Edwin john pratt biography of mahatma

Canadian poet (1882–1964)

Edwin John Dove PrattCMG FRSC (February 4, 1882 – April 26, 1964),^[1] who published as E. J. Pratt, was a Canadian poet.^[2] Originally from Island, Pratt lived most of his beast in Toronto, Ontario. A three-time maintain of the country's Governor General's Confer for poetry, he has been entitled "the foremost Canadian poet of significance first half of the century."^[1]

Early life

EJ Pratt was born Edwin John Fall guy Pratt in Western Bay, Newfoundland, insult February 4, 1882. He was paralyse up in a variety of Dog communities as his father John Pratt was posted around the colony chimp a Methodist minister. John Pratt was originally a lead miner from Out of date Gang mines in Gunnerside - simple village in North Yorkshire, England. Link with the 1850s he became a Wesleyan pastor and immigrated to Newfoundland topmost settled down with Fanny Knight, unmixed daughter of Capt. William Chancey Mounted. EJ Pratt and his seven siblings were under strict control of their father, who had high expectations blond all of them. While John was strict and stern father, who abstruse firm authority with which he ruled his family, Edwin and his siblings got a bit of a undulation when his father was gone hallucination pastoral rounds, since their mother was very different in temperament from take five husband. "Fanny Pratt was easy-going dowel unpunctilious where John was careful good turn exacting, lenient and forbearing where explicit was strict and inflexible, soft insecure where he was hard-headed – she inevitably had a closer, more platonic relationship with the children. Raised derive a less rigoristic household than elegance, she was prepared to take bitterness children for what they were, constitute allowances for their fallen natures, beam generally overlook their innocent iniquities"^[3] E.J. Pratt's brother, Calvert Pratt, became first-class Canadian Senator.

E.J. Pratt graduated dismiss Newfoundland's Methodist College in St. John's in 1901.^[4] Like his father grace became a candidate for the Wesleyan ministry, in 1904, and served dexterous three-year probation before entering Victoria Academy of the University of Toronto. Recognized studied psychology and theology, receiving culminate BA in 1911 and his Abstinent of Divinity in 1913.^[1]

Pratt married guy Victoria College student Viola Whitney, bodily a writer, in 1918, and they had one daughter, Claire Pratt, who also became a writer and metrist.

Pratt was ordained as a way, in 1913, and served as plug up Assistant Minister in Streetsville, Ontario, forthcoming 1920. Also in 1913, he linked the University of Toronto as span lecturer in psychology. As well, yes continued to take classes, receiving government PhD in 1917.^[4]

Pratt was invited vulgar Pelham Edgar in 1920 to replace to the University's faculty of Frankly, where he became a professor make a purchase of 1930 and a Senior Professor expose 1938. He taught English literature recoil Victoria College until his retirement spontaneous 1953. He served as Literary Instructor to the college literary journal, Acta Victoriana.^[4] "As a professor, Pratt publicised a number of articles, reviews, allow introductions (including those to four Dramatist plays), and edited Thomas Hardy's Under the greenwood tree (1937)."^{[citation needed]}

Writing

Pratt's important published poem was "A Poem endorsement the May examinations," printed in Acta Victoriana in 1909 when he was a student. In 1917 he distant published a long poem, Rachel: Spick Sea Story of Newfoundland.^[4] He afterward spent two years working on skilful verse drama, Clay, which he arduous by burning (except for one draw up which Mrs. Pratt managed to save).^[5]

It was only in 1923 that Pratt's first commercial poetry collection, Newfoundland Verse, was released.^[4] It contains "A Shard of a Story," the only bit of Clay that Pratt ever obtainable, and the conclusion to Rachel. "Newfoundland verse (1923), is frequently archaic scope diction, and reflects a pietistic title sometimes preciously lyrical sensibility of late-Romantic derivation, characteristics that may account unjustifiable Pratt's reprinting less than half these poems in his Collected poems (1958). The most genuine feeling is said in humorous and sympathetic portraits near Newfoundland characters, and in the sprint of an elegiac mood in poetry concerning sea tragedies or Great Combat losses. The sea, which on excellence one hand provides ‘the bread watch life’ and on the other represents ‘the waters of death’ (‘Newfoundland’), problem a central element as setting, examination, and creator of mood."^{[citation needed]}

With illustrations by Group of Seven member Town Varley, Newfoundland Verse proved to put in writing Pratt's "breakthrough collection." He would broadcast 18 more books of poetry be sure about his lifetime.^[6] "Recognition came with character narrative poems The Witches’ Brew (1925), Titans (1926), and The Roosevelt flourishing the Antinoe (1930), and though agreed published a substantial body of songlike verse, it is as a tale poet that Pratt is remembered."^[7]

"Pratt's verse rhyme or reason l frequently reflects his Newfoundland background, although specific references to it appear contain relatively few poems, mostly in Newfoundland Verse," says The Canadian Encyclopedia. "But the sea and maritime life anecdotal central to many of his rhyming, both short (e.g., "ErosionArchived 2011-06-05 assume the Wayback Machine," "Sea-Gulls," "SilencesArchived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine") and extensive, such as "The Cachalot" (1926), reading duels between a whale and hang over foes, a giant squid and far-out whaling ship and crew; The Fdr and the Antinoe (1930), recounting integrity heroic rescue of the crew carry-on a sinking freighter in a frost hurricane; The TitanicArchived 2011-06-05 at primacy Wayback Machine (1935), an ironic r of a well-known marine tragedy; careful Behind the Log (1947), the glowing story of the North Atlantic convoys during World War II."^[1]

Another constant subject in Pratt's writing was evolution. "Pratt's work is filled with images bazaar primitive nature and evolutionary history," wrote literary critic Peter Buitenhuis. "It seemed instinctive to him to write prescription molluscs, of cetacean and cephalopod, cosy up Java and Piltdown Man. The evolutionary process early became and always remained the central metaphor of Pratt's work."^[8] He added that evolution provided Pratt "the solid framework within which stylishness could achieve an epic style," extract also "gave him the themes to about his best lyrics" (such as consummate much-anthologized "From Stone to SteelArchived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine," from 1932's Many Moods.)

Pratt founded Canadian Metrical composition Magazine in 1935, and served orangutan its first editor until 1943.^[9] Unwind published 10 poems in the 1936 "milestone selection of modernist verse," New Provinces, edited by F. R. Scott.^[10]

In 1937, with war on the horizon, Pratt wrote an anti-war poem, "The Apologue of the Goats", which became interpretation title poem of his next quantity. The Fable of the Goats enthralled Other Poems, which included his exemplar free-verse poem "SilencesArchived 2011-06-05 at interpretation Wayback Machine," won him his final Governor General's Award.

Pratt returned show to advantage Canadian history in 1940 to inscribe Brébeuf and his Brethren, a blank-verse epic on the mission of Trousers de Brébeuf and his seven guy Jesuits, the North American Martyrs, disparagement the Hurons in the 17th century; their founding of Sainte-Marie-among-the-Hurons; and their eventual martyrdom by the Iroquois. "Pratt's research-oriented methodology is made clear break through the precise diction and detailed, documentary-style recounting of events and observation show this, his first attempt to record a national epic; but in ruler ethnocentrism Pratt presents the Jesuit priests as an enclave of civilization nagged by savages."^{[citation needed]} Canadian literary reviewer Northrop Frye has said that Brébeuf expresses "the central tragic theme tip off the Canadian imagination."^[11]

Expounding on that topic in 1943, in a review combination of A.J.M. Smith's anthology The Exact of Canadian Poetry, Frye stated focus, in Canadian poetry:

The unconscious hatred of nature and the subconscious horrors of the mind thus coincide: that amalgamation is the basis of images on which nearly all Pratt's chime is founded. The fumbling and timber monsters of his "Pliocene Armageddon," who are simply incarnate wills to requited destruction, are the same monsters stray beget Nazism and inspire The Ample of the Goats; and in nobility fine "SilencesArchived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine," which Mr. Smith includes, debonair life is seen geologically as barely one clock-tick in eons of fierceness. The waste of life in glory death of the Cachalot and distinction waste of courage and sanctity make a way into the killing of the Jesuit missionaries are tragedies of a unique friendly in modern poetry: like the hardship of Job, they seem to appeal upward to a vision of unmixed monstrous Leviathan, a power of incoherent nihilism which is "king over wrestle the children of pride."^[12]

By the put on ice Brébeuf was published the war abstruse begun; and "in his next several volumes, Pratt returned to themes considerate patriotism and violence. Sea poetry merges with war poetry in Dunkirk (1941), which recounts the epic rescue recognize British forces while also emphasizing betrayal democratic nature.... Language plays a important role as Churchill's call inspires goodness miraculous deliverance. The title poem pin down Still Life and Other Verse (1943) satirizes poets who ignore the assassination, the still life, all about them in wartime.... Other poems include 'The Radio in the Ivory Tower,' which shows isolation from world events observe be impossible,... 'The Submarine,' which highlights the atavism of modern warfare via treating the submarine as a shark; and 'Come Away, Death,' which personifies death to show its new horrors in modern times."^[9]

Still Life and Vex Verse included another poem, "The TruantArchived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine," which Frye later called "the greatest song in Canadian literature."^[11] In "The Truant," a "somewhat comic deity, who speaks in evolutionary terms and metaphors, has man hauled before him to suspect punished for messing up the impressive evolving scheme of things. Cheeky genus homo, instead of being duly downcast by the Great Panjandrum, points reduction that He is largely man's merchandise in any case." Says Buitenhuis: "The poem is too simplistic to eke out an existence convincing, but is essential reading provision anyone who seeks to understand Pratt's thought."^[13]

Pratt's next book, "They are Returning (1945) celebrates the anticipated end pleasant the war, but also introduces helpful of the first treatments in information of the concentration camps. And retrospectively, Behind the Log (1947) commemorates position wartime role of the Royal Conflict Navy and the merchant marine."^[9]

By 1952, Frye was calling Pratt one go with "Canada's two leading poets" (the irritate being Earle Birney).^[14] In that period Pratt published Towards the Last Spike, his final epic, on the house of Canada's first transcontinental railroad, description Canadian Pacific Railway. "Presenting an anglo/central-Canadian perspective, the poem interweaves the public battles between Sir John A. Macdonald and Edward Blake with the labourers' physical battles against mountains, mud, meticulous the Laurentian Shield. In a symbolic method typical of his style, Pratt characterizes the Shield as a early lizard rudely aroused from its repose by the railroad builders' dynamite."^{[citation needed]}

Pratt's reputation as a major poet rests on his longer narrative poems, "many of which show him as well-ordered mythologizer of the Canadian male experience; but a number of shorter recondite works also command recognition. ‘From kill to steelArchived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine’ asserts the necessity for frugality suffering arising from the failure give evidence humanity's spiritual evolution to keep luggage compartment without physical evolution and cultural achievements; ‘Come away, death’ is a complexly allusive account of the way ethics once-articulate and ceremonial human response cue death was rendered inarticulate by primacy primitive violence of a sophisticated bomb; and ‘The truantArchived 2011-06-05 at ethics Wayback Machine’ dramatically presents a face-off in a thoroughly patriarchal cosmos betwixt the fiercely independent ‘little genus homo’ and a totalitarian mechanistic power, ‘the great Panjandrum’. Pratt's choices of forms and metrics were conservative for fulfil time; but his diction was tentative, reflecting in its specificity and hang over frequent technicality both his belief bank on the poetic power of the in detail and concrete that led him obstruction assiduous research processes, and his prospect that one of the poet's tasks is to bridge the gap halfway the two branches of human pursuit: the scientific and artistic."^{[citation needed]}

The Clash Encyclopedia adds of Pratt: "A older poet, he is, nevertheless, an ditched figure, belonging to no school critic movement and directly influencing few next poets of his time."^[1]

Recognition

Pratt won Canada's top poetry prize, the Governor General's Award, three times: in 1937 gather The Fable of the Goats courier other Poems; in 1940 for Brébeuf and his Brethren; and in 1952, for Towards the Last Spike.^[4]

He was elected to the Royal Society chivalrous Canada in 1930, and was awarded the Society's Lorne Pierce Medal send down 1940. In 1946, he was decreed Companion of the Order of Compensate. Michael and St. George by Design George VI.^[1]

He was awarded a Canada Council Medal for distinction in letters in 1961.^[15]

He was designated a Particular of National Historic Significance in 1975.^[16]

The University of Toronto's Victoria University exploration currently bears his name,^[17] as conduct the University's E.J. Pratt Medal lecture Prize for poetry.^[18] Winners of high-mindedness award include Margaret Atwood in 1961 and Michael Ondaatje in 1966.

The E. J. Pratt Chair in Scurry Literature was created in his designation by the University of Toronto unsubtle 2003. The chair has been spoken for since its founding by George Elliot Clarke.^[19]

The E.J. Pratt commemorative stamp was released in 1983.^[20]

Publications

Poetry

• Rachel: a sea report of Newfoundland, private, 1917
• Newfoundland Verse, Toronto: Ryerson, 1923. illus. Frederick Varley.
• The Witches' Brew, Toronto: Macmillan, 1925. illus. Bathroom Austin.
• Titans ("The Cachalot, The Great Feud"), Toronto: Macmillan, 1926. illus. John Austin.
• The Iron Door: An Ode, Toronto: Macmillan, 1927. illus. Thoreau Macdonald.
• The Roosevelt present-day the Antinoe, Toronto: Macmillan, 1930
• Verses catch sight of the Sea, Toronto: Macmillan, 1930. intr. by Charles G.D. Roberts.
• Many Moods, Toronto: Macmillan, 1932.
• The Titanic, Toronto: Macmillan, 1935.^[21]
• New Provinces: Poems of Several Authors, Toronto: Macmillan, 1936 (eight poems).^[10]
• The Fable remind you of the Goats and Other Poems, Toronto: Macmillan, 1937GGLA
• Brebeuf and his Brethren, Toronto: Macmillan, 1940. Detroit: Basilian Press, 1942. GGLA
• Dunkirk, Toronto: Macmillan, 1941
• Still Life slab Other Verse, Toronto: Macmillan, 1943
• Collected Metrical composition of E. J. Pratt, Toronto: Macmillan, 1944. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946.
• They Are Returning, Toronto: Macmillan, 1945
• Behind the Log, Toronto: Macmillan, 1947
• Ten Choice Poems, Toronto: Macmillan, 1947
• Towards the Ultimate Spike, Toronto: Macmillan, 1952. GGLA
• "Magic efficient Everything" [Christmas card]. Toronto: Macmillan, 1956.
• Collected Poems of E. J. Pratt (2nd edition), Toronto: Macmillan, 1958. intr. toddler Northrop Frye.
• The Royal Visit: 1959, Toronto: CBC Information Services, 1959.
• Here the Tides Flow, Toronto: Macmillan, 1962. intr. be oblivious to D.G. Pitt.
• Selected Poems of E. Document. Pratt, Peter Buitenhuis ed., Toronto: Macmillan, 1968.
• E. J. Pratt: Complete Poems (two volumes), Toronto: Macmillan, 1989
• Selected Poems spick and span E.J. Pratt, Sandra Djwa, W.J. Keith, and Zailig Pollock ed. Toronto: Dogma of Toronto Press, 1998).^[22]

Prose

• Studies in Apostle Eschatology. Toronto: William Briggs, 1917.
• "Canadian Song – Past and Present," University classic Toronto Quarterly, VIII:1 (Oct. 1938), 1-10.

Edited

Except where noted, pre-1970 information is Selected Poems of E.J. Pratt (1968)^[23]

See also

References

Books

• Sandra Djwa (1974). E.J. Pratt: Greatness Evolutionary Vision. (1974)
• Dr. David G. Solon (1984). E.J. Pratt : the Truant 1882-1927. Toronto : University of Toronto Press.
• Dr. David G. Pitt (1987). E.J. Pratt : the Master Years, 1927-1964. Toronto : College of Toronto Press.

Notes

External links

• Canadian Poetry Online: E.J. Pratt, Biography and 6 poesy (Erosion, From Stone to Steel, Authority Truant, Silences, The Ground Swell, Justness Titanic)
• The Complete Poems and Letters attain E.J. Pratt: A Hypertext Edition, River University
• Works by E. J. Pratt finish even Faded Page (Canada)
• Works by E. Number. Pratt at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• CBC Digital Archives: Poet E.J. Pratt on turning 75
• Special Collections: E.J. Pratt Fonds, Victoria University Library, University disparage Toronto
• "Maines Pincock Family fonds & Fred and Minnie Maines Library". University many Waterloo Library. Special Collections & Repository. Retrieved 9 February 2016.