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= Bliss_Carman =
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Introduction
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William Bliss Carman (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 during his later years.
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. "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."
Life
======================================================================
William Bliss Carman was born on April 15, 1861, in Fredericton, New
Brunswick. "Bliss" was his mother's maiden name. He was the great
grandson of United Empire Loyalists who fled to Nova Scotia after the
American Revolution, settling in New Brunswick (then part of Nova
Scotia). His literary roots run deep with an ancestry that includes a
mother who was a descendant of Daniel Bliss of Concord, Massachusetts,
the great-uncle 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 the siblings Charles (later Sir Charles)
G. D. Roberts and Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald.
Education and early career
============================
Carman was first educated through a private tutor until 1872 due to
medical issues stemmed from a severe nose injury he received at the
age of four. Afterwards, he attended the Fredericton Collegiate School
where he came under the influence of headmaster George Robert Parkin,
who gave him a love of classical literature and introduced him to the
poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne. He
was later educated at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), from
which he received a bachelor's degree in 1881. 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 master's degree from UNB in 1884.
After the death of his father in January 1885 and his mother in
February 1886, Carman enrolled in Harvard University (1886-1887). 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. 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'.
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." 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 a week. There he could help his Canadian friends get
published, in the process "introducing Canadian poets to its readers."
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."
To make matters worse, Carman's first book of poetry, 1893's 'Low Tide
on Grand Pré', was not a success; it was not published in Canada, and
distribution in the US was hampered when the publisher went bankrupt.
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." '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."
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.
"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."
He also began writing a weekly column for the Boston 'Evening
Transcript', which ran from 1895 to 1900.
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." 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.
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." This
shared belief created a bond between Mrs. King and Carman but
estranged him somewhat from his former friends.
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."
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. "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."
Carman also picked up some needed cash in 1904 as editor-in-chief of
the 10-volume project, 'The World's Best Poetry'.
Later years
=============
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." Between 1908 and 1920, literary taste
began to shift, and his fortunes and health declined.
By 1920, Carman was impoverished and recovering from a near-fatal
attack of tuberculosis. 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.'" "'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."
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."
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'.
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." "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":
''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." "Low Tide..." was published in the Spring, 1887 'Atlantic
Monthly', giving Carman a literary reputation while still at Harvard.
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."
"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."
''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 ... revolt openly declared itself with
the publication of 'Songs from Vagabondia' (1894), 'More Songs from
Vagabondia' (1896), and 'Last Songs from Vagabondia' (1900).... It was
the heartiness, the gypsy jollity, the rush of high spirits, that
conquered. Readers of the 'Vagabondia' books were swept along by their
speed faster than by their philosophy."
Even modernists loved 'Vagabondia'. In the "October, 1912 issue of the
'London Poetry Review,' Ezra Pound noted that he had 'greatly enjoyed
'The Songs of Vagabondia' by Mr. Bliss Carman and the late Richard
Hovey.'"
Carman's most famous poem from the first volume is arguably "The Joys
of the Open Road." 'More Songs...' contains "A Vagabond Song," once
familiar to a generation of Canadians. "Canadian youngsters who were
in grade seven anytime between the mid-1930s and the 1950s were
probably exposed to ... 'A Vagabond Song' [which] appeared in 'The
Canada Book of Prose and Verse, Book One', the school reader that was
used in nearly every province" (and was edited by Lorne Pierce).
In 1912 Carman would publish 'Echoes from Vagabondia' as a solo work.
(Hovey had died in 1900). More of a remembrance book than part of the
set, it has a distinct elegiac tone. It contains the lyric "The Flute
of Spring".
''Behind the Arras''
======================
With 'Behind the Arras' (1895), Carman continued his practice of
"bringing together poems that were 'in the same key.' Whereas 'Low
Tide on Grand Pré' is elegiacal and melancholy, 'Songs from
Vagabondia' is mostly light and jaunty, while 'Behind the Arras' is
philosophical and heavy."
"Behind the Arras" the poem is a long meditation that uses the
speaker's house and its many rooms as a symbol of life and its
choices. The poem does not succeed: "there are so many asides that the
allegory is lost along with any point the poet hoped to make."
''Ballad of Lost Haven''
==========================
In keeping with the "same key" idea, Carman's 'Ballad of Lost Haven'
(1897) was a collection of poetry about the sea. Its notable poems
include the macabre sea shanty 'The Gravedigger'.
''By the Aurelian Wall''
==========================
"By the Aurelian Wall" is Carman's elegy to John Keats. It served as
the title poem of his 1898 collection, a book of formal elegies.
In the last poem in the book, "The Grave-Tree," Carman writes about
his own death.
''The Pipes of Pan''
======================
"Pan, the goat-god, traditionally associated with poetry and with the
fusion of the earthly and the divine, becomes Carman's organizing
symbol in the five volumes issued between 1902 and 1905" under the
above title. Under the influence of Mrs. King, Carman had begun to
write in both prose and poetry about the ideas of 'unitrinianism,' "a
strategy of mind-body-spirit harmonization aimed at undoing the
physical, psychological, and spiritual damage caused by urban
modernity ... therapeutic ideas [which] resulted in the five volumes
of verse assembled in 'Pipes of Pan'." The 'Dictionary of Canadian
Biography (DCB)' calls the series "a collection that contains many
superb lyrics but, overall, evinces the dangers of a soporific
aesthetic."
The 'superb lyrics' include the much-anthologized "The Dead Faun" from
Volume I, 'From the Book of Myths'; "From the Green Book of the
Bards", the title poem of Volume II; "Lord of My Heart's Elation" from
the same volume; and many of the erotic poems of Volume III, 'Songs of
the Sea Children' (such as LIX "I loved you when the tide of prayer").
As a whole, though, the Pan series shows (perhaps more than any other
work) the truth of Northrop Frye's 1954 observation that Carman "badly
needs a skillful and sympathetic selection."
''Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics''
================================
There were no such problems with Carman's next book. Perhaps because
of the underlying concept, 'Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics' (1904) has a
structure and unity that helps make it what has been called Carman's
"finest volume of poetry".
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, who was
included in the Greek canon of nine lyric poets. Most of her poetry,
which was well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity, has
been lost, but her reputation has endured, supported by the surviving
fragments of some of her poems.
Carman's method, as Charles G.D. Roberts saw it in his Introduction to
the book, "apparently, has been to imagine each lost lyric as
discovered, and then to translate it; for the indefinable flavor of
the translation is maintained throughout, though accompanied by the
fluidity and freedom of purely original work". It was a daunting task,
as Roberts admits: "It is as if a sculptor of to-day were to set
himself, with reverence, and trained craftsmanship, and studious
familiarity with the spirit, technique, and atmosphere of his subject,
to restore some statues of Polyclitus or Praxiteles of which he had
but a broken arm, a foot, a knee, a finger upon which to build." Yet,
on the whole, Carman succeeded.
"Written more or less contemporaneously with the love poems in 'Songs
of the Sea Children', the Sappho reconstructions continue the amorous
theme from a feminine point of view. Nevertheless, the feelings
ascribed to Sappho are pure Carman in their sensitive and elegiac
melancholy."
Virtually all of the lyrics are of high quality; some often-quoted are
XXIII ("I loved thee, Atthis, in the long ago,"), LIV ("How soon will
all my lovely days be over"), LXXIV ("If death be good"), LXXXII
("Over the roofs the honey-coloured moon").
"Next to 'Low Tide on Grand Pré', 'Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics' seems
to be the collection that continues to find the most favour among
Carman's critics. D.M.R. Bentley, for example, calls it 'undoubtedly
one of the most attractive, engaging and satisfying works of any of
the Confederation poets.'" Bentley argued that "the brief, crisp
lyrics of the 'Sappho' volume almost certainly contributed to the
aesthetic and practice of Imagism.
Later work
============
In his review of 1954's 'Selected Poems of Bliss Carman', literary
critic Northrop Frye compared Carman and the other Confederation Poets
to the Group of Seven: "Like the later painters, these poets were
lyrical in tone and romantic in attitude; like the painters, they
sought for the most part uninhabited landscape." But Frye added: "The
lyrical response to landscape is by itself, however, a kind of
emotional photography, and like other forms of photography is
occasional and epigrammatic.... Hence the lyric poet, after he has run
his gamut of impressions, must die young, develop a more
intellectualized attitude, or start repeating himself. Carman's
meeting of this challenge was only partly successful."
It is true that Carman had begun to repeat himself after 'Sappho.'
"Much of Carman's writing in poetry and prose during the decade
preceding World War I is as repetitive as the title of 'Echoes from
Vagabondia' (1912) intimates" says the 'DCB'. What had made his poetry
so remarkable at the beginning – that every new book was completely
new – was gone.
However, Carman's career was by no means over. He "published four
other collections of new poetry during his lifetime and two more were
ready for publication at the time of his death: 'The Rough Rider, and
Other Poems' (1908), 'A Painter's Holiday, and Other Poems' (1911),
'April Airs' (1916), 'Far Horizons' (1925), 'Sanctuary' (1929), and
'Wild Garden' (1929). James Cappon's comment on 'Far Horizons' applies
almost equally to the other five volumes: 'There is nothing new in its
poetic quality which has the sweet sadness of age rehearsing old tunes
with an art which is now very smooth though with less vivacity than it
used to have.'"
Not only did Carman continue to write, but he continued to write fine
poems: poems such as "The Old Grey Wall" ('April Airs'), the Wilfred
Campbell-ish "Rivers of Canada" ('Far Horizons'), "The Ghost-yard of
the Goldenrod" and "The Ships of Saint John" ('Later Poems', 1926),
and "The Winter Scene" ('Sanctuary: The "Sunshine House" sonnets').
The best of these have the same nostalgic air of melancholy and loss
with which Carman began in "Low Tide...," but now even more poignant
as the poet approached his own death.
Recognition
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In 1906 Carman received honorary degrees from UNB and McGill
University. He was elected a corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society
of Canada in 1925. The Society awarded him its Lorne Pierce Gold Medal
in 1928. He was awarded a medal from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters in 1929.
In 1945, Carman was recognized as a Person of National Historic
Significance by the government of Canada.
Carman is honored by a sculpture erected on the UNB campus in 1947,
which portrays him with fellow poets Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and
Francis Joseph Sherman.
Bliss Carman Middle School in Fredericton, New Brunswick and Bliss
Carman Senior Public School in Toronto, Ontario were named after him.
"Bliss Carman Heights" (an extension of the Skyline Acres subdivision)
is a subdivision located in Fredericton, New Brunswick overlooking the
Saint John River. It consists of Essex Street, Gloucester Crescent,
Reading Street, Ascot Court, and Ascot Drive. An extension of the
Bliss Carman Heights subdivision is named "Poet's Hill" and consists
of Bliss Carman Drive, Poets Lane and Windflower Court (named for one
of Carman's poems of the same name).
In October 1916, American composer Leo Sowerby was inspired to write
his best-known organ piece, "Comes Autumn Time," after reading
Carman's poem, "Autumn," in the Literature section of the Sunday
Edition of the 'Chicago Tribune' on October 16 of that year. "Autumn"
was reprinted from 'The Atlantic' on page 6 of the Chicago Daily
Tribune on October 5, 1916.
Theodora Thayer's “fine portrait of Bliss Carman is considered one of
the memorable achievements in American miniature painting.”
Poetry collections
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* 'Poems'. (London: Chiswick P, 1905).
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Drama
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* Bliss Carman and Mary Perry King. 'Daughters of Dawn: A Lyrical
Pageant of Series of Historical Scenes for Presentation With Music and
Dancing'. (New York: M. Kennerley, 1913).
* Bliss Carman and Mary Perry King. 'Earth Deities: And Other Rhythmic
Masques'. (New York: M. Kennerley, 1914).
Prose collections
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Edited
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Archive
=========
* [
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf4b69n72n Bliss Carman
Papers, 1889-1927] (2 linear ft.) are housed in the
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20080604212605/http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html
Department of Special Collections and University Archives] at
[
http://library.stanford.edu/ Stanford University Libraries]
See also
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* Canadian literature
* Canadian poetry
* List of Canadian poets
Sources
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* "Bliss Carman's Letters To Margaret Lawrence, 1927-1929".
'Post-Confederation Poetry: Texts And Contexts'. Ed. D.M.R. Bentley.
London: Canadian Poetry P, 1995.
* 'Bliss Carman : A Reappraisal'. Ed. Gerald Lynch. Ottawa: University
of Ottawa Press, 1990.
* 'Letters of Bliss Carman'. Ed. H. Pearson Gundy. Kingston:
McGill-Queen's University Press, 1981.
* Hugh McPherson. 'The Literary Reputation Of Bliss Carman : A Study
In The Development Of Canadian Taste In Poetry'. 1950.
* Muriel Miller. 'Bliss Carman, A Portrait'. Toronto: Ryerson, 1935.
* Muriel Miller. 'Bliss Carman : Quest And Revolt'. St. John's, Nfld.:
Jesperson P, 1985.
* Donald G Stephens. 'Bliss Carman'. 1966.
* Donald G. Stephens. 'The Influence Of English Poets Upon The Poetry
Of Bliss Carman'. 1955.
* Margaret A. Stewart. 'Bliss Carman : Poet, Philosopher, Teacher'.
1976.
Further reading
======================================================================
* Robert Gibbs, "Voice and Persona in Carman and Roberts," in
'Atlantic Provinces Literature Colloquium Papers' [ed. by Kenneth
MacKinnon] (1977)
*
* Malcolm Ross, "A Strange Aesthetic Ferment," 'Canadian Literature',
68-69 (Spring-Summer 1976)
* John Robert Sorfleet, "Transcendentalist, Mystic, Evolutionary
Idealist: Bliss Carman 1886-1894," in 'Colony and Confederation' [ed.
George Woodcock](1974)
* Thomas B. Vincent,
"[
https://web.archive.org/web/20110724204654/http://hpcanpub.mcmaster.ca/case-study/bliss-carman-life-literary-publishing
Bliss Carman: A Life in Literary Publishing]," Historical Perspectives
on Canadian Publishing, McMaster.ca. Web.
*
* Terry Whalen, 'Canadian Writers and Their Work: Volume Two' [ed.
Robert Lecker, Ellen Quigley, & Jack David] (1983)
External links
======================================================================
*
*
*
*
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20110518025322/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/56.html
Selected Poetry of Bliss Carman - Biography and poems]
* [
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/garvin/poets/carman.html
Bliss Carman in 'Canadian Poets'], John Garvin ed. - Biography and 8
poems (Earth Voices, A Mountain Gateway, Garden Shadows, The Tent of
Noon, Spring's Saraband, Low Tide on Grand Pré, Threnody for a Poet,
At the Making of Man)
* [
http://theotherpages.org/poems/poem-cd.html#carman Index entry for
Bliss Carman at Poets' Corner]
* [
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bliss-carman/
Bliss Carman's] entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
*
[
https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1501
The Papers of Bliss Carmen] at Dartmouth College Library
License
=========
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Original Article:
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