- Wilson MacDonald
Wilson Pugsley MacDonald (
May 5 1880 -April 8 1967 ) was a popularCanadian poet. He was born inCheapside, Ontario .MacDonald, like George Moore before him, or
A. Edward Newton , was an author whose books are seldom found unsigned. He very correctly understood that the fine art of self-promotion and the cult of personality would sell his books even if the poems themselves were second-rate. Thus, he made a career of travelling from town to town giving readings and signing books.His verse in Caw-Caw Ballads and Paul Marchand and Other Poems, was often in the stereotyped voice of the French-Canadian attempting English, and considered more entertaining fare if heard rather than read.
For the modern reader there are bits and pieces of his work that stand the test of time. The title poem of his collection "Out of the Wilderness" has something of the strength of Walt Whitman - "I, a vagabond, gypsy, lover forever of freedom,/ Come to you who are arrogant, proud, and fevered with civilization - / Come with a tonic of sunlight, bottled in wild careless acres,/ To cure you with secrets as old as the breathing of men.
Works
*"Song Of The Prairie Land" (1918)
*"The Miracle Songs Of Jesus" (1921)
*"Out Of The Wilderness" (1926)
*"An Ode On The Diamond Jubilee Of Confederation" (c1927)
*"Caw-Caw Ballads" (1930)
*"A Flagon Of Beauty" (1931)
*"Paul Marchand and Other Poems" (1933)
*"Quintrains Of "Callender"(1935)
*"The Song Of The Undertow" (1935)
*"Comber Cove" (1937)
*"Greater Poems Of The Bible" (1943)
*"Armand Dussault" (1946)
*"The Lyric Year" (1952)
*"Monsieur Joliat"
*"Pugwash" (1959)
*"The Angels Of The Earth" (1963)External links
* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004872 Wilson MacDonald's] entry in [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=HomePage&Params=A1 The Canadian Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.bookrags.com/biography/wilson-pugsley-macdonald-dlb/ Wilson MacDonald's] entry in [http://www.bookrags.com/biography/ BookRag's Dictionary of Literary Biography]
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