Milton Acorn: In Love and Anger

294 Pages·1999·19.81 MB·English

by  Richard Lemm

MILTON ACORN
IN LOVE AND ANGER
Portrait of Milton Acorn, by Brian Burke
MILTON ACORN
IN LOVE AND ANGER
Richard Lemm
CARLETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © Carleton University Press, 1999
Printed and bound in Canada
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lemm, Richard, 1946-
Milton Acorn: In love and anger
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88629-340-5
1. Acorn, Milton, 1923-1986—Biography. 2. Poets,
Canadian (English)—20th century—Biography. I. Title.
PS8501.C8Z76 1999 C811'.54 C98-900983-1
PR9199.3.A36Z75 1999
Cover photo: Milton Acorn, circa 1980, from the private collection of Mary Hooper.
Cover and interior: BCumming Designs
Frontispiece: Portrait of Milton Acorn, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 75.6 cm., 1985,
by Brian Burke, from the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum,
Charlottetown, PEL Courtesy of the artist.
Dig Up My Heart by Milton Acorn. Used by permission, McClelland &
Stewart, Inc. The Canadian Publishers.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities
and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Carleton University Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its
publishing program by the Canada Council and the financial assistance of the
Ontario Arts Council. The Press would also like to thank the Department of
Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada, and the Government of Ontario
through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation, for their assistance.
for
John Smith
master poet & elegant scholar
&
Jack & Eva Bourne
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Illustrations Viii
Foreword ix
Prologue Vancouver, 1967 I
I. In Love and Anger 3
II. Forerunners II
III. I've Tasted My Blood 37
IV. If You're Stronghearted 67
V On St. Urbain Street 83
VI. Toronto and Marriage II9
VII. Another Coast 137
VIII. The People's Poet 149
IX. The Figure in the Landscape 185
X. A Bird in the Builder's Hand 215
Epilogue Dig Up My Heart 247
Notes 255
Works C d 263
Index 273
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Port it of Milton Acorn frontispiece

2. Robert Acorn, Sr. 18
3. Acorn's grandfather, E.T. Carbonell 28
4. Milton with his grandmother, Kate MacDougall
Carbonell 30
5. Helen Carbonell Acorn 34
6. Milton at about age twelve 43
7. Acorn and Gwendolyn MacEwan 121
8. Helen Acorn in the mid-1970s 154
9. Acorn receiving the Canadian Poet's Award and
his People's Poet Medal 162
10. The Working Class Poet I72
11. Acorn receiving his honorary doctorate in 1977 207
12. Milton and Helen Acorn at the Convocation
reception 209
13. Milt Acorn on PEI, 1982
217
FOREWO
Since I'm Island-born home's as precise
as if a mumbly old carpenter,
shoulder-straps crossed wrong,
laid it out,
refigured to the last three-eights of shingle.
— "The Island"
BORN AND RAISED in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Milton
Acorn rose to prominence as a poet and political dissenter in Montreal,
Toronto, and Vancouver during 1953-68, and achieved national dis-
tinction and notoriety after 1968 as a literary figure and iconoclast
while living primarily in Toronto. Yet his Island origins profoundly
affected his poetic and political identity. Moreover, he often returned
between 1953 and 1962 and after 1967 to "the fanged jaws of the
Gulf" ("The Island"), walking along the "wave-lined edge of home"
and on "the red loam," and immersing himself in his native
Charlottetown. Prince Edward Island inspired many of his most
accomplished and memorable poems and they in turn enrich the
Island's history, landscape, and culture with a wealth of imagery,
metaphor, critical vision, and passionate devotion.
Acorn was an important literary figure and influence in Canada for
several decades, and his best poetic work has earned him a permanent
place among the nation's cultural heroes. He was a forceful and some-