15 Canadian Poets X 3

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 continually expanding anthology of modern Canadian poetry began
life as 15 Canadian Poets (1970), then became 15 Canadian Poets Plus 5
(1978), then 15 Canadian Poets X 2 (1988), and the number of poets has
now increased by another 50 percent. The selections have been thoroughly
revised; in almost every case, however, poets previously included have
lost more poems than they have gained. As a result, if this anthology is
used in college courses, students will be exposed to more poets—but in
less depth.

This is, of course, in line with the prevailing attitudes of our time.
And in other respects, too, Geddes has made his anthology more
contemporary—more politically correct. The new selections display a
distinct tendency to stress ethnic and other diversities—the feminist,
the politically radical, and the equalizing of gender representation.
Whether this results in more poetry of high quality is debatable. There
is also a stated emphasis on the now-more-popular long poem (yet Louis
Dudek remains inexplicably absent).

Even more than before, this anthology is weighted toward the
avant-garde and the postmodern. Those who accept it as authoritative
will never realize that there are still poets—and good poets—who use
regular stanzas and line lengths, are not afraid of rolling words around
their tongues, are sensitive to conventional poetic rhythms, and
sometimes employ the sonnet form and occasionally even rhyme. It is, of
course, all too easy to complain about omissions, but I must point out
that Canadian Poets X 3 contains no Don Coles, Jeffery Donaldson, Eric
Ormsby, Richard Outram, or David Solway. Surely a more deliberate
attempt to balance the trendy with the up-to-date traditional would have
been desirable?

A final small point. I am unable to understand the ordering of the
poets here, which is noticeably different from that of the previous
editions; it certainly isn’t either chronological or indicative of
floruit-dates. The historically minded will find this confusing.