New-Canadian Letters

LETTERS IN CANADA: 1942 3S5 VII. Miscellaneous (Selected) Belisle (L.-A.), La vente au comptoir(Quebec, Edns. Les Affaires, 220 pp., $1.00). Deschamps (Philippe), La composition fran!;aise, comment raconter , classes de quatrieme et troisieme (Montreal, Libr. Saint-Viateur, x, 271 pp.) $1.25). Ecole des Sciences sociales, politiques et economiques de Laval CISc. each): CONWAY (P. H.), Life and French Canada (51 pp.); LAPIERRE (EUGENE), Un style canadien de musique (36 pp.); LAURENT (EDOUARD), QueUe est la nature de l'Acte de 1867? (36 pp.); LEBEL (MAURJCE» L'etude et I'en. seignement de l'anglais (27 PP.)i LEVESQUE (G.. H.), Catholique es-tu social? (40 pp.)j POZNANSKI (T.), L'assurance sociale et l'assurance commerciale (34 pp.)j Roy (LIONEL), La montee du Canada vers l'independance (42 p,P.); VIATTE (AUGUSTE), La crise de I'intelligence fran~aise (38 pp.). Ecole 80clale populaire (Montreal} Action paroissiale, 32 pp. each, 15c. each): BOURGEOIS (C.-E.), L'assistance a l'enfant sans soutienj CARON (MAXIMILlEN), L'organi. sation corporative au service de la d6mocratie; COURCHESNE (G.), Qu'est-ce qu'un catholique pratiquant?j PELLAND (LEo), L'action catholique et 1a politique ; PELLETIER (GEORGES), Le droit de suffrage. Fortier (De La Bruere), Votre testament et votre succession (Montreal, Valiquette, 157 pp.). Institut des Saint Noms de JesU8 et de Marie, Formation pratique au chant gregorien (Outremontj L'Institut, 189 pp.). Radio~Canada, Radio Canada, reseau fran~ajh cinq annees de progres, 1936-1941 (Montreal, ~adio-Canadat.,76 pp.). RobItaIlle (Adrien), R.S.V.P., prUace de RINGUET (Montreal,' l:!.dns. de I'Arbre, 223 pp., $1.00). Societe des Ecrivains canadiens, Bulletin bi bliographique , annees 1937 a1941 (Montreal, La Societe, 116 pp.). V. NEW-CANADIAN LETTERS WATSON KIRKCONNELL To limit the 1942 survey to books-as requested-is to reduce the New Canadian field from a prairie to a kitchen-garden; for the ~ pressure oLthe war on the smaller linguisticcommunities is restricting their literary publication mo're and more exclusively to the foreign language press. In this press, one 'may note, in passing, the striking contrast between twelve Communistic papers, most of them less than three years old, run almost without advertising and flooded with high-grade war-time material exclusively written and supplied gratis by the Pan-Slav and Comintern offices in Moscow, and sixty non-Communist papers, run 'on advertising revenue and w'ritten by local talent. ' New Canadian poetry has only one volume to show this ,year: I Saw Swans, by Jakobina Johnson, a sort of "Child's Garden of Verses" in Icelandic, with notable black-and-white illustrations by the 'Icelandic artist, Tryggvi Magnusson. There are twenty poems in the collection. Lurking in several of them and their accompanying illustra1;ions, is "Shadow-Lad" (Skuggasvein), the dark and , depredacious,family cat, who has one poem all to himself as follows:l IAll translations in this article are by Watson Kirkconnell. 356 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY Old Shadow-Lad is a wicked cat,For mercy he has but scorn. His back is brindled and yellowy~dark, And both of his ears are torn. For him to roam in the garden free Is a cause for the birds to mourn. He seems to be friendly and kind enough, But his conscience is dark and grimAs livid as twilight, when anxious fear. Is loud in the red-breast's hymn, When the sunset is hid in ,a deepening haze ,And the strait and the hill are dim. Other poems, frankly written for children, deal with the sad fate of Grandma's canary and goldfish, with dolls and toy boats and chickens and wild flowers and sparrows and empty houses. The title-poem, apparently composed during a visit to Iceland, expresses a wistful yearning after the realization of childhood dreams: "Swans I saw a-flying"Broad , wjJ..ite piniQns plying, Gliding high above a moorland lake. Still I stood, enchanted; Here the thing I wanted ' Might corne true, the wish 'my hopes bespake. I, from youth, a-dreaming, Loved their white-wings' gleaming, Yearned to hear the swans break forth in song. But, my wish denying, Mute was still their flying: Many a hope must...