Robert Finch (poet)
Encyclopedia
Robert Duer Claydon Finch (May 14. 1900 - June 11, 1995) was a Canadian poet
and academic. He twice won Canada
's top literary honor, the Governor General's Award
, for his poetry.
, Long Island, New York
, Finch was educated at the University of Toronto
and the Sorbonne
. He was a professor of French
at the University of Toronto for four decades (1928–1968), and an expert on French poetry
.
" in poetry. It adds: "His work, deeply imbued with the classical tradition, is characterized by an intense care for form and graced by a rare subtlety and elegance."
Finch began writing poetry in the early 1920s; "like most of the Canadian Modernists
, he wrote much of his best known poetry in the 1930s, when the Depression
precluded the real possibility of publication."
In 1936
, Finch published eleven poems in the "milestone selection of modernist Canadian verse," New Provinces
, edited by F.R. Scott
and A.J.M. Smith
. "Mr. Finch is an intellectual poet," Smith wrote in 1939
. "Of the six contributors to New Provinces, he is the most elegant and the least sensuous. His verse is not without feeling, but the feeling is so carefully husbanded and so fastidiously winnowed that one is impressed with its delicacy and precision rather than with its abundance and strength." Smith included Finch's poetry in his critically praised 1943
anthology, The Book of Canadian Poetry, bringing it to a national audience.
Finch's first book of poetry, Poems, was published in 1946
.
for Poems, and in 1961
for Acis in Oxford and Other Poems.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
in 1963
. The Society awarded him its Lorne Pierce Medal
in 1968
.
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...
and academic. He twice won 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 top literary honor, the Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award for English language poetry or drama
This is a list of recipients of the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry or drama. The award was created in 1937, the second year of the awards, and existed until 1980, when it was split into the separate awards for poetry and drama.-1930s:...
, for his poetry.
Life
Born in FreeportFreeport, New York
Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, USA, on the South Shore of Long Island. The population was 42,860 at the 2010 census. A settlement since the 1640s, it was once an oystering community and later a resort popular with the New York City theater community...
, Long Island, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Finch was educated at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
. He was a professor of French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
at the University of Toronto for four decades (1928–1968), and an expert on French poetry
French poetry
French poetry is a category of French literature. It may include Francophone poetry composed outside France and poetry written in other languages of France.-French prosody and poetics:...
.
Writing
The Canadian Encyclopedia calls Finch "one of Canada's modernistsModernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
" in poetry. It adds: "His work, deeply imbued with the classical tradition, is characterized by an intense care for form and graced by a rare subtlety and elegance."
Finch began writing poetry in the early 1920s; "like most of the Canadian Modernists
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, he wrote much of his best known poetry in the 1930s, when the Depression
Great Depression in Canada
Canada was hit hard by the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1939, the gross national product dropped 40% . Unemployment reached 27% at the depth of the Depression in 1933...
precluded the real possibility of publication."
In 1936
1936 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* James Laughlin founds New Directions Publishers in New York, which published many modern poets for the first time;...
, Finch published eleven poems in the "milestone selection of modernist Canadian verse," New Provinces
New Provinces (poetry anthology)
New Provinces: Poems of Several Authors was an anthology of Canadian poetry published in the 1930s, anonymously edited by F.R. Scott assisted by Leo Kennedy and A.J.M. Smith. The first anthology of Canadian modernist poetry, it has been hailed as a "landmark anthology" and a "milestone selection...
, edited by F.R. Scott
F. R. Scott
Francis Reginald Scott, CC commonly known as Frank Scott or F.R. Scott, was a Canadian poet, intellectual and constitutional expert. He helped found the first Canadian social democratic party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and its successor, the New Democratic Party...
and 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...
. "Mr. Finch is an intellectual poet," Smith wrote in 1939
1939 in poetry
— W. H. Auden, from "September 1, 1939"Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:*Last issue of The Criterion is published....
. "Of the six contributors to New Provinces, he is the most elegant and the least sensuous. His verse is not without feeling, but the feeling is so carefully husbanded and so fastidiously winnowed that one is impressed with its delicacy and precision rather than with its abundance and strength." Smith included Finch's poetry in his critically praised 1943
1943 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* September 12 – Abraham Sutzkever, a Polish Jew writing poetry in Yiddish, escapes the Vilna Ghetto with his wife and hides in the forests. Sutzkever and fellow Yiddish poet Shmerke...
anthology, The Book of Canadian Poetry, bringing it to a national audience.
Finch's first book of poetry, Poems, was published in 1946
1946 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* W. H. Auden becomes a U.S. citizen...
.
Recognition
Finch won the Governor General's Award in 19461946 Governor General's Awards
In Canada, the 1946 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were the tenth such awards. The awards in this period had no monetary prize and were just an honour for the authors.-Winners:*Fiction: Winifred Bambrick, Continental Revue....
for Poems, and in 1961
1961 Governor General's Awards
Each winner of the 1961 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.-English Language:Fiction: Malcolm Lowry, Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place...
for Acis in Oxford and Other Poems.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
in 1963
1963 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January 26 – Raghunath Vishnu Pandit, an Indian poet who wrote in both Konkani and Marathi languages, publishes five books of poems this day* The Belfast Group, a discussion group of poets in...
. The Society awarded him its Lorne Pierce Medal
Lorne Pierce Medal
The Lorne Pierce Medal is awarded every two years by the Royal Society of Canada to recognize achievement of special significance and conspicuous merit in imaginative or critical literature written in either English or French...
in 1968
1968 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The Belfast Group, a grouping of poets in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which was started in 1963 in poetry, lapsed in 1966 when founder Philip Hobsbaum left for Glasgow, is reconstituted this year by...
.
Poetry
- New Provinces: Poems of Several AuthorsNew Provinces (poetry anthology)New Provinces: Poems of Several Authors was an anthology of Canadian poetry published in the 1930s, anonymously edited by F.R. Scott assisted by Leo Kennedy and A.J.M. Smith. The first anthology of Canadian modernist poetry, it has been hailed as a "landmark anthology" and a "milestone selection...
. Toronto, Macmillan, 19361936 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* James Laughlin founds New Directions Publishers in New York, which published many modern poets for the first time;...
. (one of six poets in a collection) - Poems. Toronto: Oxford U P, 19461946 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* W. H. Auden becomes a U.S. citizen...
. - The Strength of the Hills. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 19481948 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Sometime this year, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase Beat Generation to describe his friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at that...
. - A Century has Roots: a masque performed at Hart House Theatre to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the foundation of University College, Toronto, in 1853. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 19531953 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* George Plimpton, Peter Matthiessen and Harold L...
. - Acis in Oxford and Other Poems. Oxford UK: privately printed at New Bodleian, 19591959 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* In the United States, "Those serious new Bohemians, the beatniks, occupied with reading their deliberately undisciplined, protesting verse in night clubs and hotel ballrooms, created more publicity...
. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 19611961 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January 20–Robert Frost recites his poem "The Gift Outright" at United States President John F...
. - Dover Beach Revisited and Other Poems. Toronto: Macmillan, 19611961 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January 20–Robert Frost recites his poem "The Gift Outright" at United States President John F...
. - Silverthorn Bush and Other Poem. Toronto: Macmillan, 19661966 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Raymond Souster founds the League of Canadian Poets...
. - "Five Sonnets," Tamarack Review 74 (Spring 1978).
- Variations and Theme. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 19801980 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Mark Jarman and Robert McDowell started the small magazine The Reaper to promote narrative and formal poetry....
. ISBN 0889840350 - Has and Is. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 19811981 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Jane Greer launched Plains Poetry Journal, an advance guard of the New Formalism movement....
. ISBN 0889840482 - Twelve for Christmas. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 19821982 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:*Final edition of This Magazine published....
. ISBN 0889840784 - The Grand Duke of Moscow's Favourite Solo. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 19831983 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The Frogmore Press founded by Andre Evans and Jeremy Page at the Frogmore tea-rooms in Folkestone...
. ISBN 0889840806 - Double Tuning. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 19841984 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:*December 19 - Philip Larkin turns down the British Poet Laureateship, and Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate....
. ISBN 0889840652 - Sailboat and Lake.. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 1984. ISBN 0889841241
- Miracle at the Jetty. Port Rowan, ON: Leeboard P, 19911991 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Forward Poetry Prize created...
. ISBN 0969460414
Prose
- The Sixth Sense: Individualism in French Poetry 1686-1760. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1966.
Edited
- French Individualist Poetry 1686-1760. Robert Finch & Eugène Joliat ed. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1971. ISBN 0802052606