Jean Jay Macpherson (June 13, 1931 – March 21, 2012) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

lyric Lyric may refer to: * Lyrics, the words, often in verse form, which are sung, usually to a melody, and constitute the semantic content of a song * Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view * Lyric, from t ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

. '' The Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls her "a member of 'the mythopoeic school of poetry,' who expressed serious religious and philosophical themes in symbolic verse that was often lyrical or comic."Jay Macpherson
" ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Britannica Online, Web, Apr. 10, 2011.

Life

Jay Macpherson was born in

London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, in 1931.Jean O'Grady,
Macpherson, Jean Jay
," ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988), 1282. She was brought to

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

in 1940 as a ' war guest'. She took high school at Bishop Spencer College, St. John's, and Glebe Collegiate,

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

.Heather Pyrcz,
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: A Digital History of Canadian Poetry
", YoungPoets.ca, 2003, Web, Apr. 10, 2011. In 1951 Macpherson received a BA from Carleton College (now Carleton University) in 1951, followed by a year at

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...

in London. She received a BLS from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

, and then completed her MA and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at Victoria College,

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, both supervised by professor and critic

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, ''Fearful Symmetr ...

. Macpherson published poetry in ''Contemporary Verse'' in 1949. Her first book was published in 1952. In 1954 Macpherson began her own

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. However, when a distinction ...

, Emblem Books, which published her second volume, ''O Earth Return.'' Between 1954 and 1963, Emblem Books published eight

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

s featuring the work of Canadian poets, including

Dorothy Livesay Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, (October 12, 1909 – December 29, 1996) was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General's Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.Mathews, R.D.. "Dorothy L ...

, Alden Nowlan, and Al Purdy."Macpherson, Jay," ''Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'' (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988), 623.) Macpherson's two earlier volumes were incorporated into ''The Boatman'' (1957), a book which "gained her a considerable reputation. Dedicated to Northrop Frye and his wife, the collection reflects Frye's emphasis on the mythic and archetypal properties of poetry." ''The Boatman'' won the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

in 1958. Macpherson taught English at Victoria College from 1957 until 1996. She became a Professor of English in 1974. Her 1982 book ''The Spirit of Solitude'' is "a highly regarded study of the

elegiac The adjective ''elegiac'' has two possible meanings. First, it can refer to something of, relating to, or involving, an elegy or something that expresses similar mournfulness or sorrow. Second, it can refer more specifically to poetry composed in ...

and

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

traditions from the 17th century onward." Jay Macpherson died on Mar 21, 2012.

Writing

Macpherson has been described "as a 'mythopoeic' poet – rooted in the teachings of Frye, the archetypes of

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

, and the intensely conservative social vision of

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

." Within her work, "recurring themes involve the creation, fall,

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

, redemption and the

apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...

." Her interest is in "authentic myth", "the ones that have some imaginative force behind them." In technique, Macpherson has been placed "beside Margaret Avison,

P. K. Page Patricia Kathleen Page, (23 November 1916 – 14 January 2010) was a Canadian poet,Peter ScowenP.K. Page dies at age 93 ''The Globe and Mail'', 14 January 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010. though the citation as she was inducted as a Fellow of th ...

, Phyllis Webb, but especially Anne Hébert – particularly in the use of the Gothic and

macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...

themes and devices."

''The Boatman''

Macpherson's first major work, ''The Boatman'' (1957), "describes a world where redemption is still possible." Northrop Frye (to whom ''The Boatman'' was dedicated) called it the "one good book" of Canadian poetry for that year. He added: "There is little use looking for bad lines or lapses in taste: The Boatman is completely successful within the conventions it adopts, and anyone dissatisfied with the book must quarrel with the conventions. Among these are the use of a great variety of echoes, some of them direct quotations from other poems, and an interest in myth, both Biblical and Classical."Northrop Frye,
Letters in Canada - 1957
" ''The Bush Garden'' (Toronto:Anansi, 1971, 70-76. The Boatman of the title "is

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

, but both Noah and the ark itself form an allegory for the artist and the artistic experience, the ark representing Jung's

collective unconscious In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...

." "The creation is inside its creator, and the ark similarly attempts to explain to Noah ... that it is really inside him, as Eve was once inside Adam: When the four quarters shall Turn in and make one whole, Then I who wall your body, Which is to me a soul, Shall swim circled by you And cradled on your tide, Who was not even, not ever, Taken from your side. "As the ark expands into the flooded world, the body of the Biblical

leviathan Leviathan ( ; ; ) is a sea serpent demon noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. Leviathan is of ...

, and the order of nature, the design of the whole book begins to take shape. ''The Boatman'' begins with a poem called 'Ordinary People in the Last Days,' a wistful poem about an apocalypse that happens to everyone except the poet, and ends with a vision of a 'Fisherman' who ... catches 'myriad forms,' eats them, drinks the lake they are in, and is caught in his turn by God."

''Welcoming Disaster''

Macpherson's next major work, ''Welcoming Disaster'' (1974), "employs more complex forms to pursue its quest for meaning; the poems frequently succeed in maintaining imaginative contact with social reality while extending Macpherson's essential concern with psychological and metaphysical conditions."

George Woodcock George Woodcock (May 8, 1912 – January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel wri ...

saw ''Welcoming Disaster'' and ''The Boatman'' as similar, even complementary: "They are narratives of journeys into spiritual day and night, disguised, no doubt, by all the devices of privacy, but nonetheless derived from true inner experiences."

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

emphasized their differences: "If ''The Boatman'' is 'classical,' . . . then ''Welcoming Disaster'' is, by the same lights, 'romantic': more personal, more convoluted, darker and more grotesque, its rhythms more complex"W.J. Keith,
Jay Macpherson's ''Welcoming Disaster:'' a Reconsideration
" Canadian Poetry: Studies/Documents/Reviews, No. 36 (Spring/Summer 1995), UWO, Web, Apr. 12, 2011. "''Welcoming Disaster'', has the critics baffled. They cannot agree on its proper interpretation - is it a darker, more tragic vision or is the possibility of redemption there?" Suniti Namjoshi saw it as a book about redemption: about the necessity "to hit bottom and then to make the journey up"; "after a descent into the underworld ... it is possible to return to the ordinary world of everyday life". David Bromwich, reviewing the book in ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'', saw it as even more positive: for him, it "moves from consolation to guilt to terror and finally to a deepened consolation." On the other hand, Lorraine Weir interpreted the book to be saying that the "underworld journey of redemption ... fails". "Fertility is not restored, the underworld is not left behind." Weir calls Macpherson's vision "inescapably a tragic one."

Recognition

Macpherson won ''

'' magazine's Levinson Prize, and the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

President's Medal, in 1957. She won the Governor General's Award for ''The Boatman'' in 1958. A small park in her former Toronto neighbourhood, Jay Macpherson Green, is named for her near Avenue Road and Dupont Street.

Publications

Poetry

* ''A Country Without a Mythology.'' n.p.: 195?. *

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

:''Nineteen Poems.'' Mallorca, Spain: Seizin Press *

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

:''O Earth Return.'' Toronto: Emblem Books *

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

:''The Fisherman: A Book of Riddles'' Jay Macpherson
, NNDB.com, Web, Apr. 10, 2011 *

:''The Boatman.'' Toronto: Oxford University Press *

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

:''A Dry Light & The Dark Air.'' Toronto: Hawkshead Press *

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

:''The Boatman and Other Poems.'' Toronto: Oxford UP *

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

:''Welcoming Disaster: Poems, 1970-74.'' Toronto: Saannes Publications *

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

:''Poems Twice Told: The Boatman & Welcoming Disaster.'' Toronto: Oxford University Press

Fiction

* 1962:''The Four Ages of Man: The Classical Myths.'' Toronto: Macmillan

Non-fiction

* 1972:''Pratt’s Romantic Mythology: The Witches’ Brew.'' St. John's Nfld.: Memorial University * 1974:''"Beauty and the Beast" and Some Relatives.'' Toronto: Toronto Public Library * 1982:''The Spirit of Solitude: Conventions and Continuities in Late Romance''. New Haven: Yale University Press ''Except where otherwise noted, bibliographic information courtesy Brock University.''Jay Macpherson, 1931-
, Canadian Women Poets," BrockU.ca, Web, Apr. 10, 2011

References

Monograph

*Weir, Lorraine. ''Jay Macpherson and Her Works'' Toronto: ECW Press, 1989.

Articles

* Berner, Audrey. "The ‘Unicorn’ Poems of Jay Macpherson." ''Journal of Canadian Poetry'' 3 (1980): 9-16. * "Comments (On the Practice of Alluding)." ''University of Toronto Quarterly'' 61.3 (1992): 381-390. * Keith, W.J. "Jay Macpherson’s Welcoming Disaster: a Reconsideration." ''Canadian Poetry'' 36 (1995): 32-43. * Weir, Lorraine. "Toward a Feminist Hermeneutics: Jay Macpherson's ''Welcoming Disaster''," in ''Gynocritics/La Gynocritique - Feminist Approaches to Writing by Canadian and Quebecoise Women'', ed. Barbara Godard (Toronto: ECW P, 1987) 59-70. * Namjoshi, Suniti. "In the Whale’s Belly: Jay Macpherson’s Poetry." ''Canadian Literature'' 79 (1978): 54-59. * Reaney, James. "The Third-Eye: Macpherson’s ''The Boatman''." ''Canadian Literature'' 3 (1960): 23-34.

Notes

External links

Biography and selected poetry of Jay MacphersonJay Macpherson's
entry in

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macpherson, Jay 1931 births 2012 deaths 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian women poets Alumni of University College London Anglo-Scots Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian modernist poets English emigrants to Canada Governor General's Award–winning poets McGill University alumni Members of the United Church of Canada University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Poets from London Poets from Toronto 20th-century Canadian women writers