Irving Layton Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Rowland Smith

Critical Essay by Rowland Smith

SOURCE: Smith, Rowland. “Now Are the Winged Insects Better Off: Nature, Imagery, and Reflection in Archibald Lampman and Irving Layton.” World Literature Today 73, no. 2 (spring 1999): 283-88.

In the following essay, Smith argues that a culturally derived “poetic instinct” bridges the work of Layton and fellow Canadian poet Archibald Lampman.

At first glance, Archibald Lampman and Irving Layton would appear to share little except nationality. The differences in the moods and tones of their poetry are so pronounced that they could be seen to represent, irreconcilably, the milieus of their respective ages: the Confederation poet dreaming away in a rhapsodic communion with the larger-than-life Canada of the late nineteenth century, and the egotistical Montreal slum child celebrating his own vitality in opposition to the stifling conformity and materialism of mid-twentieth-century mass culture. And there would be some truth in this view.

My aim in this essay is, nevertheless,...
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