Isabella Valancy Crawford
Encyclopedia
Isabella Valancy Crawford (25 December 1850 – 12 February 1887) was an Irish
-born Canadian writer
and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer.
"Crawford is increasingly being viewed as Canada
’s first major poet." She is the author of "Malcolm's Katie," a poem that has achieved "a central place in the canon
of nineteenth-century Canadian poetry
."
when she was five years of age.
Much of Isabella Crawford's early life is unknown; "so little remains of the usual sources of evidence. We have no interviews with the subject or with those who knew her; we have no letters, diaries, or journals.... Some of the most basic questions about her life are likely to remain unanswered." By her own account she was born in Dublin, Ireland
, the sixth daughter of Dr. Stephen Dennis Crawford and Sydney Scott; but "No record has been found of that marriage or of the birthdates and birthplaces of at least six children, of whom Isabella wrote that she was the sixth."
The family was in Canada by 1857; in that year, Dr. Crawford applied for a license to practice medicine in Paisley
, Canada West. "In a few years, disease
had taken nine of the twelve children, and a small medical practice
had reduced the family to semi-poverty
." Dr. Crawford served as Treasurer
of Paisley Township, but "a scandal
of a missing $500 in misappropriated Township funds and the subsequent suicide
of one of his bondsmen" caused the family to leave Paisley in 1861.
By chance Dr. Crawford met Richard Strickland of Lakefield. Strickland invited the Crawfords to live at his home, out of charity, and because Lakefield did not have a doctor. There the family became acquainted with Strickland's sisters, writers Susanna Moodie
and Catherine Parr Traill. Isabella Crawford reportedly began writing at that time. She was also "thought to be" a close companion of Mrs. Traill's daughter, Katharine (Katie).
In 1869 the family moved to Peterborough
, and Crawford began to write and publish poems and stories. Her first published poem, "A Vesper Star," appeared in The Toronto Mail
on Christmas Eve
, 1873.
"When Dr. Crawford died, on 3 July 1875, the three women" – Isabella, her mother, and her sister Emma, all who were left in the household – "became dependent on Isabella’s literary earnings." After Emma died of tuberculosis
, "Isabella and her mother moved in 1876
to Toronto, which was the centre of the publishing world in Canada."
"Although Isabella had been writing while still living in Lakefield ... and had published poems in Toronto newspapers and stories in American magazines while living in Peterborough, when she moved to Toronto she turned her attention in earnest to the business of writing." "During this productive period she contributed numerous serialized novels and novellas to New York and Toronto publications," "including the Mail, the Globe, the National, and the Evening Telegram
. She also contributed "a quantity of 'occasional' verse to the Toronto papers ... and articles for the Fireside Monthly. In 1886 she became the first local writer to have a novel, A little Bacchante, serialized in the Evening Globe.
In her lifetime Crawford published only one book, Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie and Other Poems in 1884
. It was privately printed and sold poorly. Crawford paid for the printing of 1,000 copies, and presumably sent out
many review copies; "there were notices in such London
journals as the Spectator
, the Graphic
, the Leisure Hour, and the Saturday Review
. These articles pointed to 'versatility of talent,' and to such qualities as 'humour, vivacity, and range of power,' which were impressive and promising despite her extravagance of incident and 'untrained magniloquence.'" However, only 50 books sold. "Crawford was understandably disappointed and felt she had been neglected by 'the High Priests of Canadian Periodical Literature'" (Arcturus 84)."
Crawford "died, in poverty, on February 12, 1887" in Toronto. She was buried in Peterborough's Little Lake Cemetery near the Otonabee River
. For years her body lay in an unmarked grave. A fundraising campaign was begun in 1899, and on November 2, 1900, a six-foot Celtic Cross was raised above her grave, inscribed: "Isabella Valancy Crawford / Poet / By the Gift of God."
of the day." Her magazine writing "displays a skilful and energetic use of literary conventions made popular by Dickens
, such as twin
s and doubles, mysterious childhood disappearances, stony-hearted fathers, sacrificial daughters, wills and lost inheritance
s, recognition scenes, and, to quote one of her titles, ‘A kingly restitution’." As a whole, though, it "was romantic-Gothic 'formula fiction.'"
It is her poetry that has endured. Just two years after her death, W.D. Lighthall
included generous selections from her book in his groundbreaking 1889 anthology, Songs of the Great Dominion
, bringing it to a wider audience.
"In the 20th century critics have given the work increasing respect and appreciation." "Crawford's Collected Poems were edited (Toronto 1905) by J.W. Garvin, with an introduction by Ethelwyn Wetherald," a popular Canadian poet. Wetherald called Craword "purely a genius, not a craftswoman, and a genius who has patience enough to be an artist." In his 1916 anthology, Canadian Poets, Garvin stated that Crawford was "one of the greatest of women poets." Poet Katherine Hale, Garvin's wife, published a volume on Isabella Valancy Crawford in the 1920s Makers of Canada series. All of this helped Crawford's poetry become more widely known. .
A "serious critical assessment began in the mid-1940s with A.J.M. Smith
, Northrop Frye
, and E.K. Brown, who called her 'the only Canadian woman poet of real importance in the last century.'" "Recognition of Isabella Valancy Crawford's extraordinary mythopoeic power, and her structural use of images, came ... in James Reaney
's lecture ‘Isabella Valancy Crawford’ in Our living tradition (series 3, 1959)." Then a "renewed interest in Crawford resulted in the publication of forgotten manuscripts and critical articles" in the 1970s. "A reprint of the collected poems in 1972, with an introduction by poet James Reaney, made Crawford’s work generally available; six of her short stories
, edited by Penny Petrone, appeared in 1975; and in 1977 the Borealis Press published a book of fairy stories
and a long unfinished poem, 'Hugh and Ion.'."
Crawford wrote a wide variety of poems, ranging from the Walter Scott
-like doggerel (pun intended) of "Love Me, Love My Dog", to the eerie mysticism
of "The Camp of Souls," to the eroticism
of "The Lily Bed."
But it is mainly Crawford's "long narrative poems [that] have received particular attention." "‘Old Spookses’ Pass' is a dialect poem, set in the Rocky Mountains
, concerning a dream vision of a midnight cattle stampede
towards a black abyss
that is stilled by a whirling lariat
; ‘The helot’ makes use of the Sparta
ns' practice of intoxicating their helots in order to teach their own children not to drink, as the starting-point for a highly incantatory and hypnotic poem that ends in Bacchic
possession and death; and ‘Gisli the Chieftain’ fuses mythic elements, such as the Russian
spring goddess Lada and the Iceland
ic Brynhild
, into a narrative of love, betrayal, murder, and reconciliation. These poems follow a pattern of depicting the world as a battleground of opposites — light and dark, good and evil — reconciled by sacrificial love."
, dealing mainly with the love and trials of young Max and Katie in the 19th-century Canadian bush, but containing a second running narrative recounting the war between the North and South Winds (Winter and Summer personified as First Nations
warriors), and also a collection of love songs in different stanza
forms.
Many of those lauding the poem have seen their own interests reflected in it. For instance, socialist Livesay gave a reading that made the poem sound like a manifesto
of Utopian socialism
:
Others have similarly seen their concerns reflected in the poem. "Malcolm’s Katie has been given a nationalistic reading by Robin Mathews, a feminist reading by Clara Thomas, a biographical reading by Dorothy Farmiloe and a Marxian reading by Kenneth Hughes, as well as various literary-historical readings by Dorothy Livesay, Elizabeth Waterston, John Ower, Robert Alan Burns and others."
Not just interpretations on the poem's meaning, but evaluations of its worth, have varied widely. Its detractors have included poet Louis Dudek
, who called Crawford "'a failed poet' of 'hollow convention ... counterfeit feeling ... and fake idealism'"; and Roy Daniells
, who in The Literary History of Canada (1965) called "Malcolm's Katie" "a preposterously romantic love story on a Tennysonian model in which a wildly creaking plot finally delivers true love safe and triumphant."
Some of the poem's supporters concede the Tennyson influence but point out that there is much more to it: "While appearing on the surface melodramatic and stereotyped, Crawford’s love story is compelling and powerful; what seems at first a conventional conflict between rival suitors for the hand of the heroine becomes a serious, even profound, account of philosophical, social and ideological
confrontations." "In ‘Malcolm's Katie’ Crawford adapted to the setting of pioneer Canada the domestic idyll as she learned it from Tennyson. Striking and new, however, is Crawford's location of Max and Katie's conventional love story within a context of Native legends — Indian Summer and the battle of the North and South Winds."
This myth telling (however accurate it was as a portrayal of First Nations beliefs) is what many of its supporters see as giving the poem its power. For instance, writing about "Malcolm's Katie, critic Northrop Frye
pronounced Crawford "the most remarkabe mythopoeic
imagination in Canadian poetry":
Frye believed, and thought Crawford's "poetic sense" told her, "that the most obvious development in the romantic landscape is toward the mythological"; and he saw Crawford's attempt at an indigenous Canadian myth as the intellectual equivalent of the simultaneous pioneer exploration and settlement: "In the long mythopoeic passage from Isabella Crawford's Malcolm's Katie, beginning 'The South Wind laid his moccasins aside,' we see how the poet is, first, taming the landscape imaginatively, as settlement tames it physically, by animating the lifeless scene with humanized figures, and, second, integrating the literary tradition of the country by deliberately re-establishing the broken cultural link with Indian civilization."
, researching Crawford's life for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
in 1977
, discovered the manuscript of an uncompleted narrative poem in the Crawford fonds
at Kingston, Ontario
's Queen's University
. Called Hugh and Ion, it deals with "Hugh and Ion, two friends who have fled the noxious city—probably contemporary Toronto—for purification in the primal wilderness [and] carry on a sustained dialogue, Hugh arguing for hope, light, and redemption and Ion pointing out despair, darkness, and intractable human perversity."
Perhaps due to Crawford's Toronto experiences, this last poem marked a significant change in her views, showing the city as "a demonic, urban world of isolation and blindness which has wilfully cut itself off from the regenerative power of the wildernese. The confident innocence and romantic idealism, which account for much of the inner fire of Malcolm’s Katie, have simply ceased to be operative.... Nowhere else in nineteenth-century Canadian literature, with the exception of Lampman
’s 'City [at] the End of Things”, is there another example of the creative imagination being brought to bear, in so Blakean
a manner, on the nascent social evils of the 'infant city.'"
A small garden park in downtown Toronto, at Front and John Streets (near the CN Tower
), has been named Isabella Valancy Crawford Park.
Except where noted, bibliographical information from Open Library.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-born Canadian writer
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is literature originating from Canada. Collectively it is often called CanLit. Some criticism of Canadian literature has focused on nationalistic and regional themes, although this is only a small portion of Canadian Literary criticism...
and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer.
"Crawford is increasingly being viewed as Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
’s first major poet." She is the author of "Malcolm's Katie," a poem that has achieved "a central place in the canon
Western canon
The term Western canon denotes a canon of books and, more broadly, music and art that have been the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. As such, it includes the "greatest works of artistic merit." Such a canon is important to the theory of educational perennialism and the...
of nineteenth-century Canadian poetry
Canadian poetry
- Beginnings:The earliest works of poetry, mainly written by visitors, described the new territories in optimistic terms, mainly targeted at a European audience...
."
Life
Isabella Valancy Crawford was the last surviving daughter of Dr. Stephen Crawford. She was born in Dublin, Ireland on Christmas Day, 1850. The family emigrated to CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
when she was five years of age.
Much of Isabella Crawford's early life is unknown; "so little remains of the usual sources of evidence. We have no interviews with the subject or with those who knew her; we have no letters, diaries, or journals.... Some of the most basic questions about her life are likely to remain unanswered." By her own account she was born in Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, the sixth daughter of Dr. Stephen Dennis Crawford and Sydney Scott; but "No record has been found of that marriage or of the birthdates and birthplaces of at least six children, of whom Isabella wrote that she was the sixth."
The family was in Canada by 1857; in that year, Dr. Crawford applied for a license to practice medicine in Paisley
Paisley, Ontario
Paisley is now an unincorporated community, a village in the Municipality of Arran-Elderslie in Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. Paisley is defined by its position at the confluence of the Saugeen River and the Teeswater River, and at the junction of Bruce Roads 1, 11, and 3.-History:Paisley began,...
, Canada West. "In a few years, disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
had taken nine of the twelve children, and a small medical practice
Medical practice
A medical practice or practice of medicine is the practice of medicine, as performed by a medical practitioner—a physician...
had reduced the family to semi-poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
." Dr. Crawford served as Treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
of Paisley Township, but "a scandal
Scandal
A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages the reputation of an institution, individual or creed...
of a missing $500 in misappropriated Township funds and the subsequent suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
of one of his bondsmen" caused the family to leave Paisley in 1861.
By chance Dr. Crawford met Richard Strickland of Lakefield. Strickland invited the Crawfords to live at his home, out of charity, and because Lakefield did not have a doctor. There the family became acquainted with Strickland's sisters, writers Susanna Moodie
Susanna Moodie
Susanna Moodie, born Strickland , was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time.-Biography:...
and Catherine Parr Traill. Isabella Crawford reportedly began writing at that time. She was also "thought to be" a close companion of Mrs. Traill's daughter, Katharine (Katie).
In 1869 the family moved to Peterborough
Peterborough, Ontario
Peterborough is a city on the Otonabee River in southern Ontario, Canada, 125 kilometres northeast of Toronto. The population of the City of Peterborough was 74,898 as of the 2006 census, while the census metropolitan area has a population of 121,428 as of a 2009 estimate. It presently ranks...
, and Crawford began to write and publish poems and stories. Her first published poem, "A Vesper Star," appeared in The Toronto Mail
The Toronto Mail
The Toronto Mail was a newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, which through corporate mergers became first The Mail and Empire, and then The Globe and Mail.The Mail was founded in 1872 by John A. Macdonald,...
on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
, 1873.
"When Dr. Crawford died, on 3 July 1875, the three women" – Isabella, her mother, and her sister Emma, all who were left in the household – "became dependent on Isabella’s literary earnings." After Emma died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, "Isabella and her mother moved in 1876
1876 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Robert Bridges, The Growth of Love...
to Toronto, which was the centre of the publishing world in Canada."
"Although Isabella had been writing while still living in Lakefield ... and had published poems in Toronto newspapers and stories in American magazines while living in Peterborough, when she moved to Toronto she turned her attention in earnest to the business of writing." "During this productive period she contributed numerous serialized novels and novellas to New York and Toronto publications," "including the Mail, the Globe, the National, and the Evening Telegram
Toronto Telegram
The Toronto Evening Telegram was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at both the federal and provincial level. The paper competed with the liberal Toronto Star...
. She also contributed "a quantity of 'occasional' verse to the Toronto papers ... and articles for the Fireside Monthly. In 1886 she became the first local writer to have a novel, A little Bacchante, serialized in the Evening Globe.
In her lifetime Crawford published only one book, Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie and Other Poems in 1884
1884 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Canada:* Isabella Valancy Crawford, Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and Other Poems. Published at author's expense....
. It was privately printed and sold poorly. Crawford paid for the printing of 1,000 copies, and presumably sent out
many review copies; "there were notices in such London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
journals as the Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, the Graphic
The Graphic
The Graphic was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Limited....
, the Leisure Hour, and the Saturday Review
Saturday Review (London)
The Saturday Review of politics, literature, science, and art was a London weekly newspaper established by A. J. B. Beresford Hope in 1855....
. These articles pointed to 'versatility of talent,' and to such qualities as 'humour, vivacity, and range of power,' which were impressive and promising despite her extravagance of incident and 'untrained magniloquence.'" However, only 50 books sold. "Crawford was understandably disappointed and felt she had been neglected by 'the High Priests of Canadian Periodical Literature'" (Arcturus 84)."
Crawford "died, in poverty, on February 12, 1887" in Toronto. She was buried in Peterborough's Little Lake Cemetery near the Otonabee River
Otonabee River
The Otonabee River is a river that runs from Katchewanooka Lake near Lakefield, into the east side of Peterborough, Ontario , through Little Lake and down 30 km into the northwestern side of Rice Lake...
. For years her body lay in an unmarked grave. A fundraising campaign was begun in 1899, and on November 2, 1900, a six-foot Celtic Cross was raised above her grave, inscribed: "Isabella Valancy Crawford / Poet / By the Gift of God."
Writing
While Crawford was a prolific writer, much of what she wrote is disposable. "For the most part Crawford’s prose followed the fashion of the feuilletonFeuilleton
Feuilleton was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle of the latest fashions, and epigrams, charades and other literary trifles...
of the day." Her magazine writing "displays a skilful and energetic use of literary conventions made popular by Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, such as twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
s and doubles, mysterious childhood disappearances, stony-hearted fathers, sacrificial daughters, wills and lost inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
s, recognition scenes, and, to quote one of her titles, ‘A kingly restitution’." As a whole, though, it "was romantic-Gothic 'formula fiction.'"
It is her poetry that has endured. Just two years after her death, W.D. Lighthall
William Douw Lighthall
William Douw Lighthall , K.C., LL.D., F.R.S.C. , can be and has been described as a Canadian "lawyer, historian, novelist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, and editor."...
included generous selections from her book in his groundbreaking 1889 anthology, Songs of the Great Dominion
Songs of the Great Dominion
Songs of the Great Dominion was a pioneering anthology of Canadian poetry published in 1889. The book's full title was Songs of the Great Dominion: Voices from the Forests and Waters, the Settlements and Cities of Canada. The collection was selected and edited by William Douw Lighthall of Montreal...
, bringing it to a wider audience.
"In the 20th century critics have given the work increasing respect and appreciation." "Crawford's Collected Poems were edited (Toronto 1905) by J.W. Garvin, with an introduction by Ethelwyn Wetherald," a popular Canadian poet. Wetherald called Craword "purely a genius, not a craftswoman, and a genius who has patience enough to be an artist." In his 1916 anthology, Canadian Poets, Garvin stated that Crawford was "one of the greatest of women poets." Poet Katherine Hale, Garvin's wife, published a volume on Isabella Valancy Crawford in the 1920s Makers of Canada series. All of this helped Crawford's poetry become more widely known. .
A "serious critical assessment began in the mid-1940s with A.J.M. Smith
A. J. M. Smith
Arthur James Marshall Smith was a Canadian poet and anthologist. He "was a prominent member of a group of Montreal poets" -- the Montreal Group, which included Leon Edel, Leo Kennedy, A.M. Klein, and F.R...
, Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
, and E.K. Brown, who called her 'the only Canadian woman poet of real importance in the last century.'" "Recognition of Isabella Valancy Crawford's extraordinary mythopoeic power, and her structural use of images, came ... in James Reaney
James Reaney
James Crerar Reaney was an influential Canadian poet, playwright, librettist, and professor, "whose works transform small-town Ontario life into the realm of dream and symbol."...
's lecture ‘Isabella Valancy Crawford’ in Our living tradition (series 3, 1959)." Then a "renewed interest in Crawford resulted in the publication of forgotten manuscripts and critical articles" in the 1970s. "A reprint of the collected poems in 1972, with an introduction by poet James Reaney, made Crawford’s work generally available; six of her short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
, edited by Penny Petrone, appeared in 1975; and in 1977 the Borealis Press published a book of fairy stories
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
and a long unfinished poem, 'Hugh and Ion.'."
Crawford wrote a wide variety of poems, ranging from the Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
-like doggerel (pun intended) of "Love Me, Love My Dog", to the eerie mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
of "The Camp of Souls," to the eroticism
Eroticism
Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love...
of "The Lily Bed."
But it is mainly Crawford's "long narrative poems [that] have received particular attention." "‘Old Spookses’ Pass' is a dialect poem, set in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, concerning a dream vision of a midnight cattle stampede
Stampede
A stampede is an act of mass impulse among herd animals or a crowd of people in which the herd collectively begins running with no clear direction or purpose....
towards a black abyss
Abyss (religion)
Abyss refers to a bottomless pit, to the underworld, to the deepest ocean floor, or to hell.The English word "abyss" derives from the late Latin abyssimus through French abisme , hence the poetic form "abysm", with examples dating to 1616 and earlier to rhyme with "time"...
that is stilled by a whirling lariat
Lariat
Lariat can refer to:*A rope in the form of a lasso*Lariat chain, a science demonstration*A professional wrestling move, a variation of a clothesline*A genetic structure in Splicing *Double Lariat, a popular song sung by Luka Megurine...
; ‘The helot’ makes use of the Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
ns' practice of intoxicating their helots in order to teach their own children not to drink, as the starting-point for a highly incantatory and hypnotic poem that ends in Bacchic
Bacchanalia
The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus , the wine god. The term has since come to describe any form of drunken revelry.-History:...
possession and death; and ‘Gisli the Chieftain’ fuses mythic elements, such as the Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
spring goddess Lada and the Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic Brynhild
Brynhildr
Brynhildr is a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie in Norse mythology, where she appears as a main character in the Völsunga saga and some Eddic poems treating the same events. Under the name Brünnhilde she appears in the Nibelungenlied and therefore also in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des...
, into a narrative of love, betrayal, murder, and reconciliation. These poems follow a pattern of depicting the world as a battleground of opposites — light and dark, good and evil — reconciled by sacrificial love."
Malcolm's Katie
The bulk of critical attention has gone to "Malcolm's Katie." That poem is a long narrative in blank verseBlank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
, dealing mainly with the love and trials of young Max and Katie in the 19th-century Canadian bush, but containing a second running narrative recounting the war between the North and South Winds (Winter and Summer personified as First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
warriors), and also a collection of love songs in different stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
forms.
Many of those lauding the poem have seen their own interests reflected in it. For instance, socialist Livesay gave a reading that made the poem sound like a manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
of Utopian socialism
Utopian socialism
Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen which inspired Karl Marx and other early socialists and were looked on favorably...
:
- Crawford presents a new myth of great significance to Canadian literature: the Canadian frontier as creating 'the conditions for a new Eden,' not a golden ageGolden AgeThe term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
or a millennium, but 'a harmonious community, here and now.' Crawford’s social consciousnessSocial consciousnessSocial consciousness is consciousness shared within a society. It can also be defined as social awareness; to be aware of the problems that different societies and communities face on a day-to-day basis; to be conscious of the difficulties and hardships of society.- Theory :Many studies have been...
and concern for humanity’s future committed her, far ahead of her time and milieu, to write passionate pleas for brotherhood, pacifism, and the preservation of a green world. Her deeply felt belief in a just society wherein men and women would have equal status in a world free from war, class hatred, and racial prejudice dominates all her finest poetry."
Others have similarly seen their concerns reflected in the poem. "Malcolm’s Katie has been given a nationalistic reading by Robin Mathews, a feminist reading by Clara Thomas, a biographical reading by Dorothy Farmiloe and a Marxian reading by Kenneth Hughes, as well as various literary-historical readings by Dorothy Livesay, Elizabeth Waterston, John Ower, Robert Alan Burns and others."
Not just interpretations on the poem's meaning, but evaluations of its worth, have varied widely. Its detractors have included poet Louis Dudek
Louis Dudek
Louis Dudek, OC was a Canadian poet, academic, and publisher known for his role in defining Modernism in poetry, and for his literary criticism. He was the author of over two dozen books...
, who called Crawford "'a failed poet' of 'hollow convention ... counterfeit feeling ... and fake idealism'"; and Roy Daniells
Roy Daniells
Roy Daniells, was a Canadian poetry professor. He helped build the University of British Columbia's creative writing department and fostered the careers of several major Canadian writers.-Education and career:...
, who in The Literary History of Canada (1965) called "Malcolm's Katie" "a preposterously romantic love story on a Tennysonian model in which a wildly creaking plot finally delivers true love safe and triumphant."
Some of the poem's supporters concede the Tennyson influence but point out that there is much more to it: "While appearing on the surface melodramatic and stereotyped, Crawford’s love story is compelling and powerful; what seems at first a conventional conflict between rival suitors for the hand of the heroine becomes a serious, even profound, account of philosophical, social and ideological
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
confrontations." "In ‘Malcolm's Katie’ Crawford adapted to the setting of pioneer Canada the domestic idyll as she learned it from Tennyson. Striking and new, however, is Crawford's location of Max and Katie's conventional love story within a context of Native legends — Indian Summer and the battle of the North and South Winds."
This myth telling (however accurate it was as a portrayal of First Nations beliefs) is what many of its supporters see as giving the poem its power. For instance, writing about "Malcolm's Katie, critic Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
pronounced Crawford "the most remarkabe mythopoeic
Mythopoeic
The term mythopoeic has several applications:*mythopoeic thought, a hypothetical stage of human thought that produces myths....
imagination in Canadian poetry":
- the "framework' of Isabella Crawford is that of an intelligent and industrious female songbird of the kind who filled so many anthologies in the last century. Yet the "South Wind" passage from Malcolm's Katie is only the most famous example of the most remarkable mythopoeic imagination in Canadian poetry. She puts her myth in an Indian form, which reminds us of the resemblance between white and Indian legendary heroes in the New World, between Paul Bunyan and Davy Crockett on the one hand and Glooscap on the other. The white myths are not necessarily imitated from the Indian ones, but they may have sprung from an unconscious feeling that the primitive myth expressed the imaginative impact of the country as more artificial literature could never do."
Frye believed, and thought Crawford's "poetic sense" told her, "that the most obvious development in the romantic landscape is toward the mythological"; and he saw Crawford's attempt at an indigenous Canadian myth as the intellectual equivalent of the simultaneous pioneer exploration and settlement: "In the long mythopoeic passage from Isabella Crawford's Malcolm's Katie, beginning 'The South Wind laid his moccasins aside,' we see how the poet is, first, taming the landscape imaginatively, as settlement tames it physically, by animating the lifeless scene with humanized figures, and, second, integrating the literary tradition of the country by deliberately re-establishing the broken cultural link with Indian civilization."
Hugh and Ion
Dorothy LivesayDorothy Livesay
Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General`s Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.-Life:...
, researching Crawford's life for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The DCB, which was initiated in 1959, is a collaboration between the University of Toronto and Université Laval...
in 1977
1997 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:*January 20 — Miller Williams of Arkansas reads his poem, "Of History and Hope," at President Clinton's inauguration....
, discovered the manuscript of an uncompleted narrative poem in the Crawford fonds
Fonds
Fonds is an archival term used to describe an aggregation of documents that originate from the same source. More specifically, a fonds distinguishes itself from a collection through its organic nature, as archival documents that have been naturally accumulated by an individual, company,...
at Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
's Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
. Called Hugh and Ion, it deals with "Hugh and Ion, two friends who have fled the noxious city—probably contemporary Toronto—for purification in the primal wilderness [and] carry on a sustained dialogue, Hugh arguing for hope, light, and redemption and Ion pointing out despair, darkness, and intractable human perversity."
Perhaps due to Crawford's Toronto experiences, this last poem marked a significant change in her views, showing the city as "a demonic, urban world of isolation and blindness which has wilfully cut itself off from the regenerative power of the wildernese. The confident innocence and romantic idealism, which account for much of the inner fire of Malcolm’s Katie, have simply ceased to be operative.... Nowhere else in nineteenth-century Canadian literature, with the exception of Lampman
Archibald Lampman
Archibald Lampman, was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in...
’s 'City [at] the End of Things”, is there another example of the creative imagination being brought to bear, in so Blakean
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
a manner, on the nascent social evils of the 'infant city.'"
Recognition
Isabella Valancy Crawford was designated a Person of National Historic Significance in 1947.A small garden park in downtown Toronto, at Front and John Streets (near the CN Tower
CN Tower
The CN Tower is a communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Standing tall, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure and world's tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of the Burj...
), has been named Isabella Valancy Crawford Park.
Publications
- Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie and Other Poems. Toronto, 18841884 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Canada:* Isabella Valancy Crawford, Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and Other Poems. Published at author's expense....
. - The Collected Poems of Isabella Valancy Crawford, ed. John Garvin. Toronto: William Briggs, 19051905 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Ezra Pound presents Hilda Doolittle with a sheaf of love poems with the collective title Hilda's Book...
. - Isabella Valancy Crawford. Katherine Hale ed. Toronto: Ryerson, 19231923 in poetry-- From Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", first published this year in his collection New HampshireNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:...
. - Hugh and Ion. Glenn Clever ed. Ottawa: Borealis P, 19771977 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January – James Dickey, composed a poem he read at new United States President Jimmy Carter’s inaugural gala although not at the inauguration itself.* British publication Gay News successfully...
. ISBN 9780919594777 - Malcolm's Katie: A Love Story. D.M.R. Bentley ed. London, ON: Canadian Poetry Press, 19871987 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Charles Bukowski, fictionalised as alter ego Henry Chinaski, becomes the subject of the film Barfly starring Mickey Rourke....
. ISBN 0921243030
Prose
- Selected Stories of Isabella Valancy Crawford. Penny Petrone ed. Ottawa: U of Ottawa P, 1975. ISBN 0776643355
- Fairy Tales of Isabella Valancy Crawford. Penny Petrone ed. Ottawa: Borealis P, 1977. ISBN 0919594530
- Collected Short Stories of Isabella Valancy Crawford. Len Early & Michel Peterman, ed. London, ON: Canadian Poetry Press, 2006. ISBN 9780921243014
- Winona; or, The Foster-Sisters. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006. ISBN 9781551117096
Except where noted, bibliographical information from Open Library.
External links
- Selected Poetry of Isabella Valancy Crawford - Biography and 6 poems (The Camp of Souls, The Canoe, The Dark Stag, The Lily Bed, Malcolm's Katie: A Love Story, Old Spookses' Pass, Said the West Wind)
- Isabella Valancy Crawford's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online