Margaret Avison has always been a relatively unknown poet, except among readers and critics of Canadian verse. Since 1966, critical essays on her work have increased, but the verbal and imaginative co...
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Ghiselin is an American educator, poet, essayist, and critic. Below, he reviews Five Poems—a collection of poems that were first published in Poetry in September, 1947—commenting on them...
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Garebian is a Canadian educator and critic. In the following excerpt, he favorably reviews Winter Sun/The Dumbfounding: Poems 1940–1966.
Margaret Avison can be so coolly cerebral, so subtly ...
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In the following essay, Kertzer examines language and meaning in Avison's poetry.
Surveying the literary scene in 1959, Margaret Avison wrote: "Any Canadian writer, for example, is aw...
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In the essay below, Avison discusses poetry writing, focusing on language, form, and religion.
The impulse to write a poem occurs in human context—and can be a pulsation in darkness or in li...
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In the excerpt below, Lenhart suggests similarities between Avison's work and that of the 17th-century metaphysical and meditational poets.
I was attracted to Margaret Avison's book [...
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In the following review of Selected Poems, Bowering remarks on Avison's place in Canadian literature and the subjects of her poetry.
Margaret Avison's poems were anthologized in A. J....
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In the following essay, Calverly provides a detailed reading of "Dispersed Titles."
Margaret Avison likes to challenge her audience with riddling ambiguities. After an initial reading...
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In the essay below, Calverley argues that "Snow," "Tennis," "Unbroken Lineage," and "Butterfly Bones" form a sonnet sequence and that Avison�...
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In the following essay, Wilson surveys Avison's poetry, remarking on the poet's themes and style and noting her interest in space and perspective.
For most readers of Canadian poetry,...
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New is a Canadian educator, critic, and poet. In the essay below, he discusses theme and style in Avison's poetry, focusing on ambiguity, identity, sense, and perception.
Even with all the i...
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Bowering is a Canadian poet, novelist, short story writer, and critic. In the following essay, he discusses theme and the image of Christ and the artist presented in Avison's poetry.
In a re...
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In the following essay, Doerksen focuses on religious and spiritual themes in Avison's work, which he describes as a poetry of "spiritual quest and discovery."
In "Love ...
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In the essay below, Zezulka provides a thematic analysis of "Dispersed Titles," noting Avison's concern with nature, modern technology, and humankind's place in the world.
...
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In the following essay, Zichy examines style and imagery in several of Avison's poems, focusing on the relationship between confinement and liberation.
My immediate subject is a group of poe...
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In the essay below, Kertzer provides a thematic analysis of "The Agnes Cleves Papers," focusing on the protagonist's search for meaning.
In a letter [to Cid Corman] of March, 1...
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Smith was a Canadian educator and poet. Below, he offers a favorable review of Winter Sun, concluding: "rarely has a poet so compactly and richly identified sensation and thought."
In...
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Margaret Avison
Critical Review by Brewster Ghiselin
