Bliss Carman: A Reappraisal

DOUGLAS LOCHHEAD

189 Douglas Lochhead ' 'I do not long for fame" Following the invitation to contribute a summary statement to this volume, I began to prepare myself for a major encounter with Bliss Carman and his poetry in the following ways: (a) because it provided a good excuse for book-buying I began immediately to sound out the second-hand market and to collect for myself as many Bliss Carman titles as I could find—all editions, impressions— ephemera and in book form. In a short time I collected most of what is listed in R. E. Walters' Checklist of Canadian Literature in English. It seemed sensible for one who is quite maniacal about books, and the market waters were productive considering the unpredictable interest in Carman. Some book dealers were quite surprised that Carman was of interest these days; (b) I read a number of works of criticism of Carman's poetry which ranged from the somewhat sophomore-savage to the more than somewhat reverential; (c) and I read the poetry and a little prose from selections and collections. Why, you may well ask, did you not read the poetry first, and then, only then, acquaint yourself with the criticism and biography? Well, you see, I knew that I would encounter "readings" of Carman by three distinguished Canadian poets—Al Purdy, Elizabeth Brewster and D. G. Jones. Also, some years ago, I did read some of the poetry as a student in public and high schools in Ontario. Then, in the 1980s, I made a more thorough examination of Carman's work in the preparation of a selection of his poetry, which I edited with Raymond Souster. This volume, by the way, was never intended to be a scholarly undertaking . Ray and I had a simple objective: to make Carman's poetry available to as wide a public as possible. Glenn Clever published Wind/lower and Other Poems in Ottawa at his Tecumseh Press. So this was some of my homework. Summing up a lively book of essays on Carman is no task to be taken lightly. I would offer some general impressions of what has been voiced in this volume: 190 (a) the tone of the writers, notably the new critics, the younger ones, has been more receptive, more tolerant, better balanced and informed than that heard as late as a decade ago; (b) there has been expressed by many a need to place Carman incontext , to reconstruct the literary scene in Canada and the United States as our poet fluttered and almost barged or mowed his way through it; (c) there have been beautifully articulated accounts of Carman's highs and lows—from his early years in the United States to his poetry in, say, By the Aurelian Wall; (d) and, most important, very firm evidence has been placed before our court, that Carman is indeed good and worth pursuing. I did not say that he was great. He would not have wanted that. Here is one of his poems that expresses his modesty; it appeared in some of his early twentieth-century volumes (I am not certain of its bibliographical progression ). I acquired it in a copy set to musicby Robert Coningsby Clarke and published in 1915in London. It is not in Blanck's bibliography. "I do not long for Fame" (Song) I do not long for fame Nor triumph nor trumpets of praise; I only wish my name To endure in the coming days, When men say, musing at times, With smiling speech and slow, "He was a maker of rhymes Yvonne loved long ago!" (Songs of the Sea Children, CXIV, 1904) (e) a few further observations, or hopes, can be expressed as one reads Carman and essays about him.It quicklybecomes obvious that he was very much a vagabond, a wanderer, a saddle-bag poet. I wouldexpress the hope that a literary person with a geographical bent may someday trace for us in map form a record of Carman's many moves, all his comings and goings. It would be a tangled and telling web indeed. Also his liaisons of one kind or another cry out for some graphic interpretation just to keep one alert as to Carman's many roles, who the poet was with and when and where. It has been said that Wordsworth was possiblythe most successful and professional literary bum of all time, what with sister Dorothy looking after him. Carman had many Dorothys during his writing life. It is important to...