Open Wide a Wilderness : Canadian Nature Poems

Resumen del libro

With 192 poets and almost 300 poems, this "first-ever survey of Canadian nature poetry" is a welcome resource for exploring a feature of the Canadian literary imagination that was once considered central to Canadian national identity. Demographic developments in the country since WW II have "heterogenized" any such identity, and many of the works Holmes (Univ. of British Columbia, Okanagan) selected specifically reflect changes in "the rural-urban interface" that have transformed Canadian society and culture. Of the poets included, 178 are represented by one or two poems, 33 by three each, and three poets--the great Archibald Lampman, E. J. Pratt, and Don McKay--by four. The agenda driving this anthology is the reading of Canadian nature poetry in terms of an emerging "eco- and geo-poetics" currently under construction by such poet-theorists as Dennis Lee, Robert Bringhurst, and Tim Lilburn. In this respect, McKay's introductory essay, "Great Flint Singing," is more important than many of the poems in the volume, and is sure to be much analyzed and debated by critics who choose to do more than merely parrot the political correctness of its themes. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. -- D. R. McCarthy, Huron University College (Reprinted with permission of Choice, copyright 2010, American Library Association)