A civilization that forgets its poetry is barely worthy of the name. Like fiction and unlike non-fiction, poetry is how a culture’s most profound truths are told. Unlike fiction, poetry does this vital work with great economy of words. Dr. John McCrae, surgeon in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the
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Alberta Politics: In Flanders Fields? It’s time to encourage another generation of school kids to read some better poems from the Great War
PHOTOS: In Flanders Fields? The reality of the Great war’s battlefields: squalor, incompetence, mechanized industrial death. Below: John McCrae, and a Great War poet still worth reading, Wilfred Owen. A civilization that forgets its poetry is barely worthy of the name. Like fiction and unlike non-fiction, poetry is how a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Rembrance Day
After reading a fine piece in today’s Star entitled Politics shapes how we commemorate Canada’s wars, by journalist Jamie Swift and history professor Ian McKay, I couldn’t help but think back over my time in the classroom, and how I dealt with the su…
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