Afterworlds

Mary Jane Starr was with the National Library of Canada in Ottawa.

Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Afterworlds, a collection of poetry and verse, appeared in 1987 following a five-year publishing hiatus. Some of the poems in the collection have appeared in Canadian, American, Scottish, and Australian literary periodicals and been broadcast on the CBC. Some have received awards, and still others newly revised for this publication. Afterworlds is divided into six distinct sections: “Anarchy,” “Apocalypse,” “After-images,” “After-thoughts,” and “Avatars.”

Gwendolyn MacEwen’s exterior settings range from Jerusalem to the Arctic, from London to Loch Ness. With equal ease and dexterity she shifts the tone from sombre to playful, from introspective to hopeful. Temporally, much of the poetry is concerned with the past, both near and distant. In subject, tone, and setting, MacEwen’s reach never exceeds her grasp.

There is a sense of prescience that attends the reading of this work; as if these poems were part of her legacy, to be read after her death. She does explore mortality in many of these poems, for example, “I hurl breathless poems against my Lord Death.” However, to her continuing credit, MacEwen does not seem obsessed with death and rather conveys an enduring engagement with life: “nothing ends until we want it to.”

With this collection, Gwendolyn MacEwen confirms her place in the inner circle of contemporary Canadian poets. Although the reader is haunted by the knowledge of her untimely death, the response is more regret than sadness, as there will be no more of this engaging, accomplished, and intelligent work.