Ralph Barker Gustafson, CM (16 August 1909 – 29 May 1995) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Bishop's University Bishop's University (french: Université Bishop's) is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebe ...

Biography

He was born in Lime Ridge, near Dudswell,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

on August 16, 1909. His mother was

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, his father, Carl Otto Gustafson, was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

photographer. He was educated at

, earning a B.A. (1st class honours and winner of the Governor General's medal along with many other awards) in 1929 and an M.A. in 1930, with a thesis on

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

and

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

. He also completed a B.A. at Keble College,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1933, an M.A. in 1963. Over the years, Dr. Gustafson held a number of posts. He was music master, Bishop's College School, 1920–30; teacher of English St. Alban's School for Boys,

Brockville, Ontario Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Le ...

, 1933–34; tutor and journalist, London, England, 1935–38;

British Information Services British Information Services (BIS) was an overt propaganda organization that was part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the government of the United Kingdom. BIS was initially formed in 1941 as an organization to promote British interest ...

, New York, N.Y., 1942–46; Professor and Poet-In-Residence, Bishop's University, 1963–79 and music critic, C.B.C., since 1960. Dr. Gustafson wrote over twenty volumes of poetry and prose and edited several anthologies of verse. He died in 1995. His views on poetry are documented in essays collected in ''Plummets and Other Partialities'' (1986), and in letters to W.W.E. Ross published as ''A Literary Friendship'' in 1984. He also was in contact with John Sutherland. Gustafson's early poetry owes a significant debt to

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...

(as evidenced in ''The Golden Chalice'' (1935) and ''Alfred the Great'' (1937)), while

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

, and

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

were important influences on his later work. In 1942, Gustafson edited the ''Anthology of Canadian Poetry'' which developed into the ''Penguin Book of Canadian Verse'' in 1958, both volumes a reflection of his extensive studies on the history of Canadian poetry.

Recognition

Gustafson won the Governor General's Award 1974 for ''Fire on Stone''. He was appointed to the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

in 1992. He was awarded a D. Litt. from

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839. Like other liberal arts colleges in North America, Mount Allison does not parti ...

in 1973, a D.C.L. from Bishop's University in 1977, and a D. Litt from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

in 1991. ''Winter Prophecies'' (1998) is a documentary profile (29 min.) on Gustafson's life and art directed by Donald Winkler and produced by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

(NFB).

Works

*''The Golden Chalice'' (London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson, 1935) *''Alfred the Great'' (London: Michael Joseph, 1937) *''Epithalamium in Time of War'' (New York: L. F. White, 1941) *''Lyrics Unromantic'' (New York: Privately printed, 1942) *''Flight into Darkness: Poems'' (New York: Pantheon, 1944) *''Quebec, Late Autumn'' (Offprint from ''Queen's Quarterly'', 1950) *''Quebec Winter Scene'' (Offprint from ''Dalhousie Review'', 1952) *''Hard Litany'' (Offprint from the ''Dalhousie Review'', 1953) *''Rivers Among Rocks'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1960) *''Rocky Mountain Poems'' (Vancouver: Klanak, 1960) *''Sift in an Hourglass'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1966) *''Ixion's Wheel: Poems'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1969) *''Selected Poems'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972) *''Theme and Variations for Sounding Brass'' (Sherbrooke, P.Q.: Progressive Publications, 1972) *''Fire on Stone'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974) *''Corners in the Glass'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977) *''Soviet Poems: Sept. 13 to Oct. 5, 1976'' (Winnipeg: Turnstone, 1978) *''Gradations of Grandeur: a Poem'' (Victoria: Sono Nis, 1979) *''Sequences: Poems'' (Windsor, Ont.: Black Moss, 1979) *''Landscape with Rain'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980) *''Nine Poems'' (Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, 1980) *''The Remarkable Heavens'' (Lantzville, B.C.: Oolichan Books, 1980) *''Conflicts of Spring'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981) *''Dentelle / Indented: Poems'' (Trans. Roland Sutherland, et al. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Colorado College Press, 1982) *''The Moment is All: Selected Poems, 1944-83'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1983) *''Solidarnosc: Prelude'' (Sherbrooke, Que.: Progressive Publications, 1983) *''At the Ocean's Verge: Selected Poems'' (Ed. John Walsh. Literary Series. Redding Ridge, Conn.: Black Swan, 1984) *''Directives of Autumn'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1984) *''Impromptus'' (Lantzville, B.C.: Oolichan Books, 1984) *''Twelve Landscapes'' (Toronto: Shaw Street, 1985) *''Manipulations on Greek Themes: Poems'' (Toronto: Ascham, 1986) *''Collected Poems'' (Victoria, B.C.: Sono Nis, 1987) *''Winter Prophecies'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987) *''The Celestial Corkscrew and Other Strategies'' (Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic, 1989) *''Shadows in the Grass: Poems'' (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1991) *''Configurations at Midnight'' (Toronto: ECW, 1992) *''Collected Poems Vol. 3'' (Victoria, B.C.: Sono Nis, 1994) *''Tracks in the Snow'' (Lantzville, B.C.: Oolichan, 1994) *''Visions Fugitive'' (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 1996)

References

*McCarthy, Dermot. ''A Poetics of Place: The Poetry of Ralph Gustafson'' (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991) *Whiteman, Bruce, ed. ''A Literary Friendship: The Correspondence of Ralph Gustafson and W.W.E. Ross.'' (Toronto: ECW, 1984)

External links

Ralph Gustafson fonds
a
Queen's University ArchivesRalph Gustafson's
entry in

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

Oolichan Books

Biography

Recognition

Works

References

External links

See also