Archibald Lampman: Selected Poetry

Laurence Steven is Chairman of the English Department at Laurentian
University and author of Dissociation and Wholeness in Patrick White’s
Fiction.

“I read yours last night with almost a new joy,” wrote E.W. Thomson
to his friend Lampman in 1893, and nearly a hundred years later the joy
remains. It may seem strange reading the words of a confederation poet
in this time of “deconfederation.” This is less unusual when one
realizes that Lampman’s Canada, too, was marred by economic recession,
linguistic tensions, and debate over trade with the United States.
Gnarowski suggests that it is time for Canadians to renew our
acquaintance with the first Canadian poet to write about the feelings of
isolation and alienation the land impresses upon us, feelings that
coincide with the internal landscapes our surroundings imprint in our
minds.

If Lampman’s poetry gives “a new joy,” then this joy is limited
by the narrowness of Gnarowski’s selection. There is nothing new here.
The editor has selected 37 of Lampman’s best-known works from Among
the Millet (1888), Lyrics of the Earth (1896), and the posthumously
published Alcyone (1899). Gnarowski includes Lampman standards like
“Heat,” “The City at the End of Things,” and “An Autumn
Landscape,” yet omits the poet’s later work, which experimented with
the blank verse and internal rhyme (the only exception being the
inclusion of the poem “Personality”) so typical of modern poetry.

After having read Gnarowski’s 24-page introduction, I was surprised
that Lampman’s “Kate” poems were also neglected. There is no
mention of the poet’s 12-year affair with Katherine Waddell, either in
the picture of marital bliss the editor paints of the Lampmans in his
introduction, or in the poetry that follows. Gnarowski’s narrow vision
denies readers full insight into Lampman’s poetics and so deprives
them of a different kind of joy.