Canadian Writers and Their Works: Poetry Series, Vol. 10

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.

This is a case of “ten at a blow,” for included in these two volumes
are critical/biographical studies of ten modern Canadian poets: bill
bissett, George Bowering, Daphne Marlatt, bpNichol, Michael Ondaatje,
Leonard Cohen, Robert Kroetsch, Eli Mandel, John Newlove, and Joe
Rosenblatt. Each study is approximately 50 pages long, and is written to
a prescribed format that subdivides the texts into “Biography,”
“Tradition and Milieu,” “Critical Overview and Context,” and
“[Poet’s] Works.” And each volume has an introduction to the five
essays by George Woodcock.

The studies vary little in critical methodology in that all are chiefly
concerned with issues and themes, both social and psychological—though
occasionally (as in the study of Robert Kroetsch) structural techniques
do call for brief commentary. There is little about literary art, and
hardly any attempt to offer value judgments about the poetry. The major
differences seem to stem from the differences in the poets themselves:
for those not yet fully canonized—like Rosenblatt and Marlatt—the
essayists seem to be striving harder to justify their subject. For those
already canonized—Kroetsch, Mandel, Cohen—the essays seem somehow
less of an effort to write and read. But, that impression
notwithstanding, all of the essays are worth reading, and the poets they
elucidate (and often celebrate) are worthy of extended study. These are
excellent introductions for any student of Canadian poetry and for fans
of the poets themselves.