Literary Sites and Cultural Properties in Canadian Poetry

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Literary Sites and Cultural Properties in Canadian Poetry
Abstract
The author’s examination of literary site pieces written in Canada during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Charles Sangster, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Catherine Parr Traill, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Archibald Lampman reveals a persistent yearning on the part of Canadian writers to connect themselves with their landscapes and with the British literary tradition, particularly with the second generation of Romantic poets - Shelley, Keats, and Thomas Moore. He argues that the naturalization of a Romantic poet in Canadian space is a creative and connective act that bridges the temporal and geographical gaps between the Old and the New World and, in so doing, offers cultural memory as a source of inspiration and hope for a troubled present and uncertain future. The Irish-born Thomas D’Arcy McGee (1825-1868) immigrated to Montreal via the United States in 1857. The author examines McGee’s book of poems titled Canadian Ballads, published in 1858. The author also examines Charles Sangster’s book of poetry titles The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, published in 1856.
Publication
Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en littérature canadienne
Volume
Vol. 23
Issue
no. 1
Pages
90-127
Date
Winter 1998
Language
en
URL
Citation
Bentley, D. M. R. “Literary Sites and Cultural Properties in Canadian Poetry.” Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en littérature canadienne Vol. 23, no. 1 (Winter 1998): 90–127. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/8275/9338.
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