Open Country

Robert Lecker is currently a professor at McGill University where his current research includes canonicity, literary history, readership and Contemporary Canadian fiction.

Preface
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Oliver Goldsmith (1794-1861)
The Rising Village
Charles Sangster (1822-1893)
From The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay
Isabella Valancy Crawford (1850-1887)
Malcolms Katie: A Love Story
The Rose
The Dark Stag
The Canoe
The Lily Bed
Charles G.D. Roberts (1860-1943)
The Tantramar Revisited
The Furrow
The Sower
The Potato Harvest
The Waking Earth
The Cow Pasture
When Milking-Time Is Done
Frogs
The Pea-Fields
The Mowing
The Winter Fields
The Flight of the Geese
O Solitary of the Austere Sky
Bliss Carman (1861-1929)
Low Tide on Grand Pré
A Northern Vigil
By the Aurelian Wall
I Loved Thee, Atthis, in the Long Ago
Vestigia
The Winter Scene
E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913)
A Cry from an Indian Wife
The Idlers
The Pilot of the Plains
The Cattle Thief
Ojistoh
The Corn Husker
Archibald Lampman (1861-1899)
The Railway Station
In October
Heat
Winter Evening
Among the Timothy
The Frogs
Morning on the Lièvres
In November
The City of the End of Things
Winter Uplands
At the Long Sault: May, 1660
Duncan Campbell Scott (1862-1947)
The Onondaga Madonna
The Piper of Arll
Night Hymns on Lake Nipigon
The Forsaken
On the Way to the Mission
The Height of Land
At Gull Lake: August, 1810
E.J. Pratt (1882-1964)
Newfoundland
The Highway
From Stone to Steel
The Man and the Machine
The Submarine
The Truant
Still Life
Marjorie Pickthall (1883-1922)
Dream River
The Pool
Improvisation on the Flute
Mirandas Tomb
The Spell
The Princess in the Tower
W.W.E. Ross (1894-1966)
Lovers
Wild Rose
Curving, the Moon
The Diver
Good Angels
First Snow
F.R. Scott (1899-1985)
North Stream
Laurentian Shield
Lakeshore
A Grain of Rice
National Identity
A Lass in Wonderland
A.J.M. Smith (1902-1980)
The Lonely Land
A Hyacinth for Edith
Prothalamium
Like an Old Proud King in a Parable
Noctambule
The Archer
Metamorphosis
The Wisdom of Old Jelly Roll
Earle Birney (1904-1995)
David
Anglosaxon Street
Vancouver Lights
Bushed
The Bear on the Delhi Road
Can. Lit.
El Greco: Espolio
November Walk Near False Creek Mouth
A.M. Klein (1909-1972)
Design for Mediaeval Tapestry
Heirloom
Autobiographical
Portrait of the Poet as Landscape
The Rocking Chair
Dorothy Livesay (1909-1996)
Green Rain
Day and Night
London Revisited: 1946
Bartok and the Geranium
Lament
The Three Emilys
The Notations of Love
Anne Wilkinson (1910-1961)
Summer Acres
Lake Song
Lens
In June and Gentle Oven
Letter to My Children
Variations on a Theme
Irving Layton (1912-2006)
The Swimmer
Composition in Late Spring
The Birth of Tragedy
The Fertile Muck
Whatever Else Poetry Is Freedom
For Mao Tse-Tung: A Meditation on Flies and Kings
A Tall Man Executes a Jig
To the Victims of the Holocaust
P.K. Page (1916-)
The Stenographers
Stories of Snow
The Permanent Tourists
Arras
Photos of a Salt Mine
T-Bar
After Rain
Cooks Mountains
After Reading Albino Pheasants
Margaret Avison (1918-)
Snow
The Apex Animal
Strong Yellow, for Reading Aloud
Meeting Together of Poles and Latitudes (in Prospect)
Searching and Sounding
Just Left or The Night Margaret Laurence Died
Al Purdy (1918-2000)
The Country North of Belleville
The Cariboo Horses
Home-Made Beer
When I Sat Down to Play the Piano
Trees at the Arctic Circle
Wilderness Gothic
Lament for the Dorsets
At the Quinte Hotel
The Horseman of Agawa
Piling Blood
Say the Names
Raymond Souster (1921-)
Young Girls
Study: The Bath
Two Dead Robins
The Six-Quart Basket
Get the Poem Outdoors
Robin Blaser (1925-)
The Medium
Image-Nation 12 (Actus
The Truth Is Laughter 6
Image-Nation 21 (territory
Robert Kroetsch (1927-)
Meditation on Tom Thomson
Pumpkin: A Love Poem
Stone Hammer Poem
Seed Catalogue
Phyllis Webb (1927-)
Lament
Breaking
Making
Poetics Against the Angel of Death
From Naked Poems:
Suite 1
Suite 2
Rilke
Treblinka Gas Chamber
Heidegger, notes of music
“Attend”
Alden Nowlan (1933-1983)
Warren Pryor
The Bull Moose
And He Wept Aloud, So That the Egyptians Heard It
The Mysterious Naked Man
On the Barrens
Leonard Cohen (1934-)
Poem
I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries
Style
What Im Doing Here
Suzanne
Famous Blue Raincoat
The Poems Dont Love Us Any More
How to Speak Poetry
Closing Time
George Bowering (1935-)
The Acts
Feet, Not Eyes
Desert Elm
From Kerrisdale Elegies:
Elegy One
Do Sink
Musing on Some Poets
Fall 1962. Vancouver
Claire Harris (1937-)
Where the Sky Is a Pitiful Tent
Jane in Summer
John Newlove (1938-2004)
Crazy Riel
The Pride
Ride off Any Horizon
Notes from and among the Wars
Insect Hopes
Margaret Atwood (1939-)
This Is a Photograph of Me
The Animals in That Country
Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer
Departure from the Bush
Newsreel: Man and Firing Squad
Tricks with Mirrors
Marrying the Hangman
Notes Towards a Poem That Can Never Be Written
How to Tell One Country from Another
The Loneliness of the Military Historian
bill bissett (1939-)
jed bi kor benskt trik
awake in th red desert
Beyond Even Faithful Legends
Killer Whale
yaji yaji yaji
ths is a konkreet pome
th ordr uv things wher is th ordr
Patrick Lane (1939-)
Wild Horses
As It Is with Birds and Bulls
Albino Pheasants
Still Hunting
There Is a Time
The Far Field
Go Leaving Strange
That Cold Blue Morning
Fred Wah (1939-)
Waiting for saskatchewan
Elite 1
Elite 2
Elite 3
Elite 4
Elite 5
Elite 6
Elite 7
Elite 8
Elite 9
Elite 10
Father/Mother Haibun #4
From Diamond Grill:
Famous Chinese Restaurant is the name of a
The Christmas before he dies he comes to
After our family moves out to British Columbia
Gwendolyn MacEwen (1941-1987)
Eden, Eden
A Breakfast for Barbarians
Manzini: Escape Artist
Poems in Braille
Dark Pines under Water
The Shadow-Maker
From The T.E. Lawrence Poems:
My Father
In Bed
The Water-Bearer
Feisal
The Mirage
The Peace Conference
The Tao of Physics
Daphne Marlatt (1942-)
From Steveston:
Imagine: a town
Steveston as you find it:
At Birch Bay
in the dark of the coast
prairie
Booking Passage
Don McKay (1942-)
The Boys Own Guide to Dream Birds
The Great Blue Heron
Kestrels
How to Imagine an Albatross
Fates Worse Than Death
Finger Pointing at the Moon
Stress, Shear, and Strain Theories of Failure"
Michael Ondaatje (1943-)
Henri Rousseau and Friends
King Kong Meets Wallace Stevens
Letters & Other Worlds
White Dwarfs
'The gate in his head'
Heron Rex
The Cinnamon Peeler
Red Accordion — An Immigrant Song
Death at Kataragama
bpNichol (1944-1988)
after hokusai
Not What The Siren Sang But What The Frag Ment
Allegory #4
Frame 16
TTA 4: original version
TTA 5: re-arranging words in poem in alphabetical order
TTA 19: replacing words with their meanings using Websters
DICTIONARY FOR EVERYDAY USE
probable systems 4
Steve McCaffery (1947-)
Poem for Arthur Cravan
Gnotes
Instruction Manual
Marlene NourbeSe Philip (1947-)
Discourse on the Logic of Language
She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks
John Steffler (1947-)
cliffs
Two rock paws
From Halki
That Night We Were Ravenous
Cooks Line
Lorna Crozier (1948-)
Fishing in Air
Myths
Facts about My Father
Mrs. Bentley
A Kind of Love
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Blizzard
Anne Carson (1950-)
The Truth about God
Tim Lilburn (1950-)
Blessed Jan Ruysbroek, Gardening at Groenendael
Part of the Inheritance
Contemplation Is Mourning
Learning a Deeper Courtesy of the Eye
Restoration
Its Seeing-Perfumed Fist
Sleeping Four Nights in a Tree
Di Brandt (1952-)
but what do you think my father says
missionary position (1)
poem for a guy whos thought about feminism
how long does it take to forget a murder
Here at the heart of the ravaged heart
Zone:
Dionne Brand (1953-)
No Language Is Neutral
From Thirsty:
XI
XII
XX
XXXI
Marilyn Dumont (1955-)
The Devils Language
The Sound of One Hand Drumming
monuments, cowboys & indians, tin cans, and red wagons
Erin Mouré (1955-)
Certain Words, a Garden
Post-Modern Literature
Miss Chatelaine
The Beauty of Furs
The Beauty of Furs: A Site Glossary
Safety of the State
Erosion Theory Coil Theory Maintenance Device:
Jan Zwicky (1955-)
Language Is Hands
Last Steps
Driving Northwest
The Geology of Norway
Robinsons Crossing
John Barton (1957-)
Haro Strait
The Totems Permit Me Peace
Great Men
Stains
From a Journey Around the World
The Living Room
Plasma, Triangles of Silk
In the House of the Present
George Elliott Clarke (1960-)
From Whylah Falls
The River Pilgrim: A Letter
Four Guitars
From Execution Poems:
Reading Titus Andronicus in Three Mile Plains, N.S.
Language
IX/XI
Lisa Robertson (1961-)
From Debbie: An Epic
Friday
Wooden Houses
Tim Bowling (1964-)
Dying Scarlet
The Line
The Rhododendron
The Witness Ghost
Does the World Remember Us?
Memory
Gregory Scofield (1966-)
Conversation with the Poet
No Peace
Women Who Forgot the Taste of Limes
Karen Solie (1966-)
Signs Taken for Wonders
Sturgeon
A Treatise on the Evils of Modern Homeopathic Medicines
Cipher Stroke
Determinism
Love Song of the Unreliable Narrator
Ken Babstock (1970-)
Crab
The Expected
Head Injury Card
A Leave-Taking
Regenerative
Ataraxia
Palindromic
Credits
Index"