Poetry
The Colour of the Times
Raymond Souster · 1964
Synopsis
Two hundred and fifty-six short poems, collected and in part revised, that speak above all of Toronto: a street on a Saturday night, a courtroom, a bridge over the Don River, but also a summer evening in Cape Breton and a square in Montreal. The dispossessed pass through them, drunks and street-corner girls; love and the urban night return, and war appears as absolute evil. A tame rabbit and a thrush take up a few lines.
Context
The volume appeared in Toronto from Ryerson in 1964, with the subtitle of collected poems; it replaces a first selection published in 1956 by Contact Press, of which it retains only half the pieces, and Louis Dudek, who had made that first selection, reviewed it in Canadian Literature. In the second half of the sixties the author set about rewriting his early poems, work from which came the ten volumes of his poetic works from Oberon Press, in Ottawa.
Who it is for
A dense collection of very short pieces, to be dipped into at random; the language is simple and familiar.
Prizes and reception
Governor General's Award for poetry for 1964; the volume went through five successive printings with its publisher.
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