шш in review DISCOURSE OF THE OTHER - University of British ...

BOOKS IN REVIEWthe story are gracefully woven by VeronicaTennant to suggest resonances towhich all young readers might relate.CONFEDERATIONPOETSJAMES GELLERTDUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT, Powassan's Drum:Poems of Duncan Campbell Scott, eds. RaymondSouster & Douglas Lochhead. Tecumseh,$7.95.BLISS CARMAN, Windflower: Poems of BlissCarman, eds. Raymond Souster & DouglasLochhead. Tecumseh, $9.95.MURIEL MILLER, Bliss Carman: Quest & Revolt.Jesperson Press, $36.00.THAT TECUMSEH PRESS has decided topublish reading editions of the selectedpoems of Duncan Campbell Scott andBliss Carman is commendable. As membersof the so-called Confederation groupof poets, both Scott and Carman areimportant figures in the development ofCanadian poetry. Until now, however, ithas proved difficult to locate substantialselections of their work in print. For BlissCarman one had to go back to LomePierce's anthology of 1954 or the RobertSorfleet edition of 1976. For Scott it wasa matter of using E. K. Brown's SelectedPoems of 1951 or Tecumseh's earlierSelected Poetry of 1974, edited by GlennClever. This paucity of texts has meantthat all too often readers know Scott andCarman only through a few well-knownanthology pieces.While Powassan's Drum and Windfloweroffer readers a generous selectionof the poetry of Scott and Carman, thevolumes prove far from ideal. They havebeen cheaply produced: the font for theScott edition is too small for easy reading,and the Carman volume is inked sodarkly that each line appears emphasized.Indeed, it looks as though TecumsehPress intended the volumes as interimeditions for the new reader. They werecertainly not produced with the seriousstudent in mind, since they contain neithernotes nor bibliography. In Tecumseh'searlier edition of Scott's poetry, theeditor at least gave some indication ofthe chronological progression and supplieda brief biographical note. This timethe editors have chosen to present thepoems in vague thematic groupings,which suggest a fin de siècle preciosity.Moreover, the double introductions byRaymond Souster and Douglas Lochheadare largely uncritical. Both Souster andLochhead mention that they read Scottand Carman when they were young, andthey claim to have been influenced bythem, but they offer little evidence ofhow and why the poets remain importanttoday. Tecumseh's decision to publisheditions with no historical backgroundmay well prompt readers to ask whatCarman and Scott mean to them as poetsonce the protective lens of "historicalimportance" has been removed.By far the more interesting volume isthe Scott selection, Powassan's Drum.The editors chose to begin with sevenIndian and Metis poems which capturethe plight of these peoples poised betweendifferent cultures and time periods.These poems are undoubtedly amongScott's most original. Yet when seen inthe midst of the current debate aboutnative and ethnic rights and cultures,they appear somewhat dated. While Scottsympathizes with the individual caughtbetween cultures, he also believes in akind of Coleridgean moral evolution.From this evolutionary perspective, thenative people are seen as essentially"savage," redeemed only when they moveupwards to a "higher" state of spiritualunderstanding. Consequently, Scott tendsto undermine the essential dignity of theindividual by dissolving it in a higherspiritualism, a problem for all those im-223