Poetry by John Strachan (review)

Strachan. Canadian HUMANITIES 241 OIJlleC11:1011, in 101"'1"""1'1"1"(; ae.mamOLS are prE~conCE~ptlon I that nature will it should be conEdited Wanda LalnolJeU Press. xxxiii, 218. \/\/ t:.'C''I"L~''''T'l Ontario. Robert Colombo's edition 242 LETTERS IN CANADA 1996 would emphasize in the educational institutions helater fostered, including Trinity College. Campbell also emphasizes the waypoems like 'To Mr. Jackson' and 'The Missionary' illuminate Strachan's entrenched dislike of the policies of the United States, particularly regarding American treatment of Native peoples. 'The Missionary/ cited by Campbell as the most intriguing of all these poems, and convincingly dated by her as written in 1812, imputes.to Americans a desire to eradicate the Native peoples by expropriating lands, enforcing exploitative trade, and offering rum - all. accusations that Campbell corroborates in her notes on Thomas Jefferson and other contemporary American policy makers. Educational and political themes, however, are minor notes in this collection of poems. Most are indeed the affectionate and witty record of Strachan's private life. A first burst of poems written in 1802-3 records his memories ofScottish academic and theological controversies, his frustrate~ love for a young Kingston woman, and his growing fondness for his patron, Richard Cartwright. A second poetic spurt, in 1807-12, when Strachan had been ordained and posted to Cornwall as parish priest and schoolmaster, records his more lasting and fortunate love for Ann Wood McGilt their marriage, the birth of their first child ('I, the partner of her woes, / ... felt new pangs at all her throes'), and the happy dimming of passion into trust and fondness - with a bit of advice: 'And if some little spots remain, / As who from them's entirely free, / Correct them or their force restrain / And centre all your joys in me.' There are a few later keepsake poems from the 1830s, but essentially after 1812, when Strachan moved to York and became archdeacon, chaplain to the Legislative Council and to the garrison, founder of schools and colleges,manipulator ofpolltical policy, he passes into history as protagonist rather than poet. ~opious notes usefully fill out the details of life before 1812, part of a general refutation of earlier assumptions of cultural barrenness in the Canadas. BeforeJoseph Howe wasborn, as Campbellpoints out, therewere lively interchanges between Quebec, Montreat Kingston, and York. And there was at least one colourful, opinionated, quizzical, sharp-spoken Upper Canadian, ready to explore the full range ofhis own responses to life in a determinedly British colony. (ELIZABETH WATERSTON) Levi Adams. Jean Baptiste: A Poetic Olio, In II Cantos. Edited by Tracy Ware Canadian Poetry Press. xxvi, 84. $17.00 With the publication of Jean Baptiste, the Canadian Poetry Press brings to sixteen the number ofits valuable scholarly editions of early Canadian long poems. It also makes readily available to students of Canadian literature a ' ...