Jen's 'Canadian Women Poets' Page

This website grew out of an assignment for my honours seminar "English 5186: Women in Canadian Literature", instructed by Dr. Wendy Robins at UNB. In this course, we discussed the historical development of Canadian poetry by women, ranging from pioneer times to the present day. While not all of the poets we studied are featured on this site, I've attempted to select women who represent the spectrum of the time periods and issues discussed.

The noticable absence of aboriginal poets is intentional; my classmate, Maryanne, has constructed an excellent website devoted to native women writers, and, in an effort of avoid redundancy, I am simply offering a link to her page. I strongly encourage everyone to check it out; some phenomenal poetry has been produced by aboriginal women, and any comprehensive study of Canadian authors is incomplete without it.

Until recently, Canadian women poets have largely been ignored in academic studies. This absence (often attributed to gender hierarchies and a lack of national literary identity), is slowly being rectified as more and more people realize the genius of these poets. The unprecedented fame of writers like Margaret Atwood and Dorothy Livesay has prompted examinations into their literary ancestory. Slowly, pioneer authors such as Margaret Blennerhasset and Marjorie Pickthall are being recognized as revolutionary poets.

Though the amount of poetry written by Canadian women is too vast and diverse to categorize with generalizations, one simple truth can be discerned: these women often write about issues and themes that are central to their lives. In the early poetry of Canadian women writers, the hardships of frontier life is a reccuring topic. The high infant morality rates of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are reflected in the poetry produced by women of these times. The difficulty of balancing poetry with traditional female roles is reiterated by each generation of poets. To learn about these women's lives, their dreams, their fears, we only have to turn to their poetic works.

I have listed my selection of poets alphabetically, including a short biography and picture (when possible). I have also placed a link to one or two poems by each author (accompanied by a brief analysis). Most of the earlier poetry has (apparently) never been placed on the Web, so I have added it to UNB's SGML text site, in hopes that future UNB students will add to the collection. I have also tried to add links to revelent sites on the Web, but unfortunatly, most of these poets have been largely ignored in cyber-space. If you have found a link concerning one of the authors on this site that I might want to add to my list, please email me at q7t4@unb.ca

Margaret Atwood (1939 - )

Undoubtedly Canada's most famous female author, Atwood has received international recognition for her brillant poetry and novels. Born in Ottawa in 1939, she enjoyed a happy (though unconventional), childhood. From infancy to adolesence, Atwood's family spent half of every year in the bush of northern Ontario and Quebec, where her entomologist father conducted studies. The dichotomy of life in the wilderness and life in Toronto, where she spent the remainder of the year, is evident in the imagery that runs throughout her works.
Atwood received a Masters degree in English at Harvard, where she met her first husband, James Polk. She moved back to Canada in 1964, where she taught at a number of universities, including the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, York University, and the University of Toronto. In 1966, Atwood published her first major collection of poetry, entitled The Circle Game, for which she received the Governor General's award, cementing her reputation as an established author. In 1973, she became the first Canadian author invited to attend a cultural exchange program with the Soviet Union. Currently, Atwood is most known as a novelist; her critically acclaimed novels include The Handmaid's Tale, The Edible Woman, Surfacing, and her latest: Alias Grace. Atwood's prolific style continues to garner numerous awards.
[with information from Jerome Rosenberg's Margaret Atwood (Twayne: Boston, 1984)]
Poems:
"This Is A Photograph Of Me" + analysis
"Variations On The Word Sleep" + analysis
Links:
http://www.web.net/owtoad/toc.html
http://www.cariboo.bc.ca/Atwood/
http://www.moorhead.msus.edu/~chenault/atwood.htm
http://sac.uky.edu/~jrdona0/MA/welcome.html

Margaret Blennerhasset (1778 - 1824)

Born in Ireland in 1778, Blennerhasset moved to Montreal in 1819. She was the first woman in Canada to publish a book of poetry, entitled The Widow of the Rock and Other Poems. Her poetry often reflects her recognition of gendered hierarchies. Blennerhasset, known to have written under the discreet alias 'A Lady', has been called "the mother of English-Canadian poetry".
[with information from Encylopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (Routledge: London, 1994)]

Isabella Valancy Crawford (1850 - 1887)

Born in Dublin, Crawford's family immigrated to Ontario when Isabella was just a child. She struggled for critical recognition, submitting many poems to newspapers and attempting to get published in journals. Though she acheived fame posthumously, Crawford barely managed to sell fifty copies of her only book Old Spookes' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and Other Poems, which she published in 1884. A century after her death, critic Northrop Frye hailed Crawford as the owner of "the most remarkable mythopoeic imagination in Canadian poetry".
[with information from Encylopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (Routledge: London, 1994)]
Links:
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/digiproj/women/ewomen3f.htm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/mmbt/women/garvin/crawford.html

S. Frances Harrison (1859 - 1879)

Born in Toronto as Susie Frances Riley, Harrison became a well-known professional pianist and vocalist, as well as a poet. She published numerous collections of poetry, including Crowded Out and Other Sketches(1886), Canadian Birthday Book(1887), Pine, Rose, and Fleur de Lis(1891), and In Northern Skies and Other Poems(1912). Harrison also wrote the novels The Forest of Bourg-Marie(1898), and Ringfield(1914).
Links:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/mmbt/women/garvin/harrison.html

Rita Joe (1932 - )

Rita Joe was born in Wycocomagh, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia in 1932. She went to Shubbenacadie Residental School, which provided much inspiration for her later poetry. Her mother died suddenly when Joe was just five years old, which she discusses in her poignant poem "1937". Joe spent the remainder of her childhood in foster homes, which, though nuturing, were often plagued by poverty. She received the Order of Canada on April 18, 1990. Joe's published books include Poems of Rita Joe, Song of Eskasoni, and Lnu and Indians We're Called.
Poems:
"I Lost My Talk" + analysis
Links:
http://fox.nstn.ca/~mtsack/more.html
http://www.indians.org/welker/addition.htm
http://www.cajunwebads.com/ritajoe/

Rosanna Leprohon (1829 - 1879)

Leprohon was born in 1829 in Montreal. Most of her early work appeared in the Literary Garland. In 1859, her novel Eveleen O'Donnell was serialized in the Boston journal The Pilot. Her most popular novel, Antoinette de Mirecourt or Secret Marrying and Secret Sorrowing, was published in 1864. Her later work appeared regularly in such journals as the Family Herald, Canadian Illustrated News, and L'Ordre. Besides being an accomplished author, Leprohon was also a mother of thirteen. She wrote one of the best early poems discussing child death, entitled "Given and Taken".
[with information from the National Library of Canada]
Links:
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/dijiproj/women/ewomen3d.htm

Dorothy Livesay (1909 - 1996)

Livesay was born in Winnipeg in 1909. The product of a literary family, she published her first book of poetry in 1928, entitled Green Pitcher. Livesay won the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1944 and 1947, and received the Order of Canada in 1987. She worked as a journalist, editor, teacher, and served as the writer-in-residence here at UNB in 1966. Her poetry is often seen as auto-biographical.
Poems:
"The Three Emilys" + analysis
Links:
http://degaulle.hil.unb.ca/library/archives/pacey/s23.html http://www.umanitoba.ca/academic_support/libraries/units/archives/man_livesay.html

Marjorie Pickthall (1883 - 1922)

Born in Middlesex, England, Pickthall immigrated to Canada in 1889. Her first collection of poetry, The Drift of Pinions, was wildly popular, selling out the first edition in only ten days. In 1912, Pickthall moved back to England, where she continued to compose poems. During this time, she participated in World War II as an ambulance driver. Her collections of poetry include Lamp of Poor Souls and Other Poems, The Woodcarver's Wife and Other Poems, and Little Songs. A prolific writer, Pickthall published over two hundred short stories and approximately one hundred poems. [with information from Encylopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (Routledge: London, 1994)]
Poems:
"Mary Tired" + analysis
Links:
http://128.100.124.81/library/special/pickthal.htm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mmbt/women/garvin/pickthall.html

Anne Wilkinson (1910 - 1961)

Wilkinson was born in Toronto in 1910. She published two books of poetry: Counterpoint to Sleep in 1951, and The Hangman Ties the Holly in 1955. Wilkinson was also the founding editor of the Tamarack, a Canadian literary periodical. She later published two prose works: Lions in the Way in 1956, and Swann and Daphne in 1960, before dying of cancer on May 10, 1961.
Poems:
from "Lens" + analysis