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The poem conveys a sense of awe at the city's lights, but also a tension between the human and natural worlds. Birney's use of contrast creates a complex and evocative image, capturing the beauty and fragility of human creation within the vastness of the universe.
Dubbed “a chronicler of Canada,” Earle Birney was regarded as one of the country’s finest poets. Fred Cogswell wrote: “Earle Birney, more than any other I poet know, is typical in thought and outlook of the average liberal-minded Canadian. ...
His love poems, found in LAST MAKINGS and in THE COLLECTED POEMS OF EARLE BIRNEY, are among the most beautiful in the language. Earle both climbed and was a mountain. He cast a very long shadow and he was central in shaping modern Canadian literature.
Compare the myth of Prometheus with Birney’s telling of what became of him. Here’s a (daytime) view of the downtown Vancouver skyline in 1939, thought to be the year Birney wrote his poem. Now imagine the sun setting on this view and a poet happening by...
His Collected Poems appeared in 1975. Birney’s later works include the poetry collections Ghost in the Wheels (1977), The Mammoth Corridors (1980), Copernican Fix (1985), and Last Makings (1991), as well as several radio plays.
6 paź 2008 · Alfred Earle Birney, poet (born 13 May 1904 in Calgary, AB; died 3 Sept 1995 in Toronto, ON). Beginning with David and Other Poems (1942), Birney's poetry consistently explored the resources of language with passionate and playful curiosity.
The poem conveys a sense of awe at the city's lights, but also a tension between the human and natural worlds. Birney's use of contrast creates a complex and evocative image, capturing the beauty and fragility of human creation within the vastness of the universe.
