Marrying the Sea

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.

I can imagine a number of reviews of this collection of poems offering
different approaches—most of them favorable. Feminist critics will
focus on the many poems about women and dedicated to women (though
it’s important to point out that there are a number of poems about
men, including an intimate series of love poems dedicated to the
poet’s husband). They will also commend the section titled
“Sirens’ Songs.”

Then there are the advocates of historical relevance, who will point to
the poems about displaced persons, about lives torn apart by the wars
and totalitarianisms of our times (“There were always beatings in that
country, / Your parents were put to forced labour, / monuments to
undying friendship between butcher and calf”).

Canadian nationalists may find themselves a bit uneasy, since
references, both cultural and personal, are primarily European; however,
“multiculturalism” is politically correct, so Janice Kulyk
Keefer’s credentials are therefore acceptable. Still others, sensitive
to fashions in poetics, will note with approval that vers libre is very
much the order of the day. Certainly, there is no hint of rhyme, and
regular stanzaic patterns are rare.

Trendy? No, not really. Relevant to our times? Yes, decidedly.

For me, what distinguishes Marrying the Sea is Keefer’s remarkable
ear for satisfying rhythmic effects, her enviable capacity to find
precisely the right word or image, her poised wit (“Marriages must be
maintained. Like lawns: / weeded, trimmed, never walked on”), her
breadth of cultural reference, her literary intelligence, her admirable
control of whatever she sets out to do.

And what she sets out to do involves far more than poetry. She is also
an accomplished novelist, short-story writer, as well as one of our
shrewdest and most responsible literary critics. Indeed, Janice Kulyk
Keefer belongs in the vanguard of that group of younger Canadian writers
whom one might risk calling the post-Atwood generation. Marrying the Sea
can only add to the considerable respect she has already earned.