Romancing the Land

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.

This is, alas, one of those coffee-table books that lack any discernible
raison d’кtre. It consists of 29 ostentatiously beautiful photographs
of Canadian landscapes (all so perfect that they lack credibility),
accompanied by brief but for the most part unrelated extracts from
Miriam Waddington’s poetry. Waddington is a serious and accomplished
poet, and it is difficult to understand how she got involved in this
venture. I was initially interested in the book because I assumed that
it would contain original verse, but all extracts (as the fine print
shows) are from her 1986 Collected Poems, cut to ribbons, it would seem,
to fit the needs of those with limited attention spans.

Lorraine Monk, who chose the photographs and the verses, contributes an
effuse dedication “to the Romantic in all of us,” and then in a
treacly preface (where she describes the book as “a ten-der, loving
letter to the place we call home”) exhorts us to be patriotic and
appreciate the beauty of our country, “the bountiful earth that
stretches from sea to sea.” The motive may be admirable, but I fear
that the welter of sentimental clichés will do more harm than good.