The Canadian Long Poem: Double-Talking Its Way From Lyric to Parody

Abstract

<p>Eli Mandel opened the proceedings of the 1984 Long-Liners Conference by announcing the death of the long poem. Barbara Godard concluded that conference by proclaiming t,he death of the lyric. This study contests such a dual apocalyptic vision, and seeks to retrieve both the long poem and the lyric--if not for posterity--at least for the duration of this thesis.</p> <p>The Introduction establishes my theore'tical framework. I argue that, although the voice in the contemporary Canadian long poem disrupts the autonomous voice of the Romantic lyric, the long poem still retains vital connections to the original lyric form. I maintain that the roots of lyric (as described in the work of Andrew Welsh) are present within the long poem, and that those roots, linked as they are to an oral culture, provide a space for orality within the medium of print.</p> <p>In addition, I state that because oral expression is linked to situationally-based interactions between speaker and audience, the presence of orality within the long poem confers upon the form a focus that subverts the solipsistic focus of the Romantic lyric. The subversive activity of the orally-informed lyric voice is further augmented by a narrative voice, which acts parodically to disrupt the autonomy of both the speaking person and the story being told.</p> <p>I then examine four Canadian long poems, and show how the authors use the double-voiced characteristic of the long poem to define for themselves a sense of identity and a poetic voice. However, because the authors consistently undercut the autonomy of their own speaking voices and of their identities, they deny their texts and themselves any authoritative status as a source of final truth. I maintain, therefore, that their method offers the reader an opportunity to decide such questions of value, and reclaims for the long poem the social focus of the original lyric form.</p>