{"id":12879,"date":"2022-03-31T10:24:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T16:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=12879"},"modified":"2022-03-31T10:51:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T16:51:44","slug":"death-at-quebec-and-other-poems-by-don-gutteridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=12879","title":{"rendered":"Death at Quebec, and Other Poems by Don Gutteridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Meticulously crafted, intense, and haunting\u2026 A marvelous collection.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gutteridge focuses his poetic skills on famous explorers, political leaders, visionaries, saints, and rebels in this collection for budding historians and poetry lovers alike. In \u201cHudson,\u201d the early 17th century English sea explorer and navigator Henry Hudson\u2019s brush with death is made a bourgeois theme: \u201cThere is no death\/ like this one:\/ my blood souring\/ and the sea around me,\/ my mind burning\/ with a wind\u2019s flame,\/ my flesh rotting\/ in an elemental grave.\u201d In \u201cBrebeuf on the Cross,\u201d Gutteridge experiments with form, supplying deeply touching, elegant lines about the French Jesuit missionary Brebeuf\u2019s last moments: \u201cThis pain\/ scrapes me\/ clean\/ (bone-knife skimming\/ pulpy flesh\/ from the hide:\/ oiled gleam is\/ holy in the sun)\/ makes life single\/ and singular:\/ blood guts bone\/ fuse on its point\/ merge with its\/ purpose the\/ purple altars are\/ running with pus the\/ steeples burn\/ thru bloody cloud.\u201d Louis Riel, the compelling leader of the Metis, hanged by Sir John A. MacDonald\u2019s government in 1885, sits at the core of \u201cRiel,\u201d a poignant poem written in the first-person narrative voice of Riel, bringing the man alive, a man who is full of rancor and tenderness, melancholy and dignity, courage and strength: \u201cWhen my body\/ swings like a\/ dead tongue\/ from the white-man\u2019s\/ scaffolding,\/ will there be\/ an eloquence\/ to tell\u2026\/ or will this\/ prairie be\/ a coffin\/ for my voice\/ a dwelling place\/ for\/ two\/ white\/ stones?\u201d. Alternating in style from short, hard-hitting verses (\u201cChamplain\u201d) to longer pieces that read like confessional vignettes (\u201cDeath at Quebec”), the poems do not follow a strict narrative pattern as they explore pain, death, human spirit of adventure and exploration, freedom, oppression, martyrdom, courage, transformation, and resilience of humanity in the face of utmost difficulties. At times, the enticing verses beg for more historical context to add further perspective; readers will benefit from reading about all the historical figures mentioned to gain a better perspective about their lives (with the exception of the last poem, \u201cLa Salle: Fragments from Journal,\u201d a long documentary poem in two parts that covers the 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America, La Salle\u2019s expeditions). This haunting collection will stay at readers\u2019 minds long after they finish the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death at Quebec, and Other Poems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Gutteridge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiddlehead Poetry Books; 1st Edition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pub date January 1, 1971<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISBN 978-0919196698<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price $94.69 Paperback<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meticulously crafted, intense, and haunting\u2026 A marvelous collection. Gutteridge focuses his poetic skills on famous explorers, political leaders, visionaries, saints, and rebels in this collection for budding historians and poetry lovers alike. In \u201cHudson,\u201d the early 17th century English sea explorer and navigator Henry Hudson\u2019s brush with death is made a bourgeois theme: \u201cThere is no death\/ like this one:\/ my blood souring\/ and the sea around me,\/ my mind burning\/ with a wind\u2019s flame,\/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":12880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[],"tags":[7223,91,3328,178,1136176,422,531468,1473,1008073,856121,309],"class_list":["post-12879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-author","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-indie-books","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-collection","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/death-at-quebec.jpg?fit=333%2C499&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-3lJ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12879"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12889,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12879\/revisions\/12889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}