Selected Poetry of Louis Riel

Don Crosby is a journalist in Durham, Ontario.

This volume of Riel’s poetry covers the years from Riel’s student
days at the College of Montreal to his last days in a Regina prison
awaiting execution for treason. The original French text appears
opposite the English translation. The 23 pieces include songs, letters,
love poems, fables, political diatribes, and religious manifestos.

The poetry of the young Riel, which is superior to that of his later
years, shows the excitement of his first contact with French-Canadian
nationalism. His later poems are a roller-coaster ride up through the
euphoria of the Métis uprising and the subsequent entry of Manitoba
into Confederation in 1870, and then down into disillusionment and the
betrayal of his people by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald. Writing from
exile in New England and from the Beauport Asylum in Quebec, Riel
continues the theme of betrayal and the issue of amnesty. As well, he
attempts to justify his common-law marriage to Marguerite Monet. While
awaiting his death in 1885, he finally makes his peace, in the
meditative poem “How My Body Trembles.”

These autobiographical poems lay bare the soul of a Canadian hero all
too often consigned to the lunatic fringe. Translator Paul Savoie, while
respecting the integrity of the original work, has taken liberties to
create a rhymed, aesthetically pleasing, and metrically correct version.
Historical and biographical notes are provided with each poem.