“Pulpwood Tragedy,” by Kate Ruttan

Ruttan, Kate McIntyre. “Pulpwood Tragedy.” In Rhymes, Right or Wrong, of Rainy River. [Orillia, ON]: [Times Print Co.], 1926. 174.

We’re just finishing up the augmented version of our entry on Kate Ruttan, and delighting in the eccentricities of her life and poetry. Daughter of John McIntyre, “The Cheese Poet of Ingersoll,” Ruttan mostly wrote similarly cheesy poetry. Here is a fine example.

“Ad Vitam Resurgo,” by Maude Abbott

“Abbott, M.E. “Ad Vitam Resurgo.” Christmas. Montreal: Author, 1929. n.p.

Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott is better known for her medical career than her poetry. While she published upwards of 50 texts (pamphlets, books, and a book chapter in Sir William Osler‘s monumental Systems of Modern Medicine [1908]), she produced only one pamphlet of poetry, a very small chapbook entitled Christmas (1929). While this was released at Christmas, two of the three poems it contains were written in October of 1929. This is one of them: