How do I love thee;: Sixty poets of Canada (and Quebec) select and introduce their favourite poems from their own work

by John Robert Colombo

English, French

Loose Leaf

Published January 1, 1970

About the author

Also called “Canada’s Mr. Mystery”, Mr. Colombo lives in Toronto with his wife. In addition to writing and running a publishing company, Mr. Colombo has appeared on both television and radio.

Reviews

[Kim Faner · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s difficult for me to assess an anthology that attempts to speak of the literary body in a certain place, especially if I haven’t been to that place, and most especially in this age of globalization where territorial and cultural lines are blurring and easier to cross.

This difficulty is true in this collection. I didn’t really taste an essential Canadian flavor common across all poems, but perhaps that’s the point. The book has poems of different forms, from more conservative to visual poetry. Maybe this book is trying to show how diverse the literary community in Canada is.

Another effort in the book that I appreciate is that there are small accounts after each poem; accounts from the poets on why they chose the poem as his or her “favorite.” Not the best, but their favorite. The anthology shows the experiences that trigger these poems and how much these poems are important to the poets, not because of the success the works have gained, but because how they mean to them personally. Because, at the end of the day, poems are nothing but personal expressions of personal experiences.