William Wilfred Campbell | |
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| Born | (1860-06-01)1 June 1860 Newmarket,Canada West |
| Died | 1 January 1918(1918-01-01) (aged 57) Ottawa, Ontario |
| Resting place | Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa |
| Occupation | Civil Servant |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Literary movement | Confederation Poets |
| Notable works | Lake Lyrics and Other Poems |
| Notable awards | FRSC |
| Spouse | Mary Louisa DeBelle (née Dibble) |
| Children | Margery, Faith, Basil, Dorothy |
| Signature | |
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William Wilfred Campbell (1 June c. 1860 – 1 January 1918) was aCanadian poet. He is often categorized as one of the country'sConfederation Poets, a group that includedCharles G.D. Roberts,Bliss Carman,Archibald Lampman, andDuncan Campbell Scott; he was a colleague of Lampman and Scott. By the end of the 19th century, he was considered the "unofficialpoet laureate ofCanada."[1] Although not as well known as the other Confederation poets today, Campbell was a "versatile, interesting writer" who was influenced byRobert Burns, theEnglish Romantics,Edgar Allan Poe,Ralph Waldo Emerson,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,Thomas Carlyle, andAlfred Tennyson. Inspired by these writers, Campbell expressed his ownreligiousidealism in traditionalforms andgenres.[2][3]
William Wilfred Campbell was born around 1 June circa 1860 inBerlin, Canada West, now Kitchener, Ontario.[nb 1][5][6] His father, Rev. Thomas Swainston Campbell, was anAnglicanclergyman who had been assigned the task of setting up several frontier parishes in "Canada West", as Ontario was then called. Consequently, the family moved frequently.[1]
The Campbell family settled inWiarton, Ontario in 1871, where Wilfred grew up, attending high school (which was later renamed theOwen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute) in nearbyOwen Sound. At that time he also conducted a choir.[7] Campbell would look back on his childhood with fondness:
As a boy, I always enjoyed the campfires we built in the woods or on the shingly beach of some lone lake shore, when the stars came out and peered down on the windy darkness and swallowed up the sparks and flames from the crackling logs and dry branches we heaped up while the local warmth and radiance added a contrast to the outside vastness of darkness and cold.[1]
Campbell taught in Wiarton before enrolling in theUniversity of Toronto's University College in 1880,Wycliffe College in 1882, and at theEpiscopal Theological School inCambridge,Massachusetts, in 1883.[4]
In 1885 Campbell was ordained to theEpiscopal priesthood, and was soon appointed to a New England parish. In 1888 he returned to Canada and became rector of St. Stephen, New Brunswick.[6] In 1891, after suffering a crisis of faith, Campbell resigned from the ministry and took a civil service position inOttawa. He received a permanent position in theDepartment of Militia and Defence two years later.[4]
Living in Ottawa, Campbell became acquainted with Archibald Lampman—his next door neighbor at one time—and through him with Duncan Campbell Scott. In February 1892, Campbell, Lampman, and Scott began writing a column of literary essays and criticism called "At the Mermaid Inn" forThe Globe. As Lampman wrote to a friend:
Campbell is deplorably poor.... Partly in order to help his pockets a little Mr. Scott and I decided to see if we could get theToronto Globe to give us space for a couple of columns of paragraphs & short articles, at whatever pay we could get for them. They agreed to it; and Campbell, Scott and I have been carrying on the thing for several weeks now.[1]
The column ran only until July 1893. Lampman and Scott found it difficult to "keep a rein on Campbell's frank expression of his heterodox opinions." Readers ofThe Globe reacted negatively when Campbell presented the history of the cross as a mythic symbol. His apology for "overestimating their intellectual capacities" did little to resolve the controversy.[4]
In the 20th century, Campbell became a strong advocate ofBritish imperialism, for example telling Toronto'sEmpire Club in 1904 that Canada's only choice lay "between two different imperialisms, that of Britain and that of the Imperial Commonwealth to the south."[8] It was the principles of Imperialist that guided his work inPoems of loyalty by British and Canadian authors (London, 1913) and forThe Oxford Book of Canadian Verse (Toronto, 1913).[4]
As editor ofThe Oxford book of Canadian Verse, Campbell devoted more pages to his own poetry than to others'. But by choosing mostly from his longer work—including an excerpt fromMordred (one of his verse dramas)—he did not choose his best work. In contrast, the poems he selected from his fellow Confederation Poets reflected some of their best work.[9]
Campbell was transferred to theDominion Archives in 1909. In 1915 he moved his family to an old stone farmhouse on the outskirts of Ottawa, which he named "Kilmorie". He died ofpneumonia on New Year's morning, 1918. He was buried in Ottawa'sBeechwood Cemetery.
TheWilliam Wilfred Campbell Poetry Festival was held in Wiarton, Ontario in his honour from 2014 to 2019.[10][11]
Campbell's firstchapbook,Poems!, "seems to have been printed at a newspaper office sometime around 1879 or 1880." He placed poetry in the University of TorontoVarsity in 1881.[4]
As a theology student inMassachusetts, Campbell metOliver Wendell Holmes, who recommended his poetry toAtlantic Monthly editorThomas Bailey Aldrich. Aldrich published Campbell's "Canadian Folk Song" in the January 1885 issue, launching his career in the American magazines.[12]
In 1888Snowflakes and Sunbeams was printed at Campbell's expense inSt. Stephen, New Brunswick. The book "was favourably reviewed in Canada and theUnited States for its lovely nature lyrics, one of which, 'Indian summer' (it starts with 'Along the line of smoky hills / The crimson forest stands'), remains among the most beloved of Canadian poems." The entire volume, including "Indian Summer," was incorporated intoLake Lyrics, published the following year. "The poems inLake lyrics and other poems (1889), with their intense rhythms, dramaticimagery, and ardentspirituality, express Campbell's devotion to nature as the revelation ofGod's presence; this book established his reputation as 'laureate of the lakes.'"[4] Notable new poems in the book included "Vapor and Blue" and "The Winter Lakes".
Campbell's poem "The Mother" was printed inHarper's New Monthly in April 1891; a traditional ballad, the poem tells of a dead mother who rises from the grave to claim her still-living baby. It "created a sensation in the literary press and was reprinted in newspapers such as theWeek andTheGlobe in Toronto. In September 1891, theHouse of Commons (and, in 1892, theSenate) debated whether Campbell should receive a permanent civil service position in recognition of his literary abilities. The proposal was defeated, ostensibly for practical reasons, and the decision established a precedent for withholdingpatronage from artists. Nevertheless, in 1893 he was quietly given a permanent position in theDepartment of Militia and Defence, and he would remain a civil servant until his death."[4]
Campbell's third book of poetry,The Dread Voyage Poems (1893), was darker than the earlier two. "In this volume, his poetry began to show the preoccupation with harmonizing religion, science, and social theory that had started while he was still a clergyman and would continue through his middle age."[4] The book contains some of Campbell's best-known poems, such as "How One Winter Came in the Lake Region" and the 'surprise ending' sonnet, "Morning on the Shore."
"In 1895 he published two versified tragedies,Mordred andHildebrand, and these were included, with two others,Daulac andMorning, in a volume entitledPoetical tragedies (1908)."[13] Also in 1895, Campbell sparked a literary controversy by accusing Bliss Carman of plagiarism, an incident documented in Alexandra Hurst's 1994 book,The War Among the Poets (Canadian Poetry Press).[1]
Campbell published a new book of lyrics,Beyond the Hills of Dream, in 1899. "Included in the book was his jubilee ode 'Victoria,' written for theQueen'sdiamond jubilee in 1897. Eleven of its thirty-five other poems were reprinted fromThe Dread Voyage, thus perpetuating the dark tone of the earlier volume. Sombre also was "Bereavement of the Fields," one of the better new poems, written in memory of Archibald Lampman, who died on 10 February 1899."[1]
"The early years of the twentieth century saw a prolific outpouring of prose from Campbell. In addition to numerous pamphlets, he wrote five historical novels and three works of non-fiction. Only two of his novels ever appeared in book form:Ian of the Orcades (1906) ... andA Beautiful Rebel (1909). Another novel was never re-printed after its appearance inThe Christian Guardian, and two novels still remain only in manuscript form. Two of his works of non-fiction were labours of love: a book about the Great Lakes (1910, reprinted and enlarged 1914), and an account of the Scottish settlements in Eastern Canada (1911). The title of the former is quite a mouthful:The Beauty, History, Romance, and Mystery of the Canadian Lake Region. Campbell intersperses these descriptive sketches, which appeared originally inThe Westminster magazine, with selections of his lake lyrics to give the reader a very personal tour of the region. Subjective, also, is the bias ofThe Scotsman in Canada, which credits Scots with laying the foundation of nearly everything that is admirable in Canada."[1]
In 1914, with war threatening, Campbell published a book of imperialistic verse,Sagas of a Vaster Britain. "Many of its seventy poems were recycled from previous collections, patriotic effusions like "England" ("Over the freedom and peace of the world/ Is the flag of England flung"), and some of his best work like "How One Winter Came to the Lake Region". The new poems, like "Life's Ocean" and "The Dream Divine," have the old weaknesses of displeasing sound ("large-mooned waters") and awkward structure ("And of all love's far, dim dawnings of hope unborn/ God's latest are best")."[1] "Sagas ... was his last book, but each New Year's from 1915 to 1918 he distributed pamphlets of poems relating toWorld War I."[4]
When Campbell died in 1918, his "popularity died with him. Technically, his work is usually conservative, and his ideas have become unfashionable. His poetry has been compared with the more polished works" of the four major Confederation poets. "In fact," though, as theDCB sums up his career, "Campbell worked hard to achieve naturalness, sincerity, and simplicity of expression, rather than polish; he tried to convey universal truths in order to inspire his readers to strive toward their noblest ideals. Within this framework, the artistic merit of many of his poems becomes evident."[4]
Campbell was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Canada in 1894.[4] He was declared aPerson of National Historic Significance in 1938.
Campbell married Mary Louisa DeBelle (née Dibble) in 1884. They had four children, Margery, Faith, Basil, and Dorothy.[6] Their daughter Margery married George Archibald Grey (1886–1952), a grandson of Admiral George Grey (1809–1891), a younger son ofCharles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. The earldom was inherited in 1963 by Margery's grandsonRichard Grey and in 2013 by her grandsonPhilip Grey.[14][15]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)His poem "England" is given in an old-fashioned, bombastic style at a charity concert in the comedy TV seriesJeeves and Wooster, series 1, episode 2, title:"Bertie is in Love".
DT was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).
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