| South of North: Images of Canada Contributor(s): Outram, Richard (Author), MacDonald, Thoreau (Illustrator) |
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ISBN: 0889842981 ISBN-13: 9780889842984 Publisher: Porcupine's Quill OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback Published: October 2007 Annotation: Richard Outram has long been accused (there are those who will protest, "wrongly" accused) of being a difficult' poet. An ascetic traditionalist perhaps, as opposed to a populist the likes of cigar-smoking Al Purdy or whiskey-ravaged Milton Acorn. Some, notably the formidable critic Peter Sanger, prefer the term challenging' in describing Outram's poetry. Alberto Manguel has written that Richard Outram is one of the finest poets in the English language'. But then there are those fervent, vocal dissidents who will insist that not only is the thicker of Outram's poetry impenetrable', but also that Sanger's criticism is equally incomprehensible, if not more so. "South of North" presents a very different side of the polarizing Richard Outram. Consider ... Outram's perfect burden'' is the necessity of human ignorance and confusion, the burden of the sad man'' in Autumn'' which, like the riddle-work of material lattice both intercepting and allowing the passage of light in "The Promise of Light," is the only possible preliminary to an accurate and profound experience of love.' -- Peter Sanger, "Her kindled shadow, ' An Introduction to the Work of Richard Outram" In "South of North," by way of stark contrast, Outram's azure mariner compares the waves of Whiffinspit' with the waves of Pond Inlet' and finds the waters to be remarkably similar. As might be expected; nothing more complicated than that. "South of North" depicts a landscape that is distinctly rural -- a weathervane, dogwood in a marsh, and raucous crows; the whitened skeleton of a vole in a fallow field. Tantramar Marsh, the Saugeen River and the horses of Bonavista. A summer storm building over Cobourg; the hefty bulk of asnapping turtle surfacing, trailing a rank ooze. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - General - Poetry | Canadian |
| Dewey: 811.54 |
| Physical Information: 0.44" H x 5.78" W x 8.72" (0.49 lbs) 128 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Canadian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A posthumous collection of uncommon plainsong from the poet Richard Outram, with drawings by Thoreau MacDonald. |