• Our project
  • How to use our site
  • Authors lists
    • Authors completed
    • Authors to be included
    • Author “snapshots”
    • Authors to be evaluated
    • Authors using pseudonyms
    • Resource list
    • Authors not included (for researchers)
  • Comprehensive Index of Contributors to the Crucible Magazine, 1932-1943
  • Index of Female Contributors to The Canadian Poetry Magazine, 1936-1950
  • A series of lists
    • Canadian periodicals online at ECO
    • A complete list of Ryerson Poetry Chapbooks, 1925-1962
      • Ryerson Poetry Chapbook 4: The Captive Gypsy (1926), by Constance Davies-Woodrow
      • Ryerson Poetry Chapbook 5: The Ear Trumpet (1926), by Annie Charlotte Dalton
      • Ryerson Poetry Chapbook 77: Songs, Being a Selection of Earlier Sonnets and Lyrics (1937), by Helena Coleman
    • Pseudonyms: Known and unknown
    • Some anonymous texts online at ECO
    • Women of Canada (1930)
  • Resource websites

Canada's Early Women Writers: Authors lists

~ A growing list of Canada's English-language women writers from the beginning to 1950

Canada's Early Women Writers: Authors lists

Monthly Archives: November 2011

“The Butterfly,” by Margaret Avison

30 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Avison, Margaret. “The Butterfly.” Other Canadians: An Anthology of the New Poetry in Canada, 1940-1946. Ed. John Sutherland. No publication information. 30. Pamphlet.

The Butterfly

     An uproar,
   a spruce-green sky, bound in iron.
   the murky sea running a sulphur scum,
I saw a butterfly, suddenly.
   It clung between the ribs of the storm, wavering,
and flung against the battering bone-wind.
   I remember it, glued to the grit of that rain-strewn beach
that glowered around it, swallowed its startled design
   in the larger irridescence of unstrung dark.

That wild, sour air, those miles of crouching forest, that moth
   when all enveloping space
   is a thin glass glove, swirling with storm
tempt us to stare, and seize analogies.
The Voice that stilled the sea of Galilee
   overstoned by the new peace, the fierce subhuman peace
of such an east sky, blanched like Eternity.

The meaning of the moth, even the smashed moth, the meaning
   of the moth—
can’t we stab that one angle into the curve of space
   that weeps so unrelenting, far above,
   towards the subhuman swamp of under-dark?

“A Minister of Grace,” by Sara Jeannette Duncan

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ 2 Comments

Duncan, Sara.  “A Minister of Grace.” Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly and National Review 5 (Dec 1880): 627.

A Minister of Grace

We call thee Sympathy, in our rude tongue,
Discerning not they lovelier, heaven-giv’n name
Whereby the angels know thee. In no wise
May we command thee—thou art subtly born
Of soul-similitude, or common grief;
Yet souls for lack of thee must daily die!
Thou lurkest in the warmth of clasping hands,
The inner life of human brotherhood,
And often shinest glorious in a tear!
Thou sharest half, and soothest all, their pain,
And from the depths men mutely cry to thee,
All empty-hearted if thou comest not!

“Unrealized,” by Sheila Barbour

27 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ 2 Comments

“Sydney Martin.” “Unrealized.” “Young Authors’ Section: Poet’s Corner.” Winnipeg Free Press (28 Jan. 1939) 6.

Another contribution to the Winnipeg Free Press Young Authors’ Section, established to publish “contributions by young people from the age of 13 years and upwards.” A remarkable number of later-to-be well-known poets started their days in these pages.

Of this poem, Poet’s Corner editor W.E.I. said: “We like Sydney’s clear and quiet lines of dream-song. Something—some light, some landscape, some panorama we cannot explain—lingers in our minds after we finish reading her poem, and we read it again in an effort to recapture this scape of Dreamland.”

Unrealized

One day for freedom
Underneath the sky,
Though the hours crowd by.
One day for wonder
Between night and morn,
One day for faring
Wither dreams are borne.
One day for finding
Beauty e’re it die,
One day—in which to find
Sunlight, and rain, and wind.

One day for losing
Bitter memories,
One day for going
Where the spirit please.
One day for having
What will soon be lost,
One day for drifting
As the leaves are tossed.
One day for finding
Fairer fantasies,
Oh! for some coming day
To spirit sense away.

“Lost Autumn,” by Verna Loveday Harden

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Harden, Verna Loveday [Verna Bessie Bentley]. Postlude to an Era. Toronto: Crucible, 1940. 13.

“The Moth,” by P. K. Page

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Page, P. K. “The Moth.” Canadian Poetry Calendar, 1939. Rpt. from The Observer (London, UK) December 1934.

The Moth

I caught a moth,
a silver moth,
that fluttered in my hair;
and when I peeped within my hand
I found but star-dust there.

“Lady of the Night,” by Marian Waldman

21 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

[Waldman, Marian.] “Lady of the Night.” “Young Authors’ Section: Poet’s Corner.” Winnipeg Free Press (21 Jan. 1939) 6.

Another contribution to the Winnipeg Free Press Young Authors’ Section, established to publish “contributions by young people from the age of 13 years and upwards.” A remarkable number of later-to-be well-known poets started their days in these pages.

Lady of the Night

Beside our house two white topped mounds keep silent guard always,
And in the valley ‘tween the two a laughing streamlet plays;
I love it in the daytime—it springs and bubbles so,
And playful winds its surface calm will lightly blow—
But more I love it when the night is bright with fire-glow.

From the shores of the mystic rivulet a lovely lady glides—
Her body gowned in moonbeams, her hair back-swept by tides,
While in her bosom silver-clad a glorious starlet hides.

I know you would not see her there, and yet somehow, I think
When you and I long since have broke the life-stream’s fragile link,
My lonely lady still will sing upon the river’s brink.

“To Snow… or Not to Snow!” by Mona Gould

20 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Gould, Mona. “To Snow… or Not to Snow!” Gossip! Verse. Toronto, 1949. 6.

To Snow… or Not to Snow!

Feather down soft deep snow
Feather down… I implore you.
The part of me that’s Poet
Simply adores you!
The part of me that’s “working girl!”
Equally abhors you!

Snow is like thistledown
Filigree-ing trees;
But waiting for street cars…
It’s wet ankles and
Knees!

“Autumn,” by Sara Jeannette Duncan

19 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Duncan, Sara.  “Autumn.” Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly and National Review 5 (Nov 1880): 494.

“Only a Baby Gone!” By M. E. Muchall

18 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Muchall, M. E. “Only a Baby Gone!” Canadian Monthly 10 (Oct. 1876) 310.

Mary E. Muchall was the daughter of Catharine Parr Traill, author of The Backwoods of Canada (1836), The Female Emigrant’s Guide (1854), Canadian Wild Flowers (1865), Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885), and Canada’s first novel for children, Canadian Crusoes (1851). Muchall was also thus the niece of Susanna Moodie, author of the fairly well-known immigrant text Roughing It in the Bush (1852).

“Only a Baby Gone!”

Only a little empty cot
Where baby was laid to sleep;
But sore is my heart when I see it now,
And what can I do but weep?

Only a soiled and broken toy,
She used in her baby play;
I cannot bear to see it now,
Let it be hidden away.

And here lies another thing,
Recalling he sunny past;
Only a scarlet coral chain,
Her hands have so often claspt.

Only a baby’s smile
Is missed in our home to-day;
And the sound of her pattering feet,
And her rippling laugh at play.

Only a baby gone?
Only the loss of these?
but when will our home seem bright again?
Oh, when will our hearts find ease?

Just when faith can behold
Our baby from sin set free;
Forever safe in the far off fold,
Ont he shores of the crystal sea.

“God is Away Tonight,” by M. E. Muchall

16 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by Karyn Huenemann in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Muchell, M. E. “God is Away Tonight.” Friends’ Review 40 (1887) 495.

Mary Elizabeth Muchall was the daughter of Catharine Parr Traill, author of The Backwoods of Canada (1836), The Female Emigrant’s Guide (1854), Canadian Wild Flowers (1865), Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885), and Canada’s first novel for children, Canadian Crusoes (1851). Muchall was also thus the niece of Susanna Moodie, author of the fairly well-known immigrant text Roughing It in the Bush (1852).

← Older posts

Blogroll

  • Female Poets of the First World War

Links to other projects

  • American Verse Project
  • Canada's Early Women Writers at CWRC
  • Canada's Early Women Writers at SFU
  • Canadian Magazines
  • Canadian War Brides of the First World War
  • Canadian Writers Abroad
  • Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory
  • Database of Canada's Early Women Writers
  • Magazines, Travel, and Middle-brow Culture in Canada, 1920-1960
  • Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles
  • Winnifred Eaton Archive
  • Women in Book History, edited by Cait Croker and Kate Ozment

Pages

  • Our project
  • How to use our site
  • Authors lists
    • Authors completed
    • Authors to be included
    • Author “snapshots”
    • Authors to be evaluated
    • Authors using pseudonyms
    • Resource list
    • Authors not included (for researchers)
  • Comprehensive Index of Contributors to the Crucible Magazine, 1932-1943
  • Index of Female Contributors to The Canadian Poetry Magazine, 1936-1950
  • A series of lists
    • Canadian periodicals online at ECO
    • A complete list of Ryerson Poetry Chapbooks, 1925-1962
      • Ryerson Poetry Chapbook 4: The Captive Gypsy (1926), by Constance Davies-Woodrow
      • Ryerson Poetry Chapbook 5: The Ear Trumpet (1926), by Annie Charlotte Dalton
      • Ryerson Poetry Chapbook 77: Songs, Being a Selection of Earlier Sonnets and Lyrics (1937), by Helena Coleman
    • Pseudonyms: Known and unknown
    • Some anonymous texts online at ECO
    • Women of Canada (1930)
  • Resource websites

Posts and poems

  • December 2022
  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • July 2011
  • April 2011

Visitors

  • 148,930 hits

Canada\’s Early Women Poets

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 730 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Canada's Early Women Writers: Authors lists
    • Join 248 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Canada's Early Women Writers: Authors lists
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...