Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets

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.

When a poet of Al Purdy’s calibre is involved, a book of well-picked
selected poems ought always to be available; Rooms for Rent in the Outer
Planets should fill the bill admirably now and in the immediate future.
The selections are Purdy’s own, and the range of tone is remarkable,
from the disturbing hilariousness of “When I Sat Down to Play the
Piano” through the surreal lyricism of “The Runners” to the
eloquent sublimity of “The Dead Poet.” With shrewdness and an
enviable self-critical rigor, he has drawn on 13 of his earlier volumes,
from Poems for All the Annettes to Naked with Summer in Your Mouth.

This book contains virtually all the well-known poems that Purdy
aficionados would expect to see included. Those same aficionados will
also be intrigued to discover that “Elegy for a Grandfather,” a poem
first published as early as 1956 and one that Purdy has been tinkering
with for most of his life, appears in yet another (and considerably
expanded) version here.

A notable and welcome feature of this edition is the afterword, a
collage of Purdy’s prose comments about poetry, deftly selected and
arranged by Sam Solecki.

An excellent introduction to Purdy for poetry lovers, students of
Canadian literature, and general readers.