Harsh and Lovely Land: The Major Canadian Poets and the Making of a Canadian Tradition

by Tom Marshall

Poet-critic Tom Marshall examines four stages in the development of a purely Canadian tradition in poetry through a focus on the work of major poets writing in English from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

198 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[T.R. Ormond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book must seem quite dated to specialists in Canadian Lit studies, but to an outsider like me it was great. I really appreciated that it was written by a poet and not an academic.

At times, it did feel a little bit more like a survey of the authors' work rather than a cohesive argument, but there are enough points made and connected to remind you that there is a reason why Canadian Literature is fascinated with harsh and lovely land.

The strongest metaphor Marshall makes is near the beginning. Canadian poets have a tendency to fall into one of two camps, those taking an objective, god-like view of nature, and those who focus on the subjective responses to nature. He calls them "mountain climbers" and "swimmers" respectively.