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Who am I?
What do I write?
Who were my influences?
My writing style
My contemporaries
The poem
Its message
Its themes
Its structure
What you might be asked about it…!
Elizabeth Winifred Brewster
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Born 1922 August 26 In Chipman, New Brunswick
Is a Canadian poet and academic
Received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New
Brunswick a Master of Arts degree from Radcliffe College, a Bachelor of
Library Science from the University of Toronto, the and a Ph.D. from
Indiana University.
- Was a Professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
- In 2001, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada's
highest civilian honor.
- Received the President's Medal from the University of Western Ontario
(1979) and a Litt. D. from the University of New Brunswick.
- Elizabeth Brewster was a founding member of the important Canadian
literary magazine THE FIDDLEHEAD. Recipient of the Lifetime Award
for Excellence in the Arts from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and a
Member of the Order of Canada.
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Notable Works
She has been writing and publishing
poetry for more than fifty years.
Besides poetry, she also writes
novels. Her most famous work is
"Where I come from", and other
poems include "Passage of
Summer", "Sunrise North",
"Lillooet", "The Way Home" and
"Spring Again". Her non-poetry
works include "The Sisters", "It's
easy to fall on the Ice", "Junction",
"Away from Home", and more. Her
first published poem was "East
Coast" in 1951.
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Influences
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Her main influence was her background and
her childhood because she grew up in the
country side, and the love for nature and her
country certainly influenced all her works.
Writing Style
- She writes realistically and effectively from her experiences
- Her work expresses her struggles, fantasies, judgments,
and triumphs
- Her poetry is modernist as she was published in the era of
the second generation Canadian modernism
- Her vocabulary is trim and conversational, her use of
metaphors, allusions and similes restrained
- language is mostly clear, straightforward for the reader
- Her early writing was in rhyming, metered verse but even
with her move to free verse in the late fifties, her lines
remained just as tight and measured
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Contemporaries
Elizabeth Brewster was born in 1922 and started writing
poetry in around the 1950s.
Some of her contemporaries are:
•D.G. Jones- Canadian poet, translator and educator
•Alden Nowlan - Canadian poet, novelist and playwright
• P.K. Page - Poet and writer
•Richard Eberhart - American poet
•Stephen Spender - English poet, novelist and essayist
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Poem
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Poetic Devices
• One of the main poetic devices used in Where I come from is
a metaphor. The whole poem is basically made out of
metaphors, some examples are; “ nature tidily plotted” which
conveys a feeling of artificial and tidiness.
• In the poem stanza one is all about the city and stanza two is
all about the countryside. If you physically move the two
stanzas together you will see that they fit together perfectly,
and then they are joined they make up her life. This illustrates
that the poem is a metaphor of her life.
• One of the most vital things in this poem is punctuation.
Punctuation is used to slow down the poem
Message
Where I come from is talking about the decision
on whether to live in the countryside or the city.
By using many poetic techniques, Elizabeth
Brewster successfully describes the city as a
controlled place with routine and the
countryside a place of natural beauty. In the
end you see her idealized countryside shatter
into pieces when she realizes it wasn’t as good
as it seemed.
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Themes
Themes include:
•Nostalgia – The poet
reminisces about her past
•People being influenced by
their surroundings
•Loss of identity
•You cannot forget your past
•Idealization of past
experiences
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Structure
• This poem is written in free verse and it contains 3
stanzas.
• There is no rhyme scheme and the poem doesn’t
rhyme until the last two lines.
• Lots of punctuation is used to slow down the poem
to show the poet thinking
• The three stanzas almost fit together like a puzzle
if they were squished together. This represents her
life being torn between city and countryside, and
of course, the feeling of nostalgia.
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What you might be asked about
• Explore the ways in which the poet vividly conveys his
delight in nature
• Explore some descriptions you find particularly
effective
• Show how the poet finds beauty in the world
• Explore the ways in which nature is made attractive to
you in this poem
• How do the poet’s words vividly reveal his feelings to
you?
• Explore the ways in which the poet appeals so
powerfully to your senses in this poem.
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