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OPINIONS & NOTESson's masterwork as both a "model" anda "resource." The Canadian poet wouldhave done so all the more readily forbeing self-consciously a literary novice asyet unsure of his own direction and powers.In this regard, Lampman could havegained from following Tennyson a senseof support and orientation allaying the"anxiety of creative uncertainty" thathaunts many beginning artists.However, Lampman may well havesimultaneously been inspired with a twofold"anxiety of influence" 10by Tennyson.In this connection, Lampman couldhave felt overshadowed ( ι ) as a juniortyro by an already revered master and( 2 ) as the provincial artist of a relativelyuncultivated recent colony 11by a literary"institution" of the great mother country.Such a double insecurity respectingTennyson could have moved Lampmanin "The Frogs" to assert both a personaland national literary identity. He mayindirectly affirm the first by keeping theLaureate's influence from being in anyparticular instance too obvious. Lampmanlikewise suggests a nationalistic literaryconsciousness in "The Frogs" bytranslating his expression of interestsshared with Tennyson from a Classicaland Mediterranean to a Canadian setting.Through these tactics, Lampmanwas able in "The Frogs" to use the Laureateas a "resource" while maintaininghis independence as an "individual talent"and as a Canadian writer.567891011Lotos-Eaters" was one of Lampman's"points of departure" in writing "TheFrogs." See Bentley, "Watchful Dreamsand Sweet Unrest: An Essay on the Visionof Archibald Lampman," Part II, Studiesin Canadian Literature, 7, no. 1 (1982),p. 7. While Bentley does not pursue thispoint, he concludes as does the presentstudy that Lampman is aware in "TheFrogs" of the "deficiencies" as well as the"attractions" of "escapism" (Bentley, p.16).Quotations from "The Frogs" are uniformwith the text in Douglas Lochhead, ed.,The Poems of Archibald Lampman (Toronto:University of Toronto Press, 1974),pp. 7-10.Quotations from "The Lotos-Eaters" areuniform with the text in Poems of Tennyson,i82g-i868 (London: Oxford UniversityPress, 1929), pp. 91-95.Such symbolism becomes more apparent inview of Lampman's characterization of naturein Sonnets 1 and 2 in maternal terms.Early delineates such an artistic characterthroughout his study. See especially Early,pp. 29-39.Such a strain in Lampman's poetic characterfound particularly powerful expressionin "The Story of an Affinity" (1893-94). It is perhaps significant for the presentstudy that (as Early notes, p. 121) Lampmanrelates his protagonist's strenuousquest for personal development to thehomeward journey of Odysseus.For this critical term, see Bloom, op. cit.That Lampman as a young man had strongnegative feelings about Canada as a culturalenvironment is indicated in his descriptionof his initial response to Roberts'sOrion and Other Poems. See Early, p. 5.JOHN OWERNOTES1Duncan Campbell Scott, "A Decade of CanadianPoetry," in Lorraine McMullen, ed.,Twentieth Century Essays on ConfederationLiterature (Ottawa: Tecumseh Press,1976), p. in.2See Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence(London: Oxford University Press,>973)> Ρ- 2ΐ.3L. R. Early, Archibald Lampman (Boston:Twayne, 1986), p. 63.* D. M. R. Bentley has noted that "The289