Since World War II Canadian literary criticism has tended to
be either historical or aesthetic in its emphasis. Little or no interest has been shown in the linguistic approach to criticism; no
work has been done on Canadian poets comparable to the writing of
Donald David and David Abercrombie on English poets, or of Chatman or
Miles on American poets. It is the purpose of this thesis to make a
preliminary survey of contemporary Canadian poets from Pratt to
Newlove, with particular reference to their style and technique.
Special attention will be given to rhythm, and sound, relating
Canadian poets' experience to contemporary trends elsewhere.
Central to this study is the concept of rhythm in poetry.
For the older poets, Pratt and Klein, rhythm was contained in the
traditional metres. Raymond Bolster, influenced by the Chicago poets,
directed attention to the imagist conception of free verse; and this
led, among the poets of the forties, to an increasing interest in the
experiments of Pound and Williams. In the fifties, Olson, Duncan,
Creeley and Ginsberg began to emphasize the oral and linguistic side
of poetry-making. Their influence, first felt in Eastern Canada, has
recently gained recognition on the West Coast.
The Canadian poets dealt with in this study are those specifically concerned with new experiments in rhythm and sound, and for this reason such poets as Birney and Layton have been excluded. Their
eclecticism and frequent changes in style would seem to deserve specialized.
research. In this present work, Chapter I defines the terms used and
summarizes various critical views on verse techniques, from the Russian
Formalists up to the present.
Chapter II deals with the forerunners of experimentation, Pratt
and Klein. Of the two, Klein was the greater technician, a poet who
played with many metrical forms. Both men, however, were deeply concerned
with language and its relation to poetry, and this linguistic interest
undoubtedly Influenced younger poets.
Chapter III examines the imagist movement and in particular its
effect on the poet of the thirties, Raymond Knister. Although he used
metaphor and symbol, the emphasis which Knister put upon the object—
"little things and great"— did great service to the growth of an indigenous,
objective movement in Canadian poetry. This movement is the subject of
chapters IV and V, in which the work of Souster and Dudek is examined.
Chapter VI considers the poetry of Milton Acorn as it relates to
the imagism and social commentary already present in the poetry of
Souster and Dudek. An unusual aspect of Acorn's verse is its didactic
note, expressed in resonant rhythms.
Chapter VII examines the style of Alfred Purdy. Although he
eschews rhyme, he uses the Iambic stance whenever it suits his purpose.
Purdy's own personal rhythm dominates the content and structure of all
his poetry.
In conclusion Chapter VIII refers to the contemporary scene in
British Columbia, attempting to show that the experimental trends from
the western States and from eastern Canada have united in the work of
Phyllis Webb, James Reid and John Newlove. Each one, though markedly
individual, is profoundly conscious of the spoken word, the linguistic
collecation of words, and the importance of syntax as a propeller of
rhythm and sound. Newlove's poetry is especially singled out as being
an 'oral' and 'aural' reflection of his place and time.
An Appendix is attached which described the Trager and Smith
approach to stress, intonation and juncture, with some critical notes
on its application to the art of poetry. Throughout this thesis, the
emphasis is on an examination of a poet's style rather than an evaluation
of his content. Nonetheless it should be borne in mind that
"Sound and meter...must be studied as elements of the totality of a
work of art, not in isolation from meaning." An examination of
Canadian poetry from Pratt to Purdy must recognize the intimate
interplay that exists between thought and expression. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41706 |
| Date | January 1966 |
| Creators | Livesay, Dorothy |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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