On writing poetry
by Alice Major
Scansion and science
I delivered the 2018 Anne Szumigalski lecture at the Canadian Writers Summit in Toronto.
The lecture series is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets, and was established in the name of the esteemed Saskatchewan poet and arts activist after her death in 1999. The lectures have been delivered each year by poets such as Margaret Atwood, Anne Carson, Don McKay and George Elliott Clarke.
Does it matter if a poet gets the facts wrong in a poem? What obligation does poetry have to that kind of ‘truth’? The lecture makes the point that yes, truth does matter; poets are building trust with their readers and in certain contexts, accuracy is especially important.
The PDF of the complete text of Scansion & Science is available here courtesy of Prairie Fire magazine, which published the lecture in its winter, 2018 issue.