15 Pre-Confederation Poetry

Dr. Swagata Bhattacharya

Content

• Historical Background
• Background of Canadian Poetry
• Introduction to Pre-Confederation Poetry
• Biography of Oliver Goldsmith
• Summary of The Rising Village
• Biography of Joseph Howe
• Summary of ‘Acadia’
• Biography of Charles Sangster
• Summary of The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay

1. Background: John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), originally an Italian navigator and explorer, started on a voyage from Bristol under the patronage of King Henry VII of England and landed on Newfoundland in 1497. In 1524, the French king Francis I sent Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the New World. On August 5, 1583, Humphrey Gilbert of England formally took possession of Newfoundland.

In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded France’s first permanent colony in Canada in Quebec. The colony, called Acadia, grew slowly, reaching a population of about five thousand by 1713. Canada was then known as New France. Britain took over the southern regions along the Hudson Bay (which is at present in the United States of America). British and French tussle over domination over the North American landmass continued for another fifty years. With the end of the Seven Years War and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France was forced to give up all its territories in North America to Britain. From here on starts the British domination over the landmass of North America. However, French settlement continued. Canada eventually got divided into Canada East and Canada West – Canada East was French dominated and Canada West was English dominated. The Confederation of 1867 merged East and West Canada. The Dominion of Canada came into existence on July 1, 1867.

Historically, Acadia has remained a significant name since it has been made immortalized by both Oliver Goldsmith and Joseph Howe in their poems which we shall discuss later in this module.

2. Pre-Confederation Poetry: Poetry written before 1825 and between 1825 to 1867 is known as pre-Confederation Poetry in the context of Canadian literature. The earliest works of poetry were mainly written by visitors who described the new territories in optimistic terms. The intended readership was of course the Europeans. One of the earliest works of Canadian poetry was Robert Hayman’s Quod Libets, composed in Newfoundland and published as early as 1628.

Lower Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were the most popular regions which dominated early Canadian poems. With the growth of the Anglophone community near the end of the 18th Century, more and more poems began to appear in local newspapers targeted at the local readers. Before 1825, Canadian verse was largely dominated by Neo-classical models. The heroic couplets of English poets such as Alexander Pope and Oliver Goldsmith were the major influences. The rational order of the heroic couplet was a formidable means by which the early poets affirmed and reflected a sense of governance in their environment and in themselves. Along with the heroic couplets, James Thomson’s The Seasons (1726-46) written in blank verse had also earned recognition.

After 1825, the influence of Romanticism became increasingly evident. Also local subjects came to be incorporated into poetry. For example, Joseph Howe’s ‘Acadia’ and Charles Sangster’s The St.Lawrence and the Saguenay.

In 1864, the first anthology of Canadian poetry in English was produced by Edward Hartley Dewart called Selections from Canadian Poets. Practically all the verses of this period were written by amateur poets. They aimed to describe the aesthetic and economic attractions of Canada, to chronicle the achievements of their colonial society and to express the spiritual and cultural aspirations of sensitive people in a new land. The most prominent and popular poem of the period was Oliver Goldsmith’s The Rising Village (1825). The other formidable poets of the period were Jacob Bailey, and the three Charleses- Charles Sangster, Charles Mair and Charles Heavysege. It was both the first book-length poem published by a native English-Canadian and the first publication in England by a Canadian poet. Goldsmith had declared that his poem was directed to Canadians interested in the history of the literature of their country. It has also been noted by certain critics that The Rising Village was the “first autobiography of a native Canadian writer”.

3. The Rising Village

i.  About the poet: Oliver Goldsmith (1794-1861) joined the British Navy as an Assistant Commissary-General in 1810 and was posted in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1848 he was  transferred to Hong Kong where he suffered a sun stroke and decided to take up a five-year posting at St.John’s, Newfoundland. It was while at St.John’s that Goldsmith decided to pay a visit to his ancestral homeland, Ireland. A visit to Lissoy, the familial home of the Goldsmiths resulted in the publication of The Rising Village.

The poem should be viewed as the most ambitious project of an occasional poet. Goldsmith had written an opening address for local amateur theatre group formed by officers connected with the garrison at Halifax. In the Address, he wrote – “Encouraged by some friends I wrote a poem called The Rising Village which was published by John Sharpe in 1825 in London. The celebrated author of ‘The Deserted Village’ (1770) had pathetically displayed the anguish of his countrymen on being forced, from various causes, to quit their native plains, endeared to them by so many delightful recollections, and to seek refuge in regions at that time little known…in my poem, I, therefore endeavoured to describe the sufferings they experienced in a new and uncultivated country, the difficulties they surmounted, the rise and progress of a village, and the prospects which promised happiness to its future possessors.”

However, The Rising Village was received with undue criticism in England after its publication. Although future researchers have failed to find any adverse comments about the poem in print, Goldsmith himself had recounted that his first serious effort did not meet with the success that he had expected. According to him, it had been criticized with undue severity and condemned cruelly. Whatever had been the nature of the alleged criticism, it did not prevent Goldsmith from reprinting the poem in February 1826 in The Canadian Review and Magazine. In 1834, The Rising Village was published in New Brunswick after further revision.

ii.  Summary of the poem: 

The poem was written between March 1822 and 1824. The central concern of The Rising Village is the control of nature, both physical and human nature, or to say it in other words, outer and inner nature. From the beginning to the end, the poem describes cyclical movements wherein control is gained and lost, regained and strenuously maintained. The control, again, refers to both physical and moral control. As the pioneers settle in the new land, the poet suspects an encroaching chaos in the physical nature of Canada as well as in the moral nature of his neighbours.

‘Nature’ carries multiple meanings- a physical nature which can be beneficent as well as malevolent and the human nature which again can be both benevolent and malevolent. The poet speaks of nature’s ruggedness to signify the harsh reality of the wilderness faced by the pioneers, but he employs phrases such as “by nature nourished” to convey his understanding of and faith in nature as a benevolent mother. Physical nature is for Goldsmith both a terrifying wilderness (inclusive of Indians and wild beasts) and a nourishing nature in abstract. In the human sphere, nature is also two sided- there is the virtuous nature of the civilized man, the product of controlled instinct. On the other side, there is the instinctual human nature, the human equivalent of the wilderness, a darker entity that must be controlled if civilization is to progress.

Goldsmith’s achievement is the depiction in general terms of the cyclical pattern of defeat and victory in the pioneer’s control over ‘nature’.

In the initial lines, what appeals most is the orderliness of the Old World. In Britain, everything and everyone occupies its proper place in the social hierarchy- “Chaste and splendid…scenes that lie/ Beneath the circle of Britannia’s sky.” (27-28) The word chaste suggests Goldsmith’s moralism and his association of virtue with social order and economic prosperity. The commercial and agrarian interests are viewed necessarily as compatible for the sake of the colonies’ prosperity. The first imposition of order on the wilds of Acadia culminates in the triumph of agriculture – “And where the forest once its foliage spread,/ the golden corn triumphant waves its head” (71-72) The initial battle is thus won, the wilderness has been controlled and transformed into civilization. Now, the pioneer finds time to relax. Just when he has started to think that his control is supreme, “new ills arise” (79). Now begins the struggle against human nature – “the murderous band of Indians” (85). In this second phase, it was necessary to triumph over the “savage Indians” with civilization. The triumph of the axe and agriculture must be followed by “arts of culture”. Hence comes the tavern, the country store, the doctor, the church and the schoolhouse.

The final challenge to the rising village’s prosperity is expressed in the tale of two village youths, Albert and Flora. Through this tale, the poet warns the youth to control the excesses in their nature. Albert had failed to control his instinct and had betrayed Flora. This is not just a tale of romantic betrayal but a sermon through which Goldsmith stresses on the virtues of moral control. On another level, Flora can be seen as Acadia. Contrary to Albert who failed to control his instinct and betrayed Flora, the second generation must not fail to settle in or betray Acadia. Both Britain and Acadia have their different battles to win. In the past, Britain had been successful in controlling human nature within her own domain and had reached the peak of civilization and progress. Now Acadia must follow in Britain’s footsteps and aim to achieve progress by holding back her inhabitants. The poem ends on a note of hope while recording the first steps taken by civilization and culture in a new land.

4.  Acadia

i.   About the poet: Joseph Howe (1804-1873) was a renowned journalist, politician and public servant of Nova Scotian origin. Born in Halifax, Howe expressed his undying love for Great Britain and her Empire throughout his life. A staunch Loyalist of the Empire, he was determined to make a successful political career in his new homeland. At 23, he purchased Nova Scotian and made it a hugely popular newspaper. In 1848, Nova Scotia became the first British colony to win the assembly elections. Howe was greatly interested in the politics of the time and thereafter fought against the Canadian Confederation. However, the results were not in his favour. Having lost the elections, he became the third Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1873.

Joseph Howe’s longest and most ambitious poem, ‘Acadia’, was first published by John Lovell in 1874, a year after his death. The manuscript of the poem lay for 40 years without being published. It was only after his death that his son Sydenham Howe got his verse published in a volume called Poems and Essays, a collection of his selected verse and prose. For almost one century there had been only one edition of this poem. Then, in 1972, David Sinclair included ‘Acadia’ in his anthology Nineteenth Century Narrative Poems. Since then, the poem has been anthologized in several other collections.

Critics like R.E. Rashley have commented that ‘Acadia’ has in it “a greater amount of detail” than in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Rising Village. (Poetry in Canada: The First Three Steps, 1958).

Just like Goldsmith, Howe too had the same desire of showing his Canadian life as a civilized one, he wanted to show to the residents of Great Britain that the sentiments which form the basis of civilization are also present in Canada and hence it can no longer be regarded as a primitive wilderness.

ii.   Summary of the poem: Manuscripts suggest that the poem was written between 1820 and 1840. It was begun on Howe’s journey to Prince Edward Island on August 3, 1820. ‘Acadia’ can be considered to be a topographical poem. It is what Samuel Johnson defines as “local poetry”. The fundamental subject is the particular landscape of Acadia which is not only retained to the specific colony but is extended to the whole province of Nova Scotia with local particularity being observed primarily in the description of the Lake Lochaber. It is a regional poem which describes an extended area from an entire country to a county, a river valley, a lake and its surroundings. Historical retrospection becomes much more than an embellishment for Howe. He devotes several hundred lines to describe the history of the province, the lives of the Micmacs before the arrival of the pioneers, the struggle for survival of the early settlers in the wilderness and the bloody strife between the English and the French for possession of the colony. There are illustrative episodes of Madame LaTour’s defence of her husband’s fort, the destruction of the fleet of D’Anville, and the expulsion of the Acadians. There are passages of sermons throughout the poem on various subjects of love, of home and native land, the relation of nature and art, the glories of British institutions and civilization, and the indifference of the “sons of wealth and pride” to the hardships and sufferings of the common man (II. 921-972).

Other elements of topographical poetry also appear in ‘Acadia’. The poem begins, intermittently resumes and concludes with the natale solum motif, love of home and country. By the 1770s, that had become one of the prominent subjects of moralizing the English topographical poem and ‘Acadia’ simply followed that model. Howe’s catalogue of Acadian trees, shrubs and flowers is an example in this convention. Another was the interpolation of tales mostly sentimental, frequently historical and sometimes horrific. The tale of the fisherman at the end of the poem is a sentimental one, proper to the genre. The account of the white settler and his family is also an interpolated tale with lots of sentiment and a horrific ending. Another conventional element in the poem is the landscape painting. For example, the description of the Lochaber Lake (II. 141- 154). Though he was writing in the 1830s, Howe was influenced to a great extent by the Romantic conceptions of the proper form, diction, and style of poetry. However, many lines of the poem have been targets for adverse criticism. The narrative of the Indian’s attack on the settler’s cabin (537-602) has been pointed out as ill-meaning and hackneyed. Howe had relied too heavily upon his store of borrowed ideas and language. He has quoted extensively from Shakespeare and dutifully acknowledged his debt to Thomas Gray, James Montgomery, James Thomson and to Oliver Goldsmith. In the poem, the universal force of the “feeling, that, from pole to pole, / To one deer spot still fondly links the soul” (II. 17-18) is exemplified by typical examples- Foscari, the Lost Tribes, the Swiss, the Laplander. The reference to the two famous poets Burns and Moore leads smoothly into Howe’s own humble declaration of his intention to emulate them by singing the praise of his own country Acadia. Just after the poem opens with a personal statement of Howe being a qualified native son to take upon his self-appointed task, comes a section of one hundred lines celebrating the physical beauty of Acadia. Unlike Goldsmith, he did not restrict the description of the landscape only to its anglicization. After the description of the Acadian spring, Howe goes on to briefly describe the nature-art theme. According to him, there was no conflict in Acadia between nature and art till that point of time. This section is followed by the arrival of the white man and his conflict with the Micmac.

According to modern critics, the account of the Micmac is controversial in the way the poet has treated the natives. The “noble savages” of Part I, cruelly slaughter men, women and children in Part II of the poem. Then they change remarkably. This transformation can only be seen as the ideal transformation of the primitive savage to the civilized man as a result of European influence. Part II of ‘Acadia’ concentrates mainly on the power and greatness of the effect of the European civilization. The British flag signifies hope, guidance, and glory. The history of Acadia, Howe implies, reveals in miniature a similar developmental form from the past to the present like Britain. After cyclical patterns of settlement and war reach the Micmacs, the poem also shows sympathy towards the Micmacs who have been victims of white invasion and dispossession. Thus, they are to be seen merely as avengers venting their rage on the colonizers determined to destroy the Indian way of life. ‘Acadia’ is an interesting record with severe flaws in historical facts but with an engaging endeavour of a vision to glorify one’s homeland.

5.  The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay 

i.  About the poet: Charles Sangster (1822-1893) was born in Ontario and wrote his first poem in 1839. It was a seven hundred-line narrative poem called ‘The Rebel’. Sangster worked as a government official and also as a journalist for the newspaper The British Whig. In 1849, he joined the Amherstburg Courier newspaper as its editor. Sangster started gaining attention as a poet since the 1850s. Initially he wrote in the newspapers. His first book of poem was The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay published in 1856. It was a period of great significance in the personal life of the poet as well because he got married to Mary Kilborn a few months before the publication of his first book. The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay received the honour of being regarded as “the best and the most important book of poetry produced in Canada” until that time.

The poem narrates the personal journey of the poet with his beloved wife from Lake Ontario to the Trinity Rock.

ii.   Summary of the poem: The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay has been regarded as probably the most intriguing poem in pre-Confederation Canada. It is divided into 110 Spenserian stanzas. It is a narrative poem in the first person where the poet- speaker describes a river journey from Lake Ontario down the St. Lawrence and up the Saguenay to Trinity Rock. As the boat moves along the rivers, the poet describes the most picturesque and sublime scenery passing by him.

The first stanza is almost entirely a lamentation of the absence of the “Maiden”. However, the second stanza begins with a direct statement to her in the convention of a prayer to the muse for poetic inspiration and guidance. It is entirely the poet’s journey (from physical to spiritual) and his imagination as he constructs his journey from separation to union. Throughout the poem, the poet tries to reconcile the different kinds of love by harmonizing his attraction to Woman, Nature and God. Initially his love is self-centered and directed towards one woman only. That woman is understood to be his wife and companion in his journey. However, to the poetic imagination the companion is not present in the manner he desires. In  lines 10-18, he speaks of the power of  love to regenerate and spiritualize, to inspire immortality and to counteract the effects of Original Sin. Here, he alludes to Adam and Eve, and to Milton though his placing the ladylove on a pedestal is more comparable to Dante than the British poets. After establishing his longing for a woman’s love, Sangster turns his attention to describe the beauty of nature. From lines 64 – 94, he describes nature as beautiful and equates ignorance with both Beauty and Truth. To him, Nature and Woman both symbolize beauty and mystery. The poet’s tone, however, is more religious than philosophical. While describing the beauty of nature, he also adds the scene of a violent “Tempest” (174). In describing such a scene, the influence of the “Flood” episode from the Bible cannot be overlooked.

After the first two hundred lines, the poet undergoes an urge for transformation. Hence, the reference to Hesper (Venus), a planet associated with transformation of and resurrection. Again, in lines 455-457 the poet expresses his desire to be united with the Maiden and complains about her failure to return his love (461-477). There are allusions to Hamlet-Ophelia (527) and Romeo- Juliet (586). Just like these ill-fated and doomed lovers, the poet lives in constant fear of separation from his beloved (687-688). At this point the boat moves beyond Cape Torment and again the poet undergoes another transformation. There are indications of sanctified human love. There is an elaborate description of a wedding procession and a marriage service being held on the banks of the river. At this juncture, the poem shows an epithalamic movement and the description gains more prominence than the poet’s lamentation. This portion of the poem is named “Song”. The Maiden has been absent from the narrative for a long time now.

Stanzas C-CX are set in the vicinity of Cape Eternity and Cape Trinity, which is the destination of the poet. As the journey nears its end, the poet finds the divine origin of all creations. So long he has been mesmerized by external Nature. Now he moves from the external to the internal human nature (1166-1170). His faith in God and the beauty of His creations is affirmed. From the desire of being loved by one woman the poet has moved to the desire of being loved by God himself. Thus, along with his physical journey from the St. Lawrence to the Saguenay, the poet succeeds in completing a spiritual journey which enriches him as a human being and fulfills his desire of creating poetry.

6. Comparative Analysis of the poems: All the three pre-Confederation poets have a fair share of similarities among themselves. All three of them, Oliver Goldsmith, Joseph Howe and Charles Sangster prided in their British origin and were staunch Loyalists of the Empire. They were all public servants employed in the government and mostly amateur poets. Hence, their poems show remarkable influence of the British poets of that era. Romanticism was the greatest influential factor present in the poems of all the three poets and Howe and Sangster were particularly indebted to Byron, Wordsworth and Shelley.

All the three poems use the Canadian nature and landscape as objects of description in order to inspire awe in the minds of their readers. Canadian nature and beauty is equated with an untamed ruggedness which derives its origin from the consciousness of the presence of wild beasts and “native savages” in the country. In short, it is just the appropriate place which needs to be civilized and tamed, and the Loyalists of the Empire did endeavour to finish that task. The moral is the establishment of an order, just like the one which has led to the glory and prosperity of Great Britain. Like Great Britain, Anglophone Canada must achieve its height of glory.

Goldsmith and Howe use a cyclical pattern of hope and despair as essential elements in establishing the order. In Sangster, however, there is the metaphor of journey. However, the  three are not essentially different from each other in this regard. The constant success and failure of the establishment of order in Goldsmith and Howe is also a kind of journey for their colonies and its inhabitants. The journey from despair to hope, from being in a no man’s land to building up a colony of one’s own is indeed a successful journey for the pioneer who has set foot in the alien land. This journey is not personal, and hardly spiritual. Sangster’s is both spiritual as well as religious. It is also noteworthy that though Goldsmith’s and Howe’s concerns were mainly political and economic, they have not gone far from maintaining a religious undertone throughout. The use of love stories has been to a moralizing purpose, it was necessary to keep the instincts of the young generation under control. Just as Goldsmith has used the symbolic love story of Albert and Flora, Sangster’s personal love story too is far more spiritual and physical.

All the three poems end on a note of hope, on the success of an achievement by the poets. For Goldsmith and Howe, it was socio-economic as well as political, and for Sangster, it was more of a personal achievement. The significance of all the three pre-Confederation poems lies in the fact that they are historical records of the initial verses written by the pioneer poets in Canada describing the stories of their success as colonialists.

To sum up

• The history of Canada in brief with reference to the English colonization of the nation.
• The history of Canadian poetry and its achievements from the 1600s to the Confederation in 1867.
• Short biographical sketches of the three most significant poets of pre-Confederation Canada – Oliver Goldsmith, Joseph Howe, Charles Sangster
• The summaries of the three most significant poems of pre-Confederation Canada – The Rising Village, ‘Acadia’, The St. Lawrence and the Sageunay
• Comparative analysis of the three poems

References:

• Atwood, Margaret ed. The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. Ontario: Oxford University Press, 1985.
• Bentley, D. Mimic Fires: Accounts of Early Long Poems on Canada. Montreal: McGill Queen University Press, 1984.
• Gustafson, Ralph ed. The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse. Ontario: Penguin, 1967.
• Kroller, Eva-Marie ed. The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Logan, JD. Highways of Canadian Literature. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1924. Morton, Desmond. A Short History of Canada. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1983. Myatt, Wilfrid E ed. The Autobiography of Oliver Goldsmith. Toronto: Ryerson, 1943
• Parks, M.G. ed. Poems and Essays of Joseph Howe. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.
• Parks, M.G. ed. Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.
• Smith, A.J.M ed. Towards a View of Canadian Letters. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1973.