The Edge of Home: Milton Acorn from the Island

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of education at the University of
Prince Edward Island and an honorary chief of the Lennox Island
Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island.

Milton Acorn (1923–1986) is widely regarded as Prince Edward
Island’s greatest poet. This book comprises 62 of his best poems
published between 1956 and 1983 about the Island—its people, culture,
and landscape. The collection is prefaced by a long, closely argued, and
copiously illustrated critical essay, “The Ecological Poetics of
Milton Acorn’s Island Poems,” by the book’s editor, Anne Compton,
a P.E.I. poet and literary critic. In her essay, Compton shows how
P.E.I. imbues Acorn’s poems. Although some readers may question
whether all the poems included are wholly P.E.I. related, there can be
no doubt about Acorn’s attachment to the province of his birth: it was
fervent and profound. The casual reader may wonder at the wisdom of
placing 40 pages or so of editorial prose before the poems. It might
have been preferable to include the long academic essay at the end of
the collection as a kind of afterword. Nonetheless, the book certainly
fulfils its mandate in celebrating this important poet. For those
unacquainted with Acorn, a brief biographical essay is included. The
cover photo features a 1986 painting of Acorn by his friend Brian Burke.