The Poetry of Elizabeth
Brewster
DESMOND PACEY
P
K . Page teils the story of how she a n d some friends
" d i s c o v e r e d " the poetry of E l i z a b e t h B r e w s t e r . In
" the s p r i n g of 1941, when P . K . P a g e was l i v i n g i n
Saint J o h n , N e w B r u n s w i c k , she and some of her friends i n
that c i t y became concerned about the apparent lack of
poetic a c t i v i t y i n a province w h i c h h a d h a d a l i t e r a r y t r a d i t i o n going back to its foundation i n the late eighteenth
century. T o f i n d out what, if any, poetry of m e r i t was
being w r i t t e n , they sponsored a poetry contest i n the Telegraph-Journal.
E l i z a b e t h Brewster, then a g i r l i n her
late teens, was one of the winners of the contest, and she
and P a t Page struck up a friendship w h i c h has continued to
this day. M i s s B r e w s t e r says of the episode:
"When I
was i n Grade X I sent some poems to a contest i n Saint
J o h n r u n b y the local A u t h o r s ' A s s o c i a t i o n . P a t Page
was one of the judges a n d l i k e d m y poems, invited me to
Saint J o h n , lent me anthologies of modern poets, and exchanged a number of letters w i t h m e . "
E l i z a b e t h Brewster, then, has been w r i t i n g good poetry
for over t h i r t y years, but it is only i n the last four years,
since the publication of Passage of Summer i n 1969, that
she has been w i d e l y k n o w n outside of the M a r i t i m e provinces f r o m w h i c h she sprang. H e r e a r l y work, although
it was published w i d e l y i n periodicals such as Poetry ( C h i cago), Northern
Review, Contemporary
Verse, The Canadian Poetry Magazine, The Fiddlehead,
Queen's
Quarterly,
Tamarack
Review and the Canadian Forum, was collected
i n s m a l l chapbooks of l i m i t e d c i r c u l a t i o n and therefore did
not earn her the n a t i o n a l reputation she deserved.
East
Coast appeared as a R y e r s o n P o e t r y Chapbook i n 1951,
1
2
THE POETRY OF ELIZABETH BREWSTER
59
Lillooet a n d Roads i n the same series i n 1954 and 1957
respectively.
Passage of Summer is a m u c h more substantial volume, c o n t a i n i n g 132 poems i n a book of 129
pages, and gave the general public its first opportunity to
appreciate the range a n d v a r i e t y of its author's sensibility.
Moreover, Passage of Summer was supplemented i n 1972 by
a second substantial volume, Sunrise North,
w h i c h contains 85 additional poems, and some 40 more poems have
been w r i t t e n since it went to press. T h e B r e w s t e r canon,
then, now amounts to n e a r l y three hundred poems, and an
at least p r e l i m i n a r y c r i t i c a l e x a m i n a t i o n of t h e m is overdue.
There is not space i n this article to give an extended biog r a p h y of E l i z a b e t h Brewster, but as her poems r e l y v e r y
heavily upon memory, and as I have k n o w n M i s s B r e w s t e r
ever since she first became a student of m i n e i n 1944, I feel
it m y d u t y to say something about her life and personality.
Reviewers have often sought to dismiss her as a merely
regional poet, or as a t y p i c a l spinster l i b r a r i a n of l i m i t e d
experience and weak feeling. A l t h o u g h there is a strong
regional base to her work, she has a c t u a l l y h a d a m u c h
wider experience of the w o r l d t h a n the average person and
even the average poet. B o r n i n C h i p m a n i n 1922 and
brought up i n various parts of r u r a l N e w B r u n s w i c k , she
started w r i t i n g poetry when she was nine or ten, and her
first poem to be published — " a v e r y conventional poem
about A u t u m n , " as she now describes it — appeared i n the
Saint J o h n Telegraph
when she was twelve. It was when
she became a student at the U n i v e r s i t y of N e w B r u n s w i c k
i n 1942, however, and came under the influence of the
group of persons who, i n 1945, were to l a u n c h The
Fiddlehead magazine, that her w o r k began to increase significantl y i n q u a l i t y and quantity. Several of the best of her
early poems, such as " T h e Loneliness T h a t W r a p p e d H e r
R o u n d " a n d " O n l y the Subtle T h i n g s , " appeared i n the
early issues of The
Fiddlehead.
3
E l i z a b e t h Brewster, however, left N e w B r u n s w i c k almost
60
DESMOND PACEY
i m m e d i a t e l y after g r a d u a t i o n f r o m U . N . B , i n 1946, and a l though she has spent a few years back i n her native province, a n d has continued to v i s i t it frequently over the
years, most of her adult life has been lived elsewhere.
A f t e r U . N . B , she spent a year at Radcliffe College i n C a m bridge, Mass.; she was a B e a v e r b r o o k Overseas scholar at
the U n i v e r s i t y of L o n d o n ; she took a profesional l i b r a r i a n ' s
course at the U n i v e r s i t y of T o r o n t o ; she w o r k e d as a l i b r a r i a n at Queen's U n i v e r s i t y a n d i n O t t a w a ; she spent several
years i n B l o o m i n g t o n , Indiana, where she obtained her P h . D .
i n E n g l i s h f r o m the U n i v e r s i t y of Indiana for a thesis on
George C r a b b e ; she taught for a y e a r at the U n i v e r s i t y of
V i c t o r i a i n B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a ; she spent several years as a
l i b r a r i a n at M o u n t A l l i s o n U n i v e r s i t y i n S a c k v i l l e , N . B . ,
and t h e n came back to F r e d e r i c t o n as a l i b r a r i a n at the
L e g i s l a t i v e L i b r a r y ; more recently she has been a l i b r a r i a n
at the U n i v e r s i t y of A l b e r t a i n E d m o n t o n , a n d has taught
C r e a t i v e W r i t i n g there; i n 1972-73 she is a full-time m e m ber of the Department of E n g l i s h at the U n i v e r s i t y of Sask a t c h e w a n at Saskatoon. F a r , then, f r o m being a poet of
n a r r o w horizons, she has lived for considerable periods i n
five of the C a n a d i a n provinces, i n the U n i t e d States a n d i n
the U n i t e d K i n g d o m , a n d a l l these v a r i e d locations are reflected to some degree i n her poetry.
She is far, too, f r o m being a t y p i c a l spinster l i b r a r i a n ,
if indeed such a creature exists. W h e n I first k n e w her
she was, it is true, shy to a painful degree, given to nervous g i g g l i n g w h i c h could be quite disconcerting. She has
referred to this adolescent t i m i d i t y , and contrasted it w i t h
m y (apparent) self-assurance, i n one of the best of her
early poems :
A l o n e i n the public room
L i s t e n i n g to retreating footsteps
L i s t e n i n g to a whistle and a scrap of song,
I, who must always tiptoe over floors,
Stand w i t h raised hand and t h u d d i n g heart outside doorways,
L i n g e r embarrassed i n the corridors of life,
Apologizing, back out of rooms like an i n t r u d e r I, who listen too nervously to the epoch-shattering
stroke of the c l o c k —
THE POETRY OF ELIZABETH BREWSTER
61
I w o u l d imitate, if I could, the staccato, assured
footsteps,
T h e w h i s t l e unconscious of fear, scornful of time.
B u t is it w o r t h i t ? I ask, Is it w o r t h i t ?
A n d think more respectfully of the fox's sincerity.
(Passage of Summer, p. 11)
A s she grew older, however, she g r a d u a l l y overcame this
shyness, and she has now achieved a considerable degree of
poise. B u t there was always behind her t i m i d e x t e r i o r a
c h a r a c t e r of great strength and toughness, a n d she was far
f r o m defenceless.
F o r one t h i n g , she always possessed a
devastating power of sarcasm, a n d as a y o u n g lecturer I
often felt its f u l l force. F o r another, she possesses a w i l l
w h i c h is quite r e m a r k a b l e for its d e t e r m i n a t i o n : years of
relative neglect never deflected her f r o m the craft of
poetry; the v i e w of other people (myself included) that she
d i d not have the personal force to teach large i n t r o d u c t o r y
classes persuaded her not at a l l ; and she has always resisted the temptation, w h i c h must be p a r t i c u l a r l y acute for
a single w o m a n , to settle i n one f a m i l i a r place surrounded
b y old friends.
Moreover, as even a casual r e a d i n g of her poetry w i l l
reveal, M i s s B r e w s t e r is a w o m a n of e x t r e m e l y complex
sensibility, a n d of a h i g h degree of self-discipline. She
relies v e r y h e a v i l y upon personal memories for the substance of her poetry, but her memories are not of the sort
that m a y p r o p e r l y be described as nostalgic, since what she
remembers is i n v a r i a b l y honest a n d often b r u t a l l y violent
or searingly sad. She writes of loneliness w i t h such mast e r y t h a t the loneliness becomes tangible, a n ache w h i c h
her reader is compelled to endure w i t h her. I n spite of her
s t r o n g concern w i t h herself, she displays a r e m a r k a b l e empathy for other people, and i n her treatment of them varies
a l l the w a y f r o m w a r m s y m p a t h y to cold sarcasm. Snow,
fog, r a i n a n d ice are frequent images i n her w o r k and give
it a p r e v a i l i n g greyness o r whiteness, but there are m a n y
poems i n w h i c h b r i g h t colours predominate and i n w h i c h
an infectious gaiety replaces the p r e v a i l i n g sadness. S t o i c a l
62
DESMOND PACEY
self-assurance is her chief weapon against loneliness and
loss, but she is also capable of w r i t i n g good religious poems
and some excellent love poems.
A l l t h i s suggests t h a t there is m o r e v a r i e t y i n the substance of her poetry t h a n we are apt to remember — and
the same is true of her style. Quite deliberately and very
consistently, she is a p l a i n poet. I n spite of her erudition,
she makes little use of learned allusions or of an intellectual
vocabulary. L i k e W o r d s w o r t h a n d Robert F r o s t , she writes
i n the r h y t h m s and the word-order of o r d i n a r y speech.
She is v e r y s p a r i n g i n the use of metaphors and similes,
and she never seeks to dazzle us b y m e t a p h y s i c a l ingenuity.
These generalizations are b r o a d l y true, but they leave out
of account the subtleties w h i c h quite l i f t her better poems
above the level of conversational prose. F o r example, for
a l l her plainness of d i c t i o n , she is capable of w r i t i n g phrases
w h i c h haunt the i m a g i n a t i o n , simple words so arranged
that they take on a n a i r of strangeness a n d m y s t e r y : " T h e
blessed sun becomes the blessed m o o n " ; " T h e mute, tenacious g r a s s " ; "Silence, settling g r a i n b y g r a i n " ; " T h e silent
silver pastures/Of the m o o n " ; " L o n e l i n e s s terrible as a
thousand l i o n s " ; " I n t h e i r graves the dead lie s t i l l " ; " t h e
stiff folds of the sculptured a i r " ; " T h e i r blood is cold and
slow."
A g a i n , i n spite of the deliberate economy w i t h w h i c h she
employs metaphors a n d similes, there are i n h e r w o r k m a n y
images, d r a w n m a i n l y f r o m landscape a n d domestic processes, w h i c h are apt and memorable:
Our spirits are sheer columns of ice l i k e frozen fountains
( " E a s t Coast-Canada")
A n d silence g r e w over h i m l i k e moss on a n old stump
("Jamie")
The elastic moment stretches to i n f i n i t y
("In the L i b r a r y " )
F o g w r a p s its damp a n d w o o l l y scarf
("London F o g " )
Its [sky's] hot blue tongue l i c k i n g the ice-cream clouds
("To H o m a i " )
THE POETRY OF ELIZABETH BREWSTER
63
T h e i r thoughts are leaves that drift across a sky
("Home for the A g e d " )
If the sheriff pain had not evicted me
("Eviction")
[A voice] d a r k and deep as molasses
("The N i g h t G r a n d m a D i e d " )
[Silence] soft as snow or a slow bird's w i n g
("Silence is Obsolete")
[Thoughts] deep and thick as wool
("Silence is Obsolete")
A u t u m n leaves were m u s t a r d
O n the s k y ' s blue china plate
( " N o t h i n g is L i k e N o t h i n g E l s e " )
[Aunt Rebecca] Soft as s i l k and tough as that thick w i r e
They use for s n a r i n g rabbits
( " A u n t Rebecca")
[Clouds] foamy as detergent
("Rising from
Winnipeg")
[ W o r d s ] Pick-axes chopping at the block of silence
( " B l o c k of Silence")
A n d again, i n spite of the apparent s i m p l i c i t y and consistency of her m e t r i c a l forms, there is m o r e prosodie variety i n her w o r k t h a n we are apt to assume. M o s t of her
early poems were w r i t t e n i n r h y m e d stanzas, m a n y of them
i n t i g h t l y controlled q u a t r a i n s ; the whole of the long narrative poem Lillooet is i n r h y m i n g couplets; almost a l l of
her later poems are i n free verse, but a free verse that is
carefully controlled. E v e r y poem, whether i n t r a d i t i o n a l
stanzas or i n free verse, is v e r y deliberately shaped.
T h i s applies also to her two larger volumes, each of
w h i c h is arranged carefully to create a n unified structure.
In Passage of Summer, for example, there are m e m o r y
poems at the beginning, followed b y d r e a m poems, a n d then
there is a t u r n i n g towards the objective w o r l d i n the sections entitled " O n C o n s i d e r i n g Objects," " P o r t r a i t s , " " L i l l ooet," " N a r r a t i v e s , " "Songs a n d S o n n e t s " a n d " E l e g i e s . "
Poems of exploration and pilgrimage follow, and the whole
is brought to a satisfactory conclusion b y a coda of seasonal
poems w h i c h runs the round of the year. In Sunrise
North,
64
DESMOND PACEY
as M i s s B r e w s t e r says i n a note to me, " t h e poems have been
a r r a n g e d to tell a sort of story, the move to E d m o n t o n a n d
the p r a i r i e background, along w i t h a love-and-separation
story. The later p a r t of the book moves into a deeper,
more reflective mood, w i t h the psychological and madness
poems especially."
T h e largest group of poems i n the B r e w s t e r canon thus
f a r is that w h i c h m a y be described as poems of m e m o r y .
N e a r l y a score of poems a c t u a l l y begin w i t h the words " I
r e m e m b e r , " a n d at least as m a n y more deal i n memories
w i t h o u t thus announcing the fact. M o s t of the memories
cluster about B e t t y ' s N e w B r u n s w i c k childhood — the l a n d scape, the weather, her f a m i l y , her friends a n d associates,
h e r c h i l d i s h hopes a n d fears — a n d it is no doubt t h i s
group of poems t h a t has led m a n y reviewers to label her
as a regionalist. There is n o t h i n g w r o n g w i t h regionalism,
however, as long as it is honest r a t h e r t h a n self-deluding,
and provided that the regional m a t e r i a l is given u n i v e r s a l
overtones.
M i s s B r e w s t e r ' s r e g i o n a l i s m c e r t a i n l y meets
both these tests. " O r a n g e R o o s t e r , " for example, is clearly
a poem that grows out of her memories of a N e w B r u n s w i c k b a r n y a r d , but there is n o t h i n g falsely i d y l l i c about
it, a n d the b a r n y a r d m i g h t be a n y w h e r e :
I r e m e m b e r i n the f a r m y a r d
T h e o r a n g e rooster
w i t h blue and green t a i l feathers
S h i n i n g l i k e jewels,
A n d his handsome red comb,
A n d his operatic voice
S p e a k i n g of love.
H o w could he be expected
T o be f a i t h f u l to a n y one
O f those p l a i n p u r i t a n
P l y m o u t h R o c k hens
D r e s s e d i n black a n d white
U n f a s h i o n a b l e check?
B u t they followed a d o r i n g
H i s voice a n d his sheen,
P e c k i n g each other
A n d w a i t i n g to be mounted.
{Passage of Summer, p. 3)
THE POETRY OF ELIZABETH BREWSTER
65
T h e same honest, unsentimental observation extends
even to poems about members of her immediate f a m i l y .
R e c a l l i n g the death of her grandmother, i n " T h e N i g h t
G r a n d m a D i e d , " she concludes:
A n d I, sitting on a footstool i n a corner,
W a s sometimes w a r m e d by the voice,
A n d sometimes chilled r e m e m b e r i n g
I n the r o o m next door
G r a n d m o t h e r , dead, w h o m I had never liked.
(Passage of Summer, p. 7)
N o t only is this recollective group the largest, it is also
the one i n w h i c h M i s s B r e w s t e r achieves her most memorable and m o v i n g effects. The poems i n w h i c h she recalls
h e r m o t h e r a n d father especially, such as " T h i r t y B e l o w , "
" F a m i l y Q u a r r e l , " " I n h e r i t a n c e , " " E l e g y for M y M o t h e r , "
and " D e a t h s " are r e m a r k a b l e for the w a y i n w h i c h they
combine compassion and clear-sightedness, involvement and
detachment.
T h e second major group, i n terms of both q u a n t i t y and
quality, are poems of personal feeling, i n w h i c h M i s s B r e w ster conveys her own sense of loneliness, sadness, restlessness, or self-doubt. W i t h these we m a y l i n k the love poems,
since almost a l l of those are poems not of love fulfilled but
of love denied, not of u n i o n but of separation. T h i s group
is c e r t a i n l y the most melancholy, but it is also the most
disciplined and the most intense. E v e n i n the poems of
recollection, a n d still more i n the purely descriptive poems,
M i s s B r e w s t e r has a tendency to add details w h i c h are
not absolutely essential, but i n the poems of loneliness and
love she has pared the expression to the bone. One of the
best of this group, w h i c h w i l l serve to illustrate the economy of w h i c h I have just spoken, is also one of the earliest
that she has elected to preserve — " T h e Loneliness T h a t
Wrapped H e r Round," written in Fredericton in 1944:
4
The loneliness that w r a p p e d her r o u n d
W a s thick as drifted snow,
So thick it seemed to m a k e a sound
L i k e birds that come and go,
L i k e startled birds that flap their wings,
66
DESMOND PACEY
A n d rise, and flutter low.
So thick the a i r lay on her breast,
A s still as vanished m i r t h ;
"Suppose", she thought i n that s t i l l night,
"Suppose this a i r were e a r t h . "
(Passage of Summer, p. 76)
A s i m i l a r effect of a compression so great that an explosion of some sort seems inevitable (but never happens
i n the poem, whatever m a y happen i n real life) is found
in such of the love poems as " O n A w a k e n i n g at N i g h t " :
I a w a k e at night
f r o m restless dreams
and y e a r n for the comfort
of flesh on w a r m flesh
for y o u r hands on m y breasts
for your mouth
for your body on m i n e ;
and I l o n g for you
as I might l o n g
for the flow of sunshine
or for water fountains b u r s t i n g
in m y hot mouth.
(Passage of Summer, p. 28)
Set side by side, these two poems w r i t t e n a quarter cent u r y apart illustrate also how M i s s Brewster's style has
developed.
The essential qualities — o r d i n a r y diction,
speech r h y t h m s , imagistic spareness — r e m a i n , and i n both
poems the effect is of feeling t i g h t l y controlled and expressed w i t h the m a x i m u m of economy. The later poem,
however, has abandoned r h y m e a n d regular r h y t h m for a
free verse w h i c h is nevertheless under such a tight r e i n
that the phrase seems scarcely suitable. In the love poem
there is none of that r a n d o m scattering of words on the
page w h i c h the license of free verse frequently encourages;
on the contrary, each w o r d and each line has been deliberately " p l a c e d " and a l l inessential words — adjectives, adverbs, modifiers — have been ruthlessly excluded.
Closely allied to the poems of love and loneliness are the
poems of empathy, character studies i n w h i c h M i s s B r e w ter usually sees i n others the same feelings of loneliness
and sadness that she finds i n herself. That, perhaps, is not
a completely f a i r comment, for it does not take account of
THE POETRY OF ELIZABETH BREWSTER
67
the considerable v a r i e t y of persons to w h o m the poet m a n ages to relate sympathetically.
In " I n the L i b r a r y , " a
m e d i t a t i o n upon the p o r t r a i t of S i r C h a r l e s G . D. Roberts
i n the U . N . B , l i b r a r y , she undergoes a sort of hallucinogenic
experience i n w h i c h she v i r t u a l l y becomes the dead poet; i n
" H o m e for the A g e d , " w r i t t e n i n O t t a w a i n J u l y of 1954,
she becomes at one w i t h a group of five old men whose
lives " a r e folded up l i k e the papers"; i n " L a d y i n a S m a l l
T o w n , " w r i t t e n i n S a c k v i l l e i n November, 1962, she m a n ages to enter into the consciousness of a middle-aged matr o n quite unlike herself; a n d i n " D . H . Lawrence, P i l g r i m , "
w r i t t e n i n F r e d e r i c t o n i n J u l y , 1965, to give only one more
example, she provides a v e r y sympathetic p o r t r a i t of a
w r i t e r whose w o r k has a q u a l i t y v e r y different f r o m that
of her own. These poems as a group show u n e r r i n g psychological acumen a n d give the lie to charges that M i s s
B r e w s t e r is self-obsessed. M o r e o v e r m a n y of these poems,
especially the portraits found i n Lillooet but i n c l u d i n g also
such separate p o r t r a i t poems as " P r o f e s s o r B l a k e , " " P a p e r
F l o w e r s " and " C a n o n B r a d l e y , " reveal that M i s s B r e w s t e r
has a w r y but none the less real sense of h u m o u r .
She has also a strong sense of h o r r o r a n d mystery. A n y
i n c l i n a t i o n one m a y feel to dismiss M i s s B r e w s t e r as a t i d y
versifier is effectively blocked by such poems as " L o s t i n a
W i d e and Houseless W o r l d , " " D r e a m L a n d s c a p e , " " D r e a m , "
" T h e Idiot," " D e a t h b y D r o w n i n g , " " C a t , " " S o r r o w , the
B i r d of D e a t h , " " C o l d T e a , " " U n d e r s e a G a r d e n s , " " B l u e f l a g , " " S h o c k , " " A n s w e r " or " F o g . "
" C a t , " one of the
shortest of these poems, and one w h i c h was w r i t t e n on a
s u m m e r night i n F r e d e r i c t o n i n 1966, w i l l serve to illustrate
this macabre v e i n :
L a s t night, i n the hot, moist night,
I thought I was wakened
W h e n a huge cat
W i t h thick y e l l o w fur
A n d y e l l o w eyes
Thudded on m y bed
But it was only the heat of the night,
HS
DESMOND PACEY
T h i c k and s m o t h e r i n g
A s cat fur.
(Passage of Summer, p. 21)
In a poem such as that the delicate state of almost classical balance w h i c h M i s s B r e w s t e r manages to achieve i n
so m u c h of her poetry gives w a y to a G o t h i c ferocity.
Once more we are reminded of the subtlety and v a r i e t y
w h i c h exists i n this poet's w o r k .
The group of poems w h i c h I find the least successful —
and here I a m quite ready to admit that the fault m a y be
mine rather than the author's — are the religious poems,
such as the section of Passage of Summer labelled " D e v o t i o n s " and poems i n Sunrise
North
including "Sunday
M o r n i n g , " " E a s t e r V i g i l , " and " E a s t e r S u n d a y . "
Here,
w i t h a few exceptions, it seems to me that M i s s Brewster's
clear-sightedness deserts her, a n d that she indulges herself
in a decorative and essentially a r t i f i c i a l k i n d of C h r i s t i a n ity.
A s I w r i t e this, however, I a m reminded of the
s t r a i g h t - f o r w a r d honesty of such a religious poem as " S u p position," and again it is brought home to me how dangerous it is to generalize about this poet.
M o r e u n i f o r m l y c o n v i n c i n g are the poems i n w h i c h she
gives voice to what I take to be her true philosophy — a
k i n d of stoicism i n w h i c h strength is achieved t h r o u g h suffering. T h i s attitude, expressed sparely r a t h e r t h a n i n the
more decorative style of the conventional religious lyrics,
is found i n such poems as " G r a n i t e ' s N o t F i r m E n o u g h , "
" P e a c e I," " E v i c t i o n , " " S e l f - R e l i a n c e , " " U n d e r a Plane
T r e e , " a n d " A d v i c e to the F e a r f u l Self." H e r e is " P e a c e
I":
Peace is what is found
W h e n the sailor sets his w i l l
T o t u r n f r o m a r o u g h sea
To a rougher s t i l l .
Peace is a w a l k i n g out
F r o m a cold r o o m
Into a colder blizzard
A n d drifted doom.
Peace is pain increased
T i l l it is numb,
A n d a cry so s h r i l l
THE POETRY OF ELIZABETH BREWSTER
69
That it seems dumb.
Peace cannot be shaken
B y death or strife,
F o r it has swallowed both
To m a k e its life.
(Passage of Summer, p. 103)
One comes away f r o m a re-reading of M i s s Brewster's
poetry w i t h the sense of an a r t w h i c h is disciplined but
w h i c h controls very strong reserves of feeling. The style
is classical i n its s i m p l i c i t y , d i g n i t y and balance, but the
substance has m u c h i n it of r o m a n t i c passion and intensity.
In the course of a w r i t i n g career extending over some forty
years she has produced nearly three hundred poems, and
there are at least a dozen of them w h i c h deserve a place i n
any C a n a d i a n anthology.
M y own choice of the twelve
best w o u l d include " D r e a m , " " T h e M o o n is a M i g h t y M a g net," " G r e a t - A u n t Rebecca," " T h e Loneliness T h a t W r a p p e d
H e r R o u n d , " "Passage of S u m m e r , " " D e a t h s , " " A f t e r n o o n
at C u r r i e ' s M o u n t a i n , " " W i s h , " " O n A w a k e n i n g at N i g h t , "
" N o v e m b e r S u n d a y , " " B l u e f l a g " and " N e w - Y e a r ' s E v e . "
T h e fact that that list includes several poems that I have
not previously mentioned in this brief article suggests how
r i c h a choice there is.
NOTES
' P e r s o n a l letter to me, J a n . 1973.
-Elizabeth Brewster, Passage of Summer (Toronto: R y e r s o n Press,
1969). Subsequent page references are to this ed.
E l i z a b e t h Brewster, Sunrise North (Toronto: C l a r k e I r w i n , 1972).
Subsequent page references are to this ed.
' W h e r e the place and date of composition are given i n this article,
the i n f o r m a t i o n comes directly f r o m M i s s Brewster.