Luck_, he -cleverly expands a tenuous short story thread to the full proportions of -a novel. - -Besides _The Seats of the Mighty_, the novels of Gilbert Parker that -will be likely to command most attention because of intrinsic worth are: -_The Right of Way_, _The Battle of the Strong_, _When Valmond Came to -Pontiac_, _The Weavers_, and _The Judgment House_. _The Right of Way_ is -a compelling study in abnormal psychology. There may be improbabilities -in the development of the story of Charley Steele, but there is a living -force in his character and he stands forth as one of the realities of -fiction. _The Battle of the Strong_ depicts the Channel Islands in the -eighteenth century, and was written in a mood of defiance. Parker was -going to get away from a Canadian background. He would write no more -novels of Canada. But, as Sherlock Holmes ‘returned,’ so Canada was too -much a part of Gilbert Parker’s life to remain out of his writings, and -he found, himself unable to get away from it for very long. _The Battle -of the Strong_, however, was based on a thorough and sympathetic study -of the country and people of the Channel Islands and the characters and -incidents are colored with a simple, engaging humor. _When Valmond Came -to Pontiac_ is a delightful excursion into romance in which the -Napoleonic tradition shows its influence in a little out-of-the-way -village of Quebec. It has much of the charm of Booth Tarkington’s -_Monsieur Beaucaire_ and is structurally the nearest to artistic -perfection of any of Parker’s novels. _The Weavers_ rises to a more -Imperialistic sweep, dealing as it does with internal and international -politics of Egypt, while _The Judgment House_, a novel of London and -South Africa, is his greatest literary conception; in it his imaginative -vision has apprehended big interests, big business, big ideals, big -expansion, Imperial ends, conceived and carried out by big men, -struggling and striving and achieving in a big world. His more recent -novels, although some of them, as _The Money Master_, show considerable -skill in characterization, are largely novels of incident and of -accidental circumstance and have not the broad grasp of men and events -nor the innate emotional depth and power of those just outlined. - -The outstanding qualities of Parker’s work are:— - - - -(1) The strong dramatic quality. It is no surprise to us to learn that -he was in his college days a most enthusiastic Shakespeare student and -an ‘elocutionist’ of some reputation. The power to portray dramatic -situations is exhibited in his very earliest writings. One need but open -almost any of his novels and read the first paragraph to find that one -is projected into an imaginative world of action, although the story may -begin with a sentence of pure narration or description. - - - -(2) Skill in descriptive characterization. How effectively action, -explanation, and description are combined to make his characters vivid, -cannot be better exhibited than in the introduction of Valmond in _When -Valmond Came to Pontiac_. Yet there is a tendency to cast some of his -characters in moulds, so that they become types rather than individuals. -‘Donovan Pasha’ is but ‘Pretty Pierre’ amid new conditions and -circumstances. ‘Krool’ of _The Judgment House_ recalls forcibly -‘Soolsby’ of _The Weavers_. - - - -(3) His versatility is apparent from the survey already made of his -works. And to the list of poems, short stories, and novels, might be -added his book on the Great War—_The World in the Crucible_—and his -articles on agricultural questions and land settlement. - - - -(4) His breadth of literary canvas. It may seem a simple matter to place -one part of a story in England and another in Africa, or part in Canada -and another part in the South Seas, but it requires a very broad grasp -of material and a wide knowledge of people, and a keen sense of -atmosphere to do it effectually. He has been described as the product of -the British Empire, and there is little doubt that the breadth of his -experience is the basis of his breadth of literary vision. - - - -(5) A sense of the supernatural and touches of mysticism are consequent -to his strong dramatic powers and show in many of his short stories, -e.g. _The Tall Master_ and _The Flood_ in _Pierre and His People_, and -in some of his novels, notably in _The Weavers_. - - - -Summing up our impressions of Sir Gilbert Parker, we find that he has a -breadth of vision not excelled or even equalled by any other Canadian -writer. Comparing him with Norman Duncan, we see that Duncan is a finer -workman but in a narrower range. Parker comes close to taking a place -with the front rank modern British novelists and yet he does not quite -do it. Why? Perhaps because of the fact that a man’s excellences are -very often the cause of his defects. He is nothing if not dramatic. He -reaches always for the spectacular climax where nature is often -satisfied to take things quietly. He has just a little too much of a -tendency to play to the gallery. He verges nearer to the melodramatic -than do his contemporary British novelists—in fact, he frequently falls -to it. There is not enough innate value in his incidents, there is more -stage play. - -Yet on the whole, Parker’s work is fresher. There is more of the clear -air of the out-of-doors. There is not the morbidity of tone, nor the -feeling of helplessness that is found in the fiction of Hardy, Meredith, -Bennett, Galsworthy, Philpotts, Trevena and other leaders of the modern -British novelists. We can forgive Parker many lapses because at the -end—the total effect is the feeling that the good comes uppermost. Take -even Pierre, half-breed gambler, a sort of half-Ishmaelite, yet with a -sense of fair-play, a chivalry, a kindness that never leaves him. And so -nearly all his characters and most of his books inspire us finally with -divine lessons of hope and encouragement. - -The historical romances of Charles G. D. Roberts—_The Forge in the -Forest_ (1896), _A Sister to Evangeline_, _The Prisoner of -Mademoiselle_, _The Raid From Beauséjour_—while they are Canadian in -setting and color, do not show the same imaginative reach and the same -emotional power as the romances of Parker. The themes and settings of -Roberts’ romances are rather narrow. They are concerned chiefly with -minor incidents of the early history of Acadia, or we might say rather -with a minor treatment of these incidents, for the historical episodes -about which these stories are centered were, no doubt, of themselves -important enough to the early French colony. The difficulty is that, -despite the skill of Roberts in depicting local color and reproducing -atmosphere in exquisite smooth flowing prose, he evinces little gift of -characterization and the personages of the story are more or less -mechanical puppets speaking by the will and with the words of the -showman. - -Somewhat unique in early romantic fiction is _The Forest of Bourg -Marie_, by S. Frances Harrison (‘Seranus’), first published in 1898. The -bygone civilization of the old seigneuries casts its glamor over a newer -and more sophisticated Quebec, in its turn influenced by the hectic -glitter of great cities of ‘the States,’ to which were attracted -restless youth of French-Canada. Thus Mikel Caron, forest-ranger for the -county of Yamachiche, links to the present the past grandeur of the -Seigniory of Bourg Marie, while Magloire le Caron (Mr. Murray Carson in -the States), villain of the piece, is the hybrid product of three -civilizations. The writer’s style alters itself to harmonize with the -varying spirit and mood of her story—stately and poetic in its -descriptions of departed greatness; nervous and gauche in the passages -where the turbulent current of a fevered modernity breaks through. - -In _Marguerite de Roberval_ (1899), T. G. Marquis turned back to the -times of Jacques Cartier and applied his constructive imagination as -well as his industry in research to building a story of Old France and -the New around a most romantic and dramatic love episode. - -In the same year appeared _The Span o’ Life_ written in collaboration by -William MacLennan and Jean N. MacIlwraith. Its historical basis is found -in the memoirs of a Scottish Chevalier, who shared in the ill-starred -rebellion of Prince Charles and afterwards became a soldier of fortune -in the army of France, thus being present at the siege of Louisbourg and -afterwards escaping to Quebec and joining the French forces there. The -plot element of the story is somewhat weak and it is of value chiefly -for its inside history of the siege conditions in the two greatest forts -of New France. - -So far the concern of Canadian historical fiction, as we have seen it, -has been chiefly with New France and the conflicts between the French -and English in North America. It remained for Agnes C. Laut to realize -quite independently the amazing wealth of romantic history that lay back -of the opening up and exploiting of the middle and far West of Canada. -While yet a schoolgirl and knowing only the formal, conventional, and -statistical outlines of Canadian history as then taught, she came -accidentally upon a copy of Gunn’s _History of Manitoba_ and sat up all -night thrilled with the story of the Selkirk settlers. Thus originated -the impulse, fulfilled later (1900), in _The Lords of the North_ and -(1902) in _Heralds of Empire_, to reveal what she felt, to show that -Canada’s history was one page of glory. It had never been told in a way -that the youth of the land would realize this, and she felt that, -lacking this realization, we lacked a truly national spirit. - -_Lords of the North_ presents a vivid picture of Canada’s fur trade at -the most flourishing period of that industry. It follows the conflict -between the rival fur companies—the North-West and the Hudson’s Bay -Company. Across its pages flit the voyageur, the trader, Indians, -missionaries, settlers, buffalo hunters—all the romantic figures of the -Canadian West of the period of 1815 to 1821. _Heralds of Empire_ will be -remembered for its characterization of Pierre Radisson, the man of -action—the man who dared and who did—the man with the true pioneer -spirit. Miss Laut’s style is forcible and direct. Her sentences are -brief and crisp. The story runs on without effort. Description never -wearies because it is the natural and necessary setting, painted with -quick, bold vivid strokes. Of the larger matters of plot structure—the -architectonics of fiction, she can hardly be said to have achieved -mastery, but she writes with such energy and enthusiasm for her subject -that in a measure this defect may be overlooked. - -Wilfred Campbell also essayed the historical romance but with -indifferent success. His _Ian of the Orcades_ with its historical -Scottish setting was more congenial to his genius than _A Beautiful -Rebel_. It has arresting incidents, vigorously drawn characters, and -considerable intensity of emotions, but it wins us rather by Campbell’s -power to suffuse the text with what Matthew Arnold called ‘natural -magic.’ It is more in keeping with the ‘old world imagination’ of -Campbell which has been defined in the study of his poetry. _A Beautiful -Rebel_, a story of Canada and the United States in the war of 1812, is -lacking in imaginative color, is defective in structure, and the -incident is too slight for the significance of the theme. The comment of -the author has a way of appearing obtrusively as a digression, or at -times in the mouths of the characters. What value _A Beautiful Rebel_ -has as historic fiction lies chiefly in its representation of the part -played in the war by American sympathizers living as Canadian settlers. - - _II. The Romancers of Animal Psychology._ - -In the field of romance of wild and of domestic animal psychology, -Canadian writers have shown a distinct and unique inventive genius and a -corresponding artistry. - -Ernest Thompson Seton attracted the attention of the world by his -romances of wild life in Canada because he combined in them the skilled -observation of the scientist, the vision of the artist, the insight of -the psychologist, the sympathy of the humane man; and, perhaps, more -than all that, the spirit of youthful wonder at, and interest in, the -ways and doings of the creatures of the field and wood. - -He brought to his writings of animal life a new point of view—namely, -that human beings and wild animals are kin; that animals are motivated -with passions and desires and, to some extent, ideas, just as human -beings are. Thus he wrote with sympathy and with creative imagination -and revealed the new life and being of wild animals, and he hoped to -achieve the practical result of quickening the sympathies of man toward -animals and stopping the thoughtless extermination of many of our -harmless wild creatures. - -His books such as _Wild Animals I Have Known_ (1898), _The Trail of The -Sand-Hill Stag_, _The Biography of a Grizzly_, _Lives of the Hunted_, -are studies of animal psychology and behavior. _Lives of the Hunted_, -for example, contains life-histories of Krag, the mountain Ram; of -Johnny Bear; of Coyotito, the Escaped Coyote. Krag’s whole history from -birth to death is faithfully sketched and, incidentally, much is learned -about the habits of the mountain-sheep. From these life-histories we -gain, not merely knowledge and information but wisdom, since animal life -and human life are akin. - -Some of the earlier animal stories were written in dialogue—the animals -being made to talk. But, very wisely, the author soon adopted the -narrative style and removed his sketches from the character of fairy -stories to that of real interpretations of animal life. - -In _Two Little Savages_ he gives the adventures of two boys who lived in -the woods as Indians and learned much about Indian life and all kinds of -wood-lore. Other stories of a similar type are employed for the teaching -of different phases of woodcraft. _Wood Myth and Fable_ advances a step -further and from incidents in animal life, and other occurrences in -nature, the writer points a definite moral lesson. This escapes -preachiness by the adroit epigrammatic wit of the ‘moral.’ - -A somewhat different literary ideal inspired Charles G. D. Roberts to -undertake the pure romance of animal psychology and behavior. ‘It may be -that this arose as a natural development from Roberts’ early attempts to -depict a narrative from actual occurrences and experiences in the woods. -At any rate _Earth’s Enigmas_ (1896), followed by numerous other volumes -such as _The Kindred of the Wild_, _The Watchers of the Trails_, _The -Haunters of the Silences_, _Red Fox_, _The Feet of the Furtive_, _More -Animal Stories_ have established the place of Roberts as the supreme -artist in the field of animal romance. - -Roberts’ treatment of animal psychology differs from that of Thompson -Seton or Marshall Saunders. He makes his wild animals either wholly -human or too human. They move in their world with a sort of super-animal -(or super-human) knowledge, and Roberts’ discloses a subconscious -motivation of conduct in the wild animals that outdoes the present clay -psycho-analyists in their revealments of human motivation. For this -reason they appeal not to the heart but to the analytic imagination and -the aesthetic sense. They awaken the interest of the intellect rather -than the sympathetic emotions. They lack humor and pathos, but in -imaginative sweep and artistic structure they are supreme creations. As -examples of a literary prose style they stand almost alone in their -particular field of fiction. - -Not all Roberts’ animal stories are of this ‘intellectual’ type. Human -interest and humor is added by showing animals in relationships, more or -less accidental, to mankind, in such volumes as _The Backwoodsman_, -_Hoof and Claw_. - -The peculiar _forte_ of Marshall Saunders is the romance of the -domesticated animal or animal pet. _Beautiful Joe: The Autobiography of -a Dog_, first published in 1894, is one of the literary phenomena of the -world. It has been translated into fourteen or more languages and has -sold over a million copies. With acute perceptive sympathy and engaging -artistry, Miss Saunders has commingled strangely but veraciously the -mind and life of the domestic animals. She envisages truthfully their -‘near humanity’ and reveals them as akin to man in feelings, passions, -desires, and the motivation of conduct, but keeps them on a level below -man. Her animals are not human, but they appeal more to the heart of the -humanity in us than those of Roberts, Thompson Seton, or W. A. Fraser; -particularly do they appeal more to the spirit and heart of youth. Her -_Golden Dicky_, the story of a canary and his friends; _Bonnie Prince -Fetlar_, the autobiography of a pony, and _Jimmy Goldcoast_, the story -of a monkey, have all the engaging qualities of her earlier work. - -W. A. Eraser, in _Mooswa and Others of the Boundaries_ (1900), and in -_The Outcasts_ (1901) achieved a distinct success by working with much -the same material as Roberts and Thompson Seton and to some extent -combining the style and treatment of both. He is not so scientific as -Thompson Seton; nor is he so literary or so psychoanalytic as Roberts. -_The Sa’-Zada Tales_ (1905) in which the animals at the zoo are -represented as conversing with their keeper, Sahib Zada, and with one -another, exhibit the intimate knowledge of wild animal life gained, no -doubt, during the author’s residence in Asiatic countries, but they are -not as distinctively original in manner, nor as high in literary quality -as his other animal tales. Fraser, however, has a peculiar field in -which he excels—in his novel _Thoroughbreds_ (1902), and in his volume -of short stories _Brave Hearts_ (1904), he shows a sympathetic -understanding of the life of the race horse and he presents vividly and -with sometimes a rollicking humor, at others a tender pathos, many -incidents and expressions of the racing field. He is an apostle of clean -sport and a true lover of the racing horse and his enthusiasm gives to -these stories a directness and coherence not always found in some of his -later stories and novels with different subjects and settings. - - _III. The Evangelical Romance._ - -The pioneer writer of the ‘evangelical romance’ in Canada was ‘Ralph -Connor’ (Reverend Charles W. Gordon). Back of all his books stands the -missionary spirit. Indeed it was that missionary spirit which led to the -finding of his literary gift. The story of that finding dates back to -1896. He had been attending a meeting of the Home Mission Committee of -the Presbyterian Church at Toronto, and afterwards tried to impress upon -the Rev. J. A. Macdonald, then editor of _The Westminster_, the duty of -the magazine to educate the committee and the people to a greater -liberality. The editor’s reply was: ‘Articles are no good if they have -only facts and statistics and exhortations. Give me a sketch, a story, a -thing of life rather than a report. . .’ - -The result of this advice was a series of sketches of missionary life in -the foothills of the Rockies, which were featured as _Tales of the -Selkirks_ in _The Westminster_ (1897) and appeared in book form the -following year as _Black Rock_. - -When the first sketches were ready it was deemed advisable to conceal -the identity of the author. The editor telegraphed the query, ‘What -name?’ The reply came, ‘Sign sketch Cannor.’ ‘Can—Nor, that would -betray the face of a mask,’ says the editor. ‘Perhaps the operator made -a mistake. Likely it should be Connor.’ And running over the alphabet of -masculine names, he decided that ‘Ralph’ would just about fit with -‘Connor.’ Thus the christening of the missionary novelist. - -Ralph Connor’s novels fall into several groups. _Black Rock_ and _The -Sky Pilot_ are tales of the Rocky Mountain foothills, both telling of -the wild life of the West and of the work of the missionary. _The Man -From Glengarry_ and _Glengarry School Days_ deal with the life of the -author’s boyhood in Eastern Ontario. _The Prospector_ and _The Doctor_ -combine East and West, by following their leading characters through the -University of Toronto and transferring them to Western Canada. _The -Foreigner_ has a Manitoba setting and concerns itself with the problem -of the assimilation of the foreigner. _Corporal Cameron_ and _The Patrol -of the Sun Dance Trail_, carry a young Scot to Canada and through the -ranks of the Mounted Police. The Great War gave material for _The -Major_; labor troubles for _To Him That Hath_; while in _The Gaspards of -Pine Croft_, the author reverted to a setting not so far from that of -his first novel for a story more emotional and psychological in nature -than his others. - -The circulation of Ralph Connor’s novels has been phenomenal and has -reached somewhere between two and a half and three millions, yet it -cannot be said that he has established a reputation as a literary -artist. His stories carry the reader because of action, incident, and -tense emotional situations. They always have an underlying ethical and -spiritual significance and they promulgate a belief in the presence of -some redeeming virtue in every human being, so that, despite adverse -critical opinion, they continue to touch the responsive chord in the -heart of a common humanity. - -None of his later works has quite come up to the standard of _Black -Rock_ or _The Sky Pilot_ in consistency of characterization and in unity -of total effect. Indeed _The Sky Pilot_ is the most artistically -finished of all his works, because of the natural coherence of its parts -in their development of the central theme. Dramatic power he has to a -marked degree, so far as the presentation of individual scenes is -concerned, such as the fight in the lumber camp, the horse race, the -barn-raising, and many other thrilling episodes; but his grasp of -dramatic values is not broad enough to escape melodrama. The -constructive dramatic instinct which weaves each separate incident into -a chain of cause and effect dependent upon the character and motives of -the leading personages of the story is very little in evidence. Whole -chapters might be lifted bodily from some of these novels without -interfering with the main thread of the story. - -His imagination is reproductive rather than creatively constructive. The -stories of the foothills are built upon his own missionary experiences -at Banff and elsewhere; the Glengarry tales deal with his schoolboy -experiences and his knowledge of the rough life of the lumber woods and -the drive; the stories of east and west are also drawn from his own -experiences in college and in the missionary field. As a result of this -his characters tend to become types and although fairly individual and -distinctive they are inclined to act mechanically and to operate without -sufficient inherent motivation. - -The first novel of Robert E. Knowles, _St. Cuthbert’s_ although a -romance of a Presbyterian congregation, is not strictly an ‘evangelical -novel.’ It has more to do with showing the Presbyterian Church as an -institution which dominated the life of the Presbyterian community. The -doings of the Kirk session; the relations of the minister with the -various elements of his flock, the pious and the profligate, are -described with rare fidelity. The tender undercurrent covered by -Scottish reserve; the sympathetic understanding of human nature as the -greatest and most essential quality of ministry; the dry, pawky Scottish -humor; the distinctive and consistent characterization—these elements -make _St. Cuthbert’s_ a piece of genuine literature. _The Dawn at Shanty -Bay_ is in reality a short story. There is one underlying motive, and -only one, dominating the whole—it is the fight between parental love -and parental dignity. It should rank as one of the sweetest ‘Christmas -Carols’ in English literature. His remaining novels—_The Undertow_, -_The Web of Time_, _The Attic Guest_, and _The Singer of the Kootenay_ -are of the evangelical type and are fashioned much to the same pattern, -showing inconsistencies in development and a lack of structural unity. - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - - Short Story Writers - - THE SHORT STORY FICTIONISTS OF THE SYSTEMATIC SCHOOL—E. W. - THOMSON—DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT—CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS—GILBERT - PARKER—ERNEST THOMPSON SETON—W. A. FRASER. - -There is, on this continent, a literary tradition that Edgar Allan Poe -is the creator of the short story. The truth is that Poe applied a new -method to the short narrative or prose tale in that he gave the short -story a higher unity of effect towards an impressionistic climax. He did -not originate or create it; he simply improved its technique. But with -the school of Poe this method crystallized into a formula, and the -so-called American short story became an invention rather than an -imaginative creation. Thus it depends upon a cumulation of effects -rising to a climactic peak of emotional intensity, or upon a plot that -induces suspense by a clever interplay of incident. Its processes are -for the most part mechanical. The telling or the reading of a short -story of this type is far more a coldly-calculated intellectual exercise -than it is an appeal to warm-hearted human emotions. With aesthetic, -moral, or spiritual values it has little to do. Hence it has not that -permanency that makes for true literature. Based on incident and -accidental circumstance rather than character it engages the reader -temporarily by its cleverness, but it does not acquaint him with living -characters to whom he loves to return for an enlargement of that -acquaintanceship. - -The Canadian species of short story is distinguished by a high artistic -unity of structure and effect and in that respect reflects the influence -of Poe upon all modern short story writing, but there is this -difference, that it achieves its unity of effect and its dramatic -interest not by mechanically constructed climaxes but by developments -arising out of the inherent traits and dispositions of the personages of -the story. Its basis is the solid rock of character. The Canadian short -story as a distinctive type does not present the excessively climactic -plot; nevertheless, it is more truly a real story than either the plot -story of the American and French writers or the fine psychological -situations of successful English story writers. - -As we see it, this peculiar quality of the Canadian short story is -rooted in some quality of Canadian nationality. No Canadian writer can -be said to have originated the method. Each appears to evolve some -modification of it particularly adapted to his own field. - -_Old Man Savarin and Other Tales_, by Edward William Thomson (1895) -contains a number of stories of Canadian life differing widely in -emotional interest. There is the near burlesque of _Old Man Savarin_, -with the incident of the fist fight which lasted for four hours, -although the two combatants never reached within striking distance of -each other all that time; _McGrath’s Bad Night_ portrays a pathetic -picture of a family on the verge of starvation, to which is added the -greater pathos of the breakdown of a man’s principles of honesty; _The -Privilege of the Limits_, wherein the author captures and presents -effectively the dry, pawky humor of the Scot; the sorrowful -dillusionment of youthful imagination in _The Shining Cross of Rigaud_; -superstitious terror overcome by plain common sense in _Red Headed -Windego_. - -The stories with Eastern Ontario and Quebec for their setting show a -loving intimacy and understanding of the plain people—the habitant, the -river driver, the lumberman, the farmer; and the author is at his best -in his delineation of the Glengarry Scot or the Quebec habitant. Thomson -is scarcely a stylist. There is a freedom, even looseness, in his story -structure, and he employs sometimes the device of introducing a narrator -for his tale. But in his stories of the Canadian type and setting his -warm friendliness for his characters radiates a glow of enthusiasm that -captures and holds the reader. Not all Thomson’s stories, however, are -of this type—in _Petherick’s Peril_, there is an approach to the horror -tale of Poe; and in _The Swartz Diamond_ there is the trap-springing -device of the surprise ending, while _Boss of the World_ is an example -of the ‘tall story’ which produces its humor by the exaggeration of its -ideas—these stories we surmise to be the result of influences which -surrounded E. W. Thomson in his editorial offices in a Boston magazine -publishing firm. - -_In the Village of Viger_ (1896), by Duncan Campbell Scott is a little -volume of prose tales of French Canada, published in Boston by Copeland -and Day. These stories affect the heart and imagination with a reality -and sense of actuality as if one had dwelt in Viger and had daily come -face to face with Mademoiselle Viau, the little milliner; Madame -Laroque, gossip and reformer; Monsieur Cuerrier, kind-hearted -postmaster; brandy-tippling Paul Arbique and his wife; Hans Blumenthal, -the expatriate German watchmaker; Pierre, and the lovely but intriguing -Eloise of No. 68 rue Alfred de Musset; Jean Francois, the mysterious -blind peddler; Paul Farlotte who was always saving up to revisit France, -and gave up the project on the day he dreamed that his mother had -died—and all the rest in this gallery of lovable characters. - -The reality and veracity of Dr. Scott’s character delineation produces -exquisite and infallible character-vignettes, or Rembrandtesque -word-etchings, lovely in ‘values’ and in spiritual _chiaroscuro_—depths -within depths of a single character as in Charles Desjardins in the -tragic story of _The Desjardins_. Yet in his handling of the tragic he -awakens, not a pity that produces fear or horror or disgust, but a -gentle pity that engenders sympathy. We appreciate the ‘little -milliner’s’ loyalty—begotten of pure love—to her rascal lover, a -common thief. The skilful sympathetic handling of the subject gives to -love a new dignity and to loyalty a new grandeur. The pathos moves to a -rise and fall, but never so overwhelms the emotions as to cause tears; -rather does it subdue the soul and leave in the heart of the reader a -gentle welling up of sympathy, a benignant sense of fellowship with -finite and erring humanity, and a tender peace. When a reader finishes -one of Dr. Scott’s stories of the pathetic episode—The _Little -Milliner_, _The Desjardins_, _Sedan_, _Paul Farlotte_—he experiences no -violent wrench of the heart-strings—sheds no tears—but is gently and -sweetly touched; feels with the unfortunate and afflicted; sees the veil -that obscures the hard workaday world lifted; and beholds life and the -world suffused with a ‘grey-eyed loveliness.’ This is all superb -artistry in emotional and spiritual love, by one who has had intimate -glimpses into the human heart and into the stern face of sublimity in -human character and in life. - -So, too, his treatment of the comedy in human character and existence. -Human destiny and fate are too dear and pathetic to him to allow him to -engage his art in any raucous laughter. The smiles he evokes are based -on sympathetic fellow-feeling, on tenderness. We are amused, yet not -unsympathetic, at the rage of Madame Laroque, defeated in a -long-cherished love, and hope of ultimate marriage, by the elopement of -her ward, Cesarine, with the postmaster (_The Wooing of Monsieur -Cuerrier_); the futilities of old Paul Farlotte, who would see ‘la belle -France’ before he dies, envisage a comic character, but subdue our -laughter with the pathos of frustrated desire. - -These themes, we see, are chosen from character and life in a typical -French-Canadian village, yet the sentiments, the ideals of human love -and character and conduct, and the natural and spiritual color, are -Canadian and even universal. They depend not upon mere accidents of -circumstance, but upon lasting and universal human emotions and human -relationships—permanent literary values. In these stories, Dr. Scott -achieves structural unity and harmony of emotional tone with an entire -absence of any striving for effect—with that finished art that conceals -the artifice of the craftsman. - -Always a careful workman rather than a prolific writer, it was not until -1923 that Duncan Campbell Scott published another volume of short -stories, _The Witching of Elspie_. Some of these are French-Canadian in -their setting, but those most exquisitely wrought deal with the lonely -and heart-searching life of the Hudson Bay posts. Although Scott’s -method was fully formed in his first volume, there is here a very -evident advance in artistry, a greater economy in expression, but a -deeper intensity of effect. Here he shows a remarkable skill in the -almost imperceptible transition from explanation or description to the -inside of the mind of the varying personages of the story and back again -to description or explanation—one of the most artistic touches of the -work of a finished craftsman. - -Charles G. D. Roberts developed, in the story of animal psychology, a -species of Canadian short story that depends not so much upon emotional -and artistic effects and a unity of impressionistic tone as upon -intellectual and stylistic effects and novelty of theme. Scott worked -with an artistry so exquisite that his stories possess the simplicity -and directness which conceal art. Roberts wrought his animal and -romantic short stories with an artistry so much in the manner of the -prose-poet that they reveal the stylist consciously aiming to impress -the intellect with niceties of structure, and the sensibility with -word-painting, always _couleur de rose_. - -When Roberts is the psychologist he is also most the true structural -stylist. But for an example of more impressionistic color, of sheer -word-painting, of prose-poetry _couleur de rose_, the following -paragraphs from _The Watchers in the Swamp_ are convincing:— - - Under the first pale lilac wash of evening, just where the slow - stream of the Lost-Water slipped placidly from the open meadows - into the osier-and-bulrush tangles of the swamp, a hermit - thrush, perched in the topmost spray of a young elm tree, was - fluting out his lonely and tranquil ecstasy to the last of the - sunset. - - • • • • - - It was high morning in the heart of the swamp. From a sky of - purest cobalt flecked sparsely with silver-white wisps of cloud, - the sun glowed down with tempered, fruitful warmth upon the - tender green of the half-grown rushes and already rank - water-grasses—the young leafage of the alder and willow - thickets—the wide pools and narrow, linking lanes of unruffled - water already mantling in spots with lily-pad and arrow-weed. A - few big red-and-black butterflies wavered aimlessly above the - reed-tops. Here and there, with a faint elfin clashing of - transparent wings, a dragon-fly, a gleam of emerald and amethyst - fire, flashed low over the water. From every thicket came a soft - chatter of the nesting red-shouldered blackbirds. - -These stories are lyrical poems in prose; as an impressionistic stylist -in the medium of the animal short story Roberts is inimitable. We find -the same mellifluous prose (as Mr. T. G. Marquis discriminatingly terms -it) in his romantic short stories, _By the Marshes of Minas_, in which -themes, settings, and color are authentically Canadian (Acadian). - -Gilbert Parker’s short stories exhibit many of the qualities of his -longer fiction. They are not always as artistically constructed as those -of Duncan Campbell Scott, nor are they as finely written as those of -Roberts, but in the main they are based on sufficient character -motivation and have a sustained dramatic power. Ernest Thompson Seton -and W. A. Fraser are engaging tellers of short tales abounding in -incident and humor, with a sound basis of characterization, yet of the -short story writers of the Systematic School, Duncan Campbell Scott has -produced the most uniformly excellent work. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - - William Henry Drummond - - THE NEW CANADIAN GENRE OF IDYLLIC POETRY—WILLIAM HENRY DRUMMOND, - INTERPRETER OF THE HABITANT—POET OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN CANADA. - -The Canadian _voyageur_ and _habitant_, the lumberman, and peasant of -French Canada are ‘children of nature’—human, simple, shy, -warm-hearted, honest, and manly. They were not always thus -sympathetically conceived or regarded by most of their English-speaking -compatriots. They, therefore, needed a sympathetic interpreter who would -reveal their inward spirit and true character, mental and moral. -Strangely, but according to the inscrutable methods of Providence, the -man who was to be the friend and sympathetic interpreter of the -French-Canadian peasant, was born in Ireland in 1854. He was William -Henry Drummond. - -Drummond emigrated to Canada when but a mere lad, before Old Country -education and culture had any chance to mould his mind and imagination -and moral attitudes. While, then, Drummond himself was an _émigré_, his -verse, like that of Isabella Valancy Crawford and for the same reasons -of formative influences in Canada, is Canadian. It is indeed regional, -but it is also indigenous poetry—in substance, in diction, in imagery, -and in craftsmanship. - -William Henry Drummond, like the _dramatis personae_ of his poems, the -_voyageur_ and _habitant_, was a ‘child of nature.’ No other kind of -man, save this large-bodied, warm-hearted, open-minded lover of human -kin and of the creatures that live in the wild, who saw and felt the -common things of life, as the _habitant_ saw and felt them, could have -been a truthful interpreter of the _habitant_. The merely scholarly -poet, the poet of a hothouse refinement, the poet who went to work at -the craftsmanship of poetry as if he were carving arabesques in verse, -could not have the imaginative insight into the mind and heart of the -French-Canadian peasant and the sympathy with him that would make it -possible for such a poet, with kindly, playful humor, to express the -elemental feelings and thoughts—the real humanity—of the _habitant_. - -Drummond was above all things a human poet. His sympathies were -inclusive. By intuition he could feel just as the _habitant_ felt about -good and evil in the universe. Drummond’s heart was warm and large and -religious, which meant that he could call nothing that was made in the -image of God common or outcast. Though he was well read in the modern -poets and was a student of literature, he was not a bookish man. He -distinguished between the literature which possessed only aesthetic and -artistic beauties and that which was the embodiment of the finer goods -of the spirit, the inalienable satisfactions of existence. He loved only -the literature that was human and beautiful—simple, pure, and true. - -As, then, a ‘child of nature,’ with a large, sympathetic heart and a -Keltic vision of the ‘divinity’ which is in all men and also in the wild -creatures that are near to Nature, and with a gift of ready expression -in rhythmical verse, Drummond was uniquely fitted to be the interpreter -of his simple, kindly, reticent, but genuinely human and sincere, -fellow-being, the Canadian _habitant_. Thus singularly fitted to be, as -he has been called, ‘the Poet of the Habitant,’ Drummond, in his verse, -actually performed a social and a literary service for his country. On -the social side, to the English-speaking Canadian, who up to the last -decade of the 19th century considered the _habitant_ as little better -than a chattel, Drummond revealed the human, lovable, and admirable -virtues of the humble French-speaking compatriot, and also engendered in -the English-speaking Canadian a sincere respect and affection for his -French-speaking fellow countryman. On the literary side, Drummond -created a gallery of _genre_ pictures and spiritual portraits which -constitute a unique contribution, not only to Canadian poetic -Literature, but also to English Literature. - -Under what inspiration or vision, hitherto not vouchsafed to any other -Canadian poet, did Drummond write, and what really novel and important -contributions did he make to Canadian poetry and to world literature? - -He discovered and presented to the world, for the first time, the New -Romance in Canada, as Kirby and Sir Gilbert Parker had discovered and -presented the Old Romance. He created a new form of the Canadian Idyll. -He placed on the stage of the world a group of new Characters and, -through them, originated a new species or type of World Humor. -Pre-eminently Drummond is the Poet and Humorist of the New Social -Democracy in Canada. - -Until the publication of Drummond’s first creative work, _The Habitant -and Other French-Canadian Poems_ (1897), the French-Canadian, in -general, was appreciated only according to the types seen in the towns -and cities. In particular, the French-Canadian _voyageur_ and _habitant_ -were appreciated only as the merry hearts who had sung the old -_chansons_ on the rivers of Quebec Province—and, as their -English-speaking compatriots fancied, in the academic and eviscerated -English translations in which they heard these _chansons_. No one, up to -the time of Drummond’s first volume, had revealed the mind and heart of -the real, the living _habitant_, _voyageur_, lumberman, and peasant in -Old Quebec. No one before Drummond had sung their heart songs in the -patois that is theirs when attempting to express their thoughts and -emotions to their supercilious and not too respectful English-speaking -compatriots. But Drummond produced truthful, naturalistic pictures of -the real, the _living_ French-Canadian _habitant_, lumberman, and -peasant as they expressed their thoughts and emotions about life and -their fellows. - -He did not do this by a sort of reporting. He did it by letting them -talk for themselves in their own patois. Thus he gave to his pictures of -the French-Canadian _habitant_, lumberman, and peasant, a racy and -dramatic realism which distinguishes them as ‘characters’ apart in -Canadian, in English, and in world literature. This is the first reason -why William Henry Drummond must be regarded as an absolute creator of -literary species. He created a new form of romantic genre poetry, gave -it reality, veracity, and ideality. This is what Louis Fréchette meant -when in his Introduction to Drummond’s first volume, he hailed Drummond -as ‘the pathfinder of a new land of song.’ - -In what way did Drummond give true _ideality_ to the life and character -which he presented also with a convincing realism and veracity? There is -a species of romance which is the sheer invention of the fancy or -imagination. It presents a life and character that have never existed -and could not be possible anywhere on earth. That kind of romance is so -‘fantastic’ as to be absolutely unreal. There is another kind of romance -which is based on real imagination of supposed real life and real -personages. This sort of romance is typified by fairy tales, not the -fairy tales of all lands, but of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. -The people actually believe in the real existence of fairies, and -imagine these invisible creatures in the forms of human beings. Romances -about them and their doings are, therefore, not fantastic, but are based -on a kind of reality. Again: there is a species of romance based upon -the imagining of real personages in impossible situations and doing -impossible things. It exists in Canadian Literature in those romances in -which the Indian conducts himself in ways that could only be possible -with men of civilized natures and civilized ideas. This kind of romance -is not unreal; it is _too ideal_. - -In poetically conceiving and presenting the French-Canadian _habitant_, -lumberman, or peasant, Drummond might have drawn them as fantastic, or -fanciful, or absolutely ideal characters. Or, he might have drawn them, -as Service, for instance, has limned his characters of the trails and -mining camps, with an accentuated or rude realism. Drummond employed -none of these methods. He presented the French-Canadian _habitant_, -lumberman, and peasant as they really _appear_ on the outside, and as -they ideally _are_ on the inside, to the vision which sympathetically -divines their feelings, emotions, aspirations, sorrows, joys, and -consolations. Drummond’s poetic eye perceived the ideal spirit of the -French-Canadian _habitant_ as it shines through the outer, rude, homely, -simple, hesitant creature whom the English-speaking compatriot only too -often, till Drummond’s time, took to be of a lower and less spiritual -order than himself. By this combined realistic and idealistic treatment -of the character and life of the French-Canadian _habitant_, lumberman, -and peasant, Drummond created a new species of Canadian _genre_ poetry, -a new form of the Canadian Idyll. - -As a creator, Drummond is entitled to another distinction. He originated -a new and distinct type of Humor. There were humorists before and since -Drummond. There was the prose humor of Haliburton’s _Sam Slick_. There -was the verse humor of Howe and of Lanigan. There was the prose humor of -De Mille and of Mrs. Cotes. There have been the prose humor of Leacock -and the verse humor of Service. But the only humor of all these that is -likely to perdure as world literature is that of Haliburton. Drummond -has created a humor which also is likely to live in permanent -literature. It is distinguished from all the other humor written in -Canada by the fact that it is never satiric or malicious or ungenial, or -mere humor for the sake of raising a laugh or to ridicule another. It is -humor with _pathos_. Just as Haliburton is unique as a satiric humorist, -so Drummond is unique as a sympathetic and interpretative humorist. He -is a Master of Humor and of Pathos. - -His work is so well known throughout the world that it is hardly -necessary to quote examples of his humor. Mere excerpts will not -suffice. We may, however, recall, as outstanding examples, _The Wreck of -the Julie Plante_, _How Bateese Came Home_, _The Curé of Calumette_, -_Dominique_, _The Corduroy Road_, _Little Bateese_, _Johnnie Courteau_, -and _When Albani Sang_. - -A few words on Drummond’s use of a patois or dialect and on his verse -technique will be sufficient. It is by his patois that he gives not only -naturalness but also veracity to the speech of his characters. His -dialect is pure and clean and is felt by the reader as natural and -genuine. As to technique, Drummond is a master of simple but flowing -rhythm and obtains his rhymes with an ease and naturalness that disclose -him as an original inventor of rhyme. He elected to be ‘The Poet of the -Habitant,’ and as such he is unique. Yet his poetry in this form, as -well as in other forms, clearly shows that if he had essayed the writing -of verse on traditional themes and in a traditional manner, he could -have been a poet of considerable distinction. It is best, however, to -leave him with his natural distinction and glory about him—the Poet of -the Habitant. As the discoverer of the New Romance in Canada, as the -Creator of the New Canadian Idyll, and as the Master of a unique species -of Canadian Humor and Pathos, William Henry Drummond made a signally -original contribution to the quantity and quality of the creative -literature of Canada. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - - - _The_ Vaudeville School - - THE DECADENT INTERIM IN CANADIAN LITERATURE—THE VAUDEVILLE SCHOOL - OF POETS—ROBERT W. SERVICE, ROBERT J. C. STEAD, AND OTHERS. - -Not ineptly, though somewhat jocosely, we may group Canadian Poets in -the Post-Confederation period, from 1887 to 1907, into three Schools, -and label them with characteristic sobriquets. Already Archibald -Lampman, Wilfred Campbell, Duncan Campbell Scott, with Pauline Johnson -and Frederick George Scott, have been called ‘The Great Lakes School.’ -This is a dignified sobriquet, and derives its descriptive aptness from -the native environment, or from the themes, of these poets, or from -both. Again: Charles G. D. Roberts and Bliss Carman have been named ‘The -Birchbark School.’ This is a jocose, playful sobriquet, and was applied -to these poets because ‘they use the mottled scrolls of the Red Man’s -papyrus to build a canoe, or as a vehicle for verse, with equal -dexterity.’ - -By similar tokens, the throng of verse-makers whose vogue formed a -decadent interim in Canadian poetry, beginning with the publication of -Robert Service’s _Songs of a Sourdough_ (1907) and ending with the -publication of his _Rhymes of a Rolling Stone_ (1913), may be signalized -as ‘The Vaudeville School.’ On account of the themes of their verse, its -special and distinguishing technique, and its particular appeal to -popular or vulgar taste, this sobriquet, as applied to Robert Service, -Robert Stead, Paul Agar, George B. Field, Milton W. Yorke (_pseud._ -Derby Bill), Robert T. Anderson, John Mortimer, James P. Haverson, -Charles W. MacCrossan, Hamilton Wigle, and others, is just, apt, and -veracious. It must be understood, however, to convey nothing of scorn or -contempt or derision, but to be only a pedagogical formula for -summarizing the qualities of the verse, the ideals, the methods, and the -craftsmanship of the great majority of the poets here named ‘The -Vaudeville School.’ They might have been dubbed ‘The Sourdough School,’ -were it not that of them all only Service deals with those picturesque -and picaresque humans known in the slang of the Canadian gold-mining -camps as ‘Sourdoughs,’ and were it not that this name, used as -sobriquet, would be derisive rather than sincerely descriptive. - -As used here, the term Vaudeville harks back to its original French -connotation. As applied to the verse of Service, Stead, Haverson, Field, -Yorke, and the others, it means, first, entertainment which appeals to -popular or vulgar or low taste in verse. It means, secondly, arresting -or violent methods in the technique of vividness. In fact, it is on the -side of the technique of vividness in verse-color and verse-rhythms -rather than on the side of the picturesque and often picaresque -matter—characters and situations—of the verse of this School that the -term Vaudeville is most apt and veracious, and that it is applied here -as a descriptive epithet in the ‘working’ vocabulary of literary -criticism. - -_The sublimation of the technique of emotional vividness, to the -exclusion of all regard for the intrinsic and the aesthetic beauty and -moral dignity of poetry_—this is the essential formula of the verse of -the Vaudeville School of Canadian poets. Their aims or motives were -sincere and human. One motive was genuinely aesthetic: they wished to -write verse that would escape the emotional _deadness_ of the -traditional themes and manner of Canadian poetry. The other motive was -pragmatic: they wished to write rhythmic and rimed social documents in -verse which would have such novelty of theme and such dramatic or -theatrical or ‘sensational’ content as immediately to create a demand -for the ‘new poetry’ and make it readily marketable. Thus should ‘the -art of poetry’ become at once both pleasurable and profitable. - -How were these ends to be achieved? ‘I am one who left off singing -Alleluias,’ said Dante, poet of the immortal ‘Vision’ of Hell, -Purgatory, and Paradise. Thus Dante, desiring to get away from the -conventional deadness of saying that he, as a poet, was a messenger from -Heaven to reveal spiritual beauty to his fellows, makes use of one of -the principles of the technique of vividness. He employs the unusual -phrase, the lively, arresting phrase that would be sure to strike and -vividly impress the average mind or imagination. In short, Dante invents -and uses picturesque slang: for ‘singing Alleluias’ is slang, but how -poetically suggestive it is, how vivid! - -The Canadian Vaudeville verse-makers realized the poetic suggestiveness -and the vividness of the picaresque speech of the Far West and the High -North. They also knew how these sections of the country were rich in -picturesque and picaresque characters and in the ‘wild and woolly’ life -which produces strange and violent drama and melodrama, which is all the -more appealing to the imagination of men and women because it is real -and ‘stranger than fiction.’ It was a life full of moral (or immoral) -color of speech, and action—of compelling interest. Thus ready to hand -in Canada lay for immediate use the materials and the basal technical -principle—the recipe—for the ‘making,’ not the ‘creation,’ of -Vaudeville poetry. What was that recipe? Simply this. _Lilt in plangent -anapaestic metres or rhythms the picaresque melodrama of the mining -camps in the High North and the melodrama of the ‘chevalerie’ of the Far -West._ - -A single stanza from _The Shooting of Dan McGrew_ by Robert Service -(_Songs of a Sourdough_, 1907) affords ample proof and illustration of -the vaudeville qualities of this decadent verse:— - - And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar - way; - In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him - sway; - Then his lips went in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was - calm; - And, ‘Boys,’ says he, ‘you don’t know me, and none of you care a damn; - But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I’ll bet my poke - they’re true, - That one of you is a hound of hell . . . and that one is Dan McGrew.’ - -That is an impressive characteristic example of the technique of -vividness, by the Canadian master of them all. But let no one call it -poetry. Service’s astounding vogue for six years—it is now -vanished—was not due to the _poetry_ in his verse, but to the arresting -or violent _drama_ and _melodrama_ in it, made more arresting or -compelling by the infectious swing or lilt of the anapaestic rhythm. -This rhythm is his only _forte_ in verbal music, though he also employs -alliteration successfully. This _forte_ is seen to be a limitation and a -weakness, as it also was and is in his alleged artistic foster-father, -Rudyard Kipling. For as soon as Service attempts to employ another -rhythm better suited to higher thought than the picaresque matter of -strictly ‘Sourdough’ Songs, the results are disastrous. He fails to hold -the attention; and, inasmuch as there are no compensating rhythmic -values, all that is left is the strained and bizarre effect of cheap -melodrama. A singular example of this kind of weakness and failure in -Service is his _My Madonna_, in which he aims consciously and seriously -to achieve a _tour de force_ in religious sentiment, but falls into flat -_bathos_ of melodrama (_Songs of a Sourdough_). - -If proof is wanted that the recipe for writing Vaudeville verse is -simply to lilt in anapaestic metre and rhythm the melodrama of the Far -West _chevalerie_, proof and illustration are furnished by a stanza from -_Sergeant Blue_ by Robert Stead (_Kitchener and Other Poems_, 1917):— - - Sergeant Blue of the Mounted Police was a so-so kind of a guy; - He swore a bit, and he lied a bit, and he boozed a bit on the sly; - But he held the post at Snake Creek Bend for country and home and God, - And he cured the first and forgot the rest—which wasn’t the least bit - odd. - -The amazing and pathetic fact about Robert Service is that he really -possessed authentic poetic genius, and sometimes did write pure poetry. -At his best Stead has written some satisfying _genre_ poetry and -story-telling ballads. But Stead could not rise beyond the -homely-pathetic and the melodramatic in Western _chevalerie_ into the -realm of pure poetry. He kept always to the level of his lowly subject. -Service, however, fell or rose to the level of his subject. In short, -while most of Service’s verse is popular Vaudeville, considerable of it -violent melodrama, and much of it drama simply, some of his verse is -genuinely poetical, charged with pure beauty and poetic significance. -How nobly Service has conceived, how passionately expressed in lovely -color-images and pervasive vowel and alliterative music, and how -philosophically interpreted Nature in his poem _The Mountain and the -Lake_:— - - I know a mountain thrilling to the stars, - Peerless and pure, and pinnacled with snow; - Glimpsing the golden dawn o’er coral bars, - Flaunting the vanished sunset’s garnet glow; - Proudly patrician, passionless, serene; - Soaring in silvered steeps where cloud-surfs break; - Virgin and vestal—oh, a very Queen! - And at her feet there dreams a quiet lake. . . . - -In that poem Service has given us an arresting and memorable picture of -pure beauty in Nature. It is beautiful and unforgettable because it has -poetic _Style_. Stead and the other members of the Vaudeville School, -with the exception at times of Service when at his best, lacked genius -for style in verse, without which verse, whether its subject or theme be -low or high, realistic or idealistic, cannot rise to the dignity of -poetry. Service, Stead, and the rest are never authentic Realists. They -could not avoid the melodramatic in the matter of their verse and the -plangent and vivid in its technique. Always they deliberately set out to -assault the senses and the sensibilities. Kipling could be realistic and -by virtue of his style rise to the dignity of poetry. But for the lack -of style, the hectic realism of Service and Stead never rises above the -crudely melodramatic or Vaudevillian. As picaresque realists they are, -to quote Mr. E. B. Osborn, ‘far behind the Australian and compare very -unfavorably with the minor masters of Quebec.’ - -Many of the most effective pieces in Service’s first volume (_Songs of a -Sourdough_) were deliberate imitations of Kipling. But later he gave -some promise of developing an independent manner of his own, the manner -which is disclosed in _The Mountain and the Lake_, and which indubitably -revealed in him innate original powers for painting the beauty and -sublimity of Nature in the Arctic. - -Service did not hold to his own manner; and Stead and the other -Vaudevillians were innately incapable of any manner of their own. At -length the vogue of the Vaudeville poets passed, having in no way -affected the stream of aesthetic and artistic poetry which began with -the Systematic School and which flowed on, pure and undefiled, if placid -and noiseless, through the poetry of the later generation and into the -Restoration Period or Second Renaissance in Canadian Literature. - -Fundamental to the point of view of the criticism which follows is this -proposition:—The poetry of the Vaudeville School for the most part must -be regarded, not strictly as an aesthetic phenomenon, but rather as an -envisagement of certain phases of the civilization of Canada in that -period—that is, as a series of _social documents_. There is nothing -wrong in treating contemporary phases of civilization in poetry with -such vividness and veracity that they really become social documents of -the period which they envisage; but they are of no aesthetic worth if -they are not consecrated to and by art. How a social document, when -sublimated by fine art, can become authentic poetry may be discovered by -turning to Pauline Johnson’s musical and swift-moving lyric _Prairie -Greyhounds_, descriptive of the transcontinental trains and their -service to Canadian civilization, or to Mr. C. G. D. Roberts’ noble -sonnet _The Train Among the Hills_, or to his equally fine sonnet of the -soil _The Sower_. - -It must be realized that the sources of poetic inspiration in Canada -have considerably shifted from the Atlantic, the Land of Evangeline, the -Great Lakes, and the Laurentians to the Prairies, the Rockies, and the -ice-clad wildernesses of the High North. Now, it was inevitable that -under the inchoate and unsettled conditions of civilization in these Far -West and High North sections of the Dominion, the mere inspiration to -write verse should have been uppermost and that considerations of form -should have appeared secondary or insignificant. - -The themes treated in the Vaudeville verse were necessarily new; and -when the Western or Yukon poets published their verses the newness of -their themes and their naïve disregard of technical niceties were -mistaken in the East for originality, vigor, freshness, and breeziness -in art, and were welcomed and read by all classes of Canadians with -avidity as ‘real,’ not ‘hothouse,’ poetry. There we have the explanation -of the astonishing vogue of the verses of Service and Stead, and of -their imitators. But their verses, far from being examples of genuine -originality in invention of poetic themes and of really new art, -exemplify the total absence of art; and far from being ‘real’ poetry, -are totally devoid of the chaste speech, lovely imagery, dulcet music, -and exquisite emotion which constitute true poetry. - -It was a distinct moral fault on the part of Service that he should have -chosen to give us in verse what he had better written in prose. The -right form for social documents of picaresque communities is prose. -Further: it is a law of aesthetics, a law exemplified most finely in -Homer, that, whenever possible, all the elements in a work of art should -each be intrinsically beautiful. Service deliberately chose themes which -disregarded that law. We could forgive him for that if he had redeemed -the vulgarity of the themes by beautiful craftsmanship in versification. -His poetry is bad not because it is wicked or picaresque or risqué, but -because it is aesthetically bad through and through. - -During the Vaudeville Period Roberts, Campbell, Carman, Duncan Campbell -Scott, Canon Scott, Pauline Johnson, Arthur Stringer, Albert E. S. -Smythe, Ethelwyn Wetherald, Jean Blewett, Helena Coleman, Virna Sheard, -the late Marjorie Pickthall, Katherine Hale, Jean Graham, Peter -McArthur, Richard Scrace, Lucy M. Montgomery and a host of others -published aesthetically satisfying poetry. For their spirit was of the -spirit which inaugurated the First Renaissance in Canadian poetry. But -the spirit of Service and the lesser poets of the Vaudeville School was -identical with that which animated the early Canadian verse-makers -before the times of Breakenridge, Sangster, Mair, and John Reade. In -spirit and in craftsmanship the poetry of the Vaudeville School was -essentially a recrudescence of the poetry that made glad the hearts of -the ‘Bush’ and ‘Clearing’ settlers of Canada in the first and second -quarters of the last century. - -That a New Poetry will arise in Canada and that it will originate and -flourish in the Canadian Far West, is highly probable, because the -prairie-lands of the West, their endless fields of grain sheening in the -sun and billowing in rhythmic swaying to the winds and the mighty -vastnesses of land and sky awaken moods and appreciations of Nature -similar to those stirred in men by the sea. It was, in Bliss Carman’s -fine phrase, ‘the glad indomitable sea’ and the inland seas that -inspired the Maritime and Lake poets who began the First Renaissance of -Canadian Poetry. - -But if any of the future Canadian poet, Western or Eastern, should -prefer or incline to turn back to the ways of Service and Stead, let him -reflect that since beauty is our clearest manifestation of the union of -the real and the ideal, that is, of perfection, not to love and promote -beauty in poetry is so far forth to refuse to love and promote the -Godlike in the hearts of mankind, for perfection is the essence of the -Godhead. To become a poet may not be a moral duty. But if one elects the -office of poet, then to perfect oneself, as far as possible, in poetic -artistry for the sake of beautifully or compellingly embodying in verse -whatsoever is lovely in Nature or noble in ideas, is to attain to high -moral dignity in one’s own soul as a poet and to impress on the world -the high spiritual function of poetry. - - * * * * * - -Sources of quotations in this chapter: - -Poems of Robert W. Service—_The Songs of a Sourdough_ (Ryerson Press: -Toronto); _The Rhymes of a Rolling Stone_, (Ryerson Press: Toronto). - -Poems of Robert Stead—_Kitchener and Other Poems_—or in _The Empire -Builders_ (Musson Book Co.: Toronto). - - - - - CHAPTER XX - - - _The_ Restoration Period - - THE RESTORATION OR SECOND RENAISSANCE PERIOD IN CANADIAN - LITERATURE—NEW FORMS, THEMES, AND SOCIAL IDEALS—THE POETS— - MARJORIE PICKTHALL—ROBERT NORWOOD—KATHERINE HALE—AND OTHERS. - -We call the period beginning with the publication of Marjorie -Pickthall’s first volume of verse, _Drift of Pinions_ (1913), and on to -the present, the Restoration or Second Renaissance Period in Canadian -Literature. It is a ‘restoration’ period because it marks a return, -after the Decadent Interim of the Vaudeville School (1907-1912), to the -aesthetic and artistic ideals of the first systematic group of -native-born Canadian writers. It is a ‘renaissance’ because the writers -of the period undertook the systematic production of original authentic -literature, and because they wrote under the inspiration of new themes, -ideals, and forms. - -By 1913 when the Canadian public had tired of the picaresque themes and -the plashing anapaests of Robert Service, and the vogue of the -Vaudeville School had passed, there was a demand for clean and sweet -sustenance of the soul and refreshing new verbal music for the spirit. -It was a demand for pure Beauty— - - of fragrance made, - Woven and rhymed of light. - -Marjorie Pickthall was the first to give the Canadian public sweet -draughts of a new poetic wine of life. She engaged the attention of the -Canadian public with the same immediacy and delight as the early lyrics -of Tennyson and Swinburne captivated the English lovers of poetry. Set -for the most part to a new or, so far as Canada was concerned, a strange -music of trochaic, anapaestic, and syncopated metres and rhythms, rich -in vowel-harmonies and the tone-color of consonance, assonance, and -exquisite alliteration, her songs changed the world about her into an -earthly paradise. At first Marjorie Pickthall arrested attention as a -young unknown poet singing shyly from a corner in a daily newspaper or -magazine, but singing with a rare beauty of imagery and of color from -Nature, and with a fresh and dulcet verbal melody, heard as overtones -above the more plashing, plangent rhythms of Service and his colleagues. -It seemed as if Pan had come again to earth, so idyllic was the -Nature-beauty and so simple and dulcet was the melody of her poetry, as -in, for instance, _The Little Fauns to Proserpine_, daintily suggestive -of their shadowy figures:— - - Browner than the hazel-husk, swifter than the wind, - Though you turn from heath and hill, we are hard behind, - Singing, ‘Ere the sorrows rise, ere the gates unclose, - Bind above your wistful eyes the memory of the rose.’ - - • • • • - - Now the vintage feast is done, now the melons glow - Gold along the raftered thatch beneath a thread of snow. - Dian’s bugle bids the dawn sweep the upland clear, - Where we snared the silken fawn, where we ran the deer. - - Through the dark reeds wet with rain, past the singing foam - Went the light-foot Mysian maids, calling Hylas home. - Syrinx felt the silver sprite fold her at her need. - Hear, ere yet you say farewell, the wind along the reed. - -There was no appeal on the part of Service and the other Vaudevillians -to the spirit, to the religious imagination. It was inevitable, then, -that the Canadian public—and the world—should be arrested by the -spiritual beauty, tenderness, wistfulness, and the engaging music of -such a poem as Marjorie Pickthall’s _Mary Shepherdess_, the following -three stanzas of which illustrate how the thought is ‘woven and rhymed -of light’:— - - When the heron’s in the high wood and the last long furrow’s sown, - With the herded cloud before her and her sea-sweet raiment blown, - Comes Mary, Mary Shepherdess, a-seeking for her own. - - Saint James he calls the righteous fold, Saint John he calls the kind, - Saint Peter seeks the valiant men all to loose or bind, - But Mary seeks the little souls that are so hard to find, - - All the little sighing souls born of dust’s despair, - They who fed on bitter bread when the world was bare, - Frighted of the glory gates and the starry stair. - -One will seek far in English poetry for a picture of the human figure -limned as graphically as it is in Marjorie Pickthall’s line:— - - With the herded cloud before her and her sea-sweet raiment blown; - -and one will seek far in English poetry to find a line musically so in -harmony with the spiritual picture of ‘all the little sighing souls’ -eyeing, wistful and afraid, the wonder of the shining spectacle of -Heaven, as her line:— - - Frighted of the glory gates and the starry stair. - -Not once, or even for a moment, could the earthward vision of the -Vaudevillian poets conceive, and much less could they write, such a poem -of the pure in heart who shall see God as Marjorie Pickthall’s _The Lamp -of Poor Souls_, and its subdued, sacramental music, ending thus:— - - Shine, little lamp, fed with sweet oil of prayers. - Shine, little lamp, as God’s own eyes may shine, - When He treads softly down His starry stairs - And whispers, ‘Thou art Mine!’ - - Shine, little lamp, for love hath fed thy gleam. - Sleep, little soul, by God’s own hands set free. - Cling to His arms and sleep, and sleeping, dream, - And dreaming, look for me. - -Francis Thompson or Alice Meynell could have written the whole poem -possibly with a more immaculate artistry, but not with any finer appeal -to the religious or mystical imagination, and not with a melody a whit -more winning as an end in itself. - -Having thus tasted the chief engagements of Marjorie Pickthall’s poetry, -we must in a more detailed way disclose her genius and art as they -appear in her lyrical poems in _The Drift of Pinions_ (1913), _The Lamp -of Poor Souls_ (1916), and the posthumous volume _The Wood Carver’s -Wife_ (1922)—the last of which contains a lyric drama (the title-poem -of the volume) and several lyrics. It is as an adroit and exquisite -craftswoman (or ‘artist’), rather than for originality of imaginative -conception, that, from her first printed essays in verse to the last, -Marjorie Pickthall appeals as a specially gifted poet in Canada, and -must be accorded an honorable, possibly high, place in Canadian poetic -literature. - -Technically, her poetry is distinguished by an extraordinarily -successful use of color epithets and verbal melody, especially -alliteration. The defects of her poetry are not, on the whole, -technical, but are defects, or rather limitations, of genius. Broadly -viewed, her poetry lacks breadth of range and eloquence of style. By -‘style’ is not meant Matthew Arnold’s conception or formula of what he -called ‘the grand style.’ Marjorie Pickthall’s verse is free, flowing, -airy, graceful, tripping, musical; in a word, feminine. But by thus much -does it lack originality and seriousness in the substance of its style, -the qualities which give us the sense of having met with beauty which is -not a mere finely distilled essence of loveliness, but which has -strength, and dignity, and power over the heart and the imagination. - -The key to the defects or limitations in Marjorie Pickthall’s poetry was -not her imagination but her ‘heart.’ She loved and had sympathy only or -specially with all little creatures and things, with tender, frail, and -helpless creatures and things; and she felt profoundly a sort of -injustice in their fate, which begot in her a wistful wondering about -the justice of the ways of God. She therefore inevitably impressed on -her poetry her own feminine feeling for the little and helpless -creatures of earth, her own sympathy with the evanescence of all the -animate ‘little things’—children, flowers, moths, birds, and ‘the -little stars of Duna’—that _for her_ made existence tolerable or happy. -Everywhere in her verse appears her preoccupancy with the very word or -with suggestions of the word ‘little.’ It is this ‘heart’ limitation -that causes her to show what would seem at first sight to be a -mannerism, namely, her predilection for certain substantives and -epithets, as, for instance, ‘moth,’ ‘dove,’ ‘stars,’ ‘silver,’ ‘golden.’ -It is not really a mannerism; but a necessity of her heart and mind. For -the creatures and things her heart most loved, inevitably filled her -consciousness and excluded other creatures and things. - -But while Marjorie Pickthall, by limitation of genius, failed to attain -to the sheer reaches in style and poetic substance which mark the work -of Lampman, Carman, and D. C. Scott, and while she did not possess the -ecstatic lilt of Carman, still she must be ranked as a supreme lyrist of -the lovely, evanescent little things in the world. She must be ranked -high also as a technical artist. If her poetry does not disclose her as -able to achieve the finer strength and beauties of technique in poetic -style, that distinguish the poetry of Lampman, Carman, and D. C. Scott, -she is less often at fault technically than the older poets. Her -technical artistry was not an acquired accomplishment; it was a gift of -Nature. For while the older poets won their way, by hard striving, to -their perfection in technique, Marjorie Pickthall, as early as her -sixteenth year of age, displayed a precocious virtuosity, which was -almost an instinct, in adroit and ingenious verbal coloring and melody. - -In the invention of winsome and vivid color epithets and images and in -her power for alliterative music in verse, Marjorie Pickthall was, -perhaps, surpassed by Pauline Johnson. But Miss Pickthall was the more -ingenious of the two poets. The following examples are -impressive:—‘Dark with the green silence under the gold weather,’ ‘And -close the cowslips’ cups of honeyed gold,’ ‘Yellow for the ripened rye, -white for ladies’ wearing,’ ‘Where cling the moths that are the longings -of men,’ ‘Thy lips are bright as the edge of the sword,’ ‘On the great -green lawns o’ heaven,’ ‘He saw the moonlit rafters of the world,’ -‘Clear-footed from the frontiers of the world,’ ‘And hear new stars come -singing from God’s hand,’ ‘To the wind that cried last night like a soul -in sin.’ - -Nature was Marjorie Pickthall’s chief mistress. In the pictorial -treatment of Nature the poet displayed special gifts. It is not true to -say that she had the Greek ‘feeling’ for Nature, or that the Nature in -her verse was that of the ancient Greeks. It was impossible for Marjorie -Pickthall, an Anglo-Canadian, to have a Greek imagination; and they who -claim that she had the ancient Greek feeling for Nature, might as -rightfully claim that she had the ancient Gaelic or Keltic feeling for -Nature, or the ancient Semitic feeling for the presence of God, or the -medieval Breton feeling for Nature and the mystery of religious faith, -which some have remarked as ‘mysticism’ in Marjorie Pickthall’s poetry. - -The truth is that, first, Marjorie Pickthall had a mind and imagination -which were naturally pagan, and that, secondly, Nature was to her but -the material for her fanciful and pretty treatment in verse. But to the -Greeks, Nature, as perceived and embodied in their mythology and poetry, -was their vision of the real face and heart of Nature. They actually -_believed_ in gods, goddesses, heroes, muses, naiads, mermaids, satyrs, -fauns, as being Nature herself. This is what we mean by saying that the -Greeks were pagans. But Marjorie Pickthall had, by native gift, only the -sensibility and imagination that were naturally pagan in a love of and -preference for thus _visualizing_ Nature. She had saturated her mind, by -reading, with the mythology of the Greeks; and her naturally pagan -sensibility and imagination re-colored and re-expressed this material in -a delightful pagan—not Greek—way in verse. Marjorie Pickthall had no -such lively sense of the _reality_ of divinity in Nature as had the -Greeks. But she did have a lively pagan, if Anglo-Canadian, imagination. -And so, with imaginative ‘_make-believe_’ she peopled Nature with -spirits, mermaids, pixies, fauns, elfs, playing with the Old Nurse -Nature, or with themselves, and rejoicing in the sights, sounds, and the -shy forest creatures, which they see and hear amongst the woodlands, -streams, hills. She thus paganly _poetizes_ Nature, beautifully, -winningly; but it is all a _tour de force_ of the senses and -imagination, achieved in her ‘closet,’ where she was temporarily shut -off from the roar and turmoil of great cities. - -Had she steeped herself as thoroughly in ancient Gaelic lore, myths and -legends, she would have written as engagingly of the Nature of the -Kelts. In her single poetic essay in Gaelic ‘feeling’ for Nature—the -Gael’s innate love of Nature and the Homeland, his nostalgia—she failed -in a double way; first, by infelicitously giving her poem a German -title, _Wanderlied_, and, secondly, by a dull and commonplace imitation, -if not a parody, of Ethna Carbery, Nora Hopper, Moira O’Neil, Katharine -Tynan. When she was sincerely and naturally pagan, as in most of her -verse, she succeeded admirably. But when she attempted to write a -‘literary’ poem in the pagan spirit, as in _Wanderlied_, she failed. - -More of her imagery is derived from _actual Nature in Canada_ than from -mythological Nature in ancient Greece. The coloring from Canadian woods -in Spring, Autumn, and Winter is in her verse, also visualizations of -Canadian fields and flowers, and the subtle handwork of ‘the Frost -King,’ and even Canadian domestic felicities made possible by Nature, -such as the winter arabesque on the windowpanes in contrast with the -inviting glow of burning logs on the hearth:— - - Here where the bee slept and the orchis lifted - Her honeying pipes of pearl, her velvet lip, - Only the swart leaves of the oak lie drifted - In sombre fellowship. - Here where the flame-weed set the lands alight, - Lies the bleak upland, webbed and crowned with white. - - Build high the logs, O love, and in thine eyes - Let me believe the summer lingers late. - We shall not miss her passive pageantries, - We are not desolate, - When on the sill, across the window bars, - Kind winter flings her flowers and her stars. - -And what but Canadian is this compelling line from _The Young -Baptist_?— - - Clear-footed from the frontiers of the world! - -In short, if we were making a formula for Marjorie Pickthall’s Nature -poetry, we would employ this sub-title—‘Lyrics in the Greek and the -Canadian Modes of Pictorializing Nature.’ Thus we should, by a single -phrase, escape absurdly alleging that an Anglo-Canadian mind possessed -Greek imagination and feeling for a mythological Nature; and thus also -make clear the fact that Marjorie Pickthall, an Anglo-Canadian poet, was -gifted not only with a lively pagan sense of the beauty of a vanished -world, but also with a responsive sensibility to the beauty of a real -and present world of Nature in Canada. - -In two respects, then, Marjorie Pickthall may be regarded as having made -original contributions to Canadian literature. First, she winsomely -_pictorialized_, not, as with Lampman, spiritually interpreted, the face -and pageantry of Nature. Secondly, she subtilized verse technique in -verbal coloring and melody. She had a light and tender fancy, and, -certainly for Canada, a rare artistry. She brought Titania and Ariel to -earth again; and suffused existence with magical illusion, rhymed of -light. The monument she herself raised to her genius and memory is not -large and imposing; but it is, like her own spirit, chaste, exquisite, -beautiful—and enduring. - -Another significant creative poet of the Second Renaissance Period is -Robert Norwood. Miss Pickthall was an objective poet. Whenever her -imagination concerned itself with the spiritual realm it was to -interpret only her own _private_ experience, strictly from a personal -point of view. Norwood is an interpreter of the Spirit to the -Spirit—universalizing his imaginative experiences. He is, to be sure, a -colorist and a musician in verse; but he is these secondarily in aim, -whereas primarily he is the singer and interpreter of the meaning of -Spiritual Love. In this field he has made a really original contribution -to native Canadian poetry. In another field, however, he has made a -still greater contribution to Canadian poetry. - -The faculty of love, which is the deepest function of man’s spiritual -nature, is the imagination, the idealizing faculty. The greatest and -most spiritualizing power in the world is love because its ultimate -object is the heart of the universe; that is, Immortal Love, which is -God, for God is Love. The greatest and most spiritualizing earthly -object of love is Woman, because it is the idealization, the love, of -Woman that most inspires men to achievement in this life and to the -deserving of union and companionship on earth and in the life to come. -That is to say, the spiritual love of Woman is the chief inspiration of -human creative ideals and activities—of material achievement, of -creation in the fine arts, and of religion. Thus did Goethe apostrophize -this divine function of woman:— - - Das Ewig Weibliche - Zieht uns hinan - -—the eternal woman-soul draws us forever upwards and on; and thus has -Robert Norwood also declared Woman’s spiritualizing function:— - - Much have I learned of woman and the part - She plays in shaking from the laden bough - Life’s blossoms; all that has been, and is now, - And ever shall be: Science, music and art, - Religion, these, as from a fountain start - The river, have been hers—man to endow. - -It is Norwood’s mastery of verbal color and music and his power of -spiritual vision and exaltation—his interpretation and treatment of -Ideal Love—that constitute his novel quality of fresh excellence in the -poetry of the Second Renaissance. Certainly in his sonnet-sequence _His -Lady of the Sonnets_ (1915), he has enhanced the quality of Canadian -poetry. Uppermost in his heart and imagination is the refining -redemptive, transmuting power of Love, an absolute joy in the thought of -the spiritual union and companionship of the Lover and the Beloved. To -him Love is a holy ideal; and Loving is the fusion of soul and soul, of -spirit and spirit, until the Lover and the Beloved become one soul, one -spirit, enamored of holiness in thought, speech, and deed. - -As an example of Norwood’s sensuously colorful and musical envisagement -of the Ideal Love we quote the following sonnet:— - - I meet you in the mystery of the night, - A dear Dream Goddess on a crescent moon; - An opalescent splendour like a noon - Of lilies; and I wonder that the height - Should darken for the depth to give me light— - Light of your face, so lovely that I swoon - With gazing, and then wake to find how soon - Joy of the world fades when you fade from sight. - Beholding you I am Endymion, - Lost and immortal in Latmian dreams; - With Dian bending down to look upon - Her shepherd, whose aeonian slumber seems - A moment, twinkling like a starry gem - Among the jewels of her diadem. - -As an example of his power for spiritualizing Love, the following sonnet -from the same sequence will suffice:— - - Last night I crossed the spaces to your side, - As you lay sleeping in the sacred room - Of our great moment. Like a lily’s bloom, - Fragile and white were you, my spirit-bride, - For pain and loneliness with you abide, - And Death had thought to touch you with his doom, - Until Love stood angelic at the tomb, - Drew sword, smote him and Life’s door opened wide. - I looked on you and breathed upon your hair— - Your hair of such soft, brown, translucent gold! - Nor did you know that I knelt down in prayer, - Clasped hands, and worshipped you for the untold - Magnificence of womanhood divine— - God’s miracle of Water turned to Wine! - -In his exquisitely wrought, sensuously colored, yet spiritually -elevating verse surely we discover something that has never before been -in Canadian poetry. It is a fresh achievement in Canadian poetry, even -though it is not always impeccable in rhythm and rhyme. It is, too, -authentic poetry, as if Dante or Keats or Tennyson or Swinburne had -returned to earth and their genius were reincarnated, in a notable -degree, in the genius of Robert Norwood. - -Katherine Hale (Mrs. John Garvin) is a poet by herself. For she was a -poet of considerable distinction for a decade before she published the -volume which revealed her as having found her métier in creative poetry, -as in her _Morning in the West_ (1923). The eye and the ear are supreme -in her processes of perception. Music and pictorial art were her first -aesthetic loves, and had most to do with determining her attitudes and -appreciations of the spiritual world. So that, at length, the inner eye -and the inner ear became the faculties by which she perceived beauty in -the external world as well as in the heart of mankind. All her reactions -to what she saw and heard in the external world were in terms of color -beauty and tonal beauty, perhaps more in terms of color than of tone. -She became a musical critic of distinction, and one of our foremost -‘color-writers.’ - -When, therefore, Katherine Hale felt the ‘urge’ to create poetry, her -reactions to the spiritual world also were in terms of color and music. -It is found that her development in poetic writing follows the same -order as her development in prose writing. She began as a critic of -music and reviewer of literature, but capped all her prose with a -finished and arresting work in ‘color-writing,’ _Canadian Cities of -Romance_ (1922). She began her poetic creation with the musical or -lyrical qualities of her verse much more accentuated than the color -qualities, and her themes and forms much more earth-born and -conventional than romantic and spiritualized in meaning. But always in -her first three books of verse there was the feeling for pictorial or -color values and for subtle emotional and spiritual nuances. - -At length, as in _Morning in the West_, her latest volume, she found her -true mode, and poetry became for her the beautiful sketching and etching -and painting of the romance of the Canadian spirit. This poetry of the -spirit she suffused with all the subtle variations of imaginative -‘color,’ half-lights, shadows, and chiaroscuro of Nature and social life -in Canada from the days of the Scots factor and Western _chevalerie_ to -the era of the transcontinental railways. - -Her first two books of verse, _Grey Knitting_ (1914) and _The White -Comrade_ (1916), by their very titles suggest the color ‘note.’ But the -gift or power of embodying spiritual beauty in lyrical music is always -uppermost, as for instance in _The Ultimate Hour_ or _In Noonday_ -containing the unforgettable alliterative and musical line:— - - With dear indefinite delight; - -or in this stanza from _The Answer_:— - - Unaltered aisles that wait and wait forever, - O woods that gleam and stir in liquid gold, - What of your little lover who departed - Before the year grew old? - -In addition to the winsome color and musical qualities of her earlier -lyrical verse, we discover a refined spiritual quality in such a sonnet -as _The First Christmas_, and a noble spiritualization of romantic love -in her sonnet _At Noon_, beginning:— - - Thou art my Tower in the sun at noon. - -Katherine Hale’s long poem _The White Comrade_ (1916) discloses notable -gifts in blank verse and the power to make a dramatic picture that -enthralls the mystical or religious imagination. Her rare gifts of -delicate fancy, elfin enchantment from Nature and simple Orphean music, -reminding us of Bliss Carman’s light lyrism, is finely exemplified in -her spiritualized lyric _I Used to Wear a Gown of Green_, in which -beauty and pathos are tenderly commingled:— - - I used to wear a gown of green - And sing a song to May, - When apple blossoms starred the stream - And Spring came up the way. - - I used to run along with Love - By lanes the world forgets, - To find in an enchanted wood - The first frail violets. - - And ever ’mid the fairy blooms - And murmur of the stream, - We used to hear the pipes of Pan - Call softly through our dream. - - But now, in outcry vast, that tune - Fades like some little star - Lost in an anguished judgment day - And scarlet flames of war. - - What can it mean that Spring returns - And purple violets bloom, - Save that some gypsy flower may stray - Beside his nameless tomb! - - To pagan Earth her gown of green, - Her elfin song to May— - With all my soul I must go on - Into the scarlet day. - -All these—the poetry of her first three books, _Grey Knitting_, _The -White Comrade_, and _The New Joan_—were but her short flights -preparatory to making her eagle flight, by which she should discover the -meaning of Canadian history and civilization in which is envisaged the -Canadian national spirit. In _Morning in the West_ Katharine Hale is no -longer the individual lyrist fluting in the band of other Canadian -lyrists. In that volume she sounds the diapason of Canadian nationality. -She invents new forms of lyrism, and her themes are colored with new -tones and lights of an impressionism which is the acme of realism and -yet is finely spiritualized, as in the series of verbal color-sketches -_Going North_ and _A Study of Shadows_. But always we are being taken by -the poet through Canada, and made to see what has been for us the most -invisible, or, if visible, the most elusive of all things, namely, the -forms and variation of the Canadian spirit and habitat. - -The new forms of her lyrism may be exemplified in this example, -_Enchantment_:— - - I never see a blue jay - But I think of her; - Never hear that hoarse ‘dear—dear’ - From a tree-top stir, - And the answering call - Far, far away, - And the flash of azure— - Oh, she would stay - Listening in the forest, - Loitering through the silence, - Hearing calls and singing - All the livelong day! - -Her new themes and new vision and spiritual import in them—the -envisagement of the qualities of the Canadian spirit—are notably -presented in _Cun-ne-wa-bum_, _Buffalo Meat_, and most poignantly in _An -Old Lady_, which is an incisively graphic and dramatic _picture_ of the -whole history of Canadian civilization from the early days of the -Hudson’s Bay Company to the 20th century social life in Ottawa in these -days of automobiles and bridge parties. Yet it is no mere picture, but -possesses a simple pathos, tenderness, and wistfulness which -spiritualize the realism in the poem, and raise it to the plane of -literature. This, then, is Katherine Hale’s novel contribution to the -poetic literature of Canada:—Canadian nature and civilization envisaged -with a spiritual realism which has national perspective and native color -and atmosphere. It is a new and distinct achievement in creative poetry -in Canada. - -Another significant poet of the Second Renaissance period, whose verse -deserves special mention, is Lloyd Roberts. Early in 1914 he published a -volume of verse entitled, _England Over Seas_. Lloyd Roberts is the son -of Charles G. D. Roberts. No doubt, he inherited his poetic gifts from -his father, and, no doubt, learned the principles of technical artistry -from him. But, as a matter of fact, in his own published verse, Lloyd -Roberts shows qualities—love of Nature and the gift of a singularly -lyrical lilt—that are nearer the verse of his father’s cousin, the -inimitable lyrist of the seasons, the vagrom heart, and the open road, -Bliss Carman. - -In _England Over Seas_, the younger Roberts is an enchanting lover of -Nature, a vivid colorist, and a melodious verbal musician. Nature is, in -his own phrase, ‘the star’—always the theme and in the foreground. Of -his qualities as a nature-painter and a verbal melodist, the following -is an excellent example:— - - Crimson and gold in the paling sky; - The rampikes black where they tower on high— - And we follow the trails in the early dawn - Through the glades where the white frosts lie. - - Down where the flaming maples meet; - Where the leaves are blood before our feet - We follow the lure of the twisting paths - While the air tastes thin and sweet. - - Leggings and jackets are drenched with dew; - The long thin barrels are cold and blue; - But the glow of the Autumn burns in our veins, - And the eyes and hands are true. - - Where the sun drifts down from overhead - (Tangled gleams in the scarlet bed), - Rush of wings through the forest aisle— - And the leaves are a brighter red. - - Loud drum the cocks in the thickets nigh; - Gray is the smoke where the ruffed grouse die. - There’s blackened shell in the trampled fern - When the white moon swims the sky. - -The number of the poets of the Second Renaissance is legion. Amongst -them are Arthur S. Bourinot, Gertrude Bartlett, Bernard F. Trotter -(deceased), Arthur L. Phelps, Lucy M. Montgomery-MacDonald, Grace -Blackburn, Beatrice Redpath, Laura E. McCully, Louise Morey Bowman, -Florence Randal Livesay, Norah Holland, Amy Pennington, Carroll C. -Aikins, Wm. A. Creelman, Andrew D. Merkel, Alexander Louis Fraser, Peter -MacLaren MacDonald, Clare Giffen, Erica Selfridge, Charles T. Bruce, -Marian Osborne, H. J. Maclean. It were worth while to review in detail -the work of Arthur S. Bourinot as represented in his _Laurentian Lyrics_ -(1915), and _Lyrics From the Hills_ (1923), and Arthur L. Phelps as -represented in his _Poems_ (1921) and _A Bobcaygeon Chapbook_ (1923). -Bourinot attracted attention by his noble and moving sonnet _To The -Memory of Rupert Brooke_ and his tender and musical war lyric -beginning:— - - They are not dead, the soldier and the sailor. - -But he is also an artist in colorful lyrism of Nature in Canada, -especially of the Laurentian district. Phelps is a refined, perhaps it -were better to say, dainty lyrist; but he has also attempted new forms, -and has been successful with realistic ‘free verse.’ The others, with a -few exceptions, are systematic poets, but are not notable for spiritual -vision or for originality in forms or substance. - -It is, however, from the point of view of a fresh vision of earth and -life and of originality in forms and substance that the work of Florence -Randal Livesay, Grace Blackburn, Beatrice Redpath, Louise Morey Bowman, -and Wilson MacDonald must be specially remarked. For their work displays -a distinct advance in modernism over the work of Marjorie Pickthall, -Robert Norwood, and Katherine Hale (earlier manner). In fact, there is -in their work fresh origination in themes, structures, music, and social -ideals. Florence Randal Livesay won distinction by her _Songs of -Ukraina_ (1916). Though formally called translations, they have such -original elements of form and matter that they are no more translations -in the ordinary meaning than is Fitzgerald’s _Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam_. -Mrs. Livesay’s work in the _Songs of Ukraina_, like that of Fitzgerald, -has a turning of phrase and of imagery and a grace and music which are -all her own and entitle the _Songs_ to the distinction of creative -verse. In 1923 she published _Shepherd’s Purse_. Here her genius -flowered independently in what is essentially spiritual realism. But it -is not a heavy spiritual realism. It exhibits a rare and light fancy for -elusive emotional nuances; and all the poems have a piquancy, -daintiness, and exquisite humanity which win one to the love of the -evanescent beauty that is in all things human. The poems too have an air -of the qualities which are in the _vers de société_ and the ‘Blue China’ -poetry of Andrew Lang and Austin Dobson. Mrs. Livesay has made a -genuinely novel contribution to Canadian poetry. - -Outstanding in other ways is the verse of Grace Blackburn, Beatrice -Redpath, Louise Morey Bowman, and Wilson MacDonald. There is more -strength and spiritual perceptiveness in the poetry of Grace Blackburn -and Beatrice Redpath than in that of Louise Morey Bowman. All show equal -originality and finish in the technical treatment of their themes, but -Louise Morey Bowman shows at times an airy fancy which is almost so -ethereal as to be altogether abstract and unearthly. On the whole, -exquisite technique is their chief distinction; they are artists. - -Wilson MacDonald in his _Songs of the Prairie Land_ (1918) and _The -Miracle Songs of Jesus_ (1921) discloses an absorption in mystical -psychology and psychoanalysis which, by its daring and his method of -suffusing the matter with ingenious and subtilized novelty or beauty of -diction and imagery, adumbrates Goethe of the _Faust_ tradition. It is -at once realistic and ultra-spiritualistic. His technique is just as -original and individualized as the matter of his poems. If any Canadian -has the right to the distinction of possessing _sheer_ creative genius, -that right belongs to Wilson MacDonald as a Seer and as an Artist -working in a field of spiritual vision which he has pre-empted. - - * * * * * - -Sources of quotations in this chapter: - -Marjorie Pickthall—_The Wood Carver’s Wife and Other Poems_ (McClelland -& Stewart: Toronto). - -Robert Norwood—_His Lady of the Sonnets_ (McClelland & Stewart: -Toronto). - -Katherine Hale—_The White Comrade_ (McClelland & Stewart: Toronto); -_Morning in the West_ (Ryerson Press: Toronto). - -Lloyd Roberts—_England Overseas_ (Elkin Mathews: London). - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - - - Fiction Writers - - THE COMMUNITY NOVEL—MONTGOMERY—KEITH—MCCLUNG—LE ROSSIGNOL. - INSTITUTIONAL FICTION—PACKARD—SULLIVAN—DUNCAN—WALLACE AND - OTHERS. REALISTIC ROMANCE—SERVICE—CODY—STEAD, ETC. HISTORICAL - FICTION—SNIDER—ANISON NORTH—TESKEY—MCKISHNIE—COONEY. - IMAGINATIVE FICTION—PICKTHALL—MACKAY. MISCELLANEOUS TYPES— - MCKISHNIE—SULLIVAN—HÉMON—SIME. THE NEW REALISM—SALVERSON—DE - LA ROCHE—CORNELL, ETC. - 1. _The Community Novel._ - -Until the ‘nineties’ the production of Canadian fiction had been -spasmodic and scattered, but the success of Gilbert Parker, Marshall -Saunders, and other Canadian writers who gained a hearing first in lands -alien to their own, and whose work came back to Canada ‘with an -alienated majesty,’ proved that Canada was rich in literary material. -The first decade of the twentieth century saw a marked increase in -fiction writing in Canada. The new writers were influenced not only by -the example of their compatriots but by that of the fiction writers of -Great Britain and the United States. They began to realize that life -around them was as interesting as Barrie’s Thrums or Bret Harte’s -California. There was, too, a growing reading public ready to appreciate -stories that presented the adventure, the humor, and the pathos of the -daily life of themselves, their neighbors, or their fellow-Canadians in -other parts of the country and sometimes of other racial origins. - -Hence arose the Community Novel or type of story. One of the earlier -examples is Adeline M. Teskey’s _Where the Sugar Maple Grows_ (1901). In -telling of the origin of this book, Miss Teskey wrote that when reading -Ian MacLaren’s _Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush_ she said within herself, -‘I know just as interesting people in Canada.’ Her sketches of village -characters, depicted with a homely but effective simplicity of style, -showed that she was right. A delightfully humorous novel of Cranfordian -flavor, _The Specimen Spinster_, by Kate Westlake Yeigh, (1906), essayed -a larger canvas instead of the smaller etchings and gave an insight into -the social relationships of the rural village. - -The year 1908 may be said to mark the real beginning of the Second -Renaissance in Canadian fiction, for in that year there were published -three novels of the Community type—_Anne of Green Gables_, by L. M. -Montgomery; _Duncan Polite_, by Marian Keith; _Sowing Seeds in Danny_, -by Nellie L. McClung. There appeared also a charming collection of short -tales, _Little Stories of Quebec_, by James Le Rossignol. This date is -still further significant as the year in which Marjorie Pickthall -published her first important short story, _La Tristesse_, in _The -Atlantic Monthly_, although her work differs greatly in setting and -artistic method from the fiction of the Community type. - -L. M. Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, and spent -her childhood in Cavendish, a seashore farming settlement which figures -as ‘Avonlea’ in her stories. That her life has been spent chiefly within -the limits of the little island province and the bounds of an Ontario -country parish does not narrow her outlook although she confines herself -to themes bounded by rural experiences, for her forte is the portrayal -of what she has seen and knows. She has imaginative and creative gifts, -but she uses these in enabling us to see the beauty, the humour, and the -pathos that lies about our daily paths. - -_Anne of Green Gables_, her first novel, has an interesting history. -Upon being asked for a short serial story for a Sunday School weekly, -she cast about for a plot idea. A faded note book entry suggested: -‘Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy; a girl is sent to -them.’ The writing of a serial was started, but time did not allow the -author to complete it for the purpose intended. As she brooded over the -theme it began to expand and the result was a book which may be -confidently labelled a ‘Canadian classic.’ - -In Anne we have an entirely new character in fiction, a high-spirited, -sensitive girl, with a wonderfully vivid imagination; wise beyond her -years, outspoken and daring: not always good but always lovable. Her -longing for a real home, and an interest in her very quaintness, ends in -her being established as a member of the Green Gables family. It is Anne -who dominates the whole story. There are other characters, quaint too, -and well-drawn, but the introduction of Anne into the community—Anne, -so unconventional so imaginative, and so altogether different from the -staid, prosaic, general attitude of the neighbourhood—proves to be the -invasion of a peculiar ferment, and the incidents which discover the -process of fermentation are most delightfully odd and mirth-provoking. - -_Anne of Avonlea_ follows the career of the orphan heroine and deals -with two eventful years of school teaching. Miss Montgomery understands -children thoroughly and makes her child characters of all types -perfectly natural and lifelike. The same creative faculty which gave us -in Anne an entirely new shadow-child shows itself in the portrayal of -the mischievous but lovable Davy Keith, his demure twin sister Dora, the -imaginative Paul Irving, and the many individualities of the pupils of -Avonlea School. - -Plot interest is not a strong feature of this or of any of L. M. -Montgomery’s novels. There are, nevertheless, several threads of action -which bind together the series of incidents and secure continuity and -unity. The nature descriptions reveal at once the author’s intimacy with -nature and her poetic attitude of mind. - -Here is a typical passage:— - - A September day on Prince Edward Island hills; a crisp wind - blowing up over the sand dunes from the sea; a long, red road, - winding through fields and woods, now looping itself about a - corner of thick set spruce, now threading a plantation of young - maples with great feathery sheets of ferns beneath them, now - dipping down into a hollow where a brook flashed out of the - woods and into them again, now basking in the open sunshine - between ribbons of goldenrod and of myriads of crickets. - -_Chronicles of Avonlea_, a volume of short stories, contains some of her -most finished work, showing that perfect art that conceals all art, and -abounding in a strong vein of simple humour that is found in all her -work. - -_The Story Girl_ and _The Golden Road_ are written with even less -attention to a central plot than the earlier ‘Anne’ books. They are -somewhat loosely connected series of incidents in which the same -characters take part. But the community type of fiction does not demand -thrilling plots. Other writers can write plot stories, but most other -writers do not hold before us the mirror of Canadian country life. - -_Kilmeny of the Orchard_ is in a sense but an expanded short story. It -is a prose love idyll and does not, perhaps, bulk very large when -compared with the other books. It is really one of the extended -‘chronicles’ of Avonlea. - -The story of Anne Shirley continues through several volumes—_Anne of -the Island_ pictures her college days; _Anne’s House of Dreams_ sees her -established as mistress of her own home; while _Rilla of Ingleside_ -carries over the history into the second generation, Rilla being the -daughter of Anne. There is no new development of method or treatment in -these. In _Emily of New Moon_ (1923) Miss Montgomery created a new child -character, with a new environment, new conditions, and a new group of -minor personages, yet in effect it is of the same type and in the same -literary field as her previous novels. The chief difference to be -observed is that she employs a more analytic psychological method in -depicting her heroine—a method that tends to produce an adult’s story -of youth. In a way it marks an advance in literary technique but is not -as yet entirely divorced from that minute objective observation which -makes equal appeal to the young in years and the young in heart. - -The particular type of rural community which is the background of Marian -Keith’s stories may be duplicated in many parts of Canada and is quite -common in older Ontario—a community originally settled by Scottish -Presbyterians and afterwards leavened with just enough English and Irish -to throw into relief the chief characteristics of each nationality. - -One cannot escape the fact of a marked similarity to the work of J. M. -Barrie in his tales of Thrums. There is, however, this difference: -Barrie is more restrained in his emotions, more abbreviated and less -poetic in his descriptions, more pawky and less boisterous in his humor; -in fine, Barrie is Scotch, Marian Keith is Scottish-Canadian. - -As in most novels of the community type, the interest lies in incident -and characterization. The noblest character of all her stories, the best -drawn, is the grand old mystic Highlander, ‘Duncan Polite,’ the -spiritual watchman of Glenoro. The incidents of this story are woven -mainly around the path of the young minister, while the other Glenoro -novels centre about the personages of chief interest in a rural -community—_Silver Maple_, the school teacher; _Treasure Valley_, the -young doctor. _The End of the Rainbow_ and _The Bells of St. Stephens_ -are studies of town life. _Lizbeth of the Dale_ and _In Orchard Glen_ -are character studies of a boy and a girl respectively. The same -qualities prevail in all these. _Little Miss Melody_ builds an engaging -picture of the community of Cherry Hill around a fresh and original -young girl character. The keynote of Marian Keith’s stories is -‘service.’ Her work as a whole gives a faithful picture of the social -and religious life of a certain type of rural Canadian settlement, and -Canadian town. - -Mrs. McClung’s ‘community’ depicted in _Sowing Seeds in Danny_ was a -little western town, with certain elements of the usual population -crossing its pages. The poor immigrant girl, the young English gentleman -learning to farm, the doctor, the preacher, the would-be politician are -faithfully portrayed. Most interesting of all is Mrs. Watson, the -hard-working washerwoman and her family of nine children. The fortunes -of Pearlie Watson are the theme of a sequel, _The Second Chance_, in -which the setting in a rural settlement, while _The Black Creek Stopping -House_ is a collection of short stories. Later the career of Pearl -Watson is continued in _Purple Springs_, but this novel shades into a -sort of politico-propagandist treatise. Human interest and news quality -with a ready-made style to correspond has caught the public interest in -Mrs. McClung’s work rather than any conspicuous artistry of method. - - 2. _The Institutional Novel._ - -From looking at the life of fixed communities or localities, the next -step is to consider them in their relation to what we might call certain -‘institutions’ of our national life, growth, or conditions. We saw that -R. E. Knowles in _St. Cuthbert’s_ made the Scottish Presbyterian Church -the dominating influence of that story. In this sense, the life of the -railroad or construction camp is an ‘institutional’ rather than a local -or community life. This has been excellently portrayed by Frank L. -Packard in his collection of short stories, _On the Iron at Big Cloud_: -Alan Sullivan’s _The Passing of Oul-I-But_ contains some splendid -stories of this type. Here also we would place the sea stories of Norman -Duncan and Frederick William Wallace. - -Norman Duncan’s peculiar field is the ragged coasts and savage seas of -Newfoundland and the hard, cruel, tempest-battered life of the -Newfoundland fisherman. When _The Way of the Sea_ was published (1904), -Frank T. Bullen, himself a master-maker of sea stories, wrote in a -foreword: ‘I am absolutely certain that with the exception of Joseph -Conrad and Rudyard Kipling no writing about the sea has ever probed so -deeply and so faithfully into its mysteries as his.’ Duncan’s fidelity -to his subject appears not only in his truthful description of the life -and way of the sea, but even more in his realization and presentation of -the religious side of the Newfoundland fishermen—whose stern creed was -born out of a never-ceasing struggle for existence. - -Norman Duncan, although he produced several novels, of which _Dr. Luke -of the Labrador_ is the most artistically constructed, is essentially a -writer of short stories. Indeed, some of his novels were made simply by -piecing together, with connecting material, stories that had first -appeared in magazine form. As a short story writer he exhibits the -finest and most desirable qualities—substantial character foundation, -economy of language, sufficiency of emotional causation, and a breadth -of human sympathy. His _Battles Royal Down North_ and _Harbor Tales Down -North_ are two collections of a high order of excellence. His power to -portray action makes his juvenile books—such as _Billy Topsail and -Company_—very acceptable to the youthful mind. - -Frederick William Wallace writes chiefly of Nova Scotia sailors and deep -sea fishermen. He is more objective in his treatment of themes than is -Duncan. While Wallace’s gift may be said to lie in his skill in -producing vivid visualizations of seamanship, Duncan’s lies in realizing -seamen. Wallace observes and describes the life of the sailor and the -fisherman; Duncan realizes and interprets the soul. Consequently in -_Blue Water_ (1920), _The Shacklocker_ (a collection of short stories), -and _The Viking Blood_, have much more plot and action to them than have -Norman Duncan’s novels and short stories; but they are not so intimate -and convincing in character analysis, neither are they so careful nor so -finished in their technique—the two styles are quite in harmony with -the differing methods of treatment. - -Commercial life in its sociological relationships falls under our -definition of an ‘institutional’ aspect of national life. Here must be -placed Alan Sullivan’s _The Inner Door_ which reveals inside conditions -and labor problems in connection with the operation of a large rubber -factory; also his story of the somewhat spectacular development of a -chain of allied industries at a strategic point for power and for raw -material—told in _The Rapids_. - -There are, in this period, some notable examples of Incidental -Literature. Louis Hémon, a native of France, lived but a short time in -Canada, yet wrote, in _Maria Chapdelaine_, (English translations by W. -H. Blake and by Sir Andrew Macphail), a chastely poetic novel of French -Canadian life. Miss J. G. Sime in _Our Little Life_ presents, if we view -it from one angle, a meticulous study of the life of a Montreal -seamstress, with her pathetically frustrate love story; but more than -all that, _Our Little Life_ is an observation of the life of the -Canadian people by an English mind. The literary artistry of both these -works is indisputable. Some criticism has been aimed at both on the -score of inaccuracy of minor facts. Whether or not there are such minor -inaccuracies, there still remains the grand result that the color, the -atmosphere, the outward semblance, are portrayed as they have scarce -ever been before; that the inmost soul of the characters is -understandingly and consistently revealed. - -Education in its institutional aspect appears in many novels only -incidentally. As a dominant motive or a circumscribing setting its -development is comparatively recent. _Miriam of Queen’s_, by Lilian Vaux -Mackinnon (1921), shows the molding influence of university life; _The -Hickory Stick_, by Nina Moore Jamieson (1921), emphasises the place and -importance of the rural school in rural life and problems; the great -school novels of English literature find a modified echo in the boarding -school stories of Ethel Hume Bennett and Gordon Hill Grahame—_Judy of -York Hill_ (1922), by the former, in which dialogue, action and -atmosphere contribute effectively in conveying a picture of a girls’ -school; _Larry, or the Avenging Terrors_ (1923), by the latter, a boys’ -boarding school story of lively incident. - - 3. _The Realistic Romance._ - -The rapid expansion of the far West and such spectacular events as the -‘Klondike rush,’ gave a sort of feverish color to a life that previously -had appeared one of toil, hardship, and stony endurance. Viewed -imaginatively, that life now presented its hectic side, and the far West -and the high North were exploited as literary fields of thrill, -adventure, and excitement. Thus the second decade of this century saw -the rise in Canada of the Realistic Romance. At its best this class of -novel resembles the Community type but is speeded up with a more -exciting and more complicated plot; at its worst it is lurid melodrama -with realism interpreted as the portrayal of the sordid and seamy side -of life. Very few of the realistic romances exhibit any distinction of -manner and style. They are not concerned with the niceties of the art of -telling a story but with the ability to keep the reader constantly keyed -up to a high emotional tensity. - -_The Trail of ’98_, by Robert W. Service (1910), is a story of the -Yukon, with the spectacular elements of gold-rush days fully emphasised. -The qualities of Service’s poetry are accentuated in his fiction. In the -same year H. A. Cody began his career as a novelist with another Yukon -tale, _The Frontiersman_. It is a story of love, adventure, and -missionary experience. _Rod of the Lone Patrol_ followed in 1912, adding -a new fictional element which has been much exploited—the doings of the -North West Mounted Police. Cody produced a long series of adventure -novels with a variety of settings. - -Other writers of the Realistic Romance speedily developed different -aspects of Western life or staged their romances in different regions of -the Great West or the Far North. We have room only for brief mention of -some of the best known writers in this class. - -Robert Stead’s novels are chiefly of the prairie farm and ranch—_The -Bail Jumper_ (1914), _The Homesteader_, _The Cowpuncher_, _Dennison -Grant_, _Neighbors_. He is effective in reproducing the atmosphere of -the prairie, the details of farm and ranch life, and characteristic bits -of scenery; his stories are stronger in incident and action than they -are in characterization. - -Robert Watson began fairly well with _My Brave and Gallant Gentleman_ -(1918), a romance of England and British Columbia, that had touches of -Borrow and Stevenson, but his later efforts have tended to cast -themselves into more stereotyped forms. Robert A. Hood produced two -adventure-romances of British Columbia, _The Chivalry of Keith -Leicester_ and _The Quest of Alistair_. Douglas Durkin exploited -Manitoba in _The Lobstick Trail_. ‘Luke Allan’ (Lacey Amy) wrote several -stories of cowboy life of which _Blue Pete: Half Breed_ was significant -because of the originality and individuality of its leading character. - -John Murray Gibbon’s earlier fiction—in _Drums Afar_ and _Hearts and -Faces_—was English in its setting and concerned with psychological -problems and studies of Oxford life. In transferring to an American -literary habitat, he entered the ranks of the Realistic Romancers. His -novel, _The Conquering Hero_, was a lively, melodramatic story of the -Rocky Mountains and British Columbia ranches; while in _Pagan Love_ -(1923), he combined a startling mystery with an element of satire on the -modern philosophy of business success. - -Theodore Goodridge Roberts, younger brother of Charles G. D. Roberts, is -essentially a story teller and much of his fiction shows the influence -of Weyman and the historical romanticists of the latter years of the -nineteenth century. His _Brothers in Peril_ (1905), _A Captain of -Raleigh’s_ (1911), and _The Harbor Master_ (1914) are stories of -romantic adventure of very early days in Newfoundland, while _Jess of -the River_, _Rayton_ and _Forest Fugitives_ have a setting in rural New -Brunswick. - - 4. _Historical Fiction._ - -The influences that produced the Community Novel gave to the Historical -Fiction of this period a closer up view. Instead of the far-off days of -the French regime, the historical field of vision became that of but a -century or so past and writers essayed to revivify the times and -personages of the War of 1812 or the Rebellion of 1837. A noteworthy -example is C. H. J. Snider’s stories of the naval engagements on the -Great Lakes, _In the Wake of the Eighteen-Twelvers_. With fine -recreative imagination he enables us to live through incidents of -daring, gallantry, and romance of these stirring battles. ‘Anison North’ -in _The Forging of the Pikes_ gives a realistic picture of Toronto of -’37, of the battle of Montgomery’s Tavern, and a pen-portrait of the -rebel leader, Mackenzie. She lets us see ‘both sides of the story’ of -the conditions that were responsible for the Rebellion. - -A minor species of the Historical Novel is found in the novel of pioneer -life which seeks to put into a permanent record pioneer experiences and -conditions of sometimes considerably less than a century ago. Adeline M. -Teskey did this for the Niagara Peninsula and the building of the first -Welland Canal with _In Candlelight Days_ (1914). Archie McKishnie told -of the conflict of the ‘bushwhacker,’ who delighted in the freedom of -the woods and streams, with the incoming tide of settlement in _Love of -the Wild_, drawing upon the historic figure of Colonel Talbot for some -of his characterization. Anison North blends a colorful picture of the -enjoyment of outdoor life with a pioneer line fence feud in her -_Carmichael_. In _Kinsmen_ Percival J. Cooney relates a strange story of -Scottish feudalism—an example of the clan system with its autocratic -laird—which actually existed in Canada. - -Few Canadian writers have found leisure to follow the example of Gilbert -Parker in writing Historical Fiction in Old World settings, but this has -quite recently been done in a highly distinctive style in novels -appearing over the signature—‘E. Barrington.’ _The Ladies_, -semi-historical stories of the eighteenth century; _The Chaste Diana_, a -story of Polly Peacham of ‘Beggar’s Opera’ fame; _The Divine Lady_ -(1924) tells the love-story of Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton. - - 5. _Imaginative Fiction._ - -In one sense all fiction is imaginative. There is, however, a species in -which pure imagination plays a much greater part than in the Community -Novel, in Historical Fiction, or in the other types discussed in this -chapter. Marjorie Pickthall’s work is the highest example of this. She -wrote, not with the reproductive imagination nor with fancy, but with -the faculty defined by Matthew Arnold as imaginative reason. Into the -texture of her fiction she wove poetic imagination and poetic -significance derived from her clear, absolute, and sympathetic -understanding of the human heart and of the hidden springs and the -meaning of existence, from her superior and inclusive sympathetic -intelligence. Thus she was enabled to write stories of the most varied -settings and of the most wildly differing characters with equal -convincingness. - -_Little Hearts_ (1915), is an engaging tale of the days of ‘Bonnie -Prince Charlie’ with its conflict chiefly between loyalty to the Crown, -and fidelity to the spirit of humanity. It pictures ‘little hearts,’ men -of small fortunes, and small (as the world sees it) ambitions, in their -pathetic existence, more pathetic because of finely brave in the midst -of many both petty and heroic vicissitudes of fortune, of mean victory -and noble defeat. The novel preaches no didactic moral but it silently -teaches Christ’s philosophy of struggle and defeat—‘He that loseth his -life shall find it.’ It impresses unforgettably how little after all are -the greatest hearts, and how little we lose or gain in any defeat or -triumph which is merely earthly defeat or triumph. - -_The Bridge_ (1922), has the same theme, with the pain and cruelty of -love, of unfulfilled seeking, and the final triumph of a soul that saved -itself by losing itself in inward self-knowledge and self-sacrifice. It -is set against a background of the tremendous beauty of the Great Lakes, -scenes of storm on land and water. Technically, it is farther from -perfection than _Little Hearts_; it has less structural unity, less -smoothness of style. At times the emotional situations seem overdrawn; -nor are atmosphere and setting definitively localized. - -The collection of short stories—_Angel’s Shoes_ (1922)—embodies -examples of Miss Pickthall’s perfect artistry as a short story writer. -These stories are clear, vivid, colorful, and of almost the highest type -of creative imagination. They may lack, occasionally, a warmth of -humanity that is present in the work of other writers of poorer -craftsmanship. - -Less distinctive but belonging to the few Canadian novels of this class -is _The Window Gazer_, by Isabel Ecclestone Mackay, a romance of a man -who ‘fell in love with his wife.’ Blended with the characteristics of -the novel of pure imagination there are here slight touches of the -Realistic Romance and the Community Novel. A somewhat curious literary -phenomena is found in _Mists of the Morning_ by this same writer, which -began in the style of the Imaginative Novel and ended as a Realistic -Romance. - - 6. _Some Miscellaneous Types._ - -To the ranks of the Animal Romancers this period has added at least one -writer who approaches the subject in a new way. The attitude was -apparent in the nature passages of _Gaff Linkum_ (1907) and became more -a quality of Archie McKishnie’s work as he continued to write short -stories and novels of animal life. We find it crystallized in _Openway_ -(1923). Roberts is the intellectual animal psychologist; Thompson Seton, -the literary scientist; W. A. Fraser, the objective story teller; but -Archie McKishnie impresses us with the sense of his comradeship with the -creatures of the marsh, the wood, and the stream. He is their -interpreter but not as an outside observer. He lives with them, loves -them, protects them. Thus when he writes animal stories he rises to his -best literary style and achieves a beauty and smoothness that is not -always found in his other writing. - -The detective story is represented by a series of ‘underground’ stories -by Arthur Stringer; a typical example is _The Wire Tappers_. The setting -is a large American city, and rapidity of action is the desired and -supplied element. More Canadian in setting and atmosphere are Victor -Lauriston’s _The Twenty-First Burr_ and Hopkins Moorhouse’s _The -Gauntlet of Alceste_, both well-constructed according to the -requirements of this type of fiction, concealing the mystery motive -skilfully up to a surprising climactic finish. - -The religions and philosophies of the Orient find a slight reflection in -some Canadian poetry. In fiction, the stories and novels of L. Adams -Beck—_The Ninth Vibration_, _The Key of Dreams_, _The Perfume of the -Rainbow_, _The Treasure of Ho_—are chiefly Oriental in themes and -settings, and mark the author as an interpreter of the mysteries of the -East, with an unusual beauty and originality of style. - -Arthur Stringer’s trilogy of the prairie—_The Prairie Wife_, _The -Prairie Mother_, _The Prairie Child_—is remarkable as a study in -feminine psychology and the reactions of problems of prairie life upon a -feminine mind in its domestic and personal associations. The first -volume in the trilogy is the most impressive because of its spontaneity, -its subtle touches of color and atmosphere. The modern double-triangle -element dominates and rather detracts from the originality and -individuality of the latter volumes, but the series is significant as an -advance from the realistic romance toward a newer realism. - - 7. _The New Realism._ - -It was but natural that a reaction should set in against the realistic -romance with its insufficiency of motivation and its lack of fidelity to -real life. Rather remarkably this arrives in another ten-year cycle and -a group of novels published in 1923 show a marked similarity of method -and treatment, with widely varied themes and settings. We distinguish -this fresh and original attitude as the ‘New Realism’ in Canadian -fiction. The strongest of these novels undoubtedly is _The Viking Heart_ -by Laura Goodman Salverson. It might be called the epic of the Icelander -in Canada, describing as it does the arrival of a party of immigrants in -1870 and following their struggles, hardships, and gradual rise of -fortunes to the present day. There is no plot but such as grows out of -the record of the lives of the characters. There is no melodrama, but -there is the tense drama of the realities of life. The style is chaste, -simple, but forceful. Back of it all lies a big theme—‘the price of -country’—the realization of citizenship through toil, tears, blood, and -sacrifice. - -The other novels in this group are: _Possession_, by Mazo de la Roche, -with its setting a Niagara fruit farm; _Lantern Marsh_, by Beaumont -Cornell, following a farm boy through his struggles for an education; -_Cattle_, by Onoto Watanna, an almost brutally realistic presentation of -a man whose sole aim in life was the acquirement of cattle—as a form of -wealth—whose whole outlook on life was measured in terms of cattle; -_The Child’s House_, by Marjory MacMurchy, which enters into the heart -and mind of a growing little girl. - -The importance of this movement is that it has cast aside -superficialities, that these writers have somehow been able to ‘see -things as they are,’ to glimpse the realities of life from their real -beginnings—four of the five novels named are actually rooted in ‘the -soil’ as their setting and their underlying spiritual foundation. With -this foundation of actuality and truth, the writers have gained a -clearer and more finished expression. Some of these novels have -melodramatic spots; some have other weaknesses, but, on the whole, the -effect of this new movement has been to produce novels that have a -definite structural unity, that are largely free from irrelevant and -insignificant detail, that are written with an economy and aptness of -language, and that have more definiteness and depth to their basic -themes. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - - - The Poetic Dramatists - - THE POETIC DRAMATISTS OF THE SECOND RENAISSANCE—ARTHUR STRINGER— - ROBERT NORWOOD—MARJORIE PICKTHALL, AND OTHERS. - -Arthur stringer, novelist and lyric poet, showed versatility and -considerable power in imaginative construction when, in 1903, he -published a volume of two dramatic poems or soliloquies and one poetic -drama, all on classical themes in blank verse; namely, _Hephaestus_, -_Persephone at Enna_, and _Sappho in Leucadia_. In these works, however, -Stringer was indulging an ‘avocation;’ for his genius is at its best in -lyrical verse and prose fiction. _Hephaestus_ and _Persephone_, even -though they are written in blank verse, have all the color, music, and -emotion which we associate with lyrical poetry. _Sappho in Leucadia_, -though dramatic in form, is undramatic in movement, and is lyrical in -spirit. For at the beginning Sappho, the ‘bird-throated child of -Lesbos,’ has resolved to destroy herself by leaping into the sea, and -Phaon’s only role is the attempt of a lover to dissuade her, but to no -avail. The so-called ‘drama’ is but a series of colloquies between -Sappho and Phaon. The only ‘movement’ is a psychological development in -three stages—first, the original intention on Sappho’s part to destroy -herself; then the arrested intention; and, finally, the intention -fulfilled, in spite of Phaon’s pleading, by Sappho leaping to her death. - -What Stringer has really done in _Sappho in Leucadia_ is to take a Greek -legend and to tell the simple episode of Sappho’s death, in colorful, -musical, and artistic blank verse. There is no emotional poignancy in -it; nothing for the heart and the moral imagination. It is all for the -aesthetic sensibility, for the lover of sensuous imagery and melody. -Oddly its single lyrical interlude or ‘song’ is not in ‘Sapphics,’ but -is an octave in trimeters. The sensuous beauty of color and music in -this quasi-poetic drama is exemplified in the following speech by -Sappho:— - - For like a god you seemed in those glad days - Of droning wings and languorous afternoons, - When close beside the murmuring sea we walked. - Then did the odorous summer ocean seem - A meadow green where foam one moment flowered - And then was gone, and ever came again, - A thousand bloom-burdened Springs in one! - —How like a god you seemed to me; and I - Was then most happy, and at little things - We lightly laughed, and oftentimes we plunged - Waist-deep and careless in the cool green waves, - As Tethys once and Oceanus played - Upon the golden ramparts of the world. - Then would we rest, and muse upon the sands, . . . - And on the dunes the thin green ripples lisped - Themselves to sleep and sails swung dreamily - Where azure islands floated on the air. - Then did your body seem a temple white. . . . - The bloom of youth was on your sunburnt cheek, - The streams of life sang thro’ your violet veins, - The midnight velvet of your tangled hair - Lured, as a twilight rill . . . . . . . . . . . - -Stringer’s _Sappho in Leucadia_ is an engaging and even impressive -dramatic colloquy, but it is not an authentic poetic or closet drama. It -has sensuous beauty but no spiritual power. But it does increase -Stringer’s reputation as a verbal colorist and melodist. - -In 1915 appeared an original poet of distinct spiritual power in lyrical -and dramatic forms. He was Robert Norwood. His first book was a -sonnet-sequence. But in 1916 he published a poetic drama, _The Witch of -Endor: A Tragedy_; and in 1919, another poetic drama, _The Man of -Kerioth_. In 1921 he published _Bill Boram_, which is a ‘dramatic tale.’ - -Robert Norwood has two natural gifts. More than any other Canadian poet -he has an innate genius for the philosophical or mystical interpretation -of good and evil in the universe. Also, he is gifted with acute insight -into the inner heart of man and woman, ancient and modern. These two -gifts fit him for the office of the kind of poet who by imaginative -sympathy perceives the ultimate harmony of the universe, the spiritual -meaning of the tragedy and comedy of existence. As a poetic dramatist, -then, Norwood is a Seer; and his voice is the voice of a Prophet. Power -over the heart and imagination of the people, not Beauty and Art for -art’s sake, is his aim. If he is the Poet of Beauty, as he is in all his -verse, lyrical and dramatic, he is more, or supremely, the Poet of -Spiritual Vision and Power in his poetic dramas. - -In _The Witch of Endor_ Norwood returns to the Biblical theme which had -engaged Heavysege—the love romance and tragedy of King Saul. The -characters are never shadowy but always alive. The dramatic movement is -never held up by long or digressive moralizing speeches, as in -Heayysege’s _Saul_, but each character makes his speeches according to -the dramatic necessity, enough and no more, thus permitting at ‘the -psychological moment’ the natural entrance of another character and his -speech. The structure is logically developed to the tragic or spiritual -climax. But in the development there is no uniform level of emotion, -rather the emotion varies from gentle or pathetic to intense or tragic. -It is indeed in its profounder imaginative vision, its more varying and -rising degrees of emotional intensity, and its more logical structural -development to a climax that _The Witch of Endor_ has more incisive and -compelling power as poetic drama than Campbell’s Arthurian drama -_Mordred_. In short, _The Witch of Endor_ is a beautiful and spiritual -poetic drama—purging the emotions of pity and fear and transporting the -spirit to the Mount of Vision where it sees intuitively how the ways of -God to man are justified and how Love is greater than Faith and Hope. - -In his next poetic drama _The Man of Kerioth_ (that is, Judas Iscariot) -Norwood made an advance in imaginative vision, construction, and power. -He achieves this by reducing the magniloquence of the speeches and by -modernly humanizing the characters of Judas Iscariot, Mary Magdalen, -Blind Bartimaeus, Philip, and Jesus the Carpenter. He even introduces -little children into the drama. The high and the vulgar and lowly, -saints and sinners, the motley of society in Jerusalem, commingle -intimately and humanly. There is a distinct advance in realistic truth -of characterization, and the whole drama is pervaded with a winning -naturalness and humanity which are not in any preceding poetic drama by -a Canadian, nor even in his own succeeding ultra-realistic ‘dramatic -tale of the sea,’ _Bill Boram_. So that in respect of creation -thoroughly humanized, noble, and clearly limned -character-portraiture—as, for instance, Judas Iscariot, Mary Magdalen, -and Jesus—Norwood must be ranked as the supreme creator amongst -Canadian poetic dramatists. This is a matter of sheer artistry. But -Norwood also shows an advance in spiritual power. With profounder -mystical vision and greater truth he justifies the ways of God to man, -and exalts the spirit to the Temple pinnacle where we behold Immortal -Love in all its sweet beauty of humanity and in all its white radiance -of redeeming light. In _The Man of Kerioth_ he attains his acme in -spiritual beauty and power as a poetic dramatist. - -So far Norwood had not created any poetic drama with a definitively -Canadian theme, setting, and characters. In his _Bill Boram_, which is a -‘dramatic tale’ told in the third person, the characters and the action -being ‘reported,’ Norwood made a fresh, novel, and impressive -contribution to original Canadian Literature. In doing so Norwood -dropped somewhat in imaginative truth and dramatic invention; but he -rose to greater heights of mystical perception and spiritual power. The -theme of _Bill Boram_ is the redemption of the human spirit by the love -of beauty in Nature. Ingenious as his conception is, Norwood committed -the error of conceiving the accident of a love of flowers, that is to -say, of sensuous beauty, as a possible redemptive force in human life. -He would have us believe that the love of sensuous beauty can transmute -itself or become transmuted into an altogether different kind of love, -namely, the love of spiritual beauty and thus regenerate a coarse and -brutal nature and remake it into a noble and refined spirit. Such -spiritual metabolism is impossible, and _Bill Boram_ so far forth lacks -imaginative truth and dramatic power. - -Aside from that, _Bill Boram_, on the whole, is a novel achievement in -dramatic narrative. The characters are vividly and veraciously drawn; -they have realistic truth. There is also an air of romance in the whole -tale, such an air of vital romance as obtains in the tales and novels of -the sea by Norman Duncan and Frederick William Wallace. - -Summarily; Norwood’s _Bill Boram_ is an amazing dramatic picture of rude -characters in a setting of romance colored by a strange and startling -commingling of coarse speech and brutalized deed and of beautiful -diction and exquisite imagery. It is at once a _tour de force_ in -dramatic conception and construction and in impressionistic -word-painting. Yet it is a powerful presentation of the idea of the -mystical union of the human spirit with the divine through the love of -pure beauty in Nature. - -The Second Renaissance is noted also for the work of several other -poetic dramatists. Amongst them are Dr. James B. Dollard, author of -_Clontarf: An Irish National Drama_; Rev. Dean Llwyd, author of _The -Vestal Virgin_; John L. Carleton, author of _The Medieval Hun; A -Historical Drama_, and _The Crimson Wing_, which has the distinction of -having been the winner of the first prize for original dramatic -composition in the Canadian Prize Play Competition, 1918; Norah Holland, -author of _When Half Gods Go and Other Poems_ (1924), the title-poem of -which has been repeated as a Christmas play for several successive -seasons. These are all respectable poetic dramas and give distinction -both to the quantity and the quality of poetic drama in the Second -Renaissance. - -But this work in poetic drama is, after all, not inspired impressing one -as a stint in creation, and is not at all comparable to the work of -Norwood in imaginative vision, artistic construction, and dramatic -power. Comparable, however, with Norwood’s and superior to it in -spiritual poignancy is the single poetic drama left by Marjorie -Pickthall. Though Norwood’s poetic dramas contain lyrical interludes, -and though his dramatic tale _Bill Boram_ is for the most part rhymed, -on the whole they are in blank verse. But Miss Pickthall’s single poetic -drama _The Wood Carver’s Wife_ is lyrical through and through, and is -properly to be denoted as ‘lyric drama.’ In form this lyric drama stands -midway between Stringer’s dramatic poems and Norwood’s poetic dramas. In -that respect Marjorie Pickthall made a novel contribution to Canadian -poetic literature. - -_The Wood Carver’s Wife_ was first published in _The University -Magazine_ in 1920. It was reprinted, along with other fugitive poems, in -1922, the drama supplying the title poem of the volume. _The Wood -Carver’s Wife_ has four characters, one of whom is Shagonas, an Indian -lad who represents Nemesis. It is set in the time of the Intendant. The -theme is ‘the eternal triangle’—a girl-wife, with a husband still alive -and a secret lover. The mood of the drama is the tragedy which follows -the sin of disloyalty to the sacrament of marriage, even if the -disloyalty is only in the heart and never openly expressed in -clandestine meeting between the wife and the lover. The mood of the -dramatist, however, is not one of simply illustrating the law that the -‘soul that sinneth it shall die,’ but of wistfulness about the ways of -God to men and women when spiritual unmating is permitted by Heaven. The -dramatist _seems_ to put her own feeling about the matter into her -drama. She seems to feel that if the moral law is inexorable, it ought -not to be so in the case of a young girl who innocently, or without -knowing her own heart and what she was doing, married a man, who, after -all, did not want her as an end in herself, or her spirit for its own -sake, but to have her as a model for the statue of the Blessed Virgin he -was creating in wood, as a chattel in his studio. Humanly, Marjorie -Pickthall felt that the girl-wife was more sinned against than sinning -when she allowed herself to be conscious—merely conscious—of the -lover. But Marjorie Pickthall, with loyalty to the dramatic necessities, -though with a spiritual wistfulness all the while, constructed the -action and movement of _The Wood Carver’s Wife_ so that the tragic -ending was inevitable. For the husband knows that there is a secret -lover, and Shagonas knows, and at the tragic climax it is the arrow of -the Indian, representing the moral law, that sends the lover to his -death. The girl-wife knows what has happened, because she has heard the -twang of Shagonas’ bow-string. The tragedy is complete when she receives -from Shagonas, who is again Nemesis, the sword of her lover, and dies -with a mad speech on her lips, while at the same time the husband, also -mad, as he was from the beginning, has Shagonas pose the beautiful dead -body of the girl-wife that he may put the acme touches to his statue. - -How easily the dramatist might have made certain shifts which would have -resulted in reconciliation and a happy ending! But with all her -spiritual wistfulness, Marjorie Pickthall loyally held to the dramatic -and the artistic ideals. The climax and tragic ending are tremendous and -wholly spiritualizing, purging the soul with pity for humanity through -the terror which the action and the denouement awake in the spirit. -There is in it all a spiritual poignancy which does not obtain in -Norwood’s love-tragedy of Saul in _The Witch of Endor_. It is suffused -with a lovely and winning beauty of diction, imagery, and verbal music; -and it contains one lyric ‘cry of a soul’ which for pathos is -unsurpassed in Canadian literature, namely, the Litany of Dorette, the -hapless girl-wife, to the Blessed Virgin Mother beginning, - - If you have lain in the night - And felt the old tears run - In their channels worn in the heart, - Pity me, Mary. - -Considered critically, then, the poetic dramas of Robert Norwood and the -lyric drama of Marjorie Pickthall are, from the universal point of view, -authentic works of art, originally conceived and beautifully -constructed, and, from the Canadian point of view, are the supreme -achievements in the poetic drama of Canada. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - - - Humorists - - THE HUMORISTS OF CANADA: PRE-CONFEDERATION—HALIBURTON—HOWE— DE - MILLE—DUVAR—POST-CONFEDERATION—LANIGAN—COTES—DRUMMOND—HAM: - NEW SCHOOL—LEACOCK—DONOVAN—DAVIS—MACTAVISH—McARTHUR—HODGINS. - -The name and work of Thomas Chandler Haliburton as a satirist or -humorist so over-shadowed the names and works of other Canadian -humorists that it is a belief, both in foreign countries and in Canada -itself, that the Canadian people have no genius for humor and that, -outside of Haliburton’s satiric writings, there is no significant -Canadian humorous literature. All this is superstition and has been -perpetuated in two ways. No Canadian literary historian has remarked the -existence of other Canadian humorists, save Haliburton, though Mark -Twain in his Library of American Humor has included the work of -Haliburton, De Mille, Lanigan; and, secondly, no Canadian anthologist, -save Lawrence J. Burpee, has collected in a single volume examples of -the work of Canadian humorists. - -Pre-Confederation Canadian humor is represented by the work of -Haliburton, Howe, and De Mille. Of these the work of Haliburton is the -significant humor of the period. In general it is satiric, a criticism -of society, aiming to bring about certain reforms. No other Canadian -humorist since Haliburton, not even Leacock, had or has any gifts in -comic characterization. Howe had no satiric purpose. His humor, which -was chiefly in verse, was written ‘for the fun of the thing.’ - -A native-born Canadian man of letters who has not received his due is -James De Mille, poet, novelist, short story fictionist and humorist. De -Mille, at least in time, anticipated the new type of American humor -which is associated with the name of Mark Twain. For some months before -Mark Twain’s _The Innocents Abroad_ was published (1869), De Mille’s -_The Dodge Club_, or _Italy in 1859_ had appeared. This volume is not to -be confused with De Mille’s _Dodge Club Series_ published in 1871, 1872, -1877 which were humorous and healthful stories for the young. If, -therefore, the humor of Stephen Leacock is essentially a recrudescence -of the American humor which we see in Franklin and in Mark Twain, and if -Leacock read De Mille and Twain, as presumably he did, then the first of -the Leacockians in Canada, to use an anachronism, was De Mille, and he -is ‘the father’ of the later or the 20th century Canadian humorists -beginning with Leacock. For the genius of that _genre_ of humor, as in -De Mille and Twain, is essentially exaggerated nonsense or nonsense said -with a face of seriousness. De Mille’s work does not lend itself to -quotation, but stylistically De Mille’s humorous prose, aside from the -humor itself, is distinctly engaging or readable by virtue of its simple -or popular diction. - -Away from the traditional humor of the American or Haliburton style, is -the more delicate imaginative humor of John Hunter-Duvar and the -whimsical humor of Grant Allen. Hunter-Duvar wrote considerable humor in -light ephemeral form and his stories and verse are colored with many -passages of _genre_ humor and satire. The chief basis of his reputation -as a humorist of a distinct and anomalous type is found in his -extraordinarily conceived narrative poem, _The Emigration of the -Fairies_. It deserves wide reading as an example of the pure humor of -fancy. Grant Allen was a novelist and scientist. He published a volume -of light verse, _The Lower Slopes_, in which he indulged his humorous -gifts in a series of satiric and entertaining verses on scientific -themes. It is all essentially the humor of persiflage. - -After Haliburton the extraordinary name in Post-Confederation Canadian -humor is George Thomas Lanigan. He was born in the Province of Quebec -and has the distinction of having founded what is now the _Daily Star_, -of Montreal. He was a brilliant journalist and possessed unusual -versatility of invention and style in prose and verse. He had all the -mental gifts, and some of the faults, native to the Keltic temperament. -His ebullient spirits expressed themselves in restless activity and with -as ready brilliancy in verse as in prose. - -His prose humor, which was published serially in _The World_, New York, -in the first decade after Confederation, was fresh and novel and -arresting. The series was published in book form under the title _Fables -Out of the World_ (1878) and were to their time what the _Fables in -Slang_ by George Ade are to our time. So compellingly did Lanigan’s -_Fables_ strike the imagination of Mark Twain that he republished seven -of them in his Library of Humor. For the most part, Lanigan’s _Fables_ -are satires on the half-truths which constitute popular moral maxims. -They are all mere absurdities, and mere nonsense; but they contain a -larger truth than the maxims they satirize. They are sure to awake a -chuckle. We quote two examples:— - - The Merchant of Venice. - - A Venetian Merchant who was looking in the lap of luxury was - accosted upon the Rialto by a friend who had not seen him for - many months. ‘How is this?’ cried the latter. ‘When I last saw - you your gaberdine was out at elbows, and now you sail in your - own gondola.’ ‘True,’ replied the Merchant, ‘but since then I - have met with serious losses, and been obliged to compound with - my creditors for ten cents on the dollar.’ - - Moral.—Composition is the life of trade. - - The Honest Newsboy. - - A Newsboy was passing along the street, when he chanced to - discover a purse of greenbacks. He was at first inclined to - conceal it, but repelling the unworthy suggestion, he asked a - Venerable Man if it was his’n. The Venerable Man looked at it - hurriedly, said it was, patted him on the head, gave him a - quarter, and said he would yet be president. The Venerable Man - then hastened away, but was arrested for having counterfeit - bills in his possession, while the honest Newsboy played - penny-ante with his humble quarter and ran it up to $2.62. - - Moral.—Honesty is sometimes the best policy. - -Though Lanigan’s _Fables_ in prose were at that time a new and brilliant -type of humor, it is in his humorous ballads that he surpasses himself, -and because of them he remains unique among Canadian humorists. Some of -his humorous ballads have also been included in anthologies of -_American_ (!) humor, as, for instance, in Roscoe Johnson’s volume, -_Playday Poetry_. The most famous of Lanigan’s humorous ballads is his -egregious piece of persiflage, _The Ahkoond of Swat_. Really, however, -much more humorous are Lanigan’s _The Amateur Orlando_ and _The -Plumber’s Revenge_. Their length prevents quotation here. On account of -its notoriety and the absolute egregiousness of its comic -irresponsibility we select for quotation Lanigan’s _The Ahkoond of -Swat_. To give it color and setting we note briefly the origin of the -verses. According to Mr. Burpee the facts are that ‘one evening, after -learning the fact from the English mail just received, Lanigan announced -that the Akhoond of Swat was dead and that he was writing a poem about -him.’ The verses appeared in the next morning paper. Following is the -text of the _Ahkoond of Swat_:— - - What, what, what, - What’s the news from Swat? - Sad news, - Bad news, - Comes by the cable led - Through the Indian Ocean’s bed, - Through the Persian Gulf, the Red - Sea and the Med— - Iterranean—he’s dead; - The Akhoond is dead! - For the Akhoond I mourn, - Who wouldn’t? - He strove to disregard the message stern, - But he Ahkoodn’t. - - Dead, dead, dead; - Sorrow Swats! - Swats wha’ hae wi’ Ahkoond bled, - Swats whom he had often led - Onward to a gory bed, - Or to victory, - As the case might be. - Sorrow Swats! - Tears shed, - Shed tears like water, - Your great Ahkoond is dead! - That Swat’s the matter! - - Mourn, city of Swat! - Your great Ahkoond is not, - But lain ’mid worms to rot: - His mortal part alone, his soul was caught - (Because he was a good Ahkoond) - Up to the bosom of Mahound. - Though earthly walls his frame surround - (For ever hallowed be the ground!) - And sceptics mock the lowly mound - And say, ‘He’s now of no Ahkound!’ - (His soul is in the skies!) - The azure skies that bend above his loved - Metropolis of Swat - He sees with larger, other eyes, - Athwart all earthly mysteries— - He knows what’s Swat. - - Let Swat bury the great Ahkoond - With a noise of mourning and of lamentation! - Let Swat bury the great Ahkoond - With the noise of the mourning of the Swattish nation! - Fallen is at length - Its tower of strength, - Its sun had dimmed ere it had nooned: - Dead lies the great Ahkoond. - The great Ahkoond of Swat - Is not. - -In passing we may note another Canadian humorous poem of the same type -which has become famous, namely, _Hoch de Kaiser_, which was composed at -a sitting by an _émigré_ Canadian journalist who went sometimes by the -name of Rose and sometimes by the name of Gordon. - -We have elsewhere noted the fresh quality of the humor of Mrs. Everard -Cotes (Sarah Jeanette Duncan) and a whole chapter has been devoted to -the poetry of William Henry Drummond as the creator of a new species of -Canadian humor. The great warm Irish heart of Drummond was not fitted to -create satire or mere fun. His humor is based upon a tender sentiment or -what is known as ‘the homely pathetic’ and on a special sense of the -humor in _genre_ characters, particularly the old and the adolescent -_habitant_ of Quebec. - -A man quite by himself as a humorist is George Henry Ham, who has not -unfittingly been called ‘the laughing philosopher’ of Canada. Ham’s -humor is essentially the humor of the ‘after-dinner’ or ‘the occasional’ -speaker, and is for the most part anecdotal. During a long life he had -acquired an inexhaustible fund of the most humorous anecdotes about -Canadian characters or celebrated men. These were collected and -published in his _Reminiscences of a Raconteur_. - -Essentially Ham’s humor is not creative; it is the reproductive humor of -the raconteur; but Ham has added to it by a color and settings of his -own. It is the humor itself and not the style that counts. But while it -is humor and for the most part sheer fun or entertainment, it comes from -a man who has seen many vicissitudes in Canadian life and history and -institutions and who, in his great age, as human life goes, invites us -in his _Reminiscences of a Raconteur_ to look upon life and its -vicissitudes of good and ill fortune with courage, serenity, faith and -hope—and not to fear death. Ham’s humor is distinguished as pleasant -medicine for the soul in the hurly-burly of life and in the -contemplation of having some time to depart from a world that is full of -dear companions and pleasant places. - -The next Canadian systematic humorist, though not Canadian-born, is -Stephen Leacock. Haliburton was a creator; he really invented, his -method of satiric humor, or if he did not invent the method, he at least -originally created his comic characters. Leacock, who is ‘a graft on the -Canadian literary tree,’ models his humor considerably after the -American manner. It is satiric burlesque deliberately constructing -around serious character or events extravagant nonsense which is a sort -of criticism of manners and morals of society, but which tends to engage -us more as burlesque than as criticism. Mr. Leacock’s first book was -entitled _Literary Lapses_, published at Montreal in 1910. It was, as -the author’s Preface states, for the most part a collection of sketches -which had before that date appeared in print in various magazines. Two -of the sketches gained the distinction of being reprinted in _Punch_ and -_The Lancet_, London. These were respectively Leacock’s _Boarding House -Geometry_ and _The New Pathology_, the latter of which had the further -distinction of being reprinted in translations in various German -periodicals. His _Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town_ approaches more -closely to the unity of a regular novel than any of his other books and -is the highest example of his art. His style here is personal and -familiar almost to undue flippancy; it is witty and sparkling even to -brilliancy; it is less literary than the material of the _Mariposa -Newspacket_; it is surrounded with an exuberant atmosphere of burlesque. -Yet in _Sunshine Sketches_ he has achieved an unmistakably true -characterization of the average ‘little town’ of Canada—its life and -its people—a life which shows the universal touch that makes the whole -world akin, and at the same time has those narrow, provincial -idiosyncrasies that make it distinctively local and impossible of -portrayal except by one who has lived it. There is here revealed much of -the usually uncovered side of human nature, lit up with a glow of -amusement at the foibles of our fellow-man, but tempered, more than is -usual with Leacock, with a good-natured sympathy. - -From 1910 onwards to 1922, when Leacock’s _My Discovery of England_ was -published, the humorist produced a dozen volumes of his special species -of humor and attained a vogue which places him first amongst Canadian -humorists of the 20th century. He works at it brilliantly, sometimes in -the extreme burlesque manner of Mark Twain and sometimes in the quiet, -humble and drier manner of the characteristic English humor which -appears in _Punch_ in its department of ‘Charivaria.’ Unlike Haliburton, -Leacock rather makes the reader behold the humorist himself figuring -away bravely and sometimes futilely, to divert and amuse or entertain. -That is to say, unlike Haliburton’s humor, which had an easy method of -attack and drew attention to itself, Leacock’s humor gives the reader an -impression of its being _strained_, an effort on the humorist’s part -deliberately to make people smile or laugh, whether they will or not. It -is ‘smart,’ as the word is used in Yankee slang, rather than human and -profound. It ‘tickles’ the fancy and sensibility rather than illuminates -the imagination and informs the moral reason. It is clever; but like all -things that are merely clever it is ephemerally engaging or pleasing, -and it is all a case of the half being greater than the whole. In short, -Leacock’s humor is for a day, whereas Haliburton’s humor is for all -time. - -Peter Donovan is a promising later humorist. His first book was -_Imperfectly Proper_. After a short residence in England since the war, -he published _Over ‘Ere and Back Home_ (1922). Mr. Donovan is a critic -of society. He is not, however, a critic of constructive social thought -but of conventional thinking and conventional manners. The arrows of his -humor, which are neither sharp-pointed nor poisonous, are directed -against what Matthew Arnold used to call ‘Philistines’—the ‘nice’ -people who outwardly conform to all the conventionalities of the law of -the land and of the church but who inwardly—when no one is -looking—break these laws. Donovan directs his humor against shams in -society—not the great shams but those shams which have become acquired -habits, or against all that is the ‘fashion’ or the ‘rage’ of the year -or day. What he really achieves, from the point of view of vision, is to -make us see ourselves as others see us, and to cause us to ‘chuckle’ -over his polite—for he is never rude or coarse—revealments. Norris -Hodgins works much within the same range as Donovan—_Why Don’t You Get -Married?_ (1923)—and is not often quite so hilariously funny, but he -comes closer to the daily experiences of every man and every woman, and -there is just a bit more solidity to his underlying structure of -everyday philosophy. - -In another vein is the humor of Peter McArthur, who has been sometimes -called ‘The Sage of Ekfrid.’ McArthur writes as one who, living a -pastoral and serious life, actually looks around upon his neighbors in -other spheres of life and on their striving after wealth and material -goods, and who freshly reflects the thought, as old as the ancient -hills, that a serious and contented mind, satisfied with the gifts of -nature and of God, with pure friendships and sufficient sustenance for -body, possesses the only permanent satisfactions of life. He presents -this view, not with any originality in thought, but with a manner or -style that is pleasant reading and causes us to fall in love with life -and laughter and simple joys and to look with charity upon our fellows, -and to promote peace. - -A new type of Canadian humor, with a new quality of style, is the humor -of Newton MacTavish, Editor of _The Canadian Magazine_, in which -periodical Mr. MacTavish first gave to the public his fresh and piquant -humor, under the title _Thrown In_. The sketches were collected in a -volume and published with the same title in 1923. The aim of MacTavish’s -humor is definitively social—to disclose the hidden humanity of -commonplace souls and their essential unity with their more magnificent -fellows. When his humor is amusing or entertaining, it achieves this -quality not so much by depicting grotesque or ludicrous situations as by -revealing the natural attitudes of pioneer people towards the common -things of life, and the elementally human idiosyncrasies of the -so-called common people. When it is wit rather than mere humor, -MacTavish turns the light of truth upon human psychology and character, -by way of situation and character-drawing, in terms of commonplace -humanity expressed and colored by homely speech and anecdote. So that -the effect of his humor is two-fold. For while the reader is being -entertained his mind is also receiving new insight into our common -heritage, our genuine humanity, whatever be our culture or social -status. In short, MacTavish’s humor is philosophical. - -In Roy Davis’ long satiric poem, _Flying Rumors_, published in booklet -form at Boston, 1922, we discover a recrudescence of the satiric spirit -of Haliburton. Davis was born in Nova Scotia, and was educated at -Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, and Harvard University. He is -Professor of English in the School of Business Administration, Boston -University, of which he is also Assistant Dean. - -With the same intent as Haliburton, namely, to correct certain -centrifugal tendencies in society, Davis employs satire, not, as did -Haliburton, in prose, but in verse, which was the traditional medium of -the satire of Haliburton’s and Davis’ Loyalist ancestors in -Pre-Revolutionary days in the Old Colonies. The form of Davis’ ‘essay on -man and society’ in verse adds, on the side of novelty, a fresh -contribution to the satiric literature of Canada. The poet has avoided -going back to the traditional rhymed couplet of the Loyalist satirists -in Nova Scotia, but has used an octavo stanzaic form in which the first -six lines are rhymed alternately, and the last two are rhymed as a -couplet. This effects a pleasant sense of finality and rest. Besides, -Davis has invented a considerable number of lines which are musical, and -arresting or startling in novelty of imagery, as, for instance, this -ingenious and daring couplet:— - - A goose-step strutting Kaiser, kissing Mars, - Has missed the humor of the midnight stars! - -When, therefore, we survey the history of Canadian humor from Haliburton -to Leacock, and from Leacock to MacTavish and Davis, the humorists who -have remained salient and popular, and whose work seems to have the -inherent qualities which make for permanent appeal, are Haliburton and -Lanigan. And when we survey and note the variety and distinction of -Canadian humor—that it is, in many ways, a humor quite by itself, and -that it is of considerable quantity—we may reply to certain literary -historians and critics that Canadians are not, as they are -superstitiously believed to be, a humorless people and quite without a -literature of humor. For Canada has produced several notable humorists, -an admirable literature of humor; and the work of one of Canada’s -humorists, Haliburton, has long possessed international renown—a place -in permanent world literature. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - - - National Stage Drama - - THE RISE OF NATIVE AND NATIONAL REALISTIC STAGE DRAMA IN CANADA: - THE LITTLE THEATRE AND THE WORK OF CARROLL AIKINS AND MERRILL - DENISON. - -Although Canada is relatively rich in Poetic Drama, there is no evidence -of a developed Stage Drama. Part of the literary future of the country -lies in the development of native and national stage drama. A -significant beginning in native production of the acted drama was -inaugurated by Mr. Carroll Aikins who established in the Okanagan -Valley, at a centre named Naramata, a ‘Little Theatre,’ which he named -The Home Theatre. It was formally opened in November 1920 by the Rt. -Hon. Mr. Meighen, then Prime Minister. Mr. Aikins’ aims were to produce -a national drama, staged according to artistic conceptions of simplicity -and beauty, and to teach the people to appreciate good plays produced -with simple and beautiful properties, stage sets, and lighting. - -In order to realize these ideals it was necessary to choose good plays -that had already been standardized and to train his actors directly in -the Home Theatre. Mr. Aikins’ belief was that by developing in the -people a love of good plays produced in a Canadian theatre under -Canadian direction, the people sooner or later would demand the -production of Canadian plays and that this demand would lead to the -creation of plays on Canadian subjects by Canadian playwrights. That is -to say, Mr. Aikins believed that the movement he started in the Home -Theatre would at length result in the creating of Canadian Native and -National Stage Drama. - -In 1921 Mr. Aikins produced on the stage of the Home Theatre an acted -version of _The Trojan Women_ by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides. -In 1922 he produced his own Passion Play, _Victory in Defeat_, a -beautifully staged pantomime of moving pictures against a sky of -changing light, interpreted with the aid of a reader and expressive -music—the first experiment of its kind attempted in Canada. - -The ‘Little Theatre’ movement has also achieved something for the -appreciation of good Canadian plays in the cities of Winnipeg, Montreal, -Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver. At Hart House in Toronto, there has been -considerable activity concerned with the production of Canadian plays. -In April, 1921, Merrill Denison’s _Brothers in Arms_ was produced at -that theatre; and in April 1922 another of his plays, _From Their Own -Place_, was produced. These, with two others, were published in book -form in 1923 under the title _The Unheroic North_. - -Denison’s plays are Canadian by virtue of the author’s parentage and -family traditions (his mother being the late Flora McD. Denison), and by -the plays themselves being on Canadian themes, with Canadian characters -moving in Canadian surroundings. They are realistic satiric dramas of -life and thought in Canadian ‘backwoods’ and rural settlements. The -dramatist presents the life and speech and conduct of these characters -with such broad realism that the plays themselves are a mordant satire -on existence and society in isolated Canadian communities. But Denison’s -plays are also a satire _within_ a satire. It is not life in certain -Canadian communities that he is really satirizing, but an attitude of -the Canadian people themselves. - -The people of Canada dearly love ‘high’ romance and spurious -sentimentality. They find this spurious sentimentality in some Canadian -fiction, and the romance in the poetic dramas of Mair, Mrs. Curzon, -Wilfred Campbell, Dr. Dollard, Robert Norwood, and others. Boldly, -therefore, and with evident sincerity, Merrill Denison conceived the -idea of satirizing the lovers of spurious sentimentality by presenting -them with plays which would be the antithesis of ‘high’ romance and -affected sentimentality—with life so broadly or coarsely realistic that -the people of Canada would _not_ like the life or the plays. - -Two of the plays—_Brothers in Arms_ and the _Weather Breeder_—portray -life in the Canadian backwoods districts as Mr. Denison has observed -that life. Two of the plays—_From Their Own Place_ and _Marsh -Hay_—portray, according to Mr. Denison, life in the poorer or more -sordid farming districts of Canada. The dramatist has explained his -motive and aim. He says: ‘These plays have their origin in the needs of -a theatre—not _the_ theatre. _Brothers in Arms_ was written because a -Canadian comedy was needed to fill a bill and none could be found. In -writing it as an innovation, I wrote of a part of Canada I knew, and -introduced as characters actual Canadians. The result was new, but, as -might have been expected, Canadian. It must be remembered that these -plays were written for a Canadian theatre, not Broadway, and that any -literature of the theatre in Canada must follow the same course—be -written for Canadian production.’ - -It may be regretted that Denison went to sordid and vulgar society in -Canada for his dramatic subjects or material. But he had just cause to -satire Canadian life by means of realistic Canadian plays. For the -intellectual dishonesty, and the ‘immoral moral psychology,’ which -creates the spurious or hectic sentimentality in certain Canadian -fiction would compel a sane-minded man to show the other side of the -picture, and to show it with pervasive and vivid realism. Denison -perceived and felt the profound untruth or falsity of certain forms of -20th century Canadian fiction. In his view, it was all too ‘nice’ and -saccharine as art; it had neither truth nor strength. Denison felt that -no such men and women as appear in many of the novels of the Realistic -Romances exist in Canada. In his opinion, the substance of these novels -is puerile and vain invention. He, therefore, decided to present to the -Canadian public real men and women as they really live, move and have -their being in Canada—even if they are, as indeed they are, sordid and -vulgarized men and women. Denison’s plays, then, are a Protest; they are -also a Satire. What the dramatist is protesting against is not the life -that he presents in his plays. What he is satirizing is not Canadian -life as such. He is protesting against intellectual dishonesty and -spurious sentimentality in Canadian fiction. He is satirizing the life -and characters which these Canadian fictionists have presented in their -romances. - -Denison presents his material in three one-act plays with four to six -characters, and in one four-act play with fourteen characters. It is the -business of the dramatic critic to estimate Denison’s success in -dramaturgy, to determine whether they are well-constructed and actable -plays. On the strictly literary side, his plays in _The Unheroic North_, -despite their sordid or vulgarized characters, and despite the sections -of society and life presented in them, intrigue the attention and make -interesting and diverting reading. As satires on the methods and ideals -of certain Canadian romantic fictionists, on the social life at least of -certain Canadian communities Denison’s realistic dramas are a -significant beginning of creative Stage Drama in Canada. - - - - - Part III. - - - - Special and Miscellaneous - Literature - (1760-1924) - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - - - _The_ War Poetry _of_ Canada - - MRS. MOODIE—ANNIE ROTHWELL CHRISTIE—ISABELLA VALANCY CRAWFORD— - JOHN MCCRAE—CANADIAN POEMS OF THE GREAT WAR. - I. THE POETRY OF THE CIVIL REBELLION - AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR - -It is a literary phenomenon by itself that the best or most popular of -the inspirational and the commemorative war verse by permanently -resident _émigrés_ or native-born Canadians was the work of the -country’s women poets. No samples of martial verse inspired by the War -of 1812-14 seem to be extant. The records of martial verse produced in -Canada begin with the Civil War of 1837-38 and the inspirational war -lyrics of Mrs. Susanna Moodie. - -Fifteen years after the war opened, Mrs. Moodie’s martial lyrics were -published in her _Roughing It In The Bush_ (1852, two vols.). In ‘The -Advertisement’ (which is a sort of publisher’s Preface) to this work, -the publisher recounts the origin and effect of Mrs. Moodie’s -inspirational war verse. ‘During the rebellion,’ he says, ‘her loyal -lyrics, prompted by strong affection for her native country [England], -were circulated and sung throughout the colony [Ontario], and produced a -great effect in rousing an enthusiastic feeling in favor of public -order.’ But Mrs. Moodie herself modestly remarks (_op. cit. sup._, Vol. -2):— - - I must own that my British spirit was fairly aroused, and as I - could not aid in subduing the enemies of my beloved country with - my arm, I did what little I could to serve the good cause with - my pen. It may probably amuse my readers, to give them a few - specimens of these loyal staves, which were widely circulated - through the colony at the time. - -It will suffice to quote the first and last stanzas of her _Address to -the Freemen of Canada_ (_op. cit. sup._, p. 191) in order to show that -Mrs. Moodie wrote no mediocre martial verse of the inspirational type:— - - Canadians, will you see the flag - Beneath whose folds your fathers bled, - Supplanted by the vilest rag - That ever host to rapine led? - Thou emblem of a tyrant’s sway, - Thy triple hues are dyed in gore; - Like his, thy power has passed away, - Like his, thy short-lived triumph’s o’er. - -In a footnote Mrs. Moodie explains that ‘the vilest rag’ is the -tri-colored flag assumed by the rebels. The use of the phrase has, of -course, both psychological and aesthetic warrant. The thought of the -tri-colored flag, of its earlier bloody history in the French -Revolution, revolted her sense of nobility and righteousness, and, like -Homer’s, her diction and imagery sank in correspondence with the fall in -the spiritual dignity of her subject. Aesthetically viewed, she was -quite justified in sinking and rising with the emotional dignity of her -subject. She sinks in the third stanza, but rises magniloquently in the -fifth (final) stanza. Thus:— - - By all the blood for Britain shed - On many a glorious battlefield, - To the free winds her standard spread, - Nor to these base insurgents yield. - With loyal bosoms beating high, - In your good cause securely trust; - ‘God and Victoria’ be your cry, - And crush the traitors to the dust. - -Compared with standard martial songs, such as Burns’ _Scots Wha’ Hae wi’ -Wallace Bled_, or _The March of the Men of Harlech_, the first three -lines of the foregoing stanza are really excellent. The vocables are -mouth filling, the rhythm moves rapidly and carries one with it, and -though the third line might be improved by the use of the word ‘fling’ -for the word ‘spread’ in the text, still ‘To the free winds her standard -spread’ increases respiration, and stimulates ideated sensations of free -movement and expanding personality. Altogether, it is a vigorous—a -‘breezy’ line. No Canadian need feel ashamed of it. And what magnificent -energy is in the last two lines of the stanza! The reader no sooner -reaches ‘God and Victoria’ than he shifts back the accent to the word -‘God,’ emphasizes it with a full burst of breath and with a change in -pitch, and then impulsively spurts out the utterance of the remaining -syllables in the same changed pitch until he attacks the word ‘cry,’ -which is both oxytoned and emphasized. Thus the line becomes a veritable -battle-shout and inspiriting slogan. After this ringing, rousing, -energizing oxytone line comes the barytone cadence, ‘And crush the -traitors to the dust.’ The reader braces himself for action—takes in a -full breath, fronts his eyes, sets his jaws, and all his muscles, and -lunges forward to the fray. Both are brave lines; both are energizing, -impelling; and the whole stanza is a magnificent sample of inspiriting -martial verse. No Canadian need feel ashamed to recite it before the -admirers of Robert Burns or William Duthie. - -Mrs. Moodie’s modest estimate of her martial lyrics is not just to the -poet. They are better than mere ‘loyal staves,’ fitted solely to ‘amuse’ -casual readers. That they were widely circulated and sung throughout -Canada at the time when they were needed, is proof that they possessed -lyrical eloquence and the inspirational power to stir the heart and -impel the will to honorable action. They are good singing verse, but -they are not genuine poetry. All that is required in an inspirational -war lyric is that it come warm from the heart and hand; that it be -human, manly, direct in thought; that it be ringing in lilt and swinging -in rhythm; and that it be respectable technically as verse. To write -martial verse that fulfils all these requirements and to write it -immediately on demand is no easy task. Judged by these standards Mrs. -Moodie excelled in inspirational war lyricism. It is true that Harriet -A. Wilkins, Mrs. Curzon, Mrs. Annie Rothwell-Christie, Valancy Crawford, -and Agnes Machar surpassed her in poetic war lyricism. But this was due -to the fact that their best martial verse was commemorative, and was -written _after_ the deeds or events celebrated by them, and at a time -when they could compose in peace and at leisure. - -Of these later Canadian women poets of martial verse the supreme artist -was Mrs. Annie Rothwell-Christie. The verse of the others, even Isabella -Valancy Crawford’s novel _The Rose of a Nation’s Thanks_, and Agnes -Maule Machar’s swinging _Our Lads to the Front_, though choicer in -diction and imagery than Mrs. Moodie’s, hardly rise above the quality of -good verse. Mrs. Annie Rothwell-Christie’s commemorative martial verse -on the other hand, attains to the dignity and beauty of pure poetry. We -do not need the statement of the English poet Sir Edwin Arnold, that -‘the best war songs of the Half-breed Rebellion were written by Annie -Rothwell-Christie.’ Dignity, beauty, melody and compelling pathos are in -every line she wrote. These qualities can be observed in the lines we -quote from her _After the Battle_ and _Welcome Home_, selecting, first, -two stanzas from _After the Battle_:— - - Ay, lay them to rest on the prairie, on the spot where for honor they - fell, - The shout of the savage their requiem, the hiss of the rifle their - knell. - • • • • - As the blood of the martyr enfruitens his creed, so the hero sows - peace - And the reaping of war’s deadly harvest is the earnest his havoc shall - cease. - -The extraordinary imagery of the last line of the first stanza -(couplet)—‘the shout of the savage their requiem, the hiss of the rifle -their knell’ and the novel beauty of the similitude in the first line of -the second stanza are enough to raise these verses to the dignity of -pure poetry. Besides, there is a spiritual militancy in the rhythm that -soothes or solaces, while its cadences solemnize the soul, begetting -resignation to the Will of the Universe. Or listen to the triumphant, -sonorous verbal music of these lines from _Welcome Home_:— - - War-worn, sun-scorched, strained with the dust of toil, - And battle-scarred they come—victorious. - Exultantly we greet them—cleave the sky - With cheers, and fling our banners to the winds; - We raise triumphant songs, and strew their path - To do them homage—bid them ‘Welcome Home!’ - -We hear drum beats, bugle calls, and the tramp of armed men on the march -in those first two spondaic phrases—‘war-worn, sun-scorched.’ A new -emotional experience comes to us with the quicker moving syllables in -the next two lines; the rhythm is fitted to exultation. Also we are -treated to a new but brilliant alliterative metaphor—‘cleave the sky -with cheers.’ We are in the realm of poetry. But fine as are the -preceding examples of Mrs. Annie Rothwell-Christie’s commemorative -martial verse, the pathos of the following, from _The Woman’s Part_, is -overwhelmingly human and moving and ennobling. The inspiration is -derived from reflecting whether to those who, fired by love of adventure -or country, have gone to war, and fallen, the mothers, sisters, and -sweethearts shall give regrets, prayers, or tears. The poet disparages -all these, and turns to solace the mother or wife, whose son or husband -had died on the battlefield:— - - O, woman-heart be strong, - Too full for words—too humble for a prayer— - Too faithful to be fearful—offer here - Your sacrifice of patience. Not for long - The darkness. When the dawn of peace breaks bright, - Blessed she who welcomes whom her God shall save, - But honored in her God’s and country’s sight - She who lifts empty arms to cry, ‘_I Gave_!’ - -After reading that noble poem of love and pathos, and being moved to -emotion too deep for tears, one knows that all distinctions for sex are -man-made and ephemeral and abortive—that only ‘soul,’ whatever be its -form of earthly tenement, is real. For Annie Rothwell-Christie who wrote -that poem was altogether soul—superman, superwoman—gifted with the -speech of angels. Her martial verse is absolutely unique, and a distinct -contribution to perduring war poetry. - - II. THE POETRY OF THE WORLD WAR - -The Canadian Poetry of the World War is, as was previous martial verse -by Canadian poets, both inspirational and commemorative. What is -significant for literary history, is, first, that there is a distinct -advance in the excellence both of the ideas and of the artistic form of -the Canadian poetry of the world war; and, secondly, that both the -activity in poetic composition occasioned by the late war and the -quality of the poetry became an inspiration to other poets whose genius -was dormant and unawakened, and caused a genuine Renascence of the -Poetic Spirit and of Poetry in Canada. - -In what respect may the Canadian Poetry of the world war be said to be -excellent, or even unexcelled by the martial poetry of the United -States, if excelled by that of England and France? It is relatively -great in noble ideas. In it we see clearly and vividly what Canadian men -and women, at home and in the field of war, really thought and felt -about war and death, love and home and country, self-sacrifice, and the -good green earth, and peace. - -_Truth, beauty and splendor of ideas_—these are the three supreme -excellences of the Canadian poetry written by the soldier-poets in -active service on the fighting field, and by the professional or amateur -non-combatant poets at home, during the war. - -As to the artistic form of this poetry, considering all the conditions -of distraction and perturbance under which it was written, the wonder is -that it has any formal finish at all. As a matter of fact, however, the -Canadian poetry inspired by the world war cannot be depreciated as -‘twinkling trivialities’ either in substance or in form. All the best of -it is good poetry—originally conceived, winningly suffused with beauty -of sentiment, rich in noble ideas and spiritual imagery, engaging in -verbal music, and technically well-wrought. If the formal finish of -Canadian Poetry of the world war is not always quite the equal of the -British and American poetry similarly occasioned, still the altogether -most famous and most popular poem of the war and most likely to perdure -in the popular memory, is neither the sonnet of the English -soldier-poet, Rupert Brooke, _The Soldier_, nor the poem of the American -soldier-poet, Alan Seeger, _I Have a Rendezvous with Death_, but the -lyric of the Canadian soldier-poet, John McCrae, _In Flanders Fields_. -Further, special circumstances, special sentiments, and special color -and form went to making the poem by McCrae the supreme lyric of the -world war, and the popularity of _In Flanders Fields_ affected the -appreciation of other Canadian poetry of the late war to such a degree -as to cause the popular imagination, as well as the critical sense of -the cultured, to estimate all other Canadian poetry of the world war as -so far below McCrae’s exquisite lyric as to be second-rate in substance -and form. This is not so. Save that they do not embody a special form -and are not as musically insinuating as McCrae’s, the best of other -Canadian poems of the world war are as nobly conceived, as spiritually -subduing or exalting, and as technically finished as _In Flanders -Fields_. - -During the world war, as in previous wars, the women poets of Canada -were to the fore in writing inspirational and commemorative martial -verse. In Garvin’s _Canadian Poems of the Great War_ about one third -(26) of the total number (73) of poets represented are women, and their -war verse, especially the verse of Katherine Hale (whose poetry has been -already dealt with), Helena Coleman, Frances Harrison, Isabel Graham, -Agnes Maule Machar, Gertrude Bartlett, Grace Blackburn, Jean Blewett, -Minnie Hallowell Bowen, Louise Morey Bowman, Isabelle Ecclestone Mackay, -Lilian Leveridge, Lucy Montgomery, Beatrice Redpath, Sheila Rand, -Florence Randal Livesay, Richard Scrace (Mrs. J. B. Williamson), Virna -Sheard, Eloise Street, Ruth Strong, is not a whit below the level of the -war verse by Canadian men and in some instances surpasses the latter’s. - -Dr. O’Hagan’s _Songs of Heroic Days_ (1916) is a popular volume, in -which, for the most part, the poet recrudesces, in good newspaper verse, -the traditional war spirit of bloodshed, retaliation and revenge. The -poems, however, are made engaging by a ready humor and an Irish _jeu -d’esprit_ in the thought of ‘squaring things’ with an enemy guilty of -‘dhirty thricks’ in war. Several other volumes of war verse appeared -during and shortly after the close of the war—_The Fighting Men of -Canada_ by Douglas Durkin; _Over the Hills of Home and Other Poems_ by -Lilian Leveridge; _Sea Dogs and Men at Arms_ by Jesse Edgar Middleton; -_A Canadian Twilight and Other Poems_ (posthumous) by Lieutenant Bernard -Freeman Trotter; _Laurentian Lyrics and Other Poems_ (1915) by -Lieutenant Arthur S. Bourinot; _Insulters of Death_ and _The New -Apocalyse_ by Sergeant J. D. Logan, and several other volumes by -returned men. The only comprehensive anthology of verse of the Great -War, written by Canadians, is J. W. Garvin’s _Canadian Poems of the -Great War_ (1918). This volume furnishes adequate proof that, as foreign -critics have said, ‘the war poetry written by Canadian civilians and -Canadian poets on active service is as excellent as that written by the -poets of the older Allied Nations.’ - -For the purpose of just appreciation we remark the fine, spirited, and -imaginatively impressive qualities, as well as the artistic finish, of -selected Canadian war poems that are really worthy to stand beside the -best verse of English and American poets who were inspired by the late -war. Aside from McCrae’s _In Flanders Fields_ the most celebrated -commemorative war poem by a Canadian is Dr. J. B. Dollard’s sonnet to -the memory of Rupert Brooke—a sonnet in which, as English and American -critics observed, Dr. Dollard made beautiful use of the supposed cause -of Brooke’s death (sunstroke, ‘arrows of Apollo’) and the place of -burial in the Aegean. Brooke’s grave is on the island of Scyros, not -Lemnos. But the error in fact only enhances the beauty of the poem:— - - Slain by the arrows of Apollo, lo! - The well-belovèd of the Muses lies - On Lemnos’ Isle ’neath blue and classic skies, - And hears th’ Aegean waters ebb and flow! - How strange his beauteous soul should choose to go - Out from his body in this hallowed place, - Where Poetry and Art’s undying grace - Still breathe, and Pipes of Pan melodious blow! - Here shall he rest untroubled, knowing well - That faithful hearts shall hold his memory dear, - Moved to affection weak words cannot tell - By his short, splendid life that knew no fear; - Beloved of the gods, the gods have ta’en - Their Ganymede, by bright Apollo slain! - -Almost as celebrated as Dr. Dollard’s sonnet to Brooke is Lieutenant -Arthur Bourinot’s sonnet to the dead poet-soldier. For the sake of -variety in forms we quote _Immortality_—a most winsome, tender lyric; -simple, sincere, and convincing—from Lieutenant Bourinot’s _Laurentian -Lyrics_ (1915):— - - They are not dead, the soldier and the sailor, - Fallen for Freedom’s sake; - They merely sleep with faces that are paler - Until they wake. - - They will not weep, the mothers, in the years - The future will decree; - For they have died that the battles and the tears - Should cease to be. - - They will not die, the victorious and the slain, - Sleeping in foreign soil, - They gave their lives, but to the world is the gain - Of their sad toil. - - They are not dead, the soldier and the sailor, - Fallen for Freedom’s sake; - They merely sleep with faces that are paler - Until they wake. - -The most lilting example of Canadian inspirational war verse is Douglas -Durkin’s _The Fighting Men of Canada_. It is spirited and inspiriting. -The colloquial diction of the refrains charges it with veracity, -vividness, and with ‘the punch’ which the London critic, Mr. E. B. -Osborn, desiderates in the content of what are, in his view, the only -‘true war poems,’ namely, ‘song-pictures of the campaigns and of -soldiers’ life’:— - - Call it lust, or call it honor. Call it glory in a name! - We’re a handful, more or less, of what we were, - But we praise the grim Almighty that we stuck and played the game, - Till we chased them at the double to their lair. - For the word came, ‘Up and over!’ - And our answer was a yell - As we scrambled out of cover— - And we dealt the dastards hell! - -Mr. Durkin’s ballad is a human, veracious war-poem in the traditional -spirit of Campbell’s _Battle of the Baltic_, Tennyson’s _Ballad of the -Revenge_, Newbolt’s _Drake’s Drum_. It is designedly inspirational after -the manner, and with the substance, of the old heroic ‘fighting spirit.’ -It is, therefore, a recrudescence of a war spirit and an ideal of poetic -inspiration, aim, and content which were not the real and authentic -spirit, motive, and ideal of the best Canadian, British, French, or -American poetry of the world war. In short, Mr. Durkin’s poem, _The -Fighting Men of Canada_, lilting, spirited, and inspiriting as it is, -must critically be estimated as an obsolete form of ‘recruiting’ ballad -rather than as a true inspirational poem conceived and written according -to the characteristic genius of the poetry of the world war. As a -reversion to the old type of martial poem, it deserves mention. Possibly -it may be instanced as the nearest approach to a Canadian war-song, -though the extraordinary fact is that not a single war-song, of the -popular or of the marching species, was written by a Canadian civilian -or soldier-poet. - -In the war verse of another poet we find the kind of poetry that fired -the imagination and moved the will of the men of Canada who went to the -world war. To Lloyd Roberts, son of Charles G. D. Roberts, the war -poetry of the British Empire, as well as Canada, is indebted for two of -the most striking and impressive short poems in the new spirit of -inspirational verse inspired by the world war. His _Come Quietly, -England_, simple and direct in thought, free in form, colloquial in -diction, but positive, candid, sincere, is one of the most arresting and -convincing poems that have for a theme ‘the call to arms’—not for King, -or Country, nor for fear or anything else undivine:— - - But for the sake of simple goodness - And His laws, - We shall sacrifice our all - For The Cause! - -_The Literary Digest_ remarked Lloyd Roberts’ _Come Quietly, England_ as -‘one of the most striking statements of what may be called the -philosophy of the war from the English [British] point of view because -it puts so candidly into words the thoughts that are in the minds of the -author’s fellow-countrymen.’ The other poem by Roberts, also in his new -simple, colloquial, direct style, is entitled _If I Must_. It is the -most remarkably original ‘anti-pacifist’ poem written by an -English-speaking poet. It takes the form of a quasi-dramatic monologue, -and concludes with a stanza which has, in journalistic slang, ‘punch’ in -it. We quote the whole poem:— - - God knows there’s plenty of earth for all of us; - Then why must we sweat for it, deny for it, - Pray for it, cry for it, - Kill, maim and lie for it, - Struggle and suffer and die for it— - We who are gentle and sane? - - Let us respect one another, wherever we are, - Fly your flag, O my brother; - I like its bright color, whether red, green, or yellow; - Your language is queer, but I’ll learn it in time; - And you’re a dear fellow, - If your laws are not quite so clean as our own; - But then ours need pruning, and thistles have grown. - - So I won’t spill your blood, for that’s not the way - To assist in law-making, whatever some say, - I’ll try by example to lead you aright - Out of the shadows and into the light— - If you’ll do as much for me. - - What! You don’t understand? - You refuse my right hand? - You say might is right, - And to live we must fight? - Are we still in such plight? - Poor, blind, stupid fool, so deep in the dust— - Well, hand me the gun— - If I must—if I must! - -It is, perhaps, in the best Canadian commemorative, elegiac, or -reflective poems of the Great War that the three supreme excellences, -Truth, Beauty, and Splendor of Ideas, in the war poetry of Canada are -most conspicuously present. The distinctive presence of these qualities -not only marks a clear advance beyond the older Canadian martial verse -but also establishes a high place for Canadian commemorative, elegiac -and reflective war verse in the body of war poetry written by poets of -the Allied Nations. Truth, Beauty, or Splendor of Ideas are in Gertrude -Bartlett’s _The Blessed Dead_, Grace Blackburn’s _Christ in Flanders_, -Lillie Brooks’ _Bereaved_, Helena Coleman’s _Oh, Not When April Wakes -the Daffodils_, Jean Blewett’s _The Lover Lads of Devon_, Lilian -Leveridge’s _Over the Hills of Home_, Florence Randal Livesay’s _A -Daffodil from Vimy Ridge_, Agnes Maule Machar’s _De Profundis_, Louise -Morey Bowman’s _The White Garden_, Virna Sheard’s _The Young Knight_, -Frederick George Scott’s _The Silent Toast_, Arthur Stringer’s -_Christmas Bells in War Time_, Archibald Sullivan’s _The Plaint of the -Children_, Beatrice Redpath’s _The Men of Canada_, Isabel Ecclestone -Mackay’s _The Mother Gives_, John Stuart Thomson’s _His Darkest Hour_, -A. E. S. Smythe’s noble sonnet _The Champions_, S. Morgan-Powell’s -magniloquent _Kitchener’s Work_, and W. D. Lighthall’s magnificent and -exalting poem _The Galahads_. - -One of the finest commemorative poems of the world war written by a -Canadian is Duncan Campbell Scott’s sonnet _To a Canadian Lad Killed in -the War_. It is fine in conception, novel in terminal endings and -elevating in emotional appeal. But fine as it is, it pales in aesthetic -and artistic dignity with the only Canadian war poem that has achieved -sublimity—the same poet’s unforgettably noble elegiacs _To a Canadian -Aviator (Who Died for His Country in France)_:— - - Tossed like a falcon from the hunter’s wrist - A sweeping plunge, a sudden shattering noise, - And thou hast dared, with a long spiral twist, - The elastic stairway to the rising sun. - Peril below thee and above, peril - Within thy car; but peril cannot daunt - Thy peerless heart; gathering wing and poise, - Thy plane transfigured, and thy motor-chant - Subdued to a whisper—then a silence,— - And thou art but a disembodied venture - In the void. - - But Death, who has learned to fly, - Still matchless when his work is to be done, - Met thee between the armies and the sun; - Thy speck of shadow faltered in the sky; - Then thy dead engine and thy broken wings - Drooped through the arc and passed in fire, - A wreath of smoke—a breathless exhalation. - But ere that came, a vision sealed thine eyes, - Lulling thy senses with oblivion; - And from its sliding station in the skies - Thy dauntless soul upward in circles soared - To the sublime and purest radiance whence it sprang. - - In all their eyries eagles shall mourn thy fate, - And leaving on the lonely crags and scaurs - Their unprotected young, shall congregate - High in the tenuous heaven and anger the sun - With screams, and with a wild audacity - Dare all the battle danger of thy flight; - Till weary with combat one shall desert the light, - Fall like a bolt of thunder and check his fall - On the high ledge, smoky with mist and cloud, - Where his neglected eaglets shriek aloud, - And drawing the film across his sovereign sight - Shall dream of thy swift soul immortal - Mounting in circles, faithful beyond death. - -In that poem we perceive, unmistakably, how even war verse may rise to -the spiritual dignity of absolute poetry, and by its ideal substance and -spiritual grandeur achieve the highest moral and religious function—the -function, namely, of dignifying or glorifying the human spirit with -Christlikeness in self-slaying love for the perfection and happiness of -humanity. Only a too fastidious and perverted criticism will deny to the -best of the Canadian poetry of the World War a distinction in truth, -beauty, and splendor of ideas and in technical artistry that gives it -the right to an equal place beside the significant war verse of the -British and United States poets. Certainly in technique it is quite as -finished as the American war poetry, and in ideas of ‘uncompelled and -undiluted chivalry,’ it is as noble and eloquent as the war poetry of -the British singers. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI - - - Hymn Writers - - THE HYMN WRITERS OF CANADA—ALLINE—CLEVELAND—SCRIVEN— MURRAY— - SCOTT—RAND—DEWART—WALKER—AND OTHERS. - -A hymn is a form of sacred lyrical literature. It must be popular -literature, but not necessarily pure poetry or permanent literature. A -hymn is properly defined not by what it _is_ in literary qualities but -by what it _does_ for the human spirit—for the heart and the religious -imagination. It aims lyrically to express dependence on divine -providence, to praise the divine perfections, to give thanks for divine -mercies and benefits, and to supplicate divine aid in doubt and weakness -and divine consolation in tribulation and defeat. A hymn, in short, is -the spontaneous lyrical expression of a paternal and filial relationship -between Man and God. - -The structural qualities which constitute a true hymn are few and -readily understood. Since a hymn must above all things be potent over -the hearts and imagination of _all_ the people, its diction must be -vernacular—simple words of one and two syllables. Since a hymn must be -singable by _all_ the people in concert, its metrical flow must be short -and rhythmical. In aesthetic qualities a hymn should be simple but -beautiful in thought, sentiment and imagery. In moral qualities a hymn -should be suggestive of human but holy relations between Man and Divine -Providence. These are the prime qualities that constitute the popularity -of a hymn and give it a place either in permanent poetry or in permanent -hymnody. - -Several Canadians, _émigrés_ or native-born, have written hymns which -have a rightful and permanent place in church hymnody. The history of -Canadian hymnography dates back to the year 1786. In that year Henry -Alline, leader of the ‘New Lights’ schism in Nova Scotia, published his -_Hymns and Spiritual Songs_. He was as prolific a hymn writer as Charles -Wesley, having five books of hymns to his credit. His diction is not -always true to the demands of a hymn; sometimes it is stilted and too -literary. But his imagery is simple and the movement of his thought is -direct. The chief merit of his hymns is their genuine lyrical quality; -they have rhythmical flow. One or two of them have held a permanent -place in church hymnody, as, for instance, the hymn beginning with this -homely image expressed in vernacular English:— - - Amazing sight! the Saviour stands - And knocks at every door— - -Of the Cleveland family in the Old Colonies two members emigrated to -Nova Scotia—Aaron Cleveland, who became minister of Mather’s (now St. -Matthew’s) church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Benjamin Cleveland who -joined in with the ‘New Lights,’ and emulated Alline as a hymn writer. -One of his hymns still finds a place in church hymnody in Canada, the -familiar hymn beginning - - Oh, could I find from day to day - A nearness to my God. - -None of the hymns of Alline or Cleveland, however, attained a world-wide -popularity. The first Canadian to write a hymn that has become not only -world-famous but also has been translated into several ‘heathen tongues’ -as well as civilized languages was Joseph Scriven, author of the simple -spiritual song, _What a Friend We Have in Jesus_. The man and the hymn -have a remarkable history, which is recounted by Rev. James Clelland in -his biographical sketch in a tiny thirty-page booklet entitled: _What a -Friend We Have in Jesus, and Other Hymns by Joseph Scriven_. It was -published at Port Hope, Ontario, in 1895. - -For many years the hymn had been attributed, without authentication, to -Dr. Horatius Bonar. But in 1893 a letter appeared in the _New York -Observer_, in which it was stated that the hymn had been found amongst -some papers belonging to Joseph Scriven, who had ended his life by -suicide. Scriven was a local preacher but he was a graduate of Trinity -College, Dublin, and was, therefore, a man of respectable culture. Like -Cowper, Scriven suffered from melancholia; and it is natural to suppose -that he had written the hymn after recovery from one of his fits of -melancholia. He was a shy man, and after writing the hymn gave a copy of -it to his mother, from whom he extracted a promise that she would not -reveal its existence or show it to anyone else. But whether the mother’s -pride in her son’s accomplishment overcame her, or whether due to some -sort of accident, the hymn reached a certain Mr. Converse, a musician, -and he at once set it to music of the more popular kind. Soon the hymn -attained a popular vogue in the United States and from there gained -equally popular vogue in Canada. Some are inclined to believe that it -was not the hymn itself but the musical setting that created its -popularity. No doubt the musical setting to Lyte’s _Abide With Me_, or -to Newman’s _Lead Kindly Light_, has considerable to do with the appeal -of those hymns. Newman expressly attributes the popularity of his hymn -to the musical setting and not to the spiritual beauty of the text. But -the musical setting to Scriven’s _What a Friend We Have In Jesus_ is so -poor in melodic invention and so lacking in cantante quality and -rhythmic flow that as a tune or melody it is not singable or infectious -and could not be a compelling ‘sacred folksong.’ We must, therefore, -charge its popularity to the appeal of the text of the hymn to some -elemental want or need of humble human hearts. - -But whatever the cause of the popularity of this hymn, whether the words -or the musical setting or both, the fact remains that it is the most -widely known hymn in Christian hymnology. It has been translated into -many of the civilized and the barbaric languages of the world, and more -than a hundred million impressions of the hymn have been printed. -Searching for a psychological explanation of its appeal to the universal -human heart, we know that as a matter of fact it has solaced, as one -writer puts it, ‘millions and millions of souls, from the criminal on -his way to the scaffold to the ocean traveller in his last moment aboard -a sinking ship; from the negro in his wretched plantation cabin to the -highest dignitary of the evangelical churches; from the unclad heathen -denizen of the cannibalistic South Sea Islands or in wildest Africa to -the most learned savant of the most civilized land.’ The obvious -explanation of its appeal is that Scriven’s hymn expresses, both for the -humble and for the highest, the elemental and inevitable sense of -_dependence_ for life and happiness on some spiritual power that is -mighty to comfort, solace, sustain, and save. When that sense of -dependence comes over any human being, and when such a human being feels -that there is an ever-ready invisible hand to sustain or succor, in that -moment the sense of dependence and of ever-ready aid, and of joy or -comfort or hope thus awakened, are expressed in emotionalized rhythm, -which is religious song. - -Scriven lacked lyrical or rhythmical sensibility, and his famous hymn -possesses no aesthetic or artistic appeal. But in times of need, -aesthetics are the poorest support and solace. In spite, then, of the -lyrical and aesthetic defects of Scriven’s simple hymn, it has remained, -by virtue of its elemental appeal to people of all estates and by its -solacing and sustaining power, one of the world’s perduring sacred -songs. - -From a strictly Canadian point of view and with reference to aesthetic -qualities which give a hymn a dignity of poetry, the most notable and -significant hymn composed by a native-born Canadian is Robert Murray’s -_From Ocean Unto Ocean_. The author was born and educated in Nova -Scotia. From early childhood he disclosed a Keltic gift of imagination -and fondness for expressing his emotions in verse. Dr. Murray was a -religious journalist, and, as editor of _The Presbyterian Witness_, did -much to raise ordinary journalism to the dignity of literature. - -It was his custom to write hymns and to publish them anonymously in the -religious press. Those who had an eye for the revision of church hymnals -were struck by the aesthetic beauty and dignity as well as religious -fervor of Dr. Murray’s hymns. They are indeed extraordinary, and the -substance of them is so universalized that they fit the hymnals or Books -of Praise of any Christian communion, Protestant or Catholic. His hymns -are included in the _Book of Praise_ of the Presbyterian Church of -Canada; in the _Book of Common Praise_ of the Church of England in -Canada; and in _The Hymnary_ of the Scottish Churches. Rev. A. W. Mahon -observes in his readable brochure, _Canadian Hymns and Hymn Writers_ -(1908): ‘Thirteen Canadians contribute to the New Church of England Book -of Common Praise, including Canon Welsh of Toronto and the late Dean -Partridge of Fredericton, but Dr. Murray’s contributions exceed all -other in number and in intrinsic merit.’ - -To appreciate Murray’s _From Ocean Unto Ocean_—its intrinsic merits, as -well as its special qualities and fervor which embody and express the -Canadian national spirit—the whole poem must be read and felt both as a -hymn for devotional and for national occasions. Following is the full -text of Dr. Murray’s hymn:— - - From ocean unto ocean - Our land shall own Thee Lord, - And, filled with true devotion - Obey Thy sovereign word. - Our prairies and our mountains, - Forest and fertile field, - Our rivers, lakes, and fountains, - To Thee shall tribute yield. - - O Christ, for Thine own glory, - And for our country’s weal, - We humbly plead before Thee, - Thyself in us reveal; - And may we know, Lord Jesus, - The touch of Thy dear hand; - And, healed of our diseases, - The tempter’s power withstand. - - Where error smites with blindness, - Enslaves and leads astray, - Do Thou in lovingkindness - Proclaim Thy gospel day; - Till all the tribes and races - That dwell in this fair land, - Adorned with Christian graces, - Within Thy courts shall stand. - - Our Saviour King, defend us, - And guide where we should go; - Forth with Thy message send us; - Thy love and light to show; - Till, fired with true devotion - Enkindled by Thy word, - From ocean unto ocean - Our land shall own Thee Lord. - -The diction of this hymn is simple, vernacular; of 160 words in the text -only ten are of Latin origin, and even these are as short and familiar -as our Anglo-Saxon diction. The rhythmic flow is thoroughly lyrical. But -though simple in diction and lyrical structure, there is a universality -of reach or sweep in its imagery that, at least relatively to most other -hymns, raises Murray’s hymn to the dignity of poetry. There is no -provincialism in it. There is no denominationalism in it. There is no -narrow or bigoted ethics in it. It is thoroughly human and humane. It -possesses universality and spiritual dignity. It is all that a true hymn -should be. - -Murray’s hymn, moreover, in humanity and spiritual dignity, contrasts -winningly with the original form of the British, which is also the -Canadian, National Anthem. This so-called anthem has been revised so as -to remove from it certain inane thoughts and sentiments and imagery that -were not consistent with Christian charity and the ideal of human -brotherhood. Canada has, too, its own indigenous National Song or Hymn -which is the text to a sonorous organ-toned musical setting by Calixa -Lavallée. The original text of the Canadian National Hymn is by -Routhier. It is patriotic in the old exclusive sense, containing that -kind of patriotism which is solicitous about the mere material success -and aggrandizement of Canada. But Murray’s _From Ocean Unto Ocean_ is so -human and so humane, so unracial, so unprovincial, so unsectarian, and -by its imagery so informed with the free and all-embracing spirit of the -Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, bounding the vast Canadian prairies and -mountains and forests, that its spiritual sweep takes in the whole of -Canada without respect to race or region or religion, or high degree or -low degree of person, and is fitted to be, if not the National Anthem, -at any rate the National Hymn, of Canada. It is at once both Christian -and Universal—a distinctive and authentic hymn, and an original -contribution to permanent Canadian hymnody. - -Murray was not a creative poet in the sense of being a systematic poet. -But Canon Frederick George Scott, who is a member of the Systematic -School of Canadian poets, has written hymns. They are strictly -evangelical, rather than universal in thought and scope, and are in the -traditional hymn form. They have a sweet simplicity and a spiritual -dignity but, beyond their lyrical or rhythmic expressiveness, have no -especial aesthetic and artistic qualities that call for particular -critical consideration. The same appreciation suits a critical estimate -of the hymns by Silas T. Rand, Edward Hartley Dewart, Charles Innis -Cameron, Louisa Walker and other accepted Hymn Writers of Canada. - -Rand’s Latin Hymns are interesting as translations and are literary -phenomena by themselves. Cameron was a poet and his hymns have an -excellence of structure, imagery, and color that give them quite the -quality of poetry, though again, it must be observed, they are -evangelical, rather than universal, in scope and sweep. Anna Louisa -Walker is famous as the author of the hymn _Work, For The Night Is -Coming_. This is really a ‘sacred folk-song.’ It has indeed a wide -popularity, but by no means as wide as Scriven’s world-famous hymn. -Albert Durrant Watson and Alexander Louis Fraser are hymn writers of -distinction. Summarily: Canadian Hymn Writers have contributed -substantially to the hymnody of the Evangelical Church in Canada, and, -at least in two instances, to permanent hymnody. But no Canadian hymn -has the structural beauty and spiritual sublimation which belong to such -hymns as Newman’s _Lead, Kindly Light_, or Baring-Gould’s _Onward, -Christian Soldiers_, or Lyte’s _Abide With Me_, and which lift these -hymns into the realm of authentic poetry. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - - - Literary Criticism - - LITERARY CRITICISM IN CANADA—SCHOOLS, AIMS, METHODS, AND DEFECTS - —NEW SYNOPTIC METHOD APPLIED TO POETRY OF OVERSEAS DOMINIONS. - _I. Schools of Literary Criticism._ - -In an old country, like England, which long has had established -standards of taste and refined artistry, literary criticism is a fine -art. The essays in criticism by Coleridge, Hazlitt, Arnold, Pater, -Arthur Symons, Gilbert Chesterton, Mackail, Ker, and others are polite, -disinterested, humane, and delightful in themselves. They have an -intrinsic charm of thought and style. They are literature. In a young -country, like Canada, when, in pioneer days, the people were necessarily -preoccupied wholly with practical living and material civilization, and -few were cultured and none had leisure for cultivating taste, literary -criticism, if it existed, was exotic and traditional. Later, when the -people are still primarily occupied with material civilization but -decent culture is distributed and there is leisure for cultivating -taste, literary criticism becomes imitative but academic, and, -sometimes, is in the manner of the dilettante. Finally, when the people -of a young country become conscious that they have a native literature -and indigenous standards of taste but are in doubt about the status of -their literature and the aesthetic dignity of their literary taste, -literary criticism becomes pragmatic or pedagogical or philosophical. - -In its first stage literary criticism in a young country attempts to -_appraise_, by exotic, traditional standards, foreign literature. Such -criticism has no communal value. It is not disinterested but personal. -It only exhibits, as it was intended to do, the fine taste and style of -the critics. In its pragmatic stage literary criticism in a young -country attempts to _praise_ native literature, so as to win for this -literature the appreciation of the people in the land in which it was -produced and, secondarily, the decent regard of foreign men of letters. -The matter of such pragmatic criticism always counts most, or for more -than the manner or style. It aims to be constructive. But because it is -self-conscious, self-reliant, and ardent, its praise tends to be too -high and its condemnation too severe. In the final stage literary -criticism becomes less self-conscious, less ardent, and more detached -and philosophical towards native literature. It takes a synoptic view of -the whole civilization and culture which the native literature of a -young country embodies and interprets. It looks first to this literature -as an entity by itself and next regards it from the point of view of -absolute or long established standards. It judges the native poetry and -prose of a young country by their relative importance to the people of -that country itself, and by its dignity as a contribution to -world-literature. - -These are the stages in evolution of Literary Criticism in Canada. -Progressively there arose four Schools of Criticism—the Traditional, -the Academic or Dilettante, the Pragmatic or Pedagogical, and the -Synoptic or Philosophical. But the fourth is not so much a new School as -it is the Pragmatic School with a broader and more philosophical -application of its aims and methods. All these distinctions, however, -are themselves pedagogical. The members of the various Schools commingle -aesthetic, academic, and pragmatic methods in the same essay, for the -reason that in Canada criticism has been compelled, as it still is -compelled, to be primarily a cultural agency, and could never aim to be -literature, wholly delectable in itself. - -The Traditional School has passed but it was represented by such -deceased critics as George Stewart, John Reade, George Murray, and -Martin Griffin. The Academic or Dilettante School is represented by -Professors James Cappon, W. J. Alexander, Pelham Edgar, and Archibald -MacMechan, and by Sir Andrew Macphail, and Arnold Haultain; and the -Pragmatic School, by T. G. Marquis, Miss Jean Graham, Miss Marjory -MacMurchy, Katherine Hale (Mrs. John Garvin), Donald G. French, Melvin -O. Hammond, R. H. Hathaway, J. D. Logan, and Bernard Muddiman. The -Synoptic School, which, too, is pragmatic but also philosophical, is -represented by Ray Palmer Baker, author of _A History of -English-Canadian Literature to Confederation_ and by the author of the -present work. - -As to the aims and methods of the members of the Traditional and the -Academic Schools:—In general, Reade and Griffin wrote critically, to -illuminate universal literature (poetry, fiction, drama, social life, -and history). The members of the Academic or Dilettante School have, on -the whole, the same aim, but sometimes they write critical essays as a -fine art in the department of _belles-lettres_. Reade and Griffin wrote -on literature and life in brief but scholarly journalistic essays. -Professors Cappon, Alexander, Edgar, and MacMechan wrote or write -monographs (as, for instance, Cappon’s fine study of the poetry of C. G. -D. Roberts) or critical introductions and prefatory essays to selected -English men of letters (as, for instance, Alexander’s admirable -_Introduction to Browning_ or MacMechan’s scholarly Introductions to his -_Selections from Tennyson_ and Carlyle’s _Sartor Resartus_). Dr. -Macphail and Mr. Haultain delight in the critical essay for its own -sake, and are more solicitous about beauty or dignity of style than -about substance or thought. Their essays belong to the department of -_belles-lettres_—not always and not essentially, but in tendency, form, -and aesthetic dignity or style. - -In particular, whenever the members of the first two schools have -written about any phase of the literary history and the literature of -Canada, or about any author who has figured notably in that history and -literature, they have been rigorously aesthetic and critical. But the -writers of the Traditional School differ from those of the Academic or -Dilettante School in critical attitude to Canadian literature and -literary history. Reade and Griffin wrote sympathetically, and with -sincere admiration, about phases of Canadian Literature; but they showed -little or no understanding of the historic process in the evolution of -Canadian culture, of the continuity of Canadian literary history. How, -then, could they have been more than merely aesthetic—how could they -have been genuinely critical—if they had not the philosophic eye, did -not look before and after, and thus did not treat the phases of Canadian -Literature from the point of view of its implied relations to the whole -of Canadian life and of English literature, of which Canadian verse and -prose form a part? Sympathetically, politely, and charmingly as Reade -wrote about the phases of Canadian Literature, his criticism, to employ -a phrase of M. Jules Lemaitre, was ‘not criticism, but entertaining -conversation.’ Virtually it denied that Canada possessed a literature, a -body of poetry and prose which should be regarded as a real integer, -having unity of inspiration and a continuous growth from crude thought -and form to respectable aesthetic and artistic dignity. It implied only -that in the literature of Canada there are no ‘highways,’ but only -pleasant ‘by-ways’ which invite the essayist to write of them with -aesthetic appreciation. This is not philosophical, not genuine, -criticism; it is polite, entertaining conversation. For the problem of -Canadian literary criticism is not the question whether Canada has -produced, intermittently and here and there, some original authors who -have composed poetry and prose as aesthetically winning and as -artistically beautiful or dignified as that of British and American -writers, but whether the Dominion has produced a continuous body of -poetry and prose, which, at its best, may justly be considered genuine -literature, worthy to be regarded, as American literature is regarded, -as a living branch of English Literature. - -While the members of the Academic School take the strictly aesthetic -attitude to Canadian Literature, and show little or no appreciation of -the historic process in the evolution of Canadian culture, they differ -even in aesthetic attitude from their predecessors. They are rather -dogmatic and patronizing towards Canadian prose and poetry. - -As to the aims and methods of the Pragmatic School:—The members of this -school have for their central principle or chief article of faith the -proposition that Canada has a worthy body of authentic literature, which -is being perennially enhanced in quantity and in quality. For their -second principle they hold to the proposition that Canadian literary -critics must more or less intimately know the history—the social and -spiritual origins, ideals, and evolution—of Canadian Literature. For -their third principle they have the proposition that the independent, -sincere, honest, and really serviceable literary critic to-day must be -constructive and pedagogic in method. They do not write literary -criticism which is meant to be literature itself, intrinsically -aesthetic, or pleasantly engaging reading on its own account. They call -their essays, whether a journalistic review or editorial, or a magazine -article, constructive criticism. Their critical writings are, in the -Greek sense, pragmatic. For the chief aims of the Canadian constructive -critics are these two: first, to make plain and indubitable to their -compatriots and the world that Canada has a really respectable body of -literature; secondly, to appraise new works of verse and prose by -Canadians and to determine the status of their worth in the permanent -literature of Canada. Canadian constructive critics have also a third -aim. It is pedagogical: to teach the people a decent knowledge of the -literary history of Canada and an aesthetic appreciation of Canadian -poetry and prose. The members of the Pragmatic School all write with -knowledge of their subject, with literary dignity, thoughtfully, and, on -the whole, convincingly and effectively. Their systematic and ardent -championing of the cause of Canadian Literature has had a three-fold -result. It has led to establishment of regular courses in the study of -Canadian Literature in the universities and colleges of the Dominion and -in some universities of the United States, to a wider study and -appreciation of Canadian Literature on the part of the people, and to -finer critical and creative writing by Canadian men and women of -letters. - - _II. The Synoptic Method._ - -Literary criticism in Canada has had two faults. It was _vicarious_—an -echo of foreign criticism which was patronizing and insincere, and, -therefore, untrue and harmful. It was too _inclusive_ in conspectus and -standards, for Canadian poetry and prose were critically compared with -classical English Literature. This was to write criticism without -perspective and without respect to a hierarchy of values. It was -supererogatory and therefore futile. Even the Pragmatic School of -Canadian literary critics did not wholly escape this second fault. It -will result better for the advancement of Canadian Criticism if the -literatures of the British Overseas Dominions—Canada, Australia, New -Zealand, Tasmania, South Africa—are compared amongst themselves; and if -thus the status of each relatively in the literature of the Empire is -critically determined. - -By this method of comparing child with child, and not the child with the -parent, the literary historian shows how worthily Canadian poetry and -prose compare with other Overseas poetry and prose, and what right -Canadian and other Overseas literature have to be considered respectable -branches of the literature of the Empire. A comparative appreciation of -the Poetry of Canada and the other Overseas Dominions will suffice. - -If Canadians have not written ‘great’ poetry, they have written poetry -in which, as Mr. E. B. Osborn, of the London _Morning Post_, says, ‘the -most exacting critic can find something to admire.’ The problem of -literary criticism in Canada to-day is not whether Canada has produced -or is producing ‘great poetry,’ but whether it has produced or is -producing good poetry, consistently with its grade of culture, -civilization and national inspirations and aspirations—poetry that can -genuinely be admired and that deserves to be preserved. To observe that -Canada has produced good poetry, near-great poetry, is not, as many -Canadians seem to feel it is, to damn it with faint praise, but sensibly -to evaluate it. Those native critics who ignore Canadian poetry because, -as they think, it is not ‘great’ poetry and is, therefore, not ‘real’ -poetry or not poetry worthy of the name of literature, are maladroit -logicians. Those other native critics who discover Coleridge -reincarnated in Bliss Carman, Tennyson in Roberts, Keats in Lampman, -Matthew Arnold in Duncan Campbell Scott, Kipling in Service are damning -Canadian poetry with superobese praise. The truth is that Canada has -produced systematic poets who have written much poetry that is good, -some that is super-excellent, and some rare examples that are near the -perfection which entitles them, in their kind, to be ranked as really -great. - -Canadian poetry, in variety of theme or species, and in technical -finish, naturally might be presumed to be superior to that of Australia, -New Zealand, or South Africa. In a literary way, Canada is not much, if -at all, older than Australia. Both countries depend on England for their -literary standards and poetic forms. But in changes of seasons and their -effects on the beauty and call of objective Nature, Canada has greater -variety, and Nature makes a deeper impress on the soul, than is possible -by climatic changes and Nature’s varying face and garb in Australia. -Moreover, Canada has a unique background of romantic history which -affords Canadian poets special opportunities to incorporate romantic and -heroic material in their poetry, or to suffuse it with the glamor of -romance. Australia has not this romantic history, and Australian poets, -therefore, have less opportunity to make their descriptive and narrative -poetry interesting or entrancing by way of romantic glamor. Again: -Canada has had several internal or national crises which have had a -distinct effect on the conscience of the Canadian people—creating in -them a sense of solidarity, evoking a national consciousness, and -filling them with national aspirations and an intense desire to work out -their own destiny. Australia has not had any such internal crises; and, -it is, therefore, not to be expected that Australian poetry will be -noted for peculiar, intense, or profound expressions of the sense of -nationality and of destiny. - -But while in Canada the literature most in popular demand is imaginative -prose, and while the majority of readers are virtually perusers of prose -fiction, in Australia the readers and writers of poetry are legion or, -as one critic has put it, ‘poetry out there is a national habit.’ Mr. -Arthur Adams, an Australian editor, has stated that while he was always -certain of getting good verse from contributors, he was never certain of -getting a good story. It has been quite the other way in Canada—an -editor is practically certain of getting a good piece of prose or a good -story, and never sure of getting a technically worthy poem, or even -verse which might by courtesy be called poetry. In Canada, with the -exception of the enormous sales of Service’s volumes and W. H. -Drummond’s _habitant_ verse, Canadian poets have had to be content with -very small editions, and even some of these had many left-over copies, -absolutely unsaleable. In Australia the sale of poetry—of large -successive editions of the poems of Adam Lindsay Gordon, Henry Lawson, -Will H. Ogilvie, A. B. Patterson, C. J. Dennis, the latter’s running -beyond 100,000 copies in 1917—is a literary phenomenon by itself; and -goes to prove that in Australia the reading and the writing of poetry -are virtually national habits. - -On the sides, then, of romantic historical backgrounds, practical or -social crises, and variety, beauty, and sublimity of Nature, Canada was -naturally fitted to produce a larger and more impressive body of poetry -than was Australia. But as a matter of fact, in at least two respects, -Australian poetry rather surpasses Canadian. Canadian poets never had a -waiting and avid body of readers. Australian poets had precisely such a -_clientèle_. This means that in Canada poetry would not be written with -the consciousness of a critical public in mind—a public that would as -readily reject or condemn poetry which was not satisfactory as it would -accept and praise poetry which satisfied, whereas in Australia poetry -would be written consciously aiming at pleasing and satisfying a -critical public of readers. In other words, while Canadian poets had -only foreign or English standards, and practically no domestic standards -or _clientèle_, Australian poets had both foreign and domestic standards -and a very large and responsive domestic public of readers. - -The result was that while in Canada the general run of poetry was -technically indifferent, at least until the rise of the Systematic -School, in Australia the run of poetry, irrespective of the themes, was -technically better finished than the Canadian. The Canadians did not -seem to write with a consciousness of English standards and criticism. -Their poetry was only for home consumption—and the substance counted -more than the form or style. The Australians, as poets, on the whole -were more cultured than the Canadians and wrote their verse as if -distinctly conscious that it would be seen and read in England, and -judged according to rigorous English standards, because regarded as -written by _absentee_ Englishmen. Australian verse was written more for -English readers than for home readers. But the home readers also read -with English standards in view—even though the themes were Australian, -horse-racing and other picaresque life or the more dignified themes of -Nature’s loveliness, Nature’s immensities, or tragic death in the -wilderness. Hence, on the whole, Australian poetry actually shows a -better _technical_ finish than does Canadian poetry. - -Canadian and Australian poets naturally produced verse which is marked -by fervid nature-painting and by realistic pictures of pioneer and wild -romantic social life. But in fine nature-painting the Canadians surpass -the Australians. Both in color from Nature (Canadian poets have the -larger, more varied palette) and in technical artistry Australia has not -produced a poet of the quality of Lampman, Wilfred Campbell, or Duncan -Campbell Scott. Nor when it comes to envisaging the _moods_ of Nature -and the open-road, has Australia produced a poet of the lyrical quality -of Bliss Carman. Canada’s Nature-painters are superb _artists_. - -But the Australian poets have their _forte_. In realistic pictures of -rough or pioneer social life, they surpass the Canadian poets. The -Canadian poet Drummond, of course, stands in a class by himself, -inasmuch as his poetry of the _habitant_ and _voyageur_ was a field -pre-empted by him and inasmuch as his poetry in this field is devoted to -picturesque revealment of the _humanity_—the pathos and humor—of the -thought, speech and simple life—of a peculiar but morally worthy -people. There is nothing melodramatic in Drummond’s poetry. It is -genuinely humanized verse about a genuinely human people. Service’s -Western and Northern Canadian verse, on the contrary, is the poetry of -picaresque melodrama. The best ballads of the Australian poets of rough -or pioneer life, A. L. Gordon, A. B. Patterson, Henry Lawson, C. J. -Dennis, are authentic poetry. In remarking the distinction between the -Australian and the Canadian poets of rude or picaresque life, Mr. E. B. -Osborn truthfully says: ‘Some of the poems in his [Service’s] last -volume are a _near approach_ to the Australian realism, which avoids the -melodramatic and the splashing of anapests as far as possible and makes -use of the quiet-curtain. So far the manly adventurous poets of Canada -[Service, Stead, McInnes, Fraser, _et al._] have not progressed far -beyond the Adam Lindsay Gordon convention. As yet none of the Western -Canadian poets see that _style_ is the only antiseptic and, as artists, -they are far behind the Australians and compare unfavorably with the -minor masters of Quebec.’ - -What has been said regarding the technical finish of Australian verse -applies also to the verse of New Zealand and of South Africa, and to the -latter with even more truth. For all the South African poets happened to -be men and women of culture. Thomas Pringle was a man of rare and -refined culture. So are Arthur Cripps, R. C. Russell, John Runcie, Mrs. -Beatrice Bromley, W. C. Scully, and a score of others. - -What, then, is the status of Canadian poetry in the poetry of the -Empire? Canadian nature-poetry, in variety of theme, substance, color, -imagery and artistry, at its best, surpasses that of the other -Dominions. Much of Overseas poetry is concerned with social life. In the -past Canadians displayed an insistent sense of a call to work out their -own destiny, and a profound pride in the resources and institutions of -their country. In the verse of Canadian poets the ‘note’ in this regard -is somewhat too insistent, almost strident. But the stridency of the -national ‘note’ is nothing compared with another defect. The moral -earnestness of Canadian poets is so obtrusive that it either causes a -neglect of form in order to get the important thing said, or it -effervesces in insincere and melodramatic utterances. Australian, New -Zealand, and South African poets do not exhibit the same intense -consciousness nationality and destiny. They still hold to the idea of -the Motherland, still feel their connection with the Old Country. For -this reason they write of social life in their respective countries with -more objectivity than do the Canadians, revealing the joys and humor and -pathos of life with a realism that is veracious and sincere. - -So far no Overseas poetry, Canadian or other, has contributed anything -novel or original to the forms and aesthetic values of English poetry. -In this respect no Overseas poetry is ‘great’ poetry, although much of -it is genuinely ‘real’ and excellent poetry. But in aesthetic content, -as in its Nature-painting or Nature-psychology, and in moral substance, -all Overseas poetry—all the best of it—is admirable. Canadian poetry, -however, ranks highest, particularly in self-reliance, in faith in the -land and the people, in serenity and a profound trust in the -providential government of nations that love righteousness and pursue -it. - -Summarily: Canadian poetry, excepting the realism of Service, is the -sincerest poetry written in the Overseas Dominions of the British -Empire. It is not always the most joyous, the most winning, the most -moving, or the most transporting. But it is the most sincere and serene, -and, therefore, the most satisfying, verse in the poetry of the British -Overseas Dominions. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVIII - - - Essayists _and_ Color Writers - - THE ESSAYISTS AND COLOR WRITERS OF CANADA—CARMAN—MACMECHAN— - BLAKE—KATHERINE HALE—KING—DEACON—LEACOCK. - -Canadian essays, familiar studies of life and manners, or essays in -_belles lettres_, are too meagre in quantity and too ephemeral or slight -in aesthetic substance as yet to be significant. Pure criticism of fine -arts, including literature, is also slight in quantity and insignificant -in form and substance. Both literary criticism and essays in -_belles-lettres_ are possible only under certain social and mental -conditions. There must be a considerable degree of economic independence -and leisure so as to permit writers to view Nature and existence with -detachment. The writers themselves must be specially gifted with a light -literary touch, a delicate sensibility to impressions from Nature and -character, and a refined sense of the relative values of good and evil, -tragedy and comedy, in the world, a whimsical or gracious humor and a -faculty for gentle revery. In short, detachment, an eye for beauty in -Nature and the human spirit and a genuine humor are necessary in writers -who would achieve distinction in the field of the Familiar Essay and in -Belletristic Literature. In Canada, however, where life is strenuous and -where men and women must take pragmatic or moralistic attitudes to -existence, detachment, humor, and a light touch are rarely possible. The -result is that the belletristic literature of Canada is slight and as -yet insignificant. - -The most notable work of the kind appears to be the essays of Bliss -Carman. He has published four volumes, considerable in quantity, on the -philosophy of Nature and the Spirit, distinguished by a clear, -well-knit, and readable prose style, and rich in poetic suggestiveness -and spiritual power. These volumes are _The Kinship of Nature_, _The -Friendship of Art_, _The Poetry of Life_, and _The Making of -Personality_. Plato, the Greek Gnostics and Mystics, and the -Transcendentalism of Emerson informed Carman’s heart and sublimated his -imagination pantheistically and mystically. Carman applied his poetic -imagination to a special philosophical interpretation and appreciation -of Man’s kinship with Nature, and of the metaphysical meaning of the -human personality or spirit in its relation to Nature and the universe. -In truth, Carman’s prose and poetry are related as the converse and -obverse sides of his inner being. Indeed the secret of the inner springs -of his lyricism is to be discovered beautifully, lyrically, expressed in -his prose essays. - -But Carman’s essays are not prose poetry. He did not attempt, as Roberts -attempted in his prose, to write impressionistic prose. Carman does not -aim at mere color-writing for its own sake. What he attempts and -achieves is a subtle analysis of the history of the spirit in its -relations to man and to God and the whole universe. Because this was his -aim, Carman was solicitous about his style—especially about clarity of -diction and pure beauty of imagery, and about the simplicity and -readableness of the structure of his sentences. In short, Carman’s prose -style has the same simplicity and directness and chaste beauty of -imagery and spiritual exaltation which we find in his lyrics. For this -reason we may signalize Carman’s prose as ‘lyrical’ prose. But we are by -no means to allow this epithet to connote anything like sensuous -impressionism or vague imagination. It is all solid, if sublimated, -thought about profound matters, addressed to the imaginative reason or -the religious imagination, and addressed in a style so clear and direct -and so emotionally pure that it affects the heart and the imagination -lyrically. - -An essayist in another style is Archibald MacMechan. Dr. MacMechan has -published two volumes, _The Porter of Bagdad_ (1901) and _The Life of a -Little College_ (1914); and he has published several booklets of essays -in a series of ‘chap books.’ Dr. MacMechan is unsurpassed in Canada as a -writer of the Light Essay. He differs of course from Carman in bent of -genius as an essayist. Carman employs the religious or metaphysical -imagination and appeals to our sensibilities. Dr. MacMechan employs the -fancy. His essays are essentially, as he indicates in the title of _The -Porter of Bagdad_, ‘fantasies’ or reveries. His style has a lightness of -touch which is inviting and ingratiating, and he has a delicate and -pleasant gift of humor. He is hardly Addisonian, but the substance of -his essays, their diction, and the movement of his sentences engage the -attention and delight the sense of form with the readiness and pleasant -intrigue of the essays of Addison. - -Not in so light a style and not with such playful fancy as Dr. -MacMechan’s are the essays of W. H. Blake, widely known as the -translator of Louis Hémon’s romantic idyll of French Canada, _Maria -Chapdelaine_. Mr. Blake’s _Brown Waters and Other Sketches_, _In a -Fishing Country_, and _A Fisherman’s Luck_ indicate the scope and method -of his essays. They are ‘sketches’ of objective experiences. They are -not fantasies or reveries. The intellect, rather than the fancy, is the -creative faculty most employed in them. Mr. Blake’s essays, therefore, -have not the lightness and the limpidity of MacMechan’s but they contain -happy revealments of Nature in Canada and of the human spirit against a -background of Nature. At times, they contain patches of engaging -‘color-writing.’ - -In the field of systematic ‘color-writing’ Katherine Hale is an artist -by herself. In aesthetic criticism Katherine Hale’s _forte_ had always -been a gift of causing the imagination and sensibilities to appreciate -one art, say, music, in terms of another art, say, painting. Her musical -criticism is not musical, but _literary impressionism_. Its effect all -depends upon suggestion, particularly suggestion of color. When, -therefore, Katherine Hale turned to employ her pictorial imagination in -a field where the sense of color in Nature and of the ‘color of life’ -would be absolutely free and directly at home, she produced work which -is unique in its kind, as in her _Canadian Cities of Romance_ (1922). -The romance in this case is not the romance of sentiment and of wonder -and of curiosity. It is the romance that exists for the eyes which -perceive beauty in ancient by-ways, strange and eerie places, and in the -dress, manners and habits of peculiar peoples in towns and cities which -still retain a residue of an old and lost civilization and culture. Her -_Canadian Cities of Romance_ is a book by which to transport the -pictorial imagination and to win the imaginative eye with aesthetic -delights of ‘color’ in character, incident, and the dramatic movement of -life. Her literary style is piquant, swift-moving, realistically -faithful and yet suffused with tints from Nature’s palette and with -imaginative light. Its analogue is found in the travel essays of E. V. -Lucas. - -In another form of the Essay, namely, the Practical, Reflective Essay, -very little has been achieved, because rarely attempted, in Canada. -Canadians do not seem to have the same desire as their cousins in the -United States for homilies or practical preachments on the secret of -‘getting along’ in the world. An excellent, if singular, example of the -Practical, Reflective Essay is _The Secret of Heroism_ by the Rt. Hon. -MacKenzie King, Premier of Canada. _The Secret of Heroism_ is a -biography of a human spirit, which, having served nobly on earth, -passed, and in passing left the effluence of his life, which is still -potent, to win men to the love of ‘otherworldliness.’ Aside from the -matter, it is notable as an example of what is rare in Canadian prose, -namely, ‘infused’ style, which requires that the matter and the form, -the thought and the expression, be indivisible. - -A pragmatic people, as are the Canadians, have little or no taste for -the Whimsical Essay. The matter of the whimsical essay counts for -nothing. Its appeal is altogether by way of piquancy in what is said. -Piquancy—not mordancy! For mordancy would only make what is said -satiric, and cause pain. The whimsical essay must cause mere smiles and -chuckles. It must be _clever_—and nothing more. Canadians are beginning -to turn more and more to this form of Essay. Its character and manner -are well exemplified in William A. Deacon’s _Pens and Pirates_ (1923). -The essays in this volume have novelty of theme, over which plays -precisely the light of a ‘whimsical’ fancy and humor. They are informed, -however, with the strictly literary color of allusion and quotation from -the poets and prosemen of all ages to the present, but in such an -incidental and light way that there is no show of pedantry. The allusion -and quotation are natural to Mr. Deacon’s professional office as a -reviewer of contemporary literature. His style is journalistic in the -French sense—‘style _coupe_’—as regards sentence length. But he adds a -piquancy to it which makes it somewhat ‘winged’ and which thus -pleasantly engages the sensibility. - -No Canadian as yet has appeared as a systematic writer of the Critical -Essay. Such essays of this genre as were published have been ‘fugitive,’ -and their aim and method have been pragmatic and pedagogical rather than -literary. There is, however, much room and great need in Canada for -systematic Essays in Criticism which shall have dignity of thought, -imaginative light, and grace or power of style, and which in themselves -shall be literature. Thomas O’Hagan’s Essays in _Canadian Literature_ -are too fragmentary and didactic to be literature, though they are -literary. L. J. Burpee’s _A Little Book of Canadian Essays_ contains -brief but illuminating critical studies of seven Canadian writers. -Stephen Leacock’s _Essays and Literary Studies_ are too heterogeneous in -theme and too variable (perhaps variegated) in style to be credited with -the dignity of systematic Essays in Criticism. They are interesting but -not weighty literary ‘Studies.’ The master critic has yet to appear in -Canada. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX - - - Anthologies - - CANADIAN BIRTHDAY BOOK (SERANUS)—DEWART’s SELECTIONS FROM - CANADIAN POETS—LIGHTHALL’S ‘SONGS OF THE GREAT DOMINION’—OXFORD - BOOK OF CANADIAN VERSE—GARVIN’S CANADIAN POETS, ETC. - -Every anthology of national literature must be critically appreciated -from the point of view of the aim of the author. Properly, according to -the roots of the word anthology, care, and even fastidiousness, are -implied on the part of the compiler. The world-famous collection of -Greek verse known as _The Greek Anthology_ is properly, that is both -etymologically and aesthetically, an ‘anthology.’ For the poems in it -were most carefully chosen before being collected together; and they -were selected strictly according to ideals of beauty in thought and -expression. So that the term anthology hardly if ever applies strictly -to the so called anthologies of Canadian verse. As a matter of fact such -collections of Canadian verse as have been compiled, actually do not -bear the title anthology; they bear some such title as ‘A Treasury,’ or -‘A Wreath,’ or ‘Flowers,’ of Canadian Verse. Sometimes the collections -have the plainest of practical titles, such as _Canadian Poets_ or -_Canadian Singers and Their Songs_, or _The Oxford Book of Canadian -Verse_. - -It is quite irrelevant and an elaboration of the obvious to dispraise, -as some Canadian critics have done, the contents of certain anthologies -of Canadian poetry, as of ‘unequal merit.’ They might as well say that -the culture and the cultural institutions of Canada are of ‘unequal -merit.’ Relatively to the poetry of old civilizations the poetry of -Canada is poor or mediocre or indifferent or fine in aesthetic substance -and artistic structure and form according to the culture and genius of -the country’s poets. Secondly, all Canadian anthologies, whether the aim -was to select the very best of the very best poetry or to select -representative poems from each period or all periods, contain poetry -which is not all on the same level of excellence. - -The first anthology to engage public attention and to win critical -appreciation was a book which now belongs to the _rarissimae_ of -collectors of ‘Canadiana,’ namely, _The Canadian Birthday Book_, by -‘Seranus’ (pseudonym of Mrs. S. Frances Harrison), published at Toronto -in 1887. It was compiled, with exquisite taste, in both English and -French; and it is notable for the fact that its selections date as far -back as the year 1732, with a poem by Jean Taché who, as the compiler -has said in her notes, is ‘probably the first French-Canadian poet to -publish.’ It is notable also for the fact that it contains some verses -by the Indian Chief Tecumseh, and is, likewise, one of the earliest -volumes to contain the work of such poets as Bliss Carman, Wilfred -Campbell, Pauline Johnson, and Archibald Lampman. In a real sense, that -is, in the Greek sense of the term, the _Canadian Birthday Book_ is the -first Canadian anthology. The poems in it, are dainty in themselves and -the artistry of the poems also is dainty—‘little flowers’ of pretty or -beautiful Canadian verse, pioneer, _émigré_, nativistic, and native and -national. - -Twenty years before the appearance of Seranus’ miniature anthology Rev. -Edward Hartley Dewart published, under the plain title of _Selections -From Canadian Poetry_, what may be called the first treasury of Canadian -verse (1864). Dewart’s _Selections_ was simply a ‘collection’ of poems -for ‘good reading,’ or for pedagogical purposes in the Provinces of -Canada. It was not intended to be received as literary anthology, but -only as a volume of representative poems from the earlier periods of -Canadian history up to the year of publication. Its audience was limited -to Canada and it had only local or provincial appreciation. - -The next anthology was W. D. Lighthall’s _Songs of the Great Dominion_ -(1889). It was informed with the Canadian outlook on life and national -achievement within the twenty years after the formation of the -Confederacy, and with the Canadian prevision of a national destiny which -seemed implied in the genius of the Canadian people for autonomous -government, in the vast resources of the Dominion, and in the relations -which would inevitably develop between Canada and the United States and -the other nations of the world. The aim of Dr. Lighthall was both -literary and pragmatic. He desired to present to the English-speaking -world the ideals and genius of Canada as these ideals and genius were -embodied and expressed in the best poetry by _émigré_ and by native-born -Canadian poets. - -Dr. Lighthall’s inclusive and pragmatic aim determines both the scope -and the method of his aptly named _Songs of the Great Dominion_. In his -Introduction he carefully explains the scope and method of his -anthology. The order of this collection is in sections, treating of the -Imperial Spirit, the New Nationality, the Indian, the _Voyageur_ and -_Habitant_, Settlement Life, Sports and Free Life, Historical Incidents, -Places and Seasons. He says: They give merely, it should be understood, -a sketch of the range of the subjects. Canadian history, for example, as -any one acquainted with Parkman will know, perfectly teems with noble -deeds and great events, of which only a small share have been sung, -whereof there is only space here for a much smaller share. The Northwest -and British Columbia, that Pacific clime of charm—the gold-diggings -Province, land of salmon rivers, and of the Douglas firs which hide -daylight at noonday—have been scarcely sung at all, owing to their -newness. The poetry of the Winter Carnival, splendid scenic spectacle of -gay Northern arts and delights, is only rudimentary also. Those who have -been present at the thrilling spectacle of the nocturnal storming of the -Ice Palace in Montreal, when the whole city, dressing itself in the -picturesque snow-shoe costume and arraying its streets in lights and -colors, rises as one man in a tumultuous enthusiasm, must feel that -something of a future lies before the poetry of these strange and -wonderful elements.’ - -What Lighthall in his _Songs of the Great Dominion_ attempts to do is -not to present us with a mere quantity of Canadian poetry which we may -receive with delight or reject, but to invite us to the home of the -Canadian National Spirit and to show us what the Canadian spirit, as it -is envisaged and expressed in the poetry of the Dominion since -Confederation, has achieved and means to achieve. One who reads -Lighthall’s anthology cannot escape catching in it glimpses of the -essential Canadian spirit. In the poems in Lighthall’s volume the -Canadian spirit sings clearly its full gamut. We hear the ‘notes’ always -of courage; of self-reliance; of hope; of exultation; and of good cheer -and serenity; and these notes of courage and faith and exultation and -indomitable will and heroism and good cheer and peace in the heart of -man in Canada _are but the antiphons to the voices of the land and the -sea and the forest, the great waters and the sky and the maples, and -elms in their strength and also in their gentler and peaceful humors_. - -The Canadian spirit, as evisaged and expressed in the _Songs of the -Great Dominion_, is manly; and the supreme quality of the poetry in -Lighthall’s anthology is the quality of _manliness_. But this is a moral -quality. What of the aesthetic quality of the _Songs of the Great -Dominion_? Agreeing that poets should rise and drop with their subjects, -we note a high level of excellence in thought and in craftsmanship in -the poems in Lighthall’s volume. Considering its scope and the variety -of the subjects and styles of form in the volume, and considering also -its expression of the full gamut of the notes of the Canadian spirit, -Lighthall’s _Songs of the Great Dominion_ not only implies a kind of -creative vision and imagination on the part of the compiler, but -distinctly and unmistakably appeals to the same faculties in the reader. -In other words, Lighthall’s volume delights the heart and the -imagination by way of the intrinsic beauty and the moral substance of -the poetry in it; but it delights more the constructive imagination of -the reader by way of the illumination it sheds on the essential nature, -will, and ideals of the Canadian spirit, of the Canadian people. It -differs in this constructive way from all anthologies of Canadian verse -that have preceded it and all that have followed it. In short, -Lighthall’s _Songs of the Great Dominion_, on the side of embodying and -expressing spiritual essences, is unique amongst Canadian anthologies of -native and national poetry. - -_Later Canadian Poems_ (1893), edited by J. E. Wetherell, is a much -slighter volume than Lighthall’s but is significant as an expression of -the new spirit in Canadian Literature, containing, as it does, the first -publication of some of the work of Bliss Carman, Charles G. D. Roberts, -Duncan Campbell Scott, and Pauline Johnson. - -It might have been expected that _The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse_ -(1913), inasmuch as it was seemingly compiled by Wilfred Campbell, one -of the more important poets of Canada, would be on the level of the -ideal required by the Oxford Press and superior to other anthologies of -Canadian verse. As a matter of fact _The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse_, -as originally compiled by Wilfred Campbell, was not according to the -standard of the Oxford Press. The necessary re-compilation was made by -two hands, Mr. S. B. Gundy, Canadian Representative of the Oxford Press -at Toronto, and J. D. Logan who selected and added fifty poems (Nos. 211 -to the end, inclusive) from the work of the younger Canadian poets. -Campbell’s Oxford Press anthology has been frequently appreciated as the -best of the treasuries of Canadian poetry. But how a volume of such -fortuitous origin and construction can be the best of the Canadian -anthologies, passes understanding. As an anthology _The Oxford Book_ is -more than any of the other anthologies of Canadian verse a volume of -poetry ‘of unequal merit.’ But the defect most conspicuous in the book -is psychological rather than artistic, spiritual rather than aesthetic. -It contains 251 poems by 100 poets. It is the slightest of the three -great anthologies, and the most classical. Its contents have dignity, -taste, correctness. - -Of the other two chief anthologies—Theodore Harding Rand’s _A Treasury -of Canadian Verse_ (1900) and John W. Garvin’s _Canadian Poets_ -(1916)—the Rand anthology was compiled from the point of view of the -history, rather than the aesthetics, of Canadian poetry, whereas the -Garvin anthology was compiled from the point of view of modernity in the -aesthetic substance and artistic construction of Canadian poetry. -Garvin’s volume contains the work of only fifty-two poets, whereas -Rand’s and Lighthall’s contain the work of more than twice that number -of poets. Garvin’s volume is better suited to its century than is any of -the others. It is not only a repository of modern Canadian poetry but -also a critical _vade mecum_ to 20th Century Canadian poetry. For in -addition to the poems in the volume, each poet’s work is prefaced by a -biographical sketch and by critical appreciation or comment by others -than the compiler. The latter fact relieves the critical apparatus -itself of the charge of personal bias on the part of the compiler. The -Garvin anthology, again, is distinguished by a peculiarity of singular -spiritual import. It contains nothing that is not _typical_ of the -Canadian national spirit and Canadian civilization and culture. -Lighthall’s volume, despite its good sense and genuinely aesthetic -quality, had such variety and diversity of ‘notes’ of the spirit in it -that it is hard to distinguish which is the essential note, the typical -voice, and which the ‘overtones’ of the Canadian spirit. _The Oxford -Book_, again, is untypical of the Canadian spirit by way of too many -poems that are ‘poet’s poems’—too much of art for art’s sake. But -Garvin’s _Canadian Poets_ contains the work of such poets, both of the -older and the younger generation, as expresses the typical work of each -of the singers and the typical spirit of the Canadian people. It is a -companionable volume; and it has the distinct advantage of biographical -and critical comment, which fit it, according to its scope, for private -reading and enjoyment and for critical study of the history of Canadian -poetry. In those regards Garvin’s _Canadian Poets_ is an anthology which -is at once aesthetically satisfying and pragmatically the most -serviceable in the field that it covers. Mr. Garvin is also the compiler -of the only anthology of the Canadian poetry of the Great War. - -Several other anthologies of Canadian poetry require no more notice here -than to mention their names and scope. L. J. Burpee’s _Flowers From a -Canadian Garden_ is a genuine anthology in the Greek meaning of the -term. It is a bijou anthology containing seventy-five fastidiously -selected short lyrics, lovely ‘little flowers’ of Canadian poetry. The -selections in Mr. Burpee’s _A Century of Canadian Sonnets_ are also most -carefully chosen. E. S. Caswell’s _Canadian Singers and Their Songs_ is -a unique volume of selected poems in fac-similes of the authors’ -holograph manuscripts; and is illustrated with portraits of the authors -of the poems. It is essentially a literary curiosity, and meets the -express design of the compiler, namely, to produce a book of -‘personalia’ which would be appreciated as a gift book. Mrs. C. M. Whyte -Edgar’s _A Wreath of Canadian Song_ (1910) is too fragmentary in the -poetry which chiefly forms its substance to be considered a genuine -anthology. Moreover, it is limited to the verse of Canadian poets who -have died. Aesthetically viewed it is a work of no significance; but it -contains historical and bibliographical data that is curious and useful -for critical purposes. _Our Canadian Literature_ (1923) is a collection -of Canadian poetry and prose by Dr. Lorne Pierce and Dr. A. D. Watson. -It is much more valuable as a reading course or class room textbook than -as a treasury of aesthetic poetry and prose. _A Book of Canadian Verse -and Prose_ (1923) is the compilation of Professor E. K. Broadus and Mrs. -Broadus. It is a collection of Canadian poetry and prose in English and -French. - -A number of compilations of Canadian poetry and prose have been made -from time to time for school use. Among these are _Patriotic Recitations -and Arbor Day Exercises_, by G. W. Ross; _Selections from Canadian -Poets_ and _Selections from Canadian Prose_, both by E. A. Hardy; _The -Standard Canadian Reciter_, by Donald G. French; _The Canadian Poetry -Book_, by D. J. Dickie. - - - - - CHAPTER XXX - - - Canadian Journalism - - CANADIAN JOURNALISM IN RELATION TO PERMANENT CANADIAN LITERATURE; - A SUMMARY CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE CHIEF CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS AND - MAGAZINES. - -The question: Are Newspapers and Magazines literature? has various -answers, negative and affirmative. There cannot be any doubt that -Newspapers and Magazines can be literature, because they have been -literature; or that Newspapers and Magazines promote literature, because -they have done this. The fact is that the first journalism in English -was at the very outset literature. _The Tatter_ and _The Spectator_ were -founded in the years 1709 and 1711, respectively. _The Rambler_ was -founded later. These periodicals, whose pages were the popular reading -of the times, and whose pages were made ‘living epistles’ by the pens of -Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Samuel Johnson, and Oliver -Goldsmith—four of the greatest prose writers of the 18th century—were -the predecessors of the modern Newspaper. Their pages, especially those -of _The Spectator_, combined the functions of a newspaper, a literary -miscellany and a review of society, life, and world happenings. In -particular, Joseph Addison was ‘the father’ of the modern newspaper -‘leader’ and ‘editorial’ and of the special article in theatrical and -art criticism. Samuel Johnson was the inventor of the modern ‘society -page’ and ‘woman’s page’ as we know them in our day. In short, Steele, -Addison, Johnson, Goldsmith, Defoe and others of considerable literary -reputation in the 18th century were the creators of England’s first -‘people’s literature’—a journalistic literature. - -Journalism and Magazine writing in Canada began with the same ideals of -scope and literary dignity as obtained in the days of Addison and -Johnson in England. The first newspaper to be established in any of the -Provinces which later became confederated in the Canadian Union was _The -Halifax Gazette_ which was established at Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1752; -that is, 43 years after the founding of _The Tatler_. The first magazine -to be established in Canada was published at Halifax in 1789 and was -named _The Nova Scotia Magazine_. As a newspaper, however, _The Halifax -Gazette_ was devoted chiefly to the publication of military and -governmental intelligence. It was not till Joseph Howe purchased _The -Novascotian_, at Halifax, in 1828, that journalism in Canada harked back -to the ideals of _The Tatler_ and _The Spectator_. Joseph Howe must be -regarded as the first and foremost literary, as well as practical, -journalist in the history of Canada. - -It is sufficient here to remark Howe’s strict literary ideals, even as a -journalist, and to observe not only that in his own journalistic writing -he strove after literary form and color, but also that in the writings -of his contributors he saw to it that there was a very considerable -literary flavor. His ideals were emulated by other Canadian journalists, -as for instance Etienne Parent, in Quebec, and George Brown of the -Toronto _Globe_ and Charles Lindsey, in Ontario, and by later -journalists in Canada. Yet we must here emphasize, for our own times, -the inclusiveness of the ideals which inspired Howe and which resulted -in his producing newspapers whose influence abides to this day. - -By some sort of intuition, Howe knew, as Addison and Steele before him -knew, that the secrets of successful journalism are two: _Variety_ of -interests in reading matter, and _Readableness_ or the power to hold the -attention by the manner or style of what is written. Howe also had -aesthetic and moral ideals. He aimed to produce journalism that would -entertain and at the same time improve literary taste and educate the -sensibilities and moral imagination. Howe saw that the unpardonable sins -of all newspapers are the lack of humanized matter, and dullness in -style; and that, therefore, no matter how high and worthy the moral aims -of journalism may be, unless a newspaper possesses variety and -readableness, it is doomed to fail both as a newspaper that otherwise -might have endured and as a newspaper that might have been perennially -the voice and the educator of the spirit. In other words, Joseph Howe -saw that the supreme virtues of first rate journalism, the virtues which -raise journalism to the dignity of literature, are two: _Humanity_ and -_Urbanity_. - -Five years after the fall of Quebec, that is, in 1764, when Quebec city -had acquired a considerable English-speaking population, the second of -the pioneer Canadian newspapers was established. This was the _Quebec -Gazette_. For seventy-eight years this newspaper was printed in two -languages—English and French. From 1848 till 1880 it was printed wholly -in English. With the coming of the Loyalists, while New Brunswick was -still part of Nova Scotia, there appeared at St. John, in 1783, the -_Royal St. John Gazette and Nova Scotia Intelligencer_. In the following -year, when New Brunswick had become a separate Province, this newspaper -changed its name to the _Royal Gazette & New Brunswick Advertiser_. In -1785 the _Gazette_ was established at Montreal. In 1791 and in 1793 -newspapers were established at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and -Niagara, Ontario. In 1806 and in 1810 newspapers were established at -Fredericton, N.B. and Kingston, Ont. Up to 1810 the newspapers of -Canada, with the notable exception of the _Quebec Gazette_, were not at -all in the spirit of constructive journalism, but with the founding of -_The Herald_ at Montreal in 1811, _The Acadian Recorder_ at Halifax in -1813, the _Colonial Advocate_ at Queenston in 1824, and _The -Novascotian_ at Halifax in 1824 (purchased by Joseph Howe in 1828), -journalism in Canada took on the scope and complexion of literary and -constructive journalism. - -The Pioneer Newspapers, as contrasted with the Pioneer and later -Canadian Magazines, served very considerably as ‘the people’s’ reading -and as the popular educator. They were instrumental in creating a desire -for intelligence about Canada, the United States, and the United -Kingdom. The demand was chiefly for commercial and social, and political -news. And so with the desire for news came into existence an ardent -desire for an education in the so-called ‘three R’s.’ As to the style of -the reading matter in the Pioneer Newspapers, it conformed, with notable -exceptions, to the conditions, social and political, of the times. As a -matter of fact, politics were paramount in pioneer days and up to the -triumph of Responsible Government, or to the middle of the 19th Century. -Naturally, therefore, the newspapers contained considerable satiric -writing and letters on practical matters, including reforms in -Government. Accordingly the general style of the newspapers was -straightforward, often overpointed in vigorous vernacular, with no care -for purity of diction and coherency of sentential structure. The thing -to be said, the matter, must be said at all hazards—plainly, bluntly, -vigorously, and unmistakably. In all these regards, which were not -according to the English style of journalism under Addison and Steele, -the better newspapers, such as _The Montreal Gazette_, and _The -Novascotian_, were notable exceptions to the general run of the Pioneer -Newspapers. Howe, for example, did see to it, with considerable -solicitude, that his newspapers, especially _The Novascotian_, should -contain genuine literary matter and that the style of the general -reading matter which appeared in his newspapers should be in decent -readable English. - -On the whole, therefore, the Pioneer Newspapers of Canada and those -which appeared up to Responsible Government and Confederation, and -later, conformed to the two ideals of purveyors of intelligence and -disseminators of popular culture. Except in rare instances, however, -they did not foster the creative literary spirit. That function was left -to the Canadian Magazines. - -As, in the case of daily journalism, Nova Scotia had priority in -establishing newspapers, so, in the case of Canadian magazines, Nova -Scotia also was first in enterprise. The first magazine to be published -in any of the Provinces of Canada was the _Nova Scotia Magazine_, which -appeared at Halifax in 1789, and ceased publication in 1792. The second -Canadian magazine to be published was the _Quebec Magazine_, which -appeared at Quebec in 1791 (2). It also went out of existence in two or -three years. The difficulty then was the same as in the present day. The -Canadian editor and publisher of native magazines could not compete with -the British and the United States magazines, because the foreign -periodicals were more readable and cheaper. The matter, however, of the -earlier Canadian magazines was, for the most part, genuinely literary -and fostered culture. - -The first magazine in Canada to spread culture and at the same time to -foster amongst native-born or resident _émigré_ writers the creative -literary spirit, and to publish contributions in the form of essays, -Nature sketches, and poems by native-born and permanently resident -writers, was the _Literary Garland_. It flourished from 1838 to 1851, -and numbered amongst its contributors such men and women of parts as -William Dunlop, who may be regarded as the first _émigré_ Canadian -humorist in distinction from Haliburton, the first native-born humorist, -Charles Sangster, who was the first native-born Canadian poet of -significant power in original creation, Susanna Moodie who was a -versatile writer of colorful prose, and the first singer of Canadian -Martial Verse, and her sister Catharine Parr Traill, whose Nature -studies and sketches are still eminently worth reading. - -In the year which saw the consummation of the Confederacy George -Stewart, a man of fine critical taste, established _Stewart’s Quarterly_ -at St. John, N.B. His ideal was that of the English Quarterlies; and the -articles which appeared in his magazine were notably solid in substance -and distinguished in literary style. _Stewart’s Quarterly_ did much to -promote culture and to encourage creative writing on the part of -native-born Canadian writers. Several other magazines which conformed -more to the matter and style of the _Literary Garland_ were established -in the first 25 years following Confederation. They all eventually went -out of existence. The first magazine to endure as a cultural agency and -genuine fosterer of the literary spirit was the _Canadian Magazine_, -founded in 1893 by J. Gordon Mowat. Under his editorship it grew and -further progressed under the editorship of John A. Cooper. In 1907 the -_Canadian Magazine_ came under the editorship of Mr. Newton MacTavish. - -From 1907, when Mr. MacTavish became editor, there was a distinct and -continually progressive change in the editorial policy of the _Canadian -Magazine_. Patriotically he set out to foster the appreciation and -production of fine arts and literature by native-born Canadians. To do -this he reproduced in the magazine paintings and drawings by Canadian -artists, along with special articles, critically appraising Canadian -artists and their art. He also published essays, criticism, fiction, and -poetry, by native-born Canadian writers. In fact, it was considerably -due to the sympathetic and respectful encouragement which Mr. MacTavish -gave to native-writers, that Canadian poets and prose writers achieved -as splendidly as they have done in the first quarter of the 20th -century, and that constructive literary criticism and literary history -significantly developed in Canada. - -With the _Canadian Magazine_ should be mentioned two others, the -_Queen’s Quarterly_ and the _University Magazine_. The latter was edited -by Sir Andrew Macphail, and did much to foster letters and criticism in -Canada. Amongst other distinctions, the _University Magazine_ published -not only the best verse but also the first book of poems by Marjorie -Pickthall, _Drift of Pinions_ (1913). It ceased publication in 1921. The -_Queen’s Quarterly_, always well edited, is still potent in fostering -letters and criticism in Canada. _The Dalhousie Review_, founded in -1921, essayed some of the ideals of the _University Magazine_. But it is -given too much to critical writing by foreign _literati_ to be potent in -fostering letters and criticism in Canada. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXI - - - Narrative Literature - - NARRATIVE LITERATURE—HISTORY—BIOGRAPHY—EXPLORATION—TRAVELS— - SPORT OR OPEN-AIR LIFE. - _I. History._ - -Two general conditions have made the writing of ‘true history’ in Canada -an impossibility. On the personal side, there were the lack of adequate -culture, of a sense of the historic process and of history as the -narrative of spiritual development, and of any genius, save curiosity, -on the part of those who essayed the writing of history. Men with the -historic imagination did not exist in Canada, and only ‘minor’ -historians were active, up to the beginning of the 20th century. On the -material or instrumental side, there were the heterogeneity of Canadian -civilization, the want of political unity, the lack of access to -documents and of facilities for historical research, and other untoward -circumstances. Unimaginative minds and the heterogeneity of life and -thought in Canada, before and after Confederation, limited history for -the most part to annals, chronicles, period and sectional narratives. - -The number of these uninspired, unimaginative ‘minor’ Canadian -historians is legion. The more important were George Heriot, William -Smith, Robert Christie, Alexander Begg, Beamish Murdock, Duncan -Campbell, William Kingsford, James Hannay, and Egerton Ryerson. Oddly, -the two first native-born historians to write with a show of imagination -and a sense of true history were Thomas Chandler Haliburton, the -humorist, and Major John Richardson, the romancer. - -Haliburton’s _Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia_ was -published by Joseph Howe in 1829. Though the two volumes are, in a -degree, a compendium of facts, Haliburton was not interested in the -facts so much as in the romantic or dramatic story of civilization and -life in Nova Scotia. The way Haliburton imaginatively handled his -material, the way he romantically told the story and made the whole a -colorful and generally absorbing narrative, constitutes his work as -‘true history.’ It is Haliburton’s conception of history and his method -of writing it that make him important—though he was not potent—in this -department of Canadian Literature. His work is an outstanding native -example of the romantic method of writing history as literature; and -Haliburton himself appears as the first Canadian Historian to write -history as if he were writing imaginative literature. But if he was not -potent in his own country, that is, in British North America, he had, -there is good ground to believe, considerable influence on Francis -Parkman. For Parkman read Haliburton’s _Historical and Statistical -Account of Nova Scotia_, and not only had his imagination fired by such -a romantic story as Haliburton tells of the Expulsion of the Acadians, -but also adopted the romantic method of Haliburton in writing his own -historical works. - -The best account of the War of 1812 came from the pen of Major John -Richardson, who had served in the conflict. It is the account of an -eye-witness. It was written hurriedly for publication serially in his -newspaper the _New Era_, and was reprinted in book form in 1842. As -might be expected, Richardson presents vividly the drama or dramatic -movement of his story, and makes it a colorful, gripping narrative. But -though, like Haliburton, Richardson wrote graphically, romantically, he -is superior to Haliburton in an important respect. The Nova Scotia -historian and humorist did not have any gift for sharp -character-drawing; his characters, like Dickens’ or Twain’s, stand out -and hold us by what they say. But Richardson’s characters in his account -of the War of 1812, especially Brock and Tecumseh, are vividly drawn by -their _action_, and stand out sharply individualized. In Haliburton’s -_Historical Account of Nova Scotia_ we get only colorful romance. In -Richardson’s _War of 1812_ we get colorful romance, dramatic movement, -and memorable character portraiture. It, too, is ‘true history,’ and his -work, like Haliburton’s, is an outstanding native example of the -romantic method of writing history as literature. - -After Haliburton and Richardson, all history of Canada, or the -Provinces, by native-born or _émigré_ writers was fragmentary in -conception and dry-as-dust in matter and method. They all show -inquisitiveness, diligence, though not careful research, and no -imagination, and certainly no sense of history as the outward expression -and movement of a people’s social and spiritual evolution. Yet the work -of one man must be specially remarked. He was Alpheus Todd, who, in the -department of Constitutional History, wrote a work which was long -regarded as the greatest study of the English constitution written by -any British subject. This really ‘monumental’ historical work was -entitled _Parliamentary Government in England; its Origin, Development, -and Practical Operation_. The first volume was published in 1867, the -year of Canadian Confederation. But while Todd’s work is a ‘monument’ to -his scholarship and industry, and while it has historic perspective, it -is, like the work of preceding historians, without imagination and was -written by one who had no conception of constitutional history as the -expression of the social conscience gradually realizing, under changing -conditions, the ideal of the rights of the spirit. - -From the beginning of the 20th century, Canadian historians based their -work on documentary research and wrote history with a lively sense of -imaginative or romantic values which corresponded to the method and -manner of Haliburton and Richardson. This change in the method of -writing ‘true history’ is notably exemplified in _Quebec Under Two -Flags_ and in _The Cradle of New France_ by A. G. Doughty; in _The Fight -for Canada_, by William Wood; and, later, in _The Conquest of the Great -North-West_, _Pathfinders of the West_, and _Vikings of the Pacific_, by -Agnes Laut. Doughty was a poet before he became an historian, and in -writing history let his imagination play over the facts, thus -transmuting the documentary material into literature. William Wood also -applied the romanticist’s imagination to the facts, and, besides, wrote -history with a fine feeling for style and characterization somewhat in -the manner of Parkman. Miss Laut, basing her matter on thorough -research, humanized it with a sympathetic appreciation of the struggles -of the pioneers of the Canadian West and with a picturesque literary -style. - -Sectional and local histories of Canada abound. There are also race -histories and several so-called School Histories. But these are all of -popular quality and have no distinction in literary style, although the -narratives of W. J. Rattray, George Stewart, H. Scadding, J. Ross -Robertson, John Murray Gibbon, Sir John Bourinot and Charles G. D. -Roberts show a considerable solicitude for style and actually achieve -good literary style. - - _II. Biography._ - -As with general history, so with personal or spiritual history. -Biographical writing in Canada is sparse in quantity and, on the whole, -insignificant in literary quality. Often the subject of a biographical -narrative was great enough to compel imaginative and artistic creation -on the part of the writer. Seldom, however, does any biographer of a -Canadian man of distinction rise to his subject either in conception or -in style. But of those who did rise to their subject, one was Charles -Lindsey, who wrote _The Life and Times of William Lyon MacKenzie_. -Lindsey handled his material so as to present the proper values in the -political and social problems in the time of the famous leader of the -Rebellion of 1837. Another of those who rose to his subject and who -wrote with a sense of the really significant events in the life of his -subject, presenting the salients with decent respect for truth, with -adequate detail, and yet with readable style, was Sir Joseph Pope, who -gave the literary world a compelling and vigorously moving biographical -volume, _Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald_. -It is a vigorous narrative, but rather inflexible in style. Sir John -Stephen Willison’s _Sir Wilfrid Laurier and The Liberal Party_ is an -outstanding biography. Like Lindsey, Sir John Willison was a thoroughly -trained journalist before he attempted biographical writing. Along with -the journalist’s vigor and vivacity of style, Sir John Willison wrote -with feeling for dignified and elegant diction. His _Wilfrid Laurier_ is -notable chiefly for its refinement in prose style. - -George Monro Grant’s _Joseph Howe_ is a _tour de force_ in brilliant -word painting and hero worship. It misses the significance of Howe as an -original and constructive mind. Longley’s _Joseph Howe_ is a popular -narrative, careless of logic and literary style. - -Several other individual biographies of Canadians by Canadians have been -published. The best of them are Duncan Campbell Scott’s _John Graves -Simcoe_, Adam Shortt’s _Lord Sydenham_, George M. Wrong’s _Life of Lord -Elgin_, Arnold Haultain’s _Goldwin Smith: His Life and Opinions_, Grant -and Hamilton’s _George Monro Grant_, and Edith J. Archibald’s _Life and -Letters of Sir Edward Mortimer Archibald_. But a genuinely great -biography of a great man remains to be written in Canada. - -Deserving of mention are three short popular biographies—Owen -McGillicuddy’s sketch of the life and achievements of Rt. Hon. MacKenzie -King, Premier of Canada, which appears under the title _The Making of a -Premier_ (1922); John W. Dafoe’s _Laurier_ (1922) and Peter McArthur’s -_Laurier_ (1922). These biographies are by practical journalists, and -are journalistic in style. Dafoe’s Laurier is the most acute and -weighty. - -A genuine literary achievement in biographical writing is M. O. -Hammond’s _Confederation and Its Leaders_ (1917). It is based on -thorough research, and, as a series of intimate political biographies in -the form of narrative sketches, is packed with human interest, and is -marked by a straightforward, commonsense style. It has a high -seriousness, and in this respect contrasts with the lighter, more -piquant but less persuasive style of Augustus Bridle’s _Sons of -Canada_—a work which is essentially a series of familiar portraits, -done as _jeux d’esprit_. - - _III. Travels, Exploration, Sport._ - -Canada has a considerable quantity of the literature of travels, -explorations and sport but the literary interest of the most of it is -far from obvious. A really remarkable book in this genre is the elder -Alexander Henry’s _Travels and Adventures in Canada and The Indian -Territories_, published in New York in 1809. Henry was a man of acute -observation, and also possessed a graphic pen for character limning. His -_Travels and Adventures_ engages both the intellect and the imagination, -the scientist and the literary artist. For it contains the most -interesting observations on the flora and fauna of the countries he -visited, and really graphic and colorful pictures of the peoples and the -characters he met and observed. Henry had also a gift like that of -Thucydides—the gift and skill of dramatically reporting a speech as, -for instance, the speech of the Ojibwa Chief Minavavana. The book really -forms an entrancing and instructive volume of Travel and Adventure. - -The same may be said of Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s _Voyages From Montreal -Through the Continent of North America, 1789-1793_. This work was -published at London in 1801. Mackenzie came from a people—the Gaels of -the Island of Lewis—who have a racial gift of colorful imagination and -of felicity of language in nature description. Mackenzie, moreover, was, -like Henry, a keen observer. His _Voyages_, therefore, as might be -expected, are marked by colorful style and the imaginative presentation -of the scenes he visited and of the inspiring or sublime phenomena he -observed. John Howison’s _Sketches of Upper Canada_ conforms only to the -ideal of fact. It is, as the title suggests, merely a series of -‘sketches,’ written in a vigorous style with only a touch here and there -of finer literary style. - -With the work of Anna Brownell Jameson we meet with the first -‘color-writing’ in and about Canada. Her _Winter Studies and Summer -Rambles in Canada_, published in London in 1838, has not yet been -excelled by a native Canadian ‘color writer.’ At the time, Canada was a -wilderness for the most part, with a few settlements, but Mrs. Jameson, -with the eye of an artist, saw everywhere in Nature in Canada and in -Canadian life and character much to delight the eye and the -sensibilities and much to satisfy the pictorial and dramatic -imagination. Her _Winter Studies and Summer Rambles_, in three volumes, -are a library of winsome Nature sketches and critical appreciations of -human personality—a work of art, and a permanent contribution to the -Incidental Pioneer Literature of Canada. - -The aesthetic sense and the artistic conscience were uppermost in Paul -Kane’s _Wanderings of An Artist Among The Indian Tribes of North -America_. Kane was a celebrated Canadian painter; and, having the gift -of style, he wrote, with the eye of the pictorial artist, about his -‘wanderings’ among the western tribes. It is an informing volume and -makes genuinely interesting and satisfying reading. - -George M. Grant was a man of splendid force of character and strength of -will tempered with a singular gift of humor and pathos. He travelled -across Canada in the last five years of the first decade following -Confederation, he met all peoples, dwelt in camps, visited trading -posts, and stopped at the hotels of the larger centres. On his journey -he was impressed by the _life_, _energy_, and the _striving_ of the -Canadian people for a self-reliant and worthy history and destiny. And -so Grant’s volume of travel, _Ocean to Ocean_, is noted for its acute -observation, for its colorful and vitalizing descriptions of Nature in -Canada, and for its seriousness, at all times relieved by an unusual -quality of humor and of pathos. In ‘color-writing’ too, the volume is, -at times, incomparable. - -J. W. Tyrrell’s _Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada_ and his _The St. -Lawrence Basin and Its Border-Lands_, Lawrence J. Burpee’s _The Search -for The Western Sea_, Vilhjalmur Stefannson’s _The Friendly Arctic_ and -his _Hunters of the Great North_, Arthur Heming’s _Drama of the -Forests_, are all noted for their literary style and for the dramatic -pictures they make of Nature scenes and of human characters. - -Two really notable books under the head of Sport, as a form of travel -and adventure, are Arthur Silver’s _Farm, Cottage, Camp and Canoe In -Maritime Canada_ (1884) and Phil. H. Moore’s _With Gun and Rod in -Canada_ (1922). Silver’s volume makes pleasant reading, but the style is -much more pedestrian than Moore’s work, which is heightened and colored -by picturesque diction and images and by considerable characteristic -humor. Midway between the greater books of Travel and Adventure and -these books of Sport come Wilfred Grenfell’s volumes descriptive of -Labrador and the late C. Gordon Hewitt’s _Conservation of the Wild Life -of Canada_. The latter, though scientific in aim and method, is full of -aesthetic and literary charm and is written in an interesting literary -style. - - - - - Index - -This index covers the names of Canadian writers, Canadian books, -journals, individual poems, or stories referred to in the text. Names of -authors are in roman type; all titles of books, journals, poems, -stories, etc., are in _italic_. - -_Above St. Irénée_, 164. -_Acadia_, 60, 96. -_Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada_, 402. -_Address to the Freemen of Canada_, 340. -_Admiral’s Daughter, The_, 193. -_Adventurer of the North, An_, 244. -_Afoot_, 17. -_After a Night of Storm_, 165. -_After the Battle_, 342. -Agar, Paul, 271. -_Ahkoond of Swat, The_, 325-326. -Aikins, Carroll, C., 295, 333-334. -Alexander, W. J., 364. -Allen, Adam, 39. -Alline, Henry, 36-37, 355. -_Amateur Orlando_, The, 325. -_Americans at Home, The_, 67, 77, 78. -_Anastasis_, 255. -_Anatomy of Melancholy, The_, 166. -Anderson, Robert, T., 271. -_Angel’s Shoes_, 309. -_Anne of Avonlea_, 300. -_Anne of Green Gables_, 299. -_Anne’s House of Dreams_, 301. -_Anne of the Island_, 301. -_Annunciation_, 211. -_Answer, The_, 292. -_Anti-Traditionist, The_, 37. -_Antoinette de Mirecourt_, 93. -_April Airs_, 142, 149. -Archibald, Edith J., 399. -_At Husking Time_, 209. -_At Noon_, 292. -_Attaché, The_, 67, 80, 82, 83. -_Attic Guest, The_, 257. -_Autumn’s Orchestra_, 201. -_Ave!_ 229, 231-235, 239. -_Aylesford_, 17. - -_Backwoodsman, The_, 253. -_Backwood’s Philosopher, The_, 49. -Bailey, Jacob, 39. -_Bail Jumper, The_, 307. -Baker, Ray Palmer, 8, 42, 364. -_Ballads and Lyrics_, 141. -_Ballads of Lost Haven_, 150-151. -Barrington, E., 309. -Bartlett, Gertrude, 295, 346, 351. -Bates, Walter, 39. -_Battle of the Strong, The_, 244, 245. -_Battles Royal Down North_, 304. -_Beautiful Joe_, 253. -_Beautiful Rebel, A_, 250. -_Beauty and Life_, 161, 165, 166. -Beck, L. Adams, 311. -Begg, Alexander, 395. -_Behind the Arras_, 142, 157. -_Behind the Veil_, 230, 239-240. -_Bells of St. Stephens, The_, 302. -Bennett, Ethel Hume, 306. -_Bereavement of the Fields_, 229. -_Between the Battles_, 223. -_Between the Lights_, 229. -_Bill Boram_, 315-319. -_Billy Topsail & Company_, 304. -_Biography of a Grizzly_, 251. -_Birch and Paddle_, 120. -_Bird’s Lullaby, The_, 208. -Blackburn, Grace, 295, 296, 297, 351. -_Black Creek Stopping House, The_, 303. -_Black Rock_, 254, 255, 256. -_Black Stole, The_, 80. -Blake, W. H., 304, 376. -_Blessed Dead, The_, 351. -Blewett, Jean, 221, 222, 278, 346, 351. -_Bliss Carman_, 141. -_Blue Nose, The_, 60. -_Blue Pete; Half Breed_, 307. -_Blue Water_, 304. -_Boarding House Geometry_, 328. -_Bobcaygeon, Chapbook, A._, 295. -_Bonnie Prince Fetlar_, 253. -_Book of Canadian Verse and Prose_, 387. -_Book of the Myths, The_, 142. -_Book of the Native, The_, 122, 123. -_Boss of the World, The_, 260. -Bourinot, Arthur S., 295, 346, 348. -Bourinot, Sir John, 398. -Bowen, Minnie Hallowell, 346. -Bowman, Louise Morey, 295, 296, 297, 346, 351. -Branscombe, Gena, (Mrs. J. F. Tenney), 213. -_Brave Hearts_, 254. -Breakenridge, John, 278. -_Bride, The_, 211. -_Bridge, The_, 310. -Bridle, Augustus, 400. -_Brier_, 207. -Broadus, E. K., 387. -Broadus, Mrs., 387. -_Brock_, 97. -_Brockenfiend, The_, 193. -Brooke, Mrs. Francis, 45, 46. -_Brookfield_, 229, 238-239. -Brooks, Lillie A., 351. -_Brothers in Arms_, 334, 335. -_Brothers in Peril_, 308. -Brown, George, 389. -Bruce, Charles T., 295. -_Buffalo Meat_, 294. -_Burial of Brock, The_, 50. -Burpee, Lawrence J., 322, 379, 386, 402. -Byles, Mather, 39. -_By the Aurelian Wall_, 157. -_By the Marshes of Minas_, 263. - -Cameron, Charles Innis, 361. -Campbell, Duncan, 395. -Campbell, Wilfred, 17, 18, 26, 49, 55, 99, 102, 105, 107, 113, 132, 133, - 184-194, 195, 229, 235-236, 250, 271, 278, 316, 334, 371, 384. -_Camper, The_, 201. -_Canada_, 191. -_Canadian Birthday Book, A_, 226. -_Canadian Birthday Book, The_, 381. -_Canadian Born_, 26, 200, 201. -_Canadian Brothers, The_, 89, 91-93. -_Canadian Folk Song, A_, 190. -_Canadian Magazine, The_, 8, 331, 393-394. -_Canadian Poems of the Great War_, 8, 346. -_Canadians on the Nile_, 50. -_Canadian Cities of Romance_, 291. -_Canadian Hymns and Hymn Writers_, 358. -_Canadian Poetry Book, The_, 387. -_Canadian Poets_, 5, 8, 380, 385-386. -_Canadian Singers and Their Songs_, 380, 386. -_Canadian Twilight_, A, 346. -Cappon, James, 364. -_Captain of Raleigh’s, A_, 308. -Carleton, John L., 319. -Carman, Bliss, 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 43, 55, 99, 101, 102, 105, 107, 111 _et - seq._, 128, 132, 133, 139-158, 159, 160, 163-164, 167, 172-177, 180, 195, - 209, 217, 219, 223, 226, 229, 233-235, 271, 278, 279, 284, 368, 371, - 375. -_Carmichael_, 309. -Caswell, E. S., 386. -_Cattle_, 313. -_Cattle Thief, The_, 202, 203, 207. -_Champions, The_, 351. -_Chaste Diana, The_, 309. -_Child’s House, The_, 313. -Christie, Robert, 395. -_Christmas Bells in War Time_, 351. -_Chronicles of Avonlea_, 301. -_City and the Sea, The_, 203. -Clelland, Rev. James, 356. -Cleveland, Aaron, 355. -Cleveland, Benjamin, 355. -_Clockmaker, The_, 58, 65, 66, _et seq._, 80, 81, 83, 84. -_Clontarf_, 319. -Cockings, George, 44. -Cody, H. A., 306. -_Collected Poems_, (Campbell), 185. -_Collected Poems_, (Carman), 158. -_Collected Poems_, (F. G. Scott), 215. -Coleman, Helena, 226, 278, 346, 351. -_Colonial Advocate_, 391. -_Come Quietly, England_, 350. -_Coming of the Winter, The_, 110. -_Confederation and Its Leaders_, 400. -_Confession of Tama the Wise, The_, 17. -Connor, Ralph, (_pseud._), 254-256. -_Conquest of Canada, The_, 44. -_Conquest of Quebec, The_, 44. -_Conquest of the Great Northwest, The_, 398. -_Conservation of Wild Life in Canada_, 403. -Cooney, Percival J., 309. -Cooper, John A., 393. -_Corduroy Road, The_, 270. -Cornell, Beaumont, 313. -_Cornflower, The_, 221. -_Corn-Planting, The_, 227. -_Corporal Cameron_, 255. -Cotes, Mrs. (Sara Jeanette Duncan), 268, 326. -_Cowpuncher, The_, 307. -_Cradle of New France, The_, 398. -_Crawford, Isabella Valancy_, 46, 47, 50-54, 128, 207, 265, 342. -Creelman, Wm. A., 295. -_Crimson Wing, The_, 319. -_Cripple, The_, 17, 217. -_Crowning, The_, 214. -_Cry from an Indian Wife, A_, 202, 203. -_Cumner’s Son_, 244. -_Cun-ne-wa-bum_, 294. -_Curé of Calumette, The_, 270. -Curzon, Sarah A., 334, 342. - -_Daffodil from Vimy Ridge, A_, 351. -Dafoe, John W., 400. -_Daily Star_ (_Montreal_), 324. -_Daisies_, 149. -_Dalhousie Review, The_, 394. -_Daulac_, 193, 194. -Davis, Roy, 331, 332. -_Dawn_, 216. -_Dawn at Shanty Bay, The_, 257. -_Day Dawn_, 201. -Deacon, William A., 378. -de la Roche, Mazo, 313. -De Mille, James, 18, 95, 108, 229, 239-240, 268, 322, 323. -Denison, Merrill, 334-336. -_Dennison Grant_, 307. -_De Profundis_, 351. -_Deserted Nest, The_, 61. -_Deserted Pasture, The_, 155. -_Desjardins, The_, 261. -Dewart, Edward Hartley, 361, 381. -Dickie, D. J., 387. -_Divine Lady, The_, 309. -_Doctor Luke of the Labrador_, 304. -_Doctor, The_, 254. -_Dodge Club Series_, 323. -_Dodge Club, The_, 323. -Dollard, James B., 319, 334, 347. -_Dominique_, 270. -_Donovan Pasha_, 244. -Donovan, Peter, 330. -Dougall, Lily, 18. -Doughty, A. G., 398. -Duncan, Norman, 247, 303-304, 318. -_Duncan, Polite_, 299. -Duncan, Sara Jeanette, 326. -Dunlop, William, 392. -Durkin, Douglas, 307, 346. -_Drama of the Forests_, 402. -_Dreamland and Other Poems_, 25, 99, 206. -_Drift of Pinions_, 27, 280, 283, 394. -Drummond, William Henry, 46, 47, 128, 265-270, 370, 371, 372. -_Drums Afar_, 307. - -_Earth’s Enigmas_, 252. -_Eavesdropper, The_, 157. -Edgar, Pelham, 364. -Edgar, Mrs. C. M. Whyte, 386. -_Embers_, 210, 213. -_Emigrant, The_, 49. -_Emigration of the Fairies, The_, 323. -_Emily of New Moon_, 301. -_Enchantment_, 293. -_End of the Day, The_, 17. -_End of the Rainbow, The_, 302. -_England Over Seas_, 294. -_English-Canadian Literature_, 8. -_Erie Waters_, 201. - -_Fables from the World_, 324. -_Falls of Chaudière, The_, 98. -_False Chevalier, The_, 242. -_Farm, Cottage, Camp and Canoe in the Maritime Provinces_, 402. -_Fasting_, 203. -_Feet of the Furtive_, 252. -Field, George B., 271. -_Fight for Canada, The_, 398. -_Fighting Men of Canada, The_, 346, 348-349. -_Fire-Flies, The_, 100. -_Fire in the Woods, The_, 49. -_Fires of Driftwood_, 227. -_Flag of Old England_, 60. -Fleming, John, 48. -_Flint and Feather_, 197 _et seq._ -_Flood, The_, 247. -_Flowers from a Canadian Garden_, 386. -_Foreigner, The_, 255. -_Forest Fugitives_, 308. -_Forest of Bourg Marie, The_, 248. -_Forge in the Forest, A_, 248. -_Forging of the Pikes, The_, 308. -_For He was Scotch and so Was She_, 222. -_Forsaken, The_, 180. -_Fragment of a Letter, The_, 167. -Fraser, Alexander Louis, 295, 361. -Fraser, D. A., 372. -Fraser, W. A., 253-254, 263, 310. -Fréchette, Louis, 268. -French, Donald G., 7, 364, 387. -_Friendly Arctic, The_, 402. -_Frogs, The_, 135. -_From Ocean Unto Ocean_, 358-360. -_From the Book of Myths_, 157. -_From the Book of the Green Bards_, 154. -_From the Book of Valentines_, 157. -_From Their Own Place_, 334, 335. -_Frontiersman, The_, 306. -_Frost Magic_, 159. - -_Gaff Linkum_, 310. -_Galahads, The_, 351. -_Garden of the Sun, The_, 224. -Garvin, John, 5, 8, 346, 385. -Garvin, Mrs. John, 364. -_Gaspards of Pine Croft, The_, 255. -_Gauntlet of Alceste, The_, 310. -_Gazette (Halifax), The_, 40. -_Gazette (Montreal), The_, 390, 391. -_George Monro Grant_, 399. -_Geraniums_, 120. -Gibbon, John Murray, 8, 307, 398. -Giffen, Clare, 295. -_Give us Barabbas_, 203. -_Glengarry School Days_, 254. -_Globe, (Toronto), The_, 184, 202, 389. -_Going North_, 293. -_Golden Dicky_, 253. -_Golden Dog, The_, 94-95, 241, 243. -_Golden Road, The_, 301. -Goldsmith, Oliver, (2nd), 42, 48, 96, 108. -_Goldwin Smith_, 399. -Gordon, Charles W., 105, 254-256. -Gordon, 327. -_Gouging School, The_, 80. -Grahame, Gordon Hill, 306. -Graham, Isabel, 346. -Graham, Jean, 278, 364. -Grant and Hamilton, 399. -Grant, George Monro, 399, 402. -_Gravedigger, The_, 151. -_Grave Tree, The_, 17. -_Green Book of the Bards, The_ 142. -Grenfell, Wilfred, 403. -_Grey Knitting_, 291, 293. -_Grey Rocks and Greyer Sea_, 16. -Griffin, Martin, 364, 365. -Gundy, S. B., 385. -Gyles, John, 46. - -_Habitant, The_, 267. -Hale, Katherine, (_pseud._), 278, 290-294, 296, 346, 364, 377. -_Half-Breed Girl, The_, 180. -Haliburton, Thomas Chandler, 17, 40, 42, 43, 55, 57, 63-88, 89, 96, 108, - 268, 270, 322, 328, 332, 393, 395, 396-398. -_Halifax Gazette, The_, 389. -Ham, George Henry, 327-328. -Hammond, M. O., 8, 202, 364, 400. -Hannay, James, 395. -_Harbor Master_, 308. -_Harbor Tales Down North_, 304. -Hardy, E. A., 387. -Harrison, S. Frances (‘Seranus’), 226, 248, 346. -Hathaway, R. H., 8, 141, 364. -Haultain, Arnold, 364, 399. -_Haunters of the Silence, The_, 252. -Haverson, James P., 272. -_Hayfield, The_, 220. -_Hearts and Faces_, 307. -_Heart Songs_, 221. -_Heat_, 137. -Heaveysege, Charles, 46, 48-49, 108, 316. -_Height of Land, The_, 183. -Heming, Arthur, 402. -Hémon, Louis, 21, 305, 376. -Henry, Alexander, 46, 400. -_Hephaestus_, 314. -_Heralds of Empire_, 249-250. -_Herald, The (Montreal)_, 391. -_Here’s to the Land_, 50. -Heriot, George, 395. -_Hesperus_, 97. -Hewitt, C. Gordon, 403. -_Hickory Stick, The_, 305. -_Higher Kinship_, 185. -_Hildebrand_, 193. -_Hills and the Sea, The_, 17. -_His Darkest Hour_, 351. -_His Lady of the Sonnets_, 211, 289. -_Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia_, 42, 77, 396. -_History of Emily Montague, The_, 45, 46. -_History of English-Canadian Literature to Confederation, A_, 8, 364. -_History of Manitoba_ (Gunn’s), 249. -_Hoch de Kaiser_, 327. -Hodgins, Norris, 330. -Holland, Norah, 295, 319. -_Homesteader, The_, 307. -_Honest Newsboy, The_, 325. -Hood, Robert, A., 307. -_Hoof and Claw_, 253. -_Homing Bee, The_, 202, 205. -_House of Trees, The_, 220. -_How Bateese Came Home_, 270. -Howe, John, 40, 57. -Howe, Joseph, 40, 42, 43, 56-62, 96, 109, 268, 322, 389, 391. -Huestis, Annie Campbell, 226. -Hunter-Duvar, John, 108, 323. -_Hunters of the Great North_, 402. -_Hurrah for the New Dominion_, 50. -_Huron Chief and Other Poems, The_, 48. -_Hymn of Empire_, 217. -_Hymns and Spiritual Songs_, 37, 355. - -_Ian of the Orcades_, 250. -_Ida Beresford_, 92. -_Idlers_, 206. -_If I Must_, 350. -_Ilicet_, 148. -_Immortality_, 347. -_Imperfectly Proper_, 330. -_In a Country Churchyard_, 164. -_In Candlelight Days_, 308. -_In Divers Tones_, 26, 47, 112, 113, 118-119, 121-122, 123, 214, 220. -_In Flanders Fields_, 345, 347. -_In Grey Days_, 201. -_In Memorabilia Mortis_, 224. -_Inner Door, The_, 305. -_In Noonday_, 291. -_In Orchard Glen_, 302. -_Insulters of Death, The_, 346. -_In the Afternoon_, 120. -_In the Battle Silences_, 215. -_In the House of Dreams_, 164. -_In the Shadows_, 17. -_In the Study_, 187. -_In the Village of Viger_, 17, 260. -_In the Wake of the Eighteen-Twelvers_, 308. -_Introduction to Browning_, 364. -_Irish Folk Song, An_, 214. -_Irish Poems_, 227. -_Italy in 1859_, 323. -_I Used to Wear a Gown of Green_, 292. - -Jameson, Anna Brownell, 45, 401. -Jamieson, Nina Moore, 305. -_Jess of the River_, 308. -_Jimmy Goldcoast_, 253. -_Joe_, 201. -_John Graves Simcoe_, 399. -_Johnnie Corteau_, 270. -Johnson, Pauline, 17, 18, 26, 55, 99, 102, 105, 107, 113, 128, 133, - 139-140, 160, 177, 195-209, 219, 271, 277, 278, 285. -_Joseph Howe_, 399. -_Judgment House, The_, 244, 245, 246. -_Judy of York Hill_, 306. - -_Kaleedon Road_, 144. -Kane, Paul, 401. -Keith, Marian, (_pseud._), 299, 302. -_Key of Dreams, The_, 311. -_Key of Life, The_, 215. -Kidd, Adam, 48. -_Kilmeny of the Orchard_, 301. -_Kindred of the Wild, The_, 252. -King, Rt. Hon. Mackenzie, 377, 400. -_King’s Consort, The_, 201. -Kingsford, William, 395. -_Kinship_, 17. -_Kinsmen_, 309. -Kirby, William, 43, 93-95, 96, 241, 267. -_Kitchener and Other Poems_, 275. -_Kitchener’s Work_, 351. -Knowles, Robert E., 256-257, 303. - -_Labor and the Angel_, 180, 181-183. -Lacey, Amy (Luke Allan, _pseud._), 307. -_Ladies, The_, 309. -_Lady Icicle_, 201. -_Lady Lorgnette_, 201, 208. -_Lake Huron_, 17, 188. -_Lamp of Poor Souls, The_, 282, 283. -Lampman, Archibald, 16, 17, 26, 55, 98, 99, 100, 105, 107, 110, 111, 113, - 120, 122, 127-138, 139, 141, 149, 152-153, 159, 160, 162, 163-164, 167, - 180, 184, 195, 209, 217, 219, 235, 236, 271, 284, 287, 368. -Lanigan, George T., 61, 268, 322, 324-327, 332. -_Lantern Marsh_, 313. -_Larry, or the Avenging Terrors_, 306. -_Last Robin, The_, 220. -_Last Songs from Vagabondia_, 157. -_Later Canadian Poems_, 384. -_Later Poems_, 141. -_La Tristesse_, 299. -_Laurentian Lyrics_, 295, 346, 348. -_Laurier_, 400. -Lauriston, Victor, 311. -Laut, Agnes C., 249-250, 398. -_Lazarus_, 189, 192. -Leacock, Stephen, 269, 322, 323, 328-330, 332, 379. -Lee, H. D. C., 141. -_Legislative Reviews_, 59. -Leprohon, Mrs., 241. -Le Rossignol, James, 299. -_Letterbag of the Great Western, The_, 67, 81. -Leveridge, Lilian, 346, 351. -_Life and Journal (Alline)_, 37. -_Life and Letters of Sir Edward Mortimer Archibald_, 399. -_Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie_, 399. -_Life of Lord Elgin_, 399. -_Lifting of the Mist, The_, 201. -Lighthall, William Douw, 242, 351, 382. -Lindsey, Charles, 399. -_Lines in Memory of Edmund Morris_, 229, 236-238. -_Lily-Song_, 53. -_Literary Garland, The_, 92-93, 392-393. -_Literary Lapses_, 328. -_Little Bateese_, 270. -_Little Book of Canadian Essays, A_, 379. -_Little Fauns to Proserpine, The_, 281. -_Little Hearts_, 309-310. -_Little Milliner, The_, 261. -_Little Stories of Quebec_, 299. -Livesay, Florence Randal, 295, 296, 346, 351. -_Lives of the Hunted_, 251. -_Lizbeth of the Dale_, 302. -Lloyd, Rev. Dean, 319. -_Lobstick Trail, The_, 307. -Logan, J. D., 346, 364, 385. -_Lone Wharf, The_, 17. -_Long Lane’s Turning, The_, 244. -Longley, 399. -_Lords of the North_, 249-250. -_Lord Sydenham_, 399. -_Love in a Wilderness_, 181. -_Love of the Wild_, 308. -_Lover Lads of Devon, The_, 351. -_Lover’s Diary, A_, 210, 211. -_Lover to His Lass, A_, 17, 175. -_Lower Slopes, The_, 324. -_Low Tide on Grand Pré_, 112, 142, 143, 149. -_Lullaby of the Iroquois_, 201, 208. -_Lundy’s Lane_, 165. -_Lyrics From the Hills_, 295. - -MacCrossan, Charles W., 272. -MacDonald, Elizabeth Robert, 226. -MacDonald, Peter McLaren, 295. -Macdonald, Rev. J. A., 254. -Macdonald, Wilson, 296, 297. -MacGregor, James, 133. -Machar, Agnes Maule, 226, 342, 346, 351. -Mackay, Isabel Ecclestone, 226, 227, 228, 310-311, 346, 351. -Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 401. -Mackinnon, Lilian Vaux, 305. -MacLean, H. J., 295. -MacLennan, William, 249. -MacMechan, Archibald, 239, 364, 376. -MacMurchy, Marjory, 364. -MacPhail, Sir Andrew, 239, 305, 364, 394. -MacTavish, Newton, 8, 331, 393-394. -_Magic House, The_, 162, 164. -Mahon, A. W., 358. -Mair, Charles, 18, 25, 43, 48, 55, 99-102, 132, 193, 206, 278, 334. -_Major, The_, 255. -_Making of a Premier, The_, 400. -_Malcolm’s Katie_, 52-53. -_Man from Glengarry_, 255. -_Manor House of de Villerai, The_, 93. -_Marguerite de Roberval_, 248, 249. -_Maria Chapdelaine_, 18, 305. -Marquis, T. G., 8, 248-249, 364. -Marshall, William E., 18, 43, 229, 238-239. -_Marsh Hay_, 335. -_Marshlands_, 201. -_Mary Callaghan and Me_, 213. -_Mary Shepherdess_, 281-282. -_Master of Life, The_, 242. -_Matins_, 223. -McArthur, Peter, 226, 227, 278, 330-331. -McCarroll, James, 48. -McClung, Nellie L., 299, 303. -McCollum, Alma Frances, 226. -McCrae, John, 345, 347. -McCully, Laura E., 295. -McGee, Thomas D’Arcy, 48. -McGillicuddy, Owen, 400. -_McGrath’s Bad Night_, 259. -McIlwraith, Jean N., 18, 249. -McKishnie, Archie, 308-309, 310. -McLachlan, Alexander, 48, 49-50. -_Mediaeval Hun, The_, 319. -_Memoirs of Rt. Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald_, 399. -_Men of Canada, The_, 351. -_Merchant of Venice, The, (Lanigan)_, 324. -Merkel, Andrew D., 295. -Merrill, Helen M., 226. -Middleton, Jesse Edgar, 346. -_Miracle Songs of Jesus, The_, 297. -_Mirage of the Plain, The_, 144. -_Miriam of Queens_, 305. -_Mission of the Trees, The_, 180. -_Mists of the Morning, The_, 310. -_Money Master, The_, 245. -Montgomery, Lucy M., (Mrs. Ewan Macdonald), 43, 278, 295, 299-302, 346. -_Montreal Star, The_, 8. -Moodie, Susanna, 47, 48, 339-341. -Moody, James, 39. -_Moonset_, 209. -Moore, Phil H., 402. -_Moorhouse, Hopkins_, 311. -_Mooswa_, 253. -_Mordred_, 193, 316. -_More Animal Stories_, 252. -Morgan-Powell, S., 8, 351. -_Morning_, 193. -_Morning in the West_, 290-294. -Mortimer, John T., 271. -_Mother Gives, The_, 351. -_Mother, The_, 17, 192. -_Mountain and the Lake, The_, 275, 276. -Mowatt, J. Gordon, 393. -Muddiman, Bernard, 364. -Mullins (Leprohon), Rosanna, 43, 92-93, 96. -Murdock, Beamish, 395. -Murphy, Henry, 44. -Murray, George, 49, 364. -Murray, Robert, 358-360. -_My Brave and Gallant Gentleman_, 307. -_My Discovery of England_, 329. -_My Madonna_, 274. -_My Spanish Sailor_, 243. - -_Nancy’s Pride_, 16. -_Nature and Human Nature_, 67, 79-80, 84, 86. -_Neighbors_, 307. -Neville, Valentine, 44. -_New Apocalypse, The_, 346. -_New Era_, 396. -_New Joan, The_, 293. -_New Pathology, The_, 328. -_New World Lyrics and Ballads_, 180. -_Ninth Vibration, The_, 311. -_Nocturne_, 209. -_Nocturne of Consecration, A_, 16. -North, Anison, (_pseud._), 308, 309. -_Northern Lights_, 244. -Norwood, Robert, 18, 43, 49, 211-212, 288-290, 296, 315-319, 321, 334. -_Nova Scotia Magazine, The_, 40, 389, 392. -_Nova Scotian Afloat, The_, 59. -_Nova Scotian in England, The_, 59. -_Novascotian, The_, 40, 57-59, 63, 66, 389, 391. - -_Ocean to Ocean_, 402. -_Odd Adventures_, 46. -_Ode for Keats Centenary_, 178. -_Ode for the Centenary of Shelley’s Birth, An_, 231. -_Ode on the Birthday of King George III., An_, 48. -_Ode to the Canadian Confederacy_, 114, 191. -O’Dell, Jonathan, 39. -_Off Pelorus_, 120. -_O Flower of all the World_, 214. -O’Hagan, Thomas, 346, 379. -_Oh, Not When April Wakes the Daffodils_, 351. -_Ojistoh_, 202, 207. -_Old Hoss, The_, 49. -_Old Judge, The_, 67, 79, 80, 84, 85, 86, 87. -_Old Lady, An_, 294. -_Old Man Savarin_, 259. -_Old Spookses’ Pass_, 51-52. -Onoto Watanna (_pseud._), 313. -_On the Creek_, 120, 124. -_On the Death of Claude Debussy_, 168. -_On the Iron at Big Cloud_, 303. -_Openway_, 310. -_O Red Rose of Life_, 16. -_Orion and Other Poems_, 26, 107, 110, 112, 114, 116-117. -Osborne, Marion, 295. -_Our Canadian Literature_, 387. -_Our Lads to the Front_, 342. -_Our Little Life_, 305. -_Outcasts, The_, 253. -_Over ’Ere and Back Home_, 330. -_Overlooked_, 206. -_Over the Hills of Home_, 351. -_Oxford Book of Canadian Verse, The_, 380, 384-385. - -_Packard, Frank L._, 303. -_Pagan Love_, 307. -Parent, Etienne, 389. -Parker, Gilbert, 18, 26, 55, 94, 105, 210-214, 227, 243, 263, 267, 298, - 309. -Parkman, Francis, 396. -_Parliamentary Government in England_, 397. -Partridge, Dean, 358. -_Passing of Autumn, The_, 17. -_Passing of Oul-I-But, The_, 303. -_Pathfinders of the West_, 398. -_Patriotic Recitations and Arbor Day Exercises_, 387. -_Patrol of the Cypress Hills, The_, 244. -_Patrol of the Sun Dance Trail, The_, 255. -_Paul Farlotte_, 261. -Pennington, Amy, 295. -_Pens and Pirates_, 378. -_Penseroso_, 203. -_Perfume of the Rainbow, The_, 311. -_Persephone at Enna_, 314. -_Petherick’s Peril_, 260. -Phelps, Arthur, L., 295. -Pickthall, Marjorie L. C., 28, 140, 160, 177, 207, 278, 280-288, 296, 299, - 309, 319-321, 394. -Pierce, Dr. Lorne, 387. -_Pierre and His People_, 244. -_Pine, Rose and Fleur de Lis_, (S. F. Harrison), 226. -_Piper of Arll, The_, 176, 179. -_Plaint of the Children, The_, 351. -_Plumber’s Revenge, The_, 325. -_Poems_ (A. L. 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J., 398. -_Rayton_, 308. -Reade, John, 25, 46, 48, 49, 105, 278, 364, 365. -_Recessional_, 17. -_Recorder, Acadian, The_, 391. -_Red Fox_, 252. -_Red Headed Windego_, 259. -Redpath, Beatrice, 295, 297, 346, 351. -_Reduction of Louisbourg, The_, 44. -_Reminiscences of a Raconteur_, 327-328. -_Reverie, A_, 17. -_Rhymes of a Rolling Stone_, 271. -_Richardson, Major John_, 43, 46, 55, 89-92, 96, 108, 241, 395-398. -_Riders of the Plains, The_, 207. -_Ridgeway_, 50. -_Right of Way, The_, 244, 245. -_Rilla of Ingleside_, 301. -_Rising Village, The_, 48, 96. -_Rivers of Canada, The_, 144. -Roberts, Charles, G. D., 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 43, 47, 56, 99, 100, 102, - 105, 107, 110-126, 127, 128, 136, 138, 139, 141, 149, 154, 195, 214, 217, - 219, 220, 224, 226, 229, 231-235, 259, 247, 248, 252-253, 262, 263, 271, - 277, 278, 294, 308, 310, 349, 364, 368, 398. -Roberts, Lloyd, 294-295, 349, 350. -Roberts, Theodore, Goodridge, 308. -Robertson, John Ross, 398. -_Robespierre_, 193. -_Rododactulos_, 188. -_Rod of the Lone Patrol_, 306. -_Romany of the Snows, A_, 244. -Rose, 327. -_Rose à Charlitte_, 243. -_Rose of Acadie_, 243. -_Rose of a Nation’s Thanks, The_, 342. -Ross, G. W., 387. -Rothwell-Christie, Anna, 342, 343, 344. -_Roughing it in the Bush_, 339. -_Royal Gazette and New Brunswick Advertiser_, 390. -_Royal St. John Gazette and Nova Scotia Intelligencer_, 390. -Ryerson, Egerton, 395. - -_Salt_, 120. -Salverson, Laura Goodman, 312. -_Sam Slick_, 58, 268. -_Sam Slick’s Wise Saws and Modern Instances_, 67. -_Samson_, 217. -Sangster, Charles, 43, 55, 97-99, 132, 278. -_Sanio_, 193. -_Sapphics_, 129, 134. -_Sappho_, 142, 152. -_Sappho in Leucadia_, 314, 315. -_Sartor Resartus_, 364. -_Saul_, 48-49, 316. -Saunders, Marshall, 26, 43, 55, 105, 243, 252, 253, 298. -_Sa’-Zada Tales_, 253. -Scadding, H., 398. -Scott, Duncan Campbell, 8, 17, 18, 26, 27, 99, 102, 105, 107, 113, 133, - 138, 140, 159-183, 184, 185, 195, 209, 219, 229, 236-238, 271, 278, 284, - 351, 360, 368, 399. -Scott, Frederick, G., 17, 26, 55, 107, 113, 115, 184, 214-218, 219, - 260-264, 271, 278, 351, 371. -Scrace, Richard, (_pseud._), 278, 346. -Scriven, Joseph, 355-358. -_Sea Dogs and Men at Arms_, 346. -_Seamark, A_, 229, 233. -_Search for the Western Sea_, 402. -_Seasons of the Gods, The_, 224-225. -_Season, Ticket, The_, 42, 67, 79, 80. -_Seats of the Mighty, The_, 243, 244. -_Second Chance, The_, 303. -_Second Concession of Deer, The_ 50. -_Secret of Heroism, The_, 377. -_Sedan_, 261. -_Selections from Canadian Poets_, 387. -_Selections from Canadian Prose_, 387. -_Selections from Tennyson_, 364. -_Selections of Canadian Poetry_, 381. -Selfridge, Erica, 295. -_September_, 16. -_Sergeant Blue_, 275. -Service, Robert, 26, 27, 128, 220, 269, 271-279, 280, 281, 306, 368, 370, - 372, 373. -Seton, Ernest Thompson, 251-253, 263, 310. -Sewell, Jonathan, 39. -_Shacklocker, The_, 304. -_Shadow River_, 201, 205. -_Shamballah_, 144. -Shanly, Charles D., 48. -Sheard, Virna, 226, 278, 346, 351. -_Sheep-washing, The_, 50. -Shepard, Odell, 141. -_Shepherd’s Purse_, 296. -Sherman, Francis, 222-224. -_Shining Cross of Rigaud, The_, 259. -_Shining Ship, The_, 227-228. -_Ships of St. John, The_, 17. -_Shooting of Dan McGrew, The_, 273-274. -Shortt, Adam, 399. -_Siege of Quebec, The_, 44. -_Silent Toast, The_, 351. -Silver, Arthur, 402. -_Silver Maple, The_, 302. -Sime, J. G., 305. -_Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party_, 399. -_Sister to Evangeline, A_, 248. -_Sky Pilot, The_, 255, 256. -_Sleeping Giant_, 202, 205. -Smith, Goldwin, 110, 199. -Smith, William, 395. -Smith, William Wye, 48, 50. -Smythe, Albert Ernest Stafford, 224-226, 278, 351. -Snider, C. H. J., 308. -_Snow_, 186. -_Snowflakes and Sunbeams_, 186. -_Solitary Woodsman, The_, 123, 124. -_Song My Paddle Sings, The_, 201, 204. -_Songs of a Sourdough_, 26, 220, 271, 274, 276. -_Songs of Heroic Days_, 346. -_Songs of the Common Day_, 124, 135. -_Songs of the Great Dominion_, 382-384. -_Songs of the Prairie Land_, 297. -_Songs of the Sea Children_, 152. -_Songs of Ukraina_, 296. -_Songs of Vagabondia_, 142. -_Songster, The_, 208. -_Son of the Sea, A_, 150. -_Sons of Canada_, 400. -_Sower, The_, 17, 120, 123, 135, 277. -_Sowing Seeds in Danny_, 299, 303. -_Soul’s Quest, The_, 215. -_Span o’ Life, The_, 249. -_Specimen Spinster, The_, 299. -_Spring on Mattagami_, 165, 166, 181. -_Spring Song_, 17. -_Standard Canadian Reciter, The_, 387. -Stansbury, Joseph, 39. -_St. Cuthbert’s_, 256-257, 303. -Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 402. -Stead, Robert J. C., 271-279, 307, 372. -Stewart, George, 364, 393, 398. -_Stewart’s Quarterly_, 393. -_St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, The_, 97. -_St. Lawrence Basin and its Borderlands, The_, 402. -_Story Girl, The_, 301. -_Study of Shadows, A_, 293. -_Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, A_, 95. -Street, Eloise, 346. -Stringer, Arthur, 213, 226, 278, 310, 312, 314-315, 351. -Strong, Ruth, 346. -Sullivan, Alan, 303, 304, 305. -Sullivan, Archibald, 351. -_Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town_, 328-329. -_Swartz Diamond, The_, 260. - -_Tales of the Selkirks_, 254. -_Tall Master, The_, 247. -_Tangled in the Stars_, 220. -_Tantramar Revisited_, 120, 122. -_Tecumseh_, 49, 193, 206. -_Te Deum_, 158. -Teskey, Adeline M., 299, 308. -Thomson, Edward W., 139, 259-260. -Thomson, John Stuart, 351. -_Thor_, 217. -_Thoroughbreds_, 254. -_Three-Flower Petals_, 110. -_Threnody for Robert Louis Stevenson, A_, (_A Seamark_), 233. -_Thrown In_, 331. -_Time_, 217. -_To a Canadian Aviator_, 351-353. -_To a Canadian Lad Killed in the War_, 351. -_To a Lady_, 62. -_To Ann_, 62. -_Toast, A_, 60. -Todd, Alpheus, 397. -_To England_, 191. -_To Him That Hath_, 255. -_To Mary_, 60. -_To the Birds_, 227. -_To the Linnet_, 61. -_To the Mayflower_, 61. -_To the Memory of Rupert Brooke_, 295. -_To the United States_, 191. -_Trail of Ninety-Eight, The_, 306. -_Trail of the Sandhill Stag, The_, 251. -_Trail to Lillooet, The_, 201, 208. -_Train Among the Hills, The_, 277. -_Traits of American Humor_, 67, 77. -_Translation of a Savage, The_, 244. -_Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories_, 45, 400. -_Treasure of Ho, The_, 311. -_Treasure Valley_, 302. -_Treasury of Canadian Verse, A_, 385. -Trotter, Bernard Freeman, 295, 346. -_Truce of the Manitou, The_, 144. -_Twenty-First Burr, The_, 311. -_Two Little Savages_, 252. -Tyrrell, J. W., 402. - -_Ultimate Hour, The_, 291. -_Unabsolved_, 17, 192. -_Under Canvas_, 209. -_Undertow, The_, 257. -_Unheroic North, The_, 334, 336. -_University Magazine, The_, 239, 319, 394. - -_Vagabond Song, A_, 155. -_Van Elsen_, 17, 217. -_Vapor and Blue_, 17. -_Vancouver_, 144. -_Variations on a Seventeenth Century Theme_, 169-174. -_Vestal Virgin, The_, 319. -_Vestigia_, 143, 157. -_Via Borealis_, 165, 180, 181. -_Victory in Defeat_, 334. -_Viking Blood, The_, 304. -_Viking Heart, The_, 312. -_Vikings of the Pacific, The_, 398. -_Voice and the Dusk, The_, 176. -_Voyage from Montreal Through the Continent of North America_, 401. - -_Wacousta_, 46, 69, 89, 91-92. -Walker, Louisa, 361. -Wallace, Frederick William, 303-305, 319. -_Wanderlied_, 287. -_Watchers in the Swamp, The_, 263. -_Watchers of the Trails, The_, 252. -_Wanderings of An Artist Among the Indian Tribes of North America_, 401. -Watson, Albert D., 361, 387. -Watson, Robert, 307. -_Wave-Won_, 206. -_Wa-Wa_, 144. -_Way of the Sea, The_, 304. -_Weather Breeder, The_, 335. -_Weaver, The_, 17. -_Weavers, The_, 244, 245, 246, 247. -_Web of Time, The_, 257. -_Week, The_, 110, 199. -_We, too, Shall Sleep_, 17. -_Welcome Home_, 342, 343. -Welsh, Canon, 358. -_Western Rambles_, 42, 59. -_Westminster, The_, 254. -Wetherald, Ethelwyn, 220, 278. -_What a Friend We Have in Jesus_, 355-357. -_What Time the Morning Stars Arise_, 221. -_When Albani Sang_, 270. -_When Half Gods Go_, 319. -_When Valmond Came to Pontiac_, 244, 245, 246. -_Where the Sugar Maple Grows_, 299. -_White Comrade_, 291, 292. -_White Garden, The_, 351. -_White Gull, The_, 148, 293. -_White Wampum, The_, 18, 200, 201. -_Why Don’t You Get Married?_ 330. -Wigle, Hamilton, 272. -_Wild Animals I Have Known_, 251. -Wilkins, Harriet A., 342. -Williamson, Mrs. J. 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