Red Ledger

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Mary Dalton came into prominence on the Canadian poetry scene in 2003
with the publication of Merrybegot. Her two earlier books displayed an
accomplished vigour, but were written in standard English. Merrybegot,
however, was an endearing volume that regularly employed Newfoundland
dialect to original effect.

I must confess that in reading Red Ledger I was somewhat disappointed.
Only one poem, the six-line “Hyperthyroid” beginning
“Squid-minded, / fidgety as a hen on a hot rock— / nervous as a bag
of cats” recalls its predecessor, but even then eschews dialect words.
The rest of the poems have a characteristically feisty quality, but
reflect many subjects, moods, and styles. This is a collection of poems
rather than a carefully crafted volume.

In addition, though one has to read the fine print on the copyright
page to establish the information, much of Red Ledger is a reprint of
earlier work. Eleven poems are reprinted, with only minor revisions,
from The Time of Icicles (1989) and three from Allowing the Light
(1993). Thus almost one-third of the present book has already appeared
in volume form. There is nothing wrong with this procedure in itself,
but the book should have been identified as “New and Selected
Poems.” The back-cover claim that this is “the work of an
exceptional poet who has once again struck out on her own” (my
emphasis) is inaccurate.

Still, many of the new poems are of high quality. The best of them, in
my view, reflect the disturbing contrasts between traditional and modern
Newfoundland life, as in “Here in the Dog Days” with its portrait of
contemporary motorcyclists: “young buckos rev up, astride / red-hot,
brand-new dirt-bikes ...” Moreover, a series of poems inspired by the
local salt industry comprise a unified and imaginative sequence. But her
slang satirical pieces are less successful because they’re too
“easy,” and the concluding notes do not always give explanations
that interested outsiders may need.

Red Ledger, then, is in some respects a transitional volume, but Dalton
is unquestionably a poet to be watched.