Highways of Canadian Literature

by J. D. Logan; Donald G. French

CHAPTER VII

Charles G. D. Roberts

ROBERTS SPONSOR TO LAMPMAN—LITERARY FATHER OF BLISS CARMAN—MASTER OF VERSE TECHNIQUE—FORMS OF HIS VERSE, AND ITS QUALITIES.

Whether Charles G. D. Roberts had a genuine formative influence on Canadian literature, particularly Canadian poetry, or whether he should be regarded merely as ‘the eldest brother’ of the first systematic group of Canadian poets and prose writers may, possibly, be a moot question. Of a certainty he was the first native-born Canadian to take the leading role in making real and permanent, both by singular influences and by actual production in poetry and imaginative prose, a native and national literature in Canada.

First: Roberts was the literary sponsor of Archibald Lampman. In 1884, while editor of The Week, Roberts published in that periodical the very first poems which Lampman contributed to the public press (The Coming of Winter, and Three-Flower Petals). This is much more significant than appears on first view. It must be remembered that Roberts, though but twenty-four years old at the time of his editorship, had already published, in 1880, his Orion and Other Poems, which had been well received by the critical press in England and the United States. This distinction, abetted by his editorial connection with Goldwin Smith, the founder of The Week, gave him some of the glory of a new literary ‘star’ and made him an authority whose good opinion of another’s verse was very inspiring when it took the form of introducing a young unknown native poet to the Canadian public. In 1884 Lampman was a young man, human, sensitive, and shy. Roberts was the first to recognize Lampman’s authentic genius and the first to give him that practical encouragement which alone counts constructively—a first and right start, per aspera indeed, but, for Lampman, ad astra.

Roberts was also the ‘literary father’ of Bliss Carman. In 1885 Roberts was appointed Professor of Literature at King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia. It was Roberts who really trained Bliss Carman in the poetic perception of Nature and in poetic technique and who inspired him to begin a poetic career. It all happened in this way: To Roberts’ home, at Windsor, came Bliss Carman, a cousin of the elder poet. Here Carman spent several of his growing, most impressionable, and most receptive years, coming directly under the pervasive influences—the aesthetic culture and a tutorship in poetic technique—of the elder poet. Further: with Windsor as a centre, and Roberts as a companion and guide, Carman made excursions over the lovely and glamorous scenes and haunts of beauty near and beyond Roberts’ home. Carman, with Roberts, dwelt and communed with Nature intimately, visited the hiding places of earthly beauty, fed his senses with pure delight of stream, lake and marsh, woodland and sky, tuned his heart to hear, with peculiar meaning and joy, the cries of the denizens of the woodland, the murmurings, dronings, and shrillings of insects, and the dulcet lilting voices of birds. Also, in fancy and peaceful reverie, Carman lived over again all the rare moments and joys of sensation and spiritual ecstasy experienced by him in that lovely area of country conscribing Windsor, the land of Evangeline, the Gaspereau valley, the Basin of Minas, and the Tantramar marshes.

Thus the young Carman’s senses and imagination discovered the beauty, glamor, and glory of land and sea. Inevitably, at length, he was inspired to emulate the elder poet, Roberts, and to begin the systematic writing of the winning lyrism which, in the years that followed, has given Carman a name sui generis, not only amongst the poets of his homeland, Canada, but also amongst the poets of the English-speaking races.

Again: two years after taking up his residence at Windsor, Roberts published his really epoch-making volume of poetry, In Divers Tones (1887). This was his second volume of verse and, in it, his genius and art shone with greater glory, especially in the eyes of the critics and poets of the United States who were not likely to think, at any rate in that day, that anything could come out of Canada, particularly Nova Scotia, except pulpwood, coal, fish, and potatoes. Roberts and his poetic work disillusioned the young Canadian poet’s American cousins and taught them that Canada produced mind, and even poetic genius.

Roberts was related to Carman by blood and temperament and poetic tutorship. These facts of various relationship between Roberts and Carman became known in the United States; and the light of Roberts’ literary reputation was reflected on his cousin, Bliss Carman. It was, therefore, natural that the editor of The Atlantic Monthly should, as actually happened, publish in that magazine Carman’s first significant poem, Low Tide on Grand Pré (1887), which became the title poem of his first volume of verse, Low Tide on Grand Pré: a Book of Lyrics (New York, 1893). All this is more significant than it seems.

For a young poet, story-teller, or essayist to have his work published in The Atlantic Monthly is a literary distinction by itself. The imprimatur of The Atlantic Monthly is as a royal seal in the kingdom of letters on the American continent. Largely through the sponsorship of Roberts’ reputation, Carman was favorably known to the editor of The Atlantic Monthly. When, therefore, the magazine published Carman’s first important poem, the poet was properly and most significantly introduced to the literary world. For The Atlantic Monthly enters only the homes of the most cultured readers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The placing of its imprimatur on the verse of Bliss Carman was a declaration to the world that Canada had produced another new and engaging poet.