Class, Culture, and Belief: The Contexts of Charles Heavysege’s Christian Poetry

The British-born poet and journalist Charles Heavysege (1816-1876) emigrated to Montreal in 1853 where he worked as a wood carver. In 1860 he became a reporter for the Montreal Transcript, and later for the evangical Protestant Montreal Daily Witness, where he eventually became city editor. The author points out that Heavysege's poetry reveals that he looked at both life and literature through the typological lens of Christian history. The author notes that as an urban, working-class skilled tradesman with an evangelical upbringing and education, Heavysege sought an identity through his writing that would allow him to justify his ambition to be a recognized, respected, and financially successful poet without forfeiting piety and its reward: salvation.

Canadian Literature : A Quarterly of Criticism and Review

No. 212

141-155

Summer 2012