On the Edge of Genre: The Contemporary Canadian Long Poem

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
author of Calling Texas.

English-Canadian poets have from the earliest times shown an interest in
the writing of long poems. While other anglophone literary traditions
have neglected this form in the modern period, one of the distinctive
qualities of Canadian poetry is the popularity of the long poem.
Kamboureli has contributed a remarkably detailed and intelligent study
of this phenomenon. She has not neglected history: her opening chapter,
“An Archaeology of the Canadian Long Poem,” looks at the precedents
in the nineteenth-century and early Modern periods. The one real
oversight, and a surprising one, is the neglect of Louis Dudek, whose
Europe has been acknowledged as a major influence by many of the younger
poets she studies. But this is still a major study, with excellent
theoretical discussions of self, place, and the present tense in the
long poem, and an outstanding treatment of what is distinctive in the
modern form—its free transgression of genre boundaries. The
theoretical sections use critical jargon where necessary, but with
remarkable clarity. The book deals with actual poems as well as with
theory, of course; the discussions of Robert Kroetsch and Michael
Ondaatje are particularly good. Nearly every important practitioner of
the long poem is included here: Daphne Marlatt, Eli Mandel, bp Nichol,
George Bowering, and Dennis Cooley get full treatment. Perhaps
Kamboureli might have made more critical judgments in this work, though
she is clearly more interested in describing than evaluating. She has
written an outstanding academic book, and one that will still be of
interest to ordinary readers of Canadian poetry who want guidance in
approaching some rewarding but formidable poems. The bibliography of
critical works is lengthy. The list of original works is also useful,
but it’s strange to see Dudek omitted while far less important poets
are included.