These Fields Were Rivers

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta. He is
the author of Calling Texas, Earth Prime, and Mind the Gap.

Sometimes Brent MacLaine seems to be a Prince Edward Island
reincarnation of Robert Frost. His poems are elegant pastorals
proceeding occasionally by indirections, sometimes by plaintive direct
statements. His “Directions for a Garden Swing” could be a revision
of Frost’s “Birches.” MacLaine is the first of his family in many
generations not to farm the land, which may account for his attachment
to the rural.

The second section of his book, “The Story of My Land,” is a loving
survey of the history and geography of his corner of PEI. He has a wide
range: along with the pastorals, he can deal with embryology, weather
patterns, cosmology, and data banks. The finest poem in the volume is
perhaps the long monologue by Elpenor, the shipmate of Odysseus who died
in a fall on Circe’s island. The poem is a richly developed meditation
by this minor character whose fate is one of the most poignant in Homer.
MacLaine’s Elpenor has some grievances against his famous captain, and
those grievances make the figure unforgettable.