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Articles

Volume 16, Number 2 (1991)

"Green Yet Free of Seasons": Gwendolyn MacEwen and the Mystical Tradition of Canadian Poetry

  • Thomas M.F. Gerry
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1991-06-06

Abstract

Gerry links Gwendolyn MacEwen's poetry with the Canadian mystical tradition, referring back to Nova Scotia mystic, Norman Alline, and writer David Willson, an ex-Quaker who founded the Children of Peace. All three mystics use language to open the reader to a renewed sense of life's possibilities. Both Alline and Willson drew their imagery from the tradition of German mystic Jacob Boehme. MacEwen's distinctive stance derives in part from her feminism: MacEwen subverts the dominant discourse of male mysticism in order to voice herself as woman and mystic. MacEwen de-emphasizes the disputing of opposites to reveal a transitional passage (a birth) between polarities.