Charles G. D. Roberts
Biography
Sir Charles G. D. Roberts
Sir Charles G. D. Roberts was born on January 10, 1860 in Douglas, New Brunswick, though he was raised in Westcock, New Brunswick. He was homeschooled mostly by his father, and had his first work published at age twelve. Roberts had two siblings; a brother, Theodore, and a sister, Jane, both of whom also became authors. Roberts attended university in New Brunswick, attaining his B.A. at Fredericton Collegiate School his M.A. at the University of New Brunswick, where he gained his love for classical writing.
Roberts was the principal of Chatham High School (1879-1881), and married Mary Fenety in 1890 and together they had five children. Roberts worked and traveled around Canada for several years before becoming a freelance writer in New York in 1897, leaving his wife and children behind. He wrote for about 10 years before moving to Europe, where he enlisted in the British Army and became a captain.
Roberts returned to Canada in 1925 and became a member of the Halifax literary group, “The Song Fishermen.” He married his second wife, Joan Montgomery, in 1943, but became ill shortly after, and died in Toronto. His ashes were sent to Forest Hill Cemetery in Fredericton, NB.
Roberts not only wrote an extensive amount of poetry and prose, but he also promoted the works of other authors within Canada. Because of his contributions to the literary field, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts is often referred to as the “Father of Canadian Poetry.”
Roberts was the principal of Chatham High School (1879-1881), and married Mary Fenety in 1890 and together they had five children. Roberts worked and traveled around Canada for several years before becoming a freelance writer in New York in 1897, leaving his wife and children behind. He wrote for about 10 years before moving to Europe, where he enlisted in the British Army and became a captain.
Roberts returned to Canada in 1925 and became a member of the Halifax literary group, “The Song Fishermen.” He married his second wife, Joan Montgomery, in 1943, but became ill shortly after, and died in Toronto. His ashes were sent to Forest Hill Cemetery in Fredericton, NB.
Roberts not only wrote an extensive amount of poetry and prose, but he also promoted the works of other authors within Canada. Because of his contributions to the literary field, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts is often referred to as the “Father of Canadian Poetry.”
Additional Information:
Author's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_G._D._Roberts
Jean Michaud’s Little Ship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnlqMbfVQ8
The Young Ravens that Call Upon Him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnlqMbfVQ8
“The Barn on the Marsh”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7O4PLwGo8
“From the Teeth of the Tide”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHrRwVXijw
*Various Poem recordings found on www.poemhunter.com
Author's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_G._D._Roberts
Jean Michaud’s Little Ship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnlqMbfVQ8
The Young Ravens that Call Upon Him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnlqMbfVQ8
“The Barn on the Marsh”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7O4PLwGo8
“From the Teeth of the Tide”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHrRwVXijw
*Various Poem recordings found on www.poemhunter.com
Poem: "In an Old Barn"
Tons upon tons the brown-green fragrant hay
O'erbrims the mows beyond the time-warped eaves,
Up to the rafters where the spider weaves,
Though few flies wander his secluded way.
Through a high chink one lonely golden ray,
Wherein the dust is dancing, slants unstirred.
In the dry husk some rustlings light are heard,
Of winter-hidden mice at furtive play.
Far down, the cattle in their shadowed stalls,
Nose-deep in clover fodder's meadowy scent,
Forget the snows that whelm their pasture streams,
The frost that bites the world beyond their walls.
Warm housed, they dream of summer, well content
In day-long contemplation of their dreams.
Published in Selected Poetry and Critical Prose (University of Toronto Press, 1974).
Used with permission of Public Domain.
Critical Analysis: Roberts' necessary shelter yet beautiful prison in "In an Old Barn"
Dustin Flagg (for ENGL 3103, Advanced Poetry Workshop) and Monica Grasse (ACPA Managing Editor, 2015)
Like many sonnets, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts’ poem “The Old Barn” conveys a greater meaning than its slight length would indicate. The poem is set in an animal-filled barn during the winter season. Because the snow covers the pastures, the animals are mued up in their wooden home. However, the scents of summer remain, causing the animals to forget the outside world. Thus, the outside that these animals cherish has been captured within the walls surrounding them.
“The Old Barn” captures the similarity between how animals and humans tend to act. Humans take what they desire, bottle it up in their own little prisons (homes), and never let it go. They shut out the world around them to focus only on what they have. The sustainability of human existence could very well be at risk, but those cooped up in their “barns” are unaware.
The very description of Roberts’ barn dancing with dust, the echoing slight rustlings, and playing animals makes it seem like a beautiful paradise. The residents of this microcosm have what they need and therefore do not need to consider the outside world. The barn is a necessary shelter but also a beautiful prison.
Beyond the description of Roberts’ barn is his poetic structure, which lends as much meaning to the poem as does its poetic devices. “The Old Barn” is a variation on the Petrarchan sonnet, meaning it consists of an octave of the abbaabba rhyme scheme and a sestet of the cdbcdb rhyme scheme with a turn at the end. The rhyme scheme is clear to readers, just as the contrary meaning in the turn evidently changes the perspective of the poem:
Forget the snows that whelm their pasture streams,
The frost that bites the world beyond their walls.
Warm housed, they dream of summer, well content
In day-long contemplation of their dreams (36).
Here, Roberts identifies the view that the barn is a prison, but also alludes to the comfort the animals find in their confinement. Because of this contentment and the personification of the animals’ feelings, this poem is also seen as a pastoral poem. As defined, the pastoral poem glorifies the life of the lowly; in this particular case, glorification is given to the animals who otherwise had never been considered in such a light. Furthermore, readers see the situation of the animals change as the poem moves from the “time-warped eaves” covered in “[t]ons upon tons” of hay to the “far down” cows “in their shadowed stalls” (1-2, 9).
Roberts’ two demonstrations of meaning in “The Old Barn” brings readers to understand the similarities between how humans and animals act. Particularly, readers are brought to understand that although simple, this poem is much like the barn; it is a beautiful prison of structure that brings meaning to its captives.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Roberts, Charles G. D. Selected Poetry and Critical Prose. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974. Print.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Roberts, Charles G.D. Around the Campfire. Illus. Charles Copeland. Toronto: T.Y. Cromwell, 1896. Print.
---. Autochthon. Windsor: n.p., 1889. Print.
---. Babes of the Wild. New York: Cassell, 1912. Print.
---. A Balkan Prince. London: Everett, 1913. Print.
---. Barbara Ladd. Illus. Frank Ver Beck. Boston: L.C. Page, 1902. Print.
---. The Backwoodsmen. New York: Macmillan, 1909. Print.
---. The Book of the Native. Toronto: Copp, Clark, 1896. Print.
---. The Book of the Rose. Toronto: Copp, Clark, 1903. Print.
---. By the Marshes of Minas. Toronto: Copp, Clark, 1899. Print.
---. Canada in Flanders: The Story of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Vol 3. Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916. Print.
---. Canada Speaks of Britain. Toronto: Ryerson, 1941. Print.
---. The Canadian Guide-Book: The Tourist's and Sportsman's Guide to Eastern Canada and Newfoundland. New York: D. Appleton, 1891. Print.
---. Children of the Wild. Illus. Paul Bransom. New York: Macmillan, 1913. Print.
---. Cock-Crow. New York: n.p., 1916. Print.
---. The Collected Letters of Charles G.D. Roberts. Ed. Laurel Boone. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 1989. Print.
---. Discoveries and Explorations in the Century. Philadelphia: Bradley-Garretson Co., 1903. Print.
---. Earth’s Enigmas: A Book of Animal and Nature Life. Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Boston: L.C. Page, 1910. Print.
---. Eyes of the Wilderness. Toronto: Macmillan, 1933. Print.
---. The Feet of the Furtive. Illus. Paul Bransom. London: Ward, Lock, 1912. Print.
---. The Forge in the Forest : Being the Narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Seigneur de Briart; and How He Crossed the Black Abbe; and of His Adventures in a Strange Fellowship. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1896. Print.
---. “Francis Sherman.” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada 3. Vol. 28. Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada, 1934.
---. Further Animal Stories. London: J.M. & Sons, 1935. Print.
---. “The Haunter of the Pine Gloom.” Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Roberts' Animal Stories; Cosy Corner Series. Boston: L.C. Page, 1904. Print.
---. The Haunters of Silence: A Book of Animal Life. Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1907. Print.
---. The Heart of the Ancient Wood. Boston: L. C. Page, 1900.
---. The Heart that Knows. Toronto: Copp, Clark, 1906. Print.
---. A History of Canada. Boston: Lamson, Wolffe, 1897. Print.
---. Hoof and Claw. Illus. Paul Bransom. London: Ward, Lock, 1913. Print.
---. The House in the Water: A Book of Animal Stories. Illus, Charles Livingston Bull and Frank Vining Smith. Boston: L.C. Page, 1908. Print.
---. The Iceberg and Other Poems. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1934. Print.
---. In the Deep of the Snow. Illus. Denman Fink. Toronto: Musson, 1907. Print.
---. In Divers Tones. Montreal: D. Lothrop and Co., 1886. Print.
---. In the Morning of Time. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1919. Print.
---. Jim: The Story of a Backwoods Police Dog. New York: Macmillan, 1918. Print.
---. The Kindred of the Wild. Boston: Page, 1902. Print.
---. “The King of Mamozekel.” Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Roberts' Animal Stories; Cosy Corner Series. Boston: L.C. Page, 1904. Print.
---. King of Beasts and Other Stories. Ed. Joseph Gold. Toronto: Ryerson, 1967. Print.
---. Kings in Exile. London: Ward, Lock, 1907. Print.
---. The Land of Evangeline and the Gateways Thither. Kentville: Dominion Atlantic RailwayCo., 1890. Print.
---. The Last Barrier and Other Stories. New Canadian Library 7. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1958. Print.
---. Later Poems. Fredericton: C. Roberts, 1881. Print.
---. Lines for an Omar Punch-Bowl: (to C.B.). New York: De Vinne Press, 1891. Print.
---. “The Little People of the Sycamore.” Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Roberts' Animal Stories; Cosy Corner Series. Boston: L.C. Page, 1906. Print.
---. “The Lord of the Air.” Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Roberts' Animal Stories. Boston: L. C. Page, 1904. Print.
---. “More Animal Stories.” The King's Treasuries of Literature. London: J.M. Dent, 1922. Print.
---. More Kindred of the Wild. London: Ward, Lock, 1910. Print.
---. The Morning of the Silver Frost. New York: n.p., 1916. Print.
---. Neighbours Unknown. Illus. Paul Bransom. London: Ward, Lock, 1910. Print.
---. New Poems. London: Constable, 1919. Print.
---. New York Nocturnes, and Other Poems. Boston: Lamson and Wolffe, 1898. Print.
---. Orion, and Other Poems. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1880. Print.
---. The Prisoner of Mademoiselle, a Love Story. Boston: L.C. Page, 1904. Print.
---. The Raid from Béausejour; and, How the Carter Boys Lifted the Mortgage: Two Stories of Acadie. Toronto: Musson, 1894. Print.
---. “Red Fox.” Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Scholastic Book Services Series T66. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1905. Print.
---. Red Oxen of Bonval. New York: Dood, Mead, 1908. Print.
---. “The Return to the Trails.” Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Roberts' Animal Stories; Cosy Corner Series. Boston: L.C. Page, 1905. Print.
---. Reube Dare's Shad Boat: A Tale of the Tide Country. New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1895. Print.
---. The Secret Trails. Illus. Paul Bransom and Warwick Reynolds. London: Ward, Lock, 1916. Print.
---. The Selected Poems of Charles G.D. Roberts. Toronto: Ryerson, 1936. Print.
---. The Selected Poems of Charles G.D. Roberts. Ed. Desmond Pacey. Ottawa: Tecumseh, 1955. Print.
---. Selected Poetry and Critical Prose. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974. Print.
---. A Sister to Evangeline: Being a Story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and How She Went Into ExileWith the Villagers of Grand Pré. Boston: Lamson and Co., 1898. Print.
---. Some Animal Stories. London: J.M. Dent, 1921. Print.
---. Songs of the Common Day and Ave!: An Ode for the Shelley Centenary. Toronto: W. Briggs; Montréal: C.W. Coates, 1893. Print.
---. Spirit of Beauty. N.p., 1930. Print.
---. The Sweet o' the Year. Ryerson Poetry Chapbooks. Toronto: Ryerson. Print.
---. They Who Walk in the Wilds. New York: Macmillan, 1924. Print.
---. Thirteen Bears. Illus. John A Hall. Ed. Ethel Hume Bennett. Toronto: Ryerson, 1947. Print.
---. Twilight Over Shaugamauk. Toronto, Ryerson, 1937. Print.
---. Vagrants of the Barren and Other Stories of Charles G.D. Roberts. Ed. Martin Ware. Ottawa, Tecumseh, 1992. Print.
---. The Watchers of the Trails: A Book of Animal Life. Illus. Charles Livingston Bull. Boston: L.C. Page, 1904. Print.
---. Wisdom of the Wilderness. New York: Macmillan, 1923. Print.
---. Poems of Wild Life. The Canterbury Poets. London: W Scott. Print.
Roberts, Chalres G.D. and Arthur L. Tunnell, eds. A Standard Dictionary of Canadian Biography: The Canadian Who Was Who. 2 vols. Toronto: Trans-Canada Press, 1934-8. Print.
Roberts, Charles G.D. and Nathaniel A. Benson. "Reminiscences of Bliss Carman." Halifax: Dalhousie Review, 1930. 409-17. Print.
Roberts, William Carmam, Theodore Roberts and Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald.Northland Lyrics. Ed. Charles G.D. Roberts. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1899. Print.
Secondary Sources
Adams, John Coldwell. Sir Charles God Damn: The Life of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1986. Print.
Aubert de Gaspé, Phillipe. The Canadians Of Old: An Historical Romance. Trans. Charles G.D. Roberts. Toronto: Hart & Co., 1891. Print.
Beaverbrook, Baron Max Aitken. Canada in Flanders. Vol. 1. The Story of the Canadian Expeditionary. The Confederation Group of Poets, 1880-1897. Toronto: U of Toronto. 2004. Print.
---. Canada in Flanders. Vol. 2. The Story of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The Confederation Group of Poets, 1880-1897. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2004. Print.
Cappon, James. Charles G.D. Roberts and the Influences of His Time. Nepean: Tecumseh Press, 1975. Print.
Conway, Charles Donald. "Sufficient Vision: A Reading Of The Poetry And Prose Fiction Of Charles G. D. Roberts." Dissertation Abstracts International 43.8 (1983): 2673A-2674a. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2015.
Clever, Glenn, ed. The Sir Charles G.D. Roberts Symposium. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984. Print.
Cogswell, Fred. Charles G.D. Roberts and His Works. Toronto: ECW Press, 1983. Print.
Dean, Misao. "Political Science: Realism In Roberts's Animal Stories (1996)." Greening the Maple: Canadian Ecocriticism in Context. 369-86. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2013. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2015.
Dunlap, Thomas R. “‘The Old Kinship of Earth’: Science, Man and Nature in the Animal Stories of Charles G.D. Roberts.” Journal of Canadian Studies 22 (1987): 104-20. Print.
Early, L.R. “‘An Old World Radiance’: Roberts’ Orion and Other Poems.” Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews 8 (Spring/Summer 1981): 8-32. Print.
Gold, Joseph. “The Precious Speck of Life.” Canadian Literature 26 (1965): 22-32. Print.
Fiamengo, Janice Anne. "Looking At Animals, Encountering Mystery: The Wild Animal Stories Of Ernest Thompson Seton And Charles G. D. Roberts." Journal Of Canadian Studies/Revue D'etudes Canadiennes 44.1 (2010): 36-59. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2015.
Hodd, Thomas. “Charles G.D. Roberts’s Cosmic Animals: Aspects of ‘Mythticism’ in Earth’s Enigmas.” Other Selves: Animals in the Canadian Literary Imagination. Ed. Janice Fiamengo. Ottawa: U of Ottawa P, 2007. 184-205. Print.
Hodd, Thomas Patrick. "Unearthing The Enigma: Sir Charles G. D. Roberts And The Supernatural." Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities And Social Sciences 68.4 (2007): 1466-467. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2015.
Leisner, August R., Laurel Boone, and Dorothy Roberts Leisner. "Charles G. D. Roberts: Mystical Poet." Studies In Canadian Literature/Etudes En Litterature Canadienne 9.2 (1984): 267-95. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2015.
Lennox, John. “Roberts, Realism, and the Animal Story.” Journal of Canadian Fiction 2 (1973):121-23.
MacLulich, T.D. “The Animal Story and the ‘Nature Faker’ Controversy.” Essays on Canadian Writing 33 (Fall 1986): 112-24. Print.
MacMillan, Carrie, ed. The Proceedings of the Sir Charles G.D. Roberts Symposium. Sackville: 1984. Print.
Morrell, A. C. "Symbolism And Spatial Patterning In Four Short Stories By Charles G.D. Roberts." Studies In Canadian Literature 5 (1980): 138-51. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2015.
Pacey, Desmond. “Sir Charles G.D. Roberts.” Ten Canadian Poets. Toronto: Ryerson, 1958. 34-58. Print.
Pomeroy, Elsie. Sir Charles G.D. Roberts: A Biography. Toronto: Ryerson, 1943. Print.
Roberts, Lloyd. The Book of Roberts. Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1923. Print.
Strong, William. "Charles G.D. Roberts' 'The Tantramar Revisited'." Canadian Poetry 3.(1978): 26-37. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2015.
Ware, Tracy. “Remembering It All Well: ‘The Tantramar Revisited’.” Studies in Canadian Literature 8.2 (1983): 221-37. Print.
Whalen, Terry. Charles G.D. Roberts and His Works. Toronto: ECW Press, 1989. Print.
Some Primary and Secondary Sources Courtesy of the NB Literary Encyclopedia.
