Selected Poems, 1966-1984

Shannon Hengen is an assistant professor of English at Laurentian
University.

This 320-page volume suggests an end to Atwood’s career as poet, her
final word. Given the chance to alter her long-time editor William
Toye’s initial selections for the book, Atwood made few changes,
leaving the new edition essentially a collected version of her two
previous Selected Poems volumes (Oxford, 1976 and 1986). Readers may at
first quarrel with Oxford’s deletion of Murder in the Dark and the 21
“New Poems” from the 1986 edition, for example, but finally, judging
the 1990 edition only upon its own merits, we can find much to praise.

Even if it be her last poetic word, it is still impressive as a
chronicle of this powerful voice. We remember the Atwoodian persona of
the late 1960s, edgy and spare, seeking safe haven among animistic gods
she partly distrusts; then the increasingly curt, anti-Romantic persona
of the 1970s, undercutting the false mythologies upon which we base
human interrelations; the late 1970s-early 1980s voice, turning with
compassion and wisdom to such larger issues as nationalism, feminism,
and human rights; the quasi-magical speaker of her last volume; and,
throughout, the everquesting voice in awe of the power of words. To
reread the poems completely is to relive 18 formative years in the
development of contemporary Canadian poetics.

The reader’s only regret might be that Atwood has not published any
poetry recently, and that this volume thus marks an end. Moreover, this
book’s availability may discourage the purchase of individual books of
poems, with the possible result that in future Atwood as poet will be
read and taught primarily in excerpts. She deserves greater attention.

Finally, we can but wonder at Oxford’s decision to provide no
critical introduction. For non-Canadian or younger Canadian readers
especially, establishment of the literary and cultural milieu in which
Atwood produced this work seems imperative. Otherwise the volume is
handsome and moderately priced.