Songs of the Great Dominion

Last updated
Songs of the Great Dominion
AuthorW.D. Lighthall, ed.
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
SeriesWindsor Series
Subjectpoetry
PublisherWalter Scott
Publication date
1889
LC Class PR 9251 L5

Songs of the Great Dominion was a pioneering anthology of Canadian poetry published in 1889. The book's full title was Songs of the Great Dominion: Voices from the Forests and Waters, the Settlements and Cities of Canada. [1] The collection was selected and edited by William Douw Lighthall of Montreal. It was published in London, England by the firm of Walter Scott, as part of its "Windsor Series" of anthologies. [2]

Contents

The book introduced Canadian and English audiences to a new generation of Canadian writers. It marked the first publication in book form for several poets, including Bliss Carman, Pauline Johnson, and Duncan Campbell Scott. [3]

History

Cover of 1889 edition Great-Dominion.jpg
Cover of 1889 edition

Lighthall was asked to put together an anthology for Walter Scott by poet William Sharp, who was working as an editor for the firm. Independently, freelance editor Ernest Rhys made the same proposal on behalf of Walter Scott to Canadian poet Charles G.D. Roberts. When the mixup was revealed, Roberts withdrew, but promised Lighthall "whatever assistance you might permit me to be." Roberts suggested several writers for inclusion, including his cousin Barry Straton and his sister Elizabeth (both of whom were included). [3]

"Supplied with a ringing introduction which echoes with patriotic sentiment and lyrical praise for Canada," says the Canadian Encyclopedia , "this is a collection of confident poetry truly representative of the national and literary self-respect of the emergent Dominion." [2]

In his introduction, Lighthall was lavish in his praise of Roberts. "The foremost name in Canadian song at the present day is that of Charles George Douglas Roberts," he declared. [3] Immediately after Roberts Lighthall talked of Charles Sangster, whom he called Canada's "first important national poet" and "a kind of Wordsworth." [1]

Lighthall was also lavish in praising the reputation of Isabella Valancy Crawford, whose one book of poetry had failed to sell in 1884, and who had died neglected in 1887 (a "sad story of unrecognized genius and death," as he put it). While gently mocking her title, Lighthall pronounced Crawford's book, Old Spookse's Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and Other Poems, to be "the most striking volume" of Canadian poetry after Roberts's, and "even more boldly new" than his. After her death, he added, "Miss Crawford's work was, in fact, seen to be phenomenal." [1]

In a review of Songs of the Great Dominion in the September 28, 1889, Athenæum, Theodore Watts-Dunton singled out Pauline Johnson for special praise, calling her “the most interesting English poetess now living” and quoting her poem "In the Shadows" in full. Johnson (who had not yet published a book) considered this to be a big boost for her career, and felt herself "indebted" for the inclusion and the review. [4]

One person who was unhappy with the selection was William Wilfred Campbell. "I have been cruelly misrepresented by a willful choice of my poorest work," Campbell wrote to a friend." [3]

"The anthology is noteworthy for its attempt to include some French Canadian poetry in the appendix as well as some folksongs in translation, and for its recognition of a distinct Indian element in Canadian writing." [2]

Walter Scott republished the anthology in 1892 under the title, Canadian Poems and Lays: Selections of native verse reflecting the seasons, legends, and life of the Dominion. [5]

Contents

Contents of the 1889 edition: [1]

I. The Imperial Spirit
II. The New Nationality
III. The Indian
IV. The Voyageur and Habitant
V. Settlement Life
VI. Sports and Free Life
VII. The Spirit of Canadian History
VIII. Places
IX. Seasons
Appendix

Related Research Articles

Canadian poetry is poetry of or typical of Canada. The term encompasses poetry written in Canada or by Canadian people in the official languages of English and French, and an increasingly prominent body of work in both other European and Indigenous languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Lampman</span> Canadian poet

Archibald Lampman was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English."

The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse was first published in 1942 as Anthology of Canadian Poetry (English) under the Pelican Books imprint. Edited by Canadian poet Ralph Gustafson, revised and expanded editions were published in 1958, 1967 and 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Mair</span> Canadian poet and journalist

Charles Mair was a Canadian poet and journalist. He was a fervent Canadian nationalist noted for his participation in the Canada First movement and his opposition to Louis Riel during the two Riel Rebellions in western Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles G. D. Roberts</span> Canadian poet and prose writer (1860-1943)

Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts was a Canadian poet and prose writer. He was one of the first Canadian authors to be internationally known. He published various works on Canadian exploration and natural history, verse, travel books, and fiction." He continued to be a well-known "man of letters" until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duncan Campbell Scott</span> Canadian poet and writer

Duncan Campbell Scott was a Canadian civil servant and poet and prose writer. With Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Archibald Lampman, he is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabella Valancy Crawford</span> Irish-born Canadian writer

Isabella Valancy Crawford was an Irish-born Canadian writer and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Wilfred Campbell</span> Canadian poet

William Wilfred Campbell was a Canadian poet. He is often classed as one of the country's Confederation Poets, a group that included fellow Canadians Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott; he was a colleague of Lampman and Scott. By the end of the 19th century, he was considered the "unofficial poet laureate of Canada." Although not as well known as the other Confederation poets today, Campbell was a "versatile, interesting writer" who was influenced by Robert Burns, the English Romantics, Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Thomas Carlyle, and Alfred Tennyson. Inspired by these writers, Campbell expressed his own religious idealism in traditional forms and genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Bourinot</span> Canadian poet

Arthur Stanley Bourinot, SM was a Canadian lawyer, scholar, and poet. "His carefully researched historical and biographical books and articles on Canadian poets, such as Duncan Campbell Scott, Archibald Lampman, George Frederick Cameron, William E. Marshall and Charles Sangster, have made a valuable contribution to the field of literary criticism in Canada."

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Sangster</span> Canadian poet

Charles Sangster was a Canadian poet. He was the first poet to write poetry which was substantially about Canadian subjects. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls him "the best of the pre-confederation poets."

Confederation Poets is the name given to a group of Canadian poets born in the decade of Canada's Confederation who rose to prominence in Canada in the late 1880s and 1890s. The term was coined by Canadian professor and literary critic Malcolm Ross, who applied it to four poets – Charles G.D. Roberts (1860–1943), Bliss Carman (1861–1929), Archibald Lampman (1861–1899), and Duncan Campbell Scott (1862–1947) – in the Introduction to his 1960 anthology, Poets of the Confederation. He wrote, "It is fair enough, I think, to call Roberts, Carman, Lampman, and Scott our 'Confederation poets.'"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Heavysege</span> Canadian poet and dramatist

Charles Heavysege was a Canadian poet and dramatist. He was one of the earliest poets to publish in Canada. He is known for his critically acclaimed play Saul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Douw Lighthall</span>

William Douw Lighthall, often referred to as W. D. Lighthall, was a Canadian lawyer, historian, novelist, poet and philosopher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon</span> Canadian writer and poet (1829–1879)

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, born Rosanna Eleanor Mullins, was a Canadian writer and poet. She was "one of the first English-Canadian writers to depict French Canada in a way that earned the praise of, and resulted in her novels being read by, both anglophone and francophone Canadians."

Francis Joseph Sherman was a Canadian poet.

Edward Killoran Brown, who wrote as E. K. Brown, was a Canadian professor and literary critic. He "influenced Canadian literature primarily through his award-winning book On Canadian Poetry (1943)," which "established the standards of excellence and many of the subsequent directions of Canadian criticism." Northrop Frye called him "the first critic to bring Canadian literature into its proper context".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Julian McManus</span>

Emily Julian McManus was a Canadian poet, writer, and educator. In addition to a number of poems, some of which were reproduced in the collection of George William Ross, and some by William Douw Lighthall in Songs of the Great Dominion, she was the author of "Froney", of "A Romance of Carleton", of "The Thirteenth Temptation", and of the Old, Old Story, the latter a novel.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 William Douw Lighthall, Songs of the Great Dominion: Voices from the Forests and Waters, the Settlements and Cities of Canada (Walter Scott [Windsor Series], 1889), Google Books, Web, Apr. 30, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 Michael Gnarowski, "Songs of the Great Dominion", Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton:Hurtig, 1988), 2047.
  3. 1 2 3 4 John Coldwell Adams, "The Whirligig of Time," Confederation Voices, Canadian Poetry, UWO, Web, Apr. 30, 2011.
  4. ↑ John Coldwell Adams, "Pauline Johnson," Confederation Voices, Canadian Poetry, UWO, Web, Apr. 30, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Canadian Poems and Lays," Internet Archive, Web, May 10, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.