Title: Archibald Lampman's "Nature" poetry as reflecting the (im)possibility of construing Canadian identity
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2008, vol. 6, iss. [1], pp. 143-153
Extent
143-153
-
ISSN1213-7715 (print)2336-4556 (online)
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/116070
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The aim of this paper is to show on the example of Archibald Lampman and William Wordsworth how the two literary traditions intersperse and diverge on the ultimate Romantic subject – Nature. Descriptions of nature in the poems of Lampman and Wordsworth are often interior landscapes or "maps of a state of mind" (Atwood) important for defining one's identity. In Wordsworth's poetry man's identity is built and re-built on the basis of his close contact with Nature that soothes him and provides comfort for the years to come. On the other hand, Lampman's poetry speaks about the difficulty of coming to terms with Nature, of taming the unpredictable, cruel and often meaningless landscape. There exists in Lampman's poetry an attempt to reconcile with Mother-Nature and seek guidance from it, a prominent Wordsworthian trait which is juxtaposed to the feeling of being swallowed up by Nature's unconscious cruelty and bareness. The instability of the Canadian concept of "identity" and the inability to defi ne what it really is might be the result of this double-sided view of Nature.
Le but de ce travail est de montrer, à travers l'exemple d'Archibald Lampman et William Wordsworth, comment deux traditions littéraires se croisent et divergent au sujet du plus important concept romantique, la nature. Les descriptions de la nature dans la poésie d'Archiblad Lampman et William Wordsworth sont souvent des paysages intérieurs ou des "cartes de l'état de conscience" (Atwood) essentiels à la définition de l'identité de chacun. Dans la poésie de Wordsworth, l'identité de l'homme se construit et se reconstruit sur les bases de son contact intime avec la nature qui l'apaise et lui fournit la consolation pour les années à venir. Quant à la poésie de Lampman, elle parle des difficultés à essayer de comprendre la nature, à dompter le paysage imprévisible, impitoyable et souvent dénué de sens. Il existe chez Lampman une tentative de se réconcilier avec la Mère-Nature et d'être guidé par elle, trait wordsworthien majeur, et parallèlement le sentiment d'engloutissement par l'inconsciente cruauté et le dépouillement de la Nature. L'instabilité du concept de l'"identité canadienne" et l'incapacité de la définir peuvent être le résultat de ce double rapport à la Nature.
References
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[22] Wordsworth, William. The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Gill (eds.). New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1979.
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[2] Abrams, M. H.. Natural Supernaturalism – Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. London: Oxford University Press. 1971.
[3] Atwood, Margaret. Survival. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland & Stewart Ltd.. 2004.
[4] Bentley, D.M.R. "Watchful Dreams and Sweet Unrest: An Essay on the Visions of Archibald Lampman." Studies in Canadian Literature 6 (1981): 188-210.
[5] Bentley, D.M.R. "Watchful Dream and Sweet Unrest: An Essay on the Vision of Archibald Lampman. Part II. Studies in Canadian Literature 7 (1982): 5-26.
[6] Bloom, Harold. The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1971.
[7] Bromwich, David. Disowned by Memory: Wordsworth's Poetry of the 1790s. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.
[8] Compton, Anne. "The Poet-Impressionist: Some Landscapes by Archibald Lampman." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews 34 (1994): 33-56.
[9] Daniels, Roy: "Lampman and Roberts." Literary History of Canada. Ed. Carl F. Klinck. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965. 389-405.
[10] Frye, Northrop. The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971.
[11] Frye, Northrop. "Conclusion." Literary History of Canada. Ed. Carl F. Klinck. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965. 821-849.
[12] Gillies, Mary Ann. "Bergsonism: Time Out of Mind." A Concise Companion to Modernism. Ed. David Bradshaw. Blackwell Publishing: 2003. 95-115.
[13] Hartman, Geoffrey. Wordsworth's Poetry: 1787-1814. New York: Yale University Press, 1967.
[14] Lampman, Archibald. The Poems of Archibald Lampman. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1974.
[15] McGann, Jerome: "Rethinking Romanticism." ELH 59.3 (1992): 735-754. | DOI 10.2307/2873450
[16] McLeod, Les. "Canadian Post-Romanticism: the Context of Late Nineteenth-Century Canadian Poetry." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews 14 (1984): 1-37.
[17] Mezei, Kathy. "Lampman among the Timothy." Canadian Poetry 5 (1979): 57-72.
[18] Precosky, Don. "Seven Myths About Canadian Literature." Studies in Canadian Literature 11 (1986): 86-95.
[19] Ross, Malcolm. The Impossible Sum of Our Traditions. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1986.
[20] Watt, Ian. "Impressionism." Conrad in the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1979. 169 – 180.
[21] Whitridge, Margaret Coulby. "Introduction." The Poems of Archibald Lampman. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974. vii-xxviii.
[22] Wordsworth, William. The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Gill (eds.). New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1979.
[23] Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. R. L. Brett and A. R. Jones (eds.). London and New York: Routledge, 1991.