Bliss Carman
Biography
Bliss Carman - Photo Courtesy of Public Commons
William Bliss Carman was born on April 5, 1861, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. In 1881, Carman graduated from University of New Brunswick with an Honours Degree in Greek and Latin. Following his graduation he attended both Oxford and Edinburgh Universities but returned to Fredericton before obtaining a degree. Once in Fredericton, he earned an MA from UNB, with a thesis entitled “English Literature from Chaucer to Elizabeth” in 1881, after which he moved away again to study English Literature at Harvard University.
Though he left Harvard without obtaining a degree in 1888, he stayed in the US and worked as an editor in Boston and New York for publications such as Independent (1890-1892) andChap Book (1894-1897). Additionally, he published two of his most important books of poetry: Low Tide on Grand Pre: A Book of Lyrics (1894), and Songs of Vagabondia, co-authored with Richard Hovey (1896). From 1902 to 1905 Carman published five volumes of nature poetry entitled The Pipes of Pan. In 1906, he returned to Canada and obtained two honourary degrees from both UNB and McGill University.
In his later years Carman received recognition for his contributions to literature. In 1925 he was elected member of the Royal Society of Canada, in 1928 he received the Lorne Pierce Medal and the Medal from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1929. Moreover, a middle school in Fredericton was named after him.
Carman died after suffering a stroke on June 8, 1929.
Though he left Harvard without obtaining a degree in 1888, he stayed in the US and worked as an editor in Boston and New York for publications such as Independent (1890-1892) andChap Book (1894-1897). Additionally, he published two of his most important books of poetry: Low Tide on Grand Pre: A Book of Lyrics (1894), and Songs of Vagabondia, co-authored with Richard Hovey (1896). From 1902 to 1905 Carman published five volumes of nature poetry entitled The Pipes of Pan. In 1906, he returned to Canada and obtained two honourary degrees from both UNB and McGill University.
In his later years Carman received recognition for his contributions to literature. In 1925 he was elected member of the Royal Society of Canada, in 1928 he received the Lorne Pierce Medal and the Medal from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1929. Moreover, a middle school in Fredericton was named after him.
Carman died after suffering a stroke on June 8, 1929.
Additional Information:
Author's Wikipedia page
Author's Encyclopaedia Britannica page
“Song”
“Trees”
“A Windflower”
Author's Wikipedia page
Author's Encyclopaedia Britannica page
“Song”
“Trees”
“A Windflower”
As a brave man faces the foe,
Alone against hundreds, and sees Death grin
in his teeth,
But, shutting his lips, fights on to the end
Without speech, without hope, without flinching,--
So, silently, grimly, the steamer
Lurches ahead through the night.
A beacon-light far off,
Twinkling across the waves like a star!
But no star in the dark overhead!
The splash of waters at the prow, and the evil
light
Of the death-fires flitting like will-o'-the-wisps
beneath! And beyond
Silence and night!
I sit by the taffrail,
Alone in the dark and the blown cold mist and
the spray,
Feeling myself swept on irresistibly,
Sunk in the night and the sea, and made one with
their footfall-less onrush,
Letting myself be borne like a spar adrift
Helplessly into the night.
Without fear, without wish,
Insensate save of a dull, crushed ache in my heart,
Careless whither the steamer is going,
Conscious only as in a dream of the wet and the
dark
And of a form that looms and fades indistinctly
Everywhere out of the night.
O love, how came I here?
Shall I wake at thy side and smile at my dream?
The dream that grips me so hard that I cannot
wake nor stir!
O love! O my own love, found but to be lost!
My soul sends over the waters a wild inarticulate cry,
Like a gull's scream heard in the night.
The mist creeps closer. The beacon
Vanishes astern. The sea's monotonous noises
Lapse through the drizzle with a listless, subsiding cadence.
And thou, O love, and the sea throb on in my
brain together,
While the steamer plunges along,
Butting its way through the night.
Published in Songs From Vagabondia (1894). Greenwood Press, 1969.
Used with permission by the publisher.
Alone against hundreds, and sees Death grin
in his teeth,
But, shutting his lips, fights on to the end
Without speech, without hope, without flinching,--
So, silently, grimly, the steamer
Lurches ahead through the night.
A beacon-light far off,
Twinkling across the waves like a star!
But no star in the dark overhead!
The splash of waters at the prow, and the evil
light
Of the death-fires flitting like will-o'-the-wisps
beneath! And beyond
Silence and night!
I sit by the taffrail,
Alone in the dark and the blown cold mist and
the spray,
Feeling myself swept on irresistibly,
Sunk in the night and the sea, and made one with
their footfall-less onrush,
Letting myself be borne like a spar adrift
Helplessly into the night.
Without fear, without wish,
Insensate save of a dull, crushed ache in my heart,
Careless whither the steamer is going,
Conscious only as in a dream of the wet and the
dark
And of a form that looms and fades indistinctly
Everywhere out of the night.
O love, how came I here?
Shall I wake at thy side and smile at my dream?
The dream that grips me so hard that I cannot
wake nor stir!
O love! O my own love, found but to be lost!
My soul sends over the waters a wild inarticulate cry,
Like a gull's scream heard in the night.
The mist creeps closer. The beacon
Vanishes astern. The sea's monotonous noises
Lapse through the drizzle with a listless, subsiding cadence.
And thou, O love, and the sea throb on in my
brain together,
While the steamer plunges along,
Butting its way through the night.
Published in Songs From Vagabondia (1894). Greenwood Press, 1969.
Used with permission by the publisher.
Critical Analysis: The Canadian Elegy in Bliss Carman's "At Sea"
Juliana Duque and Lisa Banks (for ENGL 3403: Canadian Poetry)
In her 1989 introduction to The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English, Margaret Atwood explores how Canadian poets filter personal meaning through the mourning of home. The poet exemplifies a tradition of “the elegaic, a mourning of homes left and things lost” (xxx-xxxi). Bliss Carman, helmsman of the Confederation poets, is especially attuned to this mourning. In the 1894 Songs from Vagabondia, co-authored with Richard Hovey, Carman clarifies this elegy to nature and landscape. Drawing from Carman's classicist training, the revision of an Anglo-Saxon tradition becomes increasingly apparent. As an amalgamation of 19th and 20th century approaches to the Anglo-Saxon tradition, “At Sea” exemplifies a Canadian perspective on the Anglo-Saxon form.
Carman's “At Sea” narrates the experience of a sailor carried helplessly through the ocean under the cover of night's darkness. Carman's speaker is surrounded by the unknown, “alone in the dark and the cold blown mist” (17). More generally, Carman's poem straddles the divide between a philological reading of Anglo-Saxon and a free-verse interpretation:
Philology might be defined as the systematic study of language of the past from a
historical and comparative perspective and in relation to other evidence
about culture. Philology was conceived of as a science of language. It
was interested in language as an autonomous system and sought through
rigorous analysis to reveal the underlying 'laws' that operated in it across
time and space (Magennis 11).
Yet in the case of Carman's “At Sea,” this “science of language” does not allow for the full spectrum of human emotion, and so Carman eschews its strict nature. Carman's speaker is “alone” (17), “without fear, without wish” (24), exemplifying the stoicism of the Anglo-Saxon hero while the poem's form recalls a more Romantic response to nature, as the speaker is consistently enthralled by the sublime power of the sea (11, 19, 20). Carman further deviates from the Anglo-Saxon archetype as the speaker evokes a romantic love:
O love, how came I here?
Shall I wake at thy side and smile at my dream?
...
O love! O my own love, found but to be lost!
...
And thou, O love, and the sea throb on in my
brain together (31-32, 35, 41-42).
Carman's language verges into ornamental, recalling a 19th century approach to Anglo-Saxon translation which results in “archaicized English” (Weissbort and Eysteinsson 197).
Yet, reminiscent of a 20th century approach to Anglo-Saxon which is “able frequently to approximate the very sound structure of [the] source text” (Weissbort and Eysteinsson 271), Carman's use of literary devices recalls the Anglo-Saxon tradition. While his diction is instrumental in conveying the nostalgia and loss which characterize an elegy, Carman's poem also features the alliterative pairs and kennings common to the Anglo-Saxon tradition: “faces the foe” (1), “fires flitter” (13), “will-o'-the-wisps” (13) all exemplify a poem rooted in the Anglo-Saxon tradition.
If “one consequence [of translation is] the notion...[of] embodying a distinct language, a composite or synthesis of source and target language” (Weissbort and Eysteinsson 272), Carman's “At Sea” lifts this concern to the synthesis of emotion and logic. This synthesis culminates in the speaker's “wild inarticulate cry” (36), working outside the confines of the traditional Anglo-Saxon hero while upholding the Romantic response to nature which Carman's career exemplifies.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Atwood, Margaret, ed. Introduction. The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1982. xvii-xxxix.
Carman, Bliss and Richard Hovey. “At Sea.” Songs From Vagabondia. (1894). New York: Greenwood Press, 1969. 27-29.
Magennis, Hugh. The Cambridge Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011.
Weissbort, Daniel and Ástráður Eysteinsson, ed. Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.
In her 1989 introduction to The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English, Margaret Atwood explores how Canadian poets filter personal meaning through the mourning of home. The poet exemplifies a tradition of “the elegaic, a mourning of homes left and things lost” (xxx-xxxi). Bliss Carman, helmsman of the Confederation poets, is especially attuned to this mourning. In the 1894 Songs from Vagabondia, co-authored with Richard Hovey, Carman clarifies this elegy to nature and landscape. Drawing from Carman's classicist training, the revision of an Anglo-Saxon tradition becomes increasingly apparent. As an amalgamation of 19th and 20th century approaches to the Anglo-Saxon tradition, “At Sea” exemplifies a Canadian perspective on the Anglo-Saxon form.
Carman's “At Sea” narrates the experience of a sailor carried helplessly through the ocean under the cover of night's darkness. Carman's speaker is surrounded by the unknown, “alone in the dark and the cold blown mist” (17). More generally, Carman's poem straddles the divide between a philological reading of Anglo-Saxon and a free-verse interpretation:
Philology might be defined as the systematic study of language of the past from a
historical and comparative perspective and in relation to other evidence
about culture. Philology was conceived of as a science of language. It
was interested in language as an autonomous system and sought through
rigorous analysis to reveal the underlying 'laws' that operated in it across
time and space (Magennis 11).
Yet in the case of Carman's “At Sea,” this “science of language” does not allow for the full spectrum of human emotion, and so Carman eschews its strict nature. Carman's speaker is “alone” (17), “without fear, without wish” (24), exemplifying the stoicism of the Anglo-Saxon hero while the poem's form recalls a more Romantic response to nature, as the speaker is consistently enthralled by the sublime power of the sea (11, 19, 20). Carman further deviates from the Anglo-Saxon archetype as the speaker evokes a romantic love:
O love, how came I here?
Shall I wake at thy side and smile at my dream?
...
O love! O my own love, found but to be lost!
...
And thou, O love, and the sea throb on in my
brain together (31-32, 35, 41-42).
Carman's language verges into ornamental, recalling a 19th century approach to Anglo-Saxon translation which results in “archaicized English” (Weissbort and Eysteinsson 197).
Yet, reminiscent of a 20th century approach to Anglo-Saxon which is “able frequently to approximate the very sound structure of [the] source text” (Weissbort and Eysteinsson 271), Carman's use of literary devices recalls the Anglo-Saxon tradition. While his diction is instrumental in conveying the nostalgia and loss which characterize an elegy, Carman's poem also features the alliterative pairs and kennings common to the Anglo-Saxon tradition: “faces the foe” (1), “fires flitter” (13), “will-o'-the-wisps” (13) all exemplify a poem rooted in the Anglo-Saxon tradition.
If “one consequence [of translation is] the notion...[of] embodying a distinct language, a composite or synthesis of source and target language” (Weissbort and Eysteinsson 272), Carman's “At Sea” lifts this concern to the synthesis of emotion and logic. This synthesis culminates in the speaker's “wild inarticulate cry” (36), working outside the confines of the traditional Anglo-Saxon hero while upholding the Romantic response to nature which Carman's career exemplifies.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Atwood, Margaret, ed. Introduction. The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1982. xvii-xxxix.
Carman, Bliss and Richard Hovey. “At Sea.” Songs From Vagabondia. (1894). New York: Greenwood Press, 1969. 27-29.
Magennis, Hugh. The Cambridge Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011.
Weissbort, Daniel and Ástráður Eysteinsson, ed. Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Carman, Bliss. A Painter’s Holiday: and Other Poems. New York: F.F. Sherman, 1911.
---. A Seamark: A Threnody for Robert Louis Stevenson. Boston: Copeland & Day, 1895.
---. A Winter Holiday. Boston: Small Maynard, 1899.
---. April Airs: A Book Of New England Lyrics. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1916.
---. Ballads and Lyrics. London: Bullen, 1902.
---. Ballads of Lost Haven: A Book Of The Sea. Boston, 1897.
---. Behind The Arras: A Book Of TheUnseen . Illus. T. B. Meteyard. Boston, 1895.
---. By The Aurelian Wall: And Other Elegies. Boston, 1898.
---. Bliss Carman's Poems. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1931.
---. The Calendar of the Months: Greetings from Canada. 1910.
---. Echoes From Vagabondia. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1912.
---. Far Horizons. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1925.
---. The Friendship of Art. Boston: Page, 1904.
---. From The Book Of Valentines. Boston: Page, 1905.
---. The Kinship of Nature. Boston: Page, 1903.
---. Later Poems. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1922.
---. Low Tide on Grand Pré: A Book of Lyrics. New York: C.L. Webster and Co, 1893.
---. The Making of Personality. Boston: Page, 1908.
---. Ode on the Coronation of King Edward. Boston: Page, 1902.
---. Pipes of Pan. Boston: L.C. Page & Co, 1906.
---. Poems. London: Chiswick, 1905.
---. The Poetry Of Life. Boston: Page, 1905.
---. The Rough Rider: And Other Poems. New York: Kennerley, 1909.
---. Sanctuary: Sunshine House Sonnets. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1929.
---. Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics. London: Chatto&Windus, 1921.
---. Songs Of The Sea Children. Boston: Page, 1904.
---. Wild Garden. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1929.
---. The Oxford Book of American Verse. New York: Oxford university press, 1927.
---. The Vengeance of Noel Brassard: A Tale of the Acadian Expulsion. Cambridge: The University Press, 1919.
---, Lorne Pierce, and V B. Rhodenizer. Canadian Poetry in English. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1954.
---, and R H. Hathaway. Later Poems. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Publishers, 1921.
---, and Richard Hovey. Songs from Vagabondia. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969.
---, and Richard Hovey. Last Songs from Vagabondia. Boston: Small, Maynard and Co, 1901.
---, and Richard Hovey. More Songs from Vagabondia. Boston: Copeland and Day. 1896.
Secondary Sources
Hathaway R. H. “The Poetry of Bliss Carman.” The Sewanee Review 33.4 (1925): 469-483.JSTOR Archival Collection.
Hawthorne, Julian. Bliss Carman: 1861-1929. Palo Alto, CA: 1929.
Kennerly, Mitchell. Bliss Carman. N.d. MS. Special Collections Hathaway, Harriet Irving Library, Fredericton.
Lynch, Gerald. Bliss Carman: A Reappraisal. Ottawa: Uof Ottawa P, 1990.
MacKendrick, Louis K. “Bliss Carman.” Profiles in Canadian Literature. Ed. Jeffrey M. Heath. Vol 3. Toronto: Dundern, 1982. 53-56.
Miller, Muriel. Bliss Carman: Quest & Revolt. St. John's, NL: Jesperson Press, 1985.
Roberts, Charles G. D, and Nathaniel A. Benson. Reminiscences of Bliss Carman. Dalhousie Review 10 (1930): 1-9.
Shepard, Odell. Bliss Carman. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1923.
Stephens, Donald. Bliss Carman. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1966.
Stewart, Margaret A. Bliss Carman: Poet, Philosopher, Teacher. Diss. Halifax: Dalhousie U, 1976.
Tremblay, Tony. The Fiddlehead Moment. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 2019. 30-217.
Whalen, Terry. “Bliss Carman.” ECW’s Biographical Guide to Canadian Poets. Toronto: ECW Press, 1993. 55-60.
---. Bliss Carman and His Works. Toronto: ECW Press, 1984.
White, Greenough. “A Pair of Canadian Poets.” The Sewanee Review7.1 (1899): 48-52. JSTOR Archival Collection.
The University of New Brunswick provides over 50 Primary and Secondary sources on Bliss Carman. This is a list of some of the most relevant primary texts found and a variety of secondary texts found. For a more comprehensive list, see also the entry for Bliss Carman on the New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia.
