In the history of Canadian poetry, one may see three distinct phases, namely, Confederation to the World War I, the 1920s to the World War II, and the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first century. The Canadian poets who appeared during the first phase were largely influenced by the English Romantics and the early Victorians, and looked for themes in their own natural landscape. The poets of the second phase, with the emergence of modernism, created an outlet for the new poetry and reflected their fascination with the sea and with the impersonal violence of nature. But it is only in the third phase, Canadian poetry has undergone radical change with the contribution of poets like Earle Birney and others. These poets exhibited a new social awareness and came out with experimental poetry characterized by cosmopolitanism, metaphysical strains, symbolism, and so on. An attempt is made in the present paper to examine Earle Birney’s three poems—“David,” “November Walk,” and “The Bear on the Delhi Road.” They are extracted from three of his representative anthologies David and Other Poems (1942), Near False Creek Mouth (1964), and Fall and Fury (1978) which show Birney’s encyclopedic knowledge on Canadian subjects and also virtually every part of the globe.

For the sake of convenience, Canadian poetry can be categorized into three phases, namely, Confederation to the World War I, the 1920s to the World War II, and the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first century.

Inspired by the English Romantics’ and early Victorians’ love for nature, the Canadian poets of the Confederation School, such as Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, Duncan Campbell Scott, and Isabella Valancy Crawford, looked for themes in their own natural landscape. The poets of the second phase became critical of Canadian values, a tendency strengthened by the Canadian experience of the Great Depression and the World War I. An outlet for the ‘new poetry’ and the emergence of modernism was created in literary publications, namely, The Canadian Forum (1920) and Montreal’s McGill Fortnightly Review (1925-27). Edwin John Pratt was one of the finest poets of this period, and his poetry reflects his fascination with the sea, his sense of the impersonal violence of nature, and his fundamentally tragic world view.

But Canadian poetry has undergone radical change in the third phase with the contributions made by Earle Birney, Al Purdy, Dorothy Livesay, and Irving Layton. The poetry of these writers describes their experiences, Canadian landscape, and their commitment to feminism. They broke the tradition of descriptive nature poem, exhibiting a new social awareness and experimenting with new techniques characterized by cosmopolitanism, metaphysical strains, symbolism, and so on. Women poets like Jay Macpherson, P. K. Page, Anne Wilkinson, and Margaret Avison also contributed to the growth of Canadian poetry.

American Literature Journal, Amor in Pound, Classical European Literature, Homosexuality, Diastasis, Olga-Circe-Artemis, Heterosexual Love, Homosexual Love.