Getting introduced to Canadian literature and poetry

I was never familiar with Canadian literature or heard very much about Canadian authors. My first introduction to Canadian poetry happened in English class. The class was assigned to read the poem, The Woman in This Poem by Bronwen Wallece. The author was born in Kingston, Ontario in 1945 and she studied at Queen’s University; she became a committed activist for women’s rights in the second wave of the feminist movement in North America. Bronwen Wallece was an advocate and a spokes person for the inequality of laws and social expectation of a woman’s role in society. She chose poetry and short stories writhing to convey that probably the triggering point for her writing. Wallece focused her poetry and her short stories on women and their daily lives. Her work often depicts theme of the illusion and realities of life in the world of the ordinary women. The author often questions the social expectation of the women in their role of the housekeeper who should be happy in “her spotless kitchen” and reveals secret desires for happiness and love, physical and the emotional complexities of life.

The poem, The Woman in this Poem begins with a description of the woman’s life; the woman’s thought of romance which then leads into her kitchen and her realities. The writer then, takes readers into a more dramatic path and into death. At the end of this poem, the author reminds us of that illusion and reality and how it exists in our lives. She writes, “when we stop in the middle of an ordinary day and like the woman in this poem begin to feel our own deaths rising slow within us”.   

My interest in Canadian literature and poetry was ignited by studying this poem, especially the author’s views and interpretations of the social expectations of women and their role in Canadian society.