The White Canoe and Other Verse - Alan SULLIVAN

This early collection of Alan Sullivan's work is from the pen of a young Canadian author who portrays Canada's short Summer season as the voyage through a Summer of life in an allegorical "white canoe". During that voyage Sullivan shares with the reader his expressions of joy, loss, doubt, uncertainty and hope for a blissful conclusion. Sullivan's later career would embrace classic and unique depictions of the early development of his country, winning a Governor General's Award for his 1941 novel "Three Came to Ville Marie" (Sullivan's 1891 poem "Fifty Years Hence" included in "The White Canoe and Other Verse" seems curiously prescient in this regard). This selection of a nascent Alan Sullivan's poems makes an important contribution to the work of Canadian poets of this era. - Summary by Bruce Kachuk