Canadian Poetry from the Beginnings Through the First World War

CAROLE GERSON is a professor of English at Simon Fraser University.GWENDOLYN DAVIES is Dean Emerita of Graduate Studies at the University of New Brunswick.

This is the only anthology to present a full history of Canadian poetry - from the early 1600s through the expansiveness of poetic activity during the 18th and 19th centuries and into the flourishing first decades of the 20th century. The editors have compiled works from over 50 poets, including the verse of Isabella Valancy Crawford, Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott, and several long narrative poems, including Oliver Goldsmith's "The Rising Village" and Crawford's "Malcolm's Katie."

Part One: FoundationsRobert Hayman (1575–1629)from Quodlibets  Henry Kelsey (1667?–1724)rhymed prologue to his Journals  Donncha Rua Mac Conmara (c. 1716–1810)Donncha Rua i dTalamh an Éisc  Anonymous (1745)Nathaniel’s Tilt  Anonymous (1750)Nova Scotia. A New Ballad  Joseph Stansbury (1740–1809)To Cordelia  Deborah How Cottnam (“Portia”) (1728–1806)On Being Asked What Recollection Was A piece for a Sampler  Henry Alline (1748–1784)from Hymns and Spiritual SongsBook I, Hymn LII: The conduct of most sailors Book III, Hymn VI: Sion comforted, or religion reviving  Jacob Bailey (1731–1808)[Verse Against the New Lights]  Anne Hecht (fl. 1786)Advice to Mrs. Mowat  Roger Viets (1738–1811)Annapolis-Royal  Jonathan Odell (1737–1818)Our thirty-ninth Wedding day The Comet of 1811 The Battle of Queen’s Town, Upper Canada  Griselda Tonge (c. 1803–1825)To My Dear Grandmother, on her 80th Birth Day  Oliver Goldsmith (1794–1861)The Rising Village  Anonymous (1829)Canadian Boat-Song  Anonymous (1838)The Fight at Montgomery’s  M. Ethelind Sawtell (fl. 1840–1851)Achievements of a Volunteer Corps The Indian’s Refusal  Douglas Huyghue (“Eugene”) (1816–1891)The Miner’s Tale  George William Gillespie (d. 1847)The Canadian Dominie’s Lament Lines on Canada Canadian Woodsman’s Farewell to His Log House  George Copway (Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh) (1818–1869)[Once More I See My Fathers’ Land] [War Song] (1847) [War Song] (1850)  Charles Sangster (1822–1893)On Queenston Heights from Sonnets, Written in the Orillia Woods Midnight Sonnet 1874–’75  Alexander Mclachlan (1818–1896)We Live in a Rickety House The Anglo-Saxon Young Canada Or Jack’s as Good as His Master The Man Who Rose From Nothing Cartha Again  Pamelia Vining Yule (1826–1897)The Beech-Nut Gatherer The Drunkard’s Child  Rosanna Eleanor Mullins Leprohon (1829–1879)Husband and Wife Given and Taken  Charles Heavysege (1816–1876)sonnets from Jephtha’s Daughter  James Anderson (1842–1923)The Prospector’s Shanty Song of the Mine  John Arthur Phillips (1842–1907)The Factory Girl  Anonymous (1873)A Popular Creed  James Mcintyre (1827–1906)Ode on the Mammoth Cheese  Agnes Maule Machar (“Fidelis”) (1837–1927)Quebec to Ontario: A Plea for the Life of Riel, September, 1885 Rondeau Our Lads to the Front!  Charles Mair (1838–1927)“The Song” from “The Last Bison”   Part Two: ContinuationsIsabella Valancy Crawford (1850–1887)“Love Me, Love My Dog” March Love’s Forget-Me-Not The Dark Stag The Canoe The Hidden Room Malcolm’s Katie: A Love Story  William Wilfred Campbell (1860?–1918)Indian Summer The Winter Lakes August Evening on the Beach, Lake Huron How Spring Came (To the Lake Region) On the Ledge The Dread Voyage Morning on the Shore At Even The Lazarus of Empire Bereavement of the Fields  Charles G.D. Roberts (1860–1943)To Fredericton in May-Time Tantramar Revisited The Poet Is Bidden to Manhattan Island An Ode for the Canadian Confederacy The Potato Harvest Severance The Mowing The Flight of the Geese The Winter Fields The Pea-Fields The Salt Flats Ave! (An Ode for the Shelley Centenary, 1892) The Herring Weir In an Old Barn In a City Room The Fear of Love The Skater Heat in the City Philander’s Song Going Over The Iceberg As Down the Woodland Ways  Bliss Carman (1861–1929)Low Tide on Avon Low Tide on Grand Pré A Windflower The Eavesdropper A Sea Child The Ships of St. John Noons of Poppy A Vagabond Song The Lanterns of St. Eulalie from Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics Before the Snow The Ghost-yard of the Goldenrod Wild Geese The Winter Scene May in the Selkirks  Archibald Lampman (1862–1899)Love Doubt [The Growth of Love I] For my Darling [The Growth of Love II] Among the Timothy Morning on the Lièvre The Railway Station In November [sonnet] Heat A Night of Storm Solitude Winter Evening A January Morning Evening In November Across the Pea-Fields A Sunset on the Lower St. Lawrence [A Sunset at Les Eboulements] To a Millionaire The City of the End of Things White Pansies On Lake Temiscamingue from A Portrait in Six Sonnets In the Wilds Winter Uplands  Duncan Campbell Scott (1862–1947)Ottawa At the Cedars The Onondaga Madonna Watkwenies Night Hymns on Lake Nipigon The Forsaken Dulse Gathering The Wood Peewee The Height of Land The Closed Door To a Canadian Aviator Who Died for His Country in France En Route At Gull Lake: August, 1810 Chiostro Verde  Sophia Almon Hensley (1866–1946)Rondeau – When Summer Comes Slack Tide Triumph Guiltless Somewhere in France  Susan Frances Harrison (“Seranus”) (1859–1935)March Interim Les Chantiers September Niagara in Winter  Pauline Johnson (1861–1913)Re-Voyage The Song My Paddle Sings Ojistoh Marshlands The Idlers The Corn Husker Low Tide at St. Andrews Lullaby of the Iroquois Silhouette The Train Dogs  Kate Simpson Hayes (1852–1943)Riel Prairie Verses  Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald (1857–1940)October The Humming-bird June Apples The World Well Lost A Winter Picture Each to Her Own Hester Prynne Speaks  Marie Joussaye (1864?–1949)Only a Working Girl Two Poets  Francis Sherman (1871–1926)In Memorabilia Mortis The Last Storm The Watch To Doctor John Donne So, After All, When All Is Said and Done  F.G. Scott (1861–1944)The Unnamed Lake The Penalty Call Back Our Dead  Frances Jones Bannerman (1855–1944)Wolf-Head Love Belated I Would Not, Dear  May Austin Low (1863–1958)The Coming of the Roslyn Castle  Marjorie Pickthall (1883–1922)Persephone Returning to Hades A Mother in Egypt Père Lalemant The Green Month The Pool Inheritance The Wife  Robert Service (1874–1958)The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Stretcher-Bearer My Cross  Chief K’hhalserten Sepass (1841?–1943)The Beginning of the World  John Mccrae (1872–1918)In Flanders Fields  Helena Coleman (1860–1953)Oh, Not When April Wakes the Daffodils Convocation Hall When First He Put the Khaki On  Frank Prewett (1893–1962)The Somme Valley, 1917 Card Game Epigram Burial Stones The Soldier   Afterword Copy-Texts Index of Authors and Titles