John Bently Mays, Frank Davey, and George Amabile participate in what can be called ideological criticism of Canadian poetry: a body of criticism which often not only interprets but also ignores, rejects, and misreads poems and judges poets on philosophical or quasi-philosophical grounds. This kind of criticism undermines the possibility of a sympathetic understanding of the variety of contemporary Canadian poetry. Poets discussed include Margaret Avison, Margaret Atwood, P.K. Page, Phillis Webb, and Gwendolyn MacEwen.
