ultimate synthesis"(Early 142). Ultimately, Lampman's variety of influence and attitudes in his poetry indicate an uncertain and eclectic disposition that differentiates him from the poets of the English Romanticist movement. Lampman remained exceptionally open to influences throughout his career yet he managed to retain his own brand of "Canadian" poetry. In Lampman's poetry he finds companionship in Nature. We can see through many of his poems that he was "solitary so far as human beings are concerned, but we know from the poem ["Solitude"] that he is anything but lonely"(Keith 19). The poem "Solitude" found in The Poems of Archibald Lampman depicts the whole feeling that the poet gets when he is on one of his treks in the woods: How still it is here in the woods. The trees Stand motionless, as if they did not dare To stir, lest it should break the spell. The air hangs quiet as spaces in a marble frieze. Even this little brook, that runs at ease, Whispering and gurgling in its knotted bed, Seems but to deepen, with its curling thread Of sound, the shadowy sun-pierced silences. Sometimes a hawk screams or a woodpecker Startles the stillness from its foxed mood With his loud careless tap. Sometimes I hear The dreamy white-throat from some far off tree. This poem gives Nature an almost human face. Lampman's ability to create an image in the mind of the reader is perhaps his greatest gift. Even today the imagery of his poems can be seen in the minds of those with imagination. Lampman's poetry creates "a mood, usually of reverie and usually approaching melancholy"(Rashley 77). All Canadians, past and present, can relate to Lampman's poetry because we are all connected to the land in some manner. We all identify with the seasonal extremes, the changing terrains, and just the sheer vastness of the country. Lampman's poetry "reminds us of what we might otherwise be in danger of forgetting; that we are part of a larger world, that we share the...
