Definitely a subject for further study is the poet George Frederick Cameron, much of whose work not only is unpublished at present but never was in print even during his lifetime. In fact the only volume of Cameron's poetry ever to appear, Lyrics on Freedom, Love and Death (1887), was published two years after his death. Chronologically, Cameron belongs to the Confederation generation of poets, along with Charles G. D. Roberts, Archibald Lampman, and Bliss Carman; but the nature of his work is different from theirs. Furthermore, opinion is still divided as to exactly what he accomplished in his departure from the mainstream of Canadian poetry.

George Frederick Cameron, the son of James Grant Cameron, a carpenter, and his wife, Jessie Sutherland Cameron, was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, on 24 September 1854. His maternal grandfather had been New Glasgow's first shipbuilder. Before age fourteen Cameron had read most of...