New-Canadian Letters

LETTERS IN 'CANADA: 1946 295 FRANQUE; la musique, par MARCEL VALOIS (Montreal, Edns Fernand Pilon, 502 pp., $3.00). Villeneuve (J.-M.-R.), Le probleme des lectures~ allocution prononcee Je 28 mai 1946, al'occasion de la benediction de l'immeuble 'Fides (Montreal, Fides, 28 pp., 15c.). Yon (~nd), L'abbe H.-A. Verreau, educateur-polemiste-historien; preface de Mgr OLIVIER MAURAULT (Collection Artisans de notre h.istoire; Montreal, Fides, 208 pp., $1.50). NouvELLES REVUEs: Les Archives de folklore (decembre 1946); semestrielle; "contiennent des documents et etudes sur les mceurs, les coutumes, les croyances, les legendes, les contes, les chansons .et les arts populaires au Canada fran!;ais"; directeur, Lu.c LACOURCIERE; Publications de l'Universite Laval-Fides, 25 est, rue Saint-Jacques, Montreal. · Lectures (septembre 1946); mensuelle; "9-e bibliographie critique"; direction, PAuL-A. MARTIN,· redaction, THEOPHILE BERTRAND; Fides, 25 est, rue SaintJacques , Montreal. La·Revue de l'Universite Laval (septembre 1946); dix livraisons chaque an nee i directeur, M. I'abbe EMILE BEGIN, secretaire de Ia redaction, M. l'abbe BENOlT GARNEAUj Publication .de l'Universite Laval et de la Soc1ete du Parler fransais au Canada; continue Le Canada fra?tfais. V. NEW-CANADIAN LETTERS WATSON KIRKCONNELL Within the scope of the present survey come two substantial volumes of Icelandic verse: Poems by the late Rev. J6nas A. Sigurdsson, of Selkirk, Manitoba, and At the Edge of the Heath by Sveinn E. Bjornsson, M.D., of Ashern, Manitoba. The former volume represents the collected works of Sigurdssm1, edited with care and skill by Professor Richard Beck, who in 1945 carried out a similar extensive project for the poetry of the late Kristjan Niels. JU.Hus. J6nas Ari Sigurdsson was born in Iceland in 1865, and died in Winnipeg in 1933. Coming to North America at the age ·of twenty-two, he became a Lutheran clergyman and served parishes in North Dakota, Washington, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In 1 this posthumous edition of his collected verse there are 211 poems, of varying lengths and varying merit. Three themes predominate: love of his ancestral Iceland, a strong sense of racial tradition and a deep relig]ous faith. Typical of this last is the devout quatrain: One prayer is all my orison. One gift, 0 Lord) impart: Father, Thy wi,ll on earth be done, And let it rule my heart. Sveinn Bjornsson, physicjan at Ashern> was also born in Iceland (in 1885) and is a graduate of the University of Manitoba. At the Edge of t'he Heath i~ his second important volume of verse. It consists of three categories of work: (a) original poetry on various themes-nature, patriotism, satire, etc., pages 3-88, 223-4; (b) poems in honour of individual friends, at 296 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY weddings, anniversaries, etc., pages 89-199; and (c) translations from English poetry, pages '200-22. That one of the major interests of his verse has been found in Engl~ish Romanticism is suggested by his rendering Keats's uOde to a Nightingale" and Shelley's "The Cloud" into .intricate Icelandic verse. In hi:S original poetry there are some excellent examples both of the elaborate ode and of the epigrammati'c quatrain. The Timarit of the Icelandic National League also carries some very good verse by Einar Pall J 6nsson, Guttormur J. Guttormsson, Ragnar Stefansson, Jakob1na Johnson, J6n J6natansson, Gisli J6nsson, Jakob J. Norman and Vigfus J. Guttormsson. The only book of Ukrainian verse published in Canada ·in 1946 is a bl~stering volume of anti-Communist satire, What the Kremlin Forgot, by Fed Mikitenko, illustrated with nine priceless cartoons. One such illustration shows a Stalinesque angel, complete with nightgown, wings, halo, dove, 'olive-branch, black whiskers, pipe and dripping butcher-knife, standing in carpet-slippers amid a wilderness of cemetery crosses; and the verses beneath the picture may be paraphrased thus: This is no angel of love and peace To make the long contention cease. His wings a world of woe have poured Upon a graveyard's countless crosses; And after all these years of losses His olive-branch but hides a sword. In fiction, there are three books to record: a posthumous· collection of twelve short stories...