Blog on the very brilliant and famous
Canadian poet, Bliss Carman
- A Dedication…
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/bliss-carman
(1.)
Bliss Carman
1861–1929
Poet and essayist (William) Bliss Carman was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1861. He earned a BA and an MA at the University of New Brunswick and studied at the University of Edinburgh and Harvard University. He settled in New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1909.
Carman’s metered, formal verse explores natural and spiritual themes. He is the author of more than 50 volumes of poetry, including Low Tide on Grand Pré (1893), Over the Wintry Threshold (1913), and Later Poems (1926), as well as four essay collections, including Talks on Poetry and Life (1926). With Lorne Pierce, he edited the anthology Our Canadian Literature: Representative Verse, English, and French (1922). Pierce also edited The Selected Poems of Bliss Carman (1954) and he is the subject of the biography Bliss Carman: Quest and Revolt (1985), by Muriel Miller.
Carman’s honors included membership in the Royal Society of Canada. Carman is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Fredericton. The Stanford University Archives holds a selection of his papers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_Carman
Bliss Carman
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Bliss Carman
FRSC
Photo by Pirie MacDonald
Photo by Pirie MacDonald
Born William Bliss Carman
April 15, 1861
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Died June 8, 1929 (aged 68)
New Canaan, Connecticut
Resting place Fredericton, New Brunswick
Occupation poet
Language English
Nationality Canadian
Citizenship British subject
Education University of New Brunswick; University of Edinburgh; Harvard University
Genre Poetry
Literary movement Confederation Poets, The Song Fishermen
Notable works Low Tide on Grand Pré,
Songs from Vagabondia,
Sappho: 100 Lyrics
Notable awards Lorne Pierce Medal (1928)
Robert Frost Medal (1930)
FRSC
William Bliss Carman FRSC (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate[1] during his later years.[2][3]
In Canada, Carman is classed as one of the Confederation Poets, a group which also included Charles G.D. Roberts (his cousin), Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott.[4] "Of the group, Carman had the surest lyric touch and achieved the widest international recognition. But unlike others, he never attempted to secure his income by novel writing, popular journalism, or non-literary employment. He remained a poet, supplementing his art with critical commentaries on literary ideas, philosophy, and aesthetics."[5]
Life
He was born William Bliss Carman in Fredericton, New Brunswick. "Bliss" was his mother's maiden name. He was the great grandson[6] of United Empire Loyalists who fled to Nova Scotia after the American Revolution, settling in New Brunswick (then part of Nova Scotia).[7] His literary roots run deep with an ancestry that includes a mother who was a descendant of Daniel Bliss of Concord, Massachusetts, the great-grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson. His sister, Jean, married the botanist and historian William Francis Ganong. And on his mother's side he was a first cousin to Charles (later Sir Charles) G. D. Roberts.[3]
Education and early career
Carman was educated at the Fredericton Collegiate School and the University of New Brunswick (UNB), from which he received a B.A. in 1881. At the Collegiate School he came under the influence of headmaster George Robert Parkin, who gave him a love of classical literature[8] and introduced him to the poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne.[9] His first published poem was in the UNB Monthly in 1879. He then spent a year at Oxford and the University of Edinburgh (1882–1883), but returned home to receive his M.A. from UNB in 1884.[10]
After the death of his father in January 1885 and his mother in February 1886,[10] Carman enrolled in Harvard University (1886–1887).[7] At Harvard he moved in a literary circle that included American poet Richard Hovey, who would become his close friend and his collaborator on the successful Vagabondia poetry series.[11] Carman and Hovey were members of the "Visionists" circle along with Herbert Copeland and F. Holland Day, who would later form the Boston publishing firm Copeland & Day that would launch Vagabondia.[3]
After Harvard Carman briefly returned to Canada, but was back in Boston by February 1890. "Boston is one of the few places where my critical education and tastes could be of any use to me in earning money," he wrote. "New York and London are about the only other places."[5] Unable to find employment in Boston, he moved to New York City and became literary editor of the New York Independent at the grand sum of $20/week.[5] There he could help his Canadian friends get published, in the process "introducing Canadian poets to its readers."[12] However, Carman was never a good fit at the semi-religious weekly, and he was summarily dismissed in 1892. "Brief stints would follow with Current Literature, Cosmopolitan, The Chap-Book, and The Atlantic Monthly, but after 1895 he would be strictly a contributor to the magazines and newspapers, never an editor in any department."[3]
To make matters worse, Carman's first book of poetry, 1893's Low Tide on Grand Pré, was not a success; no Canadian company would publish it, and the U.S. edition stiffed when its publisher went bankrupt.[5]
Literary success
At this low point, Songs of Vagabondia, the first Hovey-Carman collaboration, was published by Copeland & Day in 1894. It was an immediate success. "No one could have been more surprised at the tremendous popularity of these care-free celebrations (the first of the three collections went through seven rapid editions) than the young authors, Richard Hovey and Bliss Carman."[13] Songs of Vagabondia would ultimately "go through sixteen printings (ranging from 500 to 1000 copies) over the next thirty years. The three Vagabondia volumes that followed fell slightly short of that record, but each went through numerous printings. Carman and Hovey quickly found themselves with a cult following, especially among college students, who responded to the poetry's anti-materialistic themes, its celebration of individual freedom, and its glorification of comradeship."[3]
The success of Songs of Vagabondia prompted another Boston firm, Stone & Kimball, to reissue Low Tide... and to hire Carman as the editor of its literary journal, The Chapbook. The next year, though, the editor's job went West (with Stone & Kimball) to Chicago, while Carman opted to remain in Boston.[5]
"In Boston in 1895, he worked on a new poetry book, Behind the Arras, which he placed with a prominent Boston publisher (Lamson, Wolffe).... He published two more books of verse with Lamson, Wolffe."[5] He also began writing a weekly column for the Boston Evening Transcript, which ran from 1895 to 1900.[7]
In 1896 Carman met Mary Perry King, who became the greatest and longest-lasting female influence in his life. Mrs. King became his patron: "She put pence in his purse, and food in his mouth, when he struck bottom and, what is more, she often put a song on his lips when he despaired, and helped him sell it." According to Carman's roommate, Mitchell Kennerley, "On rare occasions they had intimate relations at 10 E. 16 which they always advised me of by leaving a bunch of violets — Mary Perry's favorite flower — on the pillow of my bed."[14] If he knew of the latter, Dr. King did not object: "He even supported her involvement in the career of Bliss Carman to the extent that the situation developed into something close to a ménage à trois" with the Kings.[3]
Through Mrs. King's influence Carman became an advocate of 'unitrinianism,' a philosophy which "drew on the theories of François-Alexandre-Nicolas-Chéri Delsarte to develop a strategy of mind-body-spirit harmonization aimed at undoing the physical, psychological, and spiritual damage caused by urban modernity."[7] This shared belief created a bond between Mrs. King and Carman but estranged him somewhat from his former friends.[citation needed]
In 1899 Lamson, Wolffe was taken over by the Boston firm of Small, Maynard & Co., who had also acquired the rights to Low Tide... "The rights to all Carman's books were now held by one publisher and, in lieu of earnings, Carman took a financial stake in the company. When Small, Maynard failed in 1903, Carman lost all his assets."[5]
Down but not out, Carman signed with another Boston company, L.C. Page, and began to churn out new work. Page published seven books of new Carman poetry between 1902 and 1905. As well, the firm released three books based on Carman's Transcript columns, and a prose work on unitrinianism, The Making of Personality, that he'd written with Mrs. King.[12] "Page also helped Carman rescue his 'dream project,' a deluxe edition of his collected poetry to 1903.... Page acquired distribution rights with the stipulation that the book be sold privately, by subscription. The project failed; Carman was deeply disappointed and became disenchanted with Page, whose grip on Carman's copyrights would prevent the publication of another collected edition during Carman's lifetime."[5]
Carman also picked up some needed cash in 1904 as editor-in-chief of the 10-volume project, The World's Best Poetry.[7]
Later years
Bliss Carman Memorial, Forest Hill Cemetery, Fredericton NB
After 1908 Carman lived near the Kings' New Canaan, Connecticut, estate, "Sunshine", or in the summer in a cabin near their summer home in the Catskills, "Moonshine."[3] Between 1908 and 1920, literary taste began to shift, and his fortunes and health declined.[5]
"Although not a political activist, Carman during the First World War was a member of the Vigilantes, who supported American entry into the conflict on the Allied side."[15]
By 1920, Carman was impoverished and recovering from a near-fatal attack of tuberculosis.[15] That year he revisited Canada and "began the first of a series of successful and relatively lucrative reading tours, discovering 'there is nothing worth talking of in book sales compared with reading.'"[5] "'Breathless attention, crowded halls, and a strange, profound enthusiasm such as I never guessed could be,' he reported to a friend. 'And good thrifty money too. Think of it! An entirely new life for me, and I am the most surprised person in Canada.'" Carman was feted at "a dinner held by the newly formed Canadian Authors' Association at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montreal on 28 October 1921 where he was crowned Canada's Poet Laureate with a wreath of maple leaves."[3]
The tours of Canada continued, and by 1925 Carman had finally acquired a Canadian publisher. "McClelland & Stewart (Toronto) issued a collection of selected earlier verses and became his main publisher. They benefited from Carman's popularity and his revered position in Canadian literature, but no one could convince L.C. Page to relinquish its copyrights. An edition of collected poetry was published only after Carman's death, due greatly to the persistence of his literary executor, Lorne Pierce."[5]
During the 1920s, Carman was a member of the Halifax literary and social set, The Song Fishermen. In 1927 he edited The Oxford Book of American Verse.[16]
Carman died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 68 in New Canaan, and was cremated in New Canaan. "It took two months, and the influence of New Brunswick's Premier J.B.M. Baxter and Canadian Prime Minister W.L.M. King, for Carman's ashes to be returned to Fredericton."[10] "His ashes were buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Fredericton, and a national memorial service was held at the Anglican cathedral there." Twenty-five years later, on May 13, 1954, a scarlet maple tree was planted at his gravesite, to grant his request in his 1892 poem "The Grave-Tree":[7]
Let me have a scarlet maple
For the grave-tree at my head,
With the quiet sun behind it,
In the years when I am dead.
Writing
Low Tide on Grand Pré
As a student at Harvard, Carman "was heavily influenced by Royce, whose spiritualistic idealism, combined with the transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson, lies centrally in the background of his first major poem, "Low Tide on Grand Pré" written in the summer and winter of 1886."[7] "Low Tide..." was published in the Spring, 1887 Atlantic Monthly, giving Carman a literary reputation while still at Harvard.[5] It was also included in the 1889 anthology, Songs of the Great Dominion.
Literary critic Desmond Pacey considered "Low Tide..." to be "the most nearly perfect single poem to come out of Canada. It will withstand any amount of critical scrutiny."[17]
"Low Tide..." served as the title poem for Carman's first book. "The poems in this volume have been collected with reference to their similarity of tone," Carman wrote in his preface; a nostalgic tone of pervading loss and melancholy. Three outstanding examples are "The Eavesdropper," "In Apple Time" and "Wayfaring." However, "none can equal the artistry of the title poem. What is more, although Carman would publish over thirty other volumes during his lifetime, none of them contains anything that surpasses this poem he wrote when he was barely twenty-five years old."[3]
Vagabondia
Carman rose to prominence in the 1890s, a decade the poetry of which anthologist Louis Untermeyer has called marked by "a cheerless evasion, a humorous unconcern; its most representative craftsmen were, with four exceptions, the writers of light verse." The first two of those four exceptions were Richard Hovey and Bliss Carman. For Untermeyer: "The poetry of this period ... is dead because it detached itself from the world.... But ... Rev……………………..
……………….>>>>>
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My three, Bliss Carman- dedication poems.
I composed first two last week and the third
poem, very early this morn.
(1.)
New Dawn, Blessed Gems With Love So Gifted
From morning glow, into soft basking day,
Sacred the time, in life and love we pray,
We converse, we laugh, and hope we embrace-
Fallen man, rectified by God's pure grace.
For divine light that gifts its tender glows,
Healing us from our pains, sorrows and woes,
Upon earth and we mortals so in need
Of saving balm as in darkness we bleed.
Evidenced by Nature's constant gifts
Words heavenly sent that our souls uplift
We so blessed, can thank our living God
As upon this our earth, we daily trod.
Robert J. Lindley, 8-21-2021
Cumque esset mane, meridiem haec anima et haec leniter demulcens blanditiis
*********
(2.)
Beauty Of Sunset And A Life With Love
Behold! Dawn with its ravishing beauty
Life must be more than a slavish duty
From golden shores unto whispering hills
Let love enter, until treasures it spills
Understand precious touch of womankind
For upon earth - that is the gold we find.
Accept all we have and our daily bread
With love's bounty one is truly well fed
Wake unto morning's new resplendent calls
One is blessed without great golden walls.
Walk with Nature unto its forest crown
Flee a spell away from idle town
See and feel the wonders of God's own hands
As life's beauty gifts its most wondrous strands.
Robert J. Lindley, 8-21-2021
In medio annorum vivifica me dulcis rufus occasum
********
(3.)
Love Exists As Notes From A Warbler's Throat
Love exists as notes from a warbler's throat
On life's fleeting winds truth so gaily floats
Over mountains steep and sweet meadows below
Bringing along heart's beauty in its tow
Salvation comes with prayer's truest breath
Conquering woes and even mortal death.
Earth has awaken since first dawning of Man.
Grinning, dancing, spinning- as only it can.
Life and Nature need not fight as they do
Certain harmony is long overdue
Love cries out life must find a better way
Than sad darkness, with its shadowy grays.
Earth has awaken since first dawning of Man.
Grinning, dancing, spinning- as only it can.
Love exists as notes from a warbler's throat
On life's fleeting winds truth so gaily floats
Over mountains steep and sweet meadows below
Bringing along heart's beauty in its tow.
Robert J. Lindley, 8-22-2021
May poetica amoris et verum in aeternum nuptui