Selected Poetry and Critical Prose Charles G.D. Roberts / / ed. by William Keith, Douglas Lochhead.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• HerausgeberIn: Keith, William,; Lochhead, Douglas,
• TeilnehmendeR: Keith, William.
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1974
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (368 p.)

Charles G.D. Roberts (1860-1943) was one of Canada's most productive writers. In a literary career that extend over six and a half decades he published some three hundred and fifty poems, over two hundred short stories, nine full-length novels, six other books (including travel guides, histories, and a translation), and a considerable number of articles, essays, and prefaces. The purpose of this selection of critical prose and 118 chronologically arranged poems is to make available to students of Canadian literature the main materials upon which a considered appreciation of Roberts' writing can be based. Desmond Pacey has aptly described Roberts' literary career as 'a rapid development, a sudden decline, a long silence, and a late revival.' This patter is equally true of his life. In the first period of his life (until 1897 when he left for New York) he established himself as a significant Canadian poet and man of letters. The second, from 1897 to 1925, was a period of wandering abroad. At this time prose took precedence over poetry and Roberts emerged as a 'cosmopolitan' figure. The third, from 1925 until his death in 1943, dates from his return to Canada. He worked actively for the recognition of Canadian literary achievement, was honoured for his services to the country, and enjoyed a late flowering of his poetic talents. Because he was such a prolific writer, Roberts' most enduring work is always in danger of being buried under the dross. This statement is particularly true of his prose, which hitherto has been uncollected and difficult to locate. However, Roberts' very real and substantial contribution to the critical assessment of Canadian literature as well as to the literature itself should not be overlooked and it is hoped that this selection of both critical prose and poetry will redress the balance of attention given to his work.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- POETRY -- Orion and Other Poems -- Orion -- Epistle to W. Bliss Carman -- Dedication -- In Divers Tones -- Canada -- Actiæon -- In the Afternoon -- The Pipes of Pan -- To Fredericton in May-Time -- In September -- A Serenade -- Rain -- The Tantramar Revisited -- On the Creek -- The Sower -- The Potato Harvest -- Tides -- Consolation -- The Footpath -- Liberty (From the French of Louis Honore Frechette) -- Birch and Paddle (To Bliss Carman) -- An Ode for the Canadian Confederacy -- The Quelling of the Moose (A Melicite Legend) -- The Departing of Clote Scarp -- The Poet is Bidden to Manhattan Island -- Ave: An Ode for the Centenary of the Birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley -- Ave -- Songs of the Common Day -- Prologue -- The Furrow -- The Waking Earth -- The Cow Pasture -- When Milking-Time is Done -- Frogs -- The Salt Flats -- The Pea-Fields -- The Mowing -- Burnt Lands -- The Clearing -- Buckwheat -- The Oat-Threshing -- The Autumn Thistles -- The Pumpkins in the Corn -- The Winter Fields -- In an Old Barn -- Midwinter Thaw -- The Flight of the Geese -- In the Wide Awe and Wisdom of the Night -- The Herring Weir -- Blomidon -- O Solitary of the Austere Sky -- Marsyas -- Severance -- Epitaph for a Sailor Buried Ashore -- The Silver Thaw -- The Lily of the Valley -- The Wild-Rose Thicket -- Grey Rocks and Greyer Sea -- New Year's Eve (After the French of Frechette) -- How the Mohawks Set Out for Medoctec -- The Wood Frolic -- The Book of the Native -- Where the Cattle Come to Drink -- An Epitaph for a Husbandman -- The Stillness of the Frost -- A Child's Prayer at Evening -- The Frosted Pane -- The Brook in February -- Beside the Winter Sea -- The Trout Brook -- Butterflies -- An August Wood-Road -- The Lone Wharf -- Twilight on Sixth Avenue -- New York Nocturnes and Other Poems -- Presence -- In a City Room -- A Nocturne of Consecration -- An Evening Communion -- Beyond the Tops of Time -- At Tide Water -- The Falling Leaves -- The Solitary Woodsman -- Ice -- Ascription -- Poems -- The Skater -- On the Elevated Railroad at 110th Street -- The Flocks of Spring -- Brooklyn Bridge -- At the Drinking Fountain -- The Farmer's Winter Morning -- In the Barn-Yard's Southerly Corner -- The Logs -- The Book of the Rose -- The Fear of Love -- The Native -- Child of the Infinite -- Lines for an Omar Punch-Bowl -- The Aim -- New Poems -- 'The Unknown City' -- O Earth, Sufficing All Our Needs -- Monition -- All Night the Lone Cicada -- From the High Window of Your Room -- The Hour of Most Desire -- The Stream -- Going Over -- The Vagrant of Time -- The Vagrant of Time -- In the Night Watches -- Hath Hope Kept Vigil -- Epitaph -- Spring Breaks in Foam -- Philander's Song (From 'The Sprightly Pilgrim') -- The Iceberg and Other Poems -- The Iceberg -- Taormina -- Presences -- The Squatter -- Westcock Hill -- Spirit of Beauty -- Quebec, 1757 (From the French of Philippe Aubert de Gaspe) -- To a Certain Mystic -- Canada Speaks of Britain -- Peace with Dishonour -- Two Rivers -- Twilight over Shaugamauk -- Critical Prose -- The Beginnings of a Canadian Literature -- The Outlook for Literature: Acadia's Field for Poetry, History and Romance -- Introduction to Poems of Wild Life -- Wordsworth's Poetry -- The Poetry of Nature -- Shelley's Adonais -- A Note on Modernism -- From the Prefatory Note to Selected Poems -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index of Poems