Phyllis Webb and the Common Good: Poetry/Anarchy/Abstraction.

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.

Phyllis Webb is a difficult poet; this is therefore a difficult book, yet easily the best study of an always intriguing, sometimes infuriating poet obsessed (successfully) with failure, paradox—and, perhaps, contradiction. To review it in a traditional fashion would be inappropriate, ludicrous, probably impossible. I append some fragmented observations that may (or may not) indicate some of its interest and complexity.

Webb once wrote to E.J. Pratt (on nobody’s list of her likely mentors) of her hopes to regain “a wide public for poetry.” Whatever she achieved (which was considerable) it wasn’t that.

She often wrote about “the death of the lyric.” But the lyric form has flourished for several millennia; it is unlikely to curl up and expire in response to theories from a small group of “postmodernists.”

The “theoretical” reading of this sometime CCF candidate inevitably led to attitudes that drive an alienating wedge between her and the workers she hoped to represent.

Her interest in anarchism, well-documented by Collis, is crucial, yet paradox has always been central to anarchism—witness the news headline at a critical time in the Spanish Civil War: “Anarchists restore order in Barcelona.”

This is no book for beginners. Collis assumes that any reader will know, for example, the basic facts behind title and references in “Wilson’s Bowl.”

Collis’s commentary on the abstract elements in Webb’s poetry are admirable specimens of New Criticism so firmly derided in earlier pages. They concentrate on potential “meanings” in what is supposed to be “abstract.”

Webb’s poetry, quoted by Collis usefully throughout the book, invariably contains examples of the very lyricism and individualism that she would seem, theoretically, to be attempting to banish from her work.

These observations are neither carping, nor criticisms of either Webb or Collis. They are intended to suggest that both critic and commentator are venturing into dangerous waters that need exploring, and they should be praised for so doing. Webb’s poetry, however “puzzling” (one of her key words), is stimulating—as is Collis’s book. It is important reading for anyone concerned with art in the modern world.