Voices from a Farther Room

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of English at the University of Prince
Edward Island.

W.B. Yeats once defined poetry as the perfect utterance of the poet’s
inner life and self. Smith rejects this essentially confessional
approach in favor of a “many voices” one; hence his title. An
analogy might be the hubbub of everyday speech in a crowded saloon
bar—intermittent and desultory, but meaningful to the participants. As
a result, Smith’s poetry benefits from being spoken aloud; only then
do those “places deeper than language” begin to emerge. Even so,
average readers may not always grasp the full meaning of those poems
(“Greek Dreams” is a representative example) that are full of
literary and linguistic references. This rapid-fire, staccato style of
delivery, however, evokes a pleasurable feeling of excitement.

This collection was nominated for the 1993 Governor General’s Award
for poetry.