Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada

Douglas Barbour is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.
He is the author of Lyric/anti-lyric : Essays on Contemporary Poetry,
Breath Takes, and Fragmenting Body Etc.

The editors of Coastlines—Anne Compton, Laurence Hutchman, Ross
Leckie, and Robin McGrath—argue that there is “a present renaissance
in Atlantic poetry” that their anthology seeks to represent in all its
glory. It offers a fine and wide selection of Atlantic poetry published
since 1950, and presents a generous sense of belonging, since it
includes both poets who have come to the area and those who have left
(the most celebrated of the latter group being Elizabeth Bishop). It
also offers a generous selection of younger poets, many of whom readers
in other parts of the country may not know.

From Milton Acorn to Liliane Welch, all the big names are here. Many
readers will know the work of such poets as Elizabeth Brewster, George
Elliott Clarke, Don Domanski, Alden Nowlan, Al Pittman, John Steffler,
and John Thompson. Some will have come across the work of such recent
award-winning poets as Michael Crummey, Lynn Davies, Sue Goyette, and
Anne Simpson. But there are many others here whose work certainly
belongs beside that of these already known poets.

On the whole, the selection of poems in Coastlines is solid. The
editors mention that the Atlantic present “is conversant with its
rural past,” and there is a general tone of pastoralism in this
anthology. Of the great forebears, it is Charles G.D. Roberts and Bliss
Carman as lyric poets who seem to still influence the poetry of the
region. Nevertheless, there is great variety within that large and open
form. Not everything will please every reader, but there is much
pleasure to be had here. As an introduction to the poetry of the four
Atlantic provinces, Coastlines does its job with élan.