Description:
A career-spanning collection of critical and personal essays from a titan of Canadian literature.
Building and expanding on his previous volume of essays Body Music, Dennis Lee looks back on what has driven him as a poet: the mysterious germinating force he calls cadence. At once a stealth memoir and an essential study of how a poet writes, Wrestling with Cadence is the definitive history of a beloved Canadian poet in his own words.
Brief description:
Dennis Lee is among the finest poets now working in English. The author of more than forty books, he is highly regarded for his meditative and erotic poetry, as well as his unforgettable collections for young people such as Alligator Pie. He wrote the song lyrics for Jim Henson's hit children's series, Fraggle Rock, and in 2001 was named Toronto's first poet laureate. Heart Residence, his collected poems, was published in 2017. He lives in Toronto with his wife, the novelist Susan Perly.
Review Quotes:
Praise for Dennis Lee:
"One of the finest poets in the English language."
Quill & Quire
"Many have written about poetry--what makes a good poem, poetry's function in society, how to go about writing the stuff; but in the title essay of this extraordinary collection of essays, Dennis Lee explores what it feels like--at least to him--when poems are actually generating. He doesn't dodge the mystery--where does it come from, and why do we humans do this poetry thing anyway? No hard and fast answers, but unmissable speculations!"
--Margaret Atwood
"[Wrestling With Cadence] is energetic, honest, authentic, playful, daring, probing."
--Jim Porter, InRetro
"Civil Elegies is our Waste Land.... It gave the city and the nation a sacramental landmark for a secular age."
--Nick Mount
"One of the most extraordinary bodies of work in contemporary English poetry."
--Paul Vermeersch