Poetry

J.:!,tters zn (anada.· I949 Edited hy J. R. MAcGILLIVRAY 0 F this fifteenth annual survey of "Letters in Canada" very little need be said in introduction. As in the two previous years and occasionally before that, it has been found necessary to hold over the survey of FrenchCanadian and New-Canadian literature until the July number. Once again I would express my thanks to the publishers of Canadian books for their friendly co-operation; to the University of Toronto Library for assistanl:e; and to Miss Francess Halpenny, Assistant Editor of the University of Toronto Press, for searching out and collecting the books and for preparing all the check-lists except the one for New-Canadian letters. pART I: ENGLISH-CANADIAN LETTERS I. POETRY E. K. BROWN The poetry of 1949 is less striking than in any year since "Letters in Canada" began. The poverty is unlikely to persist, and is not wholly unwelcome to one reader: it gives me a chance that I have hoped for, space for an attempt to see the poetry of the past fifteen years in brief perspective. These years are among the most interesting in the · development of Canadian poetry. In retrospect the landmarks seem unmistakable. With The Titanic in 1935, and again with Brebeuf and His Brethren in 1940, E.]. Pratt appeared at the height of his power in versification, organization, and interpretation. Nothing in the praise given these poems in "Letters in Canada" now appears excessive. In 1950 Pratt's reputation is even more secure than it was when·these surveys began. I grow tired of hearing the·charge that· his writing is not in the main stream of modern verse; of course it is not, but should anyone care? \Vhat is wrong with most poetry that falls outside the main stream is that it imitates without enrichment some old formula. Pratt imitates nothing: his best poetry offers a strong pleasure not to be found in any other writing, past or present. The publication in 1936 of New Provinces associated with Pratt, Robert Finch, Leo Kennedy, A. M. I(lein, F. R. Scott, and A. J. M. Smith. The importance of this small an~ thology was emphasized in "Letters in Canada: 1936'': "It marks the emergence before the general readers of the country (others have followed the tendency for some years in magazines with relatively small circulation) of a group of poets who may well have as vivifying an effect on Canadian poetry as the Group of Seven had on Canadian painting." All that now seems at fault in that judgment was the implication that "general readers" 259 260 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY would look into the anthology. Few of them did. It sold slowly; the publisher did not push it very hard; and it was not as widely discussed as it might have been. But New Provinces is a landmark. The poets it introduced have been the authors of a number of the most interesting collections in the interval between 1936 and the present; and their mark is upon the best books by other experimental writers that have come out in this period. The New Provinces poets have not been widely read; they have not counted for much in the general culture of the country. This is because of their language, which they did not devise but share with most of the best contemporary poets in the United States and some in England. This, much more than the sometimes bewildering irregularity of their prosodic patterns, or their preference of myth to lyricism, or their occasionally uncompromising subtlety or learning , is what scares away the larger audience. The boldness with language is not only easy to account for, it is practically inevitable. Conservative critics in the universities, and more vociferously in the newspapers (where the reviewing of poetry is usually in weak hands) have been saying that the experiments are not only unattractive but gratuitous, and should be called off. They cannot be called off. There is no direct way back to the quarries from which earlier poets drew their marble. Sooner or later another quarry will be found where the marble is of superb quality. Then poets will no...