Magic Animals: Selected Poetry

Maggie Helwig was a freelance writer and Professor of Pre-Industrial Arts, UPRPU, Peterborough, Ontario.

In 1974, Macmillan published Magic Animals, the selected poems of Gwendolyn MacEwen. It goes without saying that this was an important book, MacEwen being among Canada’s most original and significant poetic voices. For this same reason, it was natural that General Publishing would wish to include her in their fine Spectrum Poetry Series; thus in 1982 they published Earthlight, more selected poems of Gwendolyn MacEwen.

However, although Earthlight contained much interesting material left out of, or written after, Magic Animals, it had to be admitted that the best of MacEwen’s pre-1974 poetry was in the earlier collection. Now General has reissued Magic Animals, also in their Spectrum Poetry Series, and the matter can presumably be regarded as settled.

It is unfortunate that things worked out this way; what one would like is a single, comprehensive collection. On the whole, if only one volume can be acquired, Magic Animals is probably the better of the two; the greater part of MacEwen’s most important poems are in this collection. The later Earthlight does include selections from the brilliant T.E. Lawrence Poems, but that sequence is much better read independently and as a whole.

Ironically, I would recommend Macmillan’s Magic Animals, as some poems have been omitted from the Spectrum volume; but the Macmillan volume is, of course, out of print.