Highways of Canadian Literature

Name: Highways of Canadian Literature
Author: Logan, J. D. (John Daniel)

Logan, J. D. (John Daniel)

Canadian literature -- History and criticism

Carman could not have written _Vestigia_ at that period. For that poem
is based on an immediate _sense_-intuition of God in Nature and in the
heart of Man. It was his gradual negation of the categories of science
and metaphysics and vacuous pseudo-mysticism, and an instinctive return
to an intuitive perception of the meaning of Beauty in Nature and Love
and Religion that cleared his vision, and gave him a sure and clear
understanding of the supremacy of the Good or God, and that thus won for
him triumphant spiritual Faith, Joy in existence, and Peace with God.
This is the true mysticism, the true union with God.

It is an interesting excursion in spiritual history to trace Carman’s
gradual escape from ‘mystical mystification’ into the triumphant faith
of true, earth-born, sense-perceived mysticism, as in _Behind the Arras_
(1895), _By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies_ (1898), _Last Songs
from Vagabondia_ (1901), _From the Book of Myths_ (1902), _From the Book
of Valentine_s (1905), and _Collected Poems_ (1904). It was a
‘mystified’ Carman who wrote _Pulvis et Umbra_. It was a truly mystical
Carman, possessed of a triumphant faith who a full twenty years
afterwards wrote _Te Deum_, the concluding verses of which follow:—

    So I will pass through the lovely world, and partake of beauty to feed
      my soul.
    With earth my domain and growth my portion, how should I sue for a
      further dole?
    In the lift I feel of immortal rapture, in the flying glimpse I gain
      of truth,
    Released is the passion that sought perfection, assuaged the ardor of
      dreamful youth.

    The patience of time shall teach me courage, the strength of the sun
      shall lend me poise.
    I would give thanks for the autumn glory, for the teaching of earth
      and all her joys.
    Her fine fruition shall well suffice me; the air shall stir in my
      veins like wine;
    While the moment waits and the wonder deepens, my life shall merge
      with the life divine.

The immediate sense-perception of God through Beauty and the acceptance
of Beauty as a factual proof of the union of the Soul with Nature, of
the Real with the Ideal, and thus a proof of the supremacy of Good in
the universe—this is the formula of Carman’s philosophical ‘reading’ of
Nature and Existence. Always a poet of fine and assured artistry and of
lyrical eloquence and spiritual power, Bliss Carman stands alone amongst
Canadian poets as a verbal melodist, as a lyrist of love and the sea,
and as a mystical interpreter of the moral and spiritual meaning of
nature and existence. As an original verbal melodist and poetic
impressionist and as an unexampled creator of songs of the sea, Bliss
Carman has added significantly to English and to world poetry and to
him, therefore, we may apply the distinction Great.

                 *        *        *        *        *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Highways of Canadian LiteratureLogan, J. D. (John Daniel)

History

Highways of Canadian Literature

Logan, J. D. (John Daniel)

Canadian literature -- History and criticism

Carman could not have written _Vestigia_ at that period. For that poem
is based on an immediate _sense_-intuition of God in Nature and in the
heart of Man. It was his gradual negation of the categories of science
and metaphysics and vacuous pseudo-mysticism, and an instinctive return
to an intuitive perception of the meaning of Beauty in Nature and Love
and Religion that cleared his vision, and gave him a sure and clear
understanding of the supremacy of the Good or God, and that thus won for
him triumphant spiritual Faith, Joy in existence, and Peace with God.
This is the true mysticism, the true union with God.

It is an interesting excursion in spiritual history to trace Carman’s
gradual escape from ‘mystical mystification’ into the triumphant faith
of true, earth-born, sense-perceived mysticism, as in _Behind the Arras_
(1895), _By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies_ (1898), _Last Songs
from Vagabondia_ (1901), _From the Book of Myths_ (1902), _From the Book
of Valentine_s (1905), and _Collected Poems_ (1904). It was a
‘mystified’ Carman who wrote _Pulvis et Umbra_. It was a truly mystical
Carman, possessed of a triumphant faith who a full twenty years
afterwards wrote _Te Deum_, the concluding verses of which follow:—

    So I will pass through the lovely world, and partake of beauty to feed
      my soul.
    With earth my domain and growth my portion, how should I sue for a
      further dole?
    In the lift I feel of immortal rapture, in the flying glimpse I gain
      of truth,
    Released is the passion that sought perfection, assuaged the ardor of
      dreamful youth.

    The patience of time shall teach me courage, the strength of the sun
      shall lend me poise.
    I would give thanks for the autumn glory, for the teaching of earth
      and all her joys.
    Her fine fruition shall well suffice me; the air shall stir in my
      veins like wine;
    While the moment waits and the wonder deepens, my life shall merge
      with the life divine.

The immediate sense-perception of God through Beauty and the acceptance
of Beauty as a factual proof of the union of the Soul with Nature, of
the Real with the Ideal, and thus a proof of the supremacy of Good in
the universe—this is the formula of Carman’s philosophical ‘reading’ of
Nature and Existence. Always a poet of fine and assured artistry and of
lyrical eloquence and spiritual power, Bliss Carman stands alone amongst
Canadian poets as a verbal melodist, as a lyrist of love and the sea,
and as a mystical interpreter of the moral and spiritual meaning of
nature and existence. As an original verbal melodist and poetic
impressionist and as an unexampled creator of songs of the sea, Bliss
Carman has added significantly to English and to world poetry and to
him, therefore, we may apply the distinction Great.

                 *        *        *        *        *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Highways of Canadian Literature

Highways of Canadian Literature

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