In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry

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.

This anthology began because the two editors found to their surprise
that, when they assigned the writing of poems with a recognized form
“as exercises in writing classes and workshops, student work shone.”
Then, deciding to compile a Canadian anthology of such verse, after
producing a list of 1,400-plus poems, they invited submissions, and
found themselves “knee deep in high quality poems” numbering
“almost 1,000.” They whittled all these down to 175 for the present
book.

Really? I confess to being skeptical—in part because I find only a
fairly modest percentage of the poems qualifying as “high quality.”
Or do they mean “high quality by the standards of creative-writing
courses”?

Having made that basic, and perhaps cynical point, let me add
immediately that this is in many respects a useful book. It is divided
into a number of sections that isolate poetic effects (“forms” seems
to me vague). Some are indeed forms—“Ballad,” “Haiku,”
“Sestina,” “Sonnet,” “Villanelle.” But other headings
contain such diverse titles as “Couplet,” “Epigram,”
“Incantation,” “Syllabics.” One I found interesting was “Fugue
and Madrigal,” borrowed from music. But others seemed dubious, like
“Stanza,” a catch-all for so many “forms.” A final catch-all
chapter virtually throws up the sponge: “Acros-tic,”
“Anglo-Saxon,” “Limerick,” “Lipogram,” “Visual.”

The poets represented range from such well-known names as Charles G.D.
Roberts, E.J. Pratt, Jay Macpherson, Richard Outram, and P.K. Page (who
also contributes a shrewd introduction) to numerous younger writers.
Perhaps the most welcome feature is an appendix, “Coming to Terms,”
which explains complicated words, including the names of metres.

Convenient—but I remain obstinately bothered. The emphasis falls
exclusively on formal details, not on the success with which they are
managed. A “high quality” poem is not just one that manages to obey
the rules of, say, the sestina, but one that does so with eloquence and
grace—and provides intellectual stimulation as well. The cover blurb
claims that this anthology “is a showcase for some of the best poetry
this country has produced”—and that, I fear, is quite unwarranted.