Canada: Case History: 1945

Canada: Case History: 1945

Original Text

Earle Birney, Ghost in the Wheels: Selected Poems (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977): 40.

1This is the case of a high-school land,
2deadset in adolescence;
3loud treble laughs and sudden fists,
4bright cheeks, the gangling presence.
5This boy is wonderful at sports
6and physically quite healthy;
7he's taken to church on Sunday still
8and keeps his prurience stealthy.
9He doesn't like books, except about bears,
10collects new coins and model planes,
11and never refuses a dare.
12His Uncle spoils him with candy, of course,
13yet shouts him down when he talks at table.
14You will note he's got some of his French mother's looks,
15though he's not so witty and no more stable.
16He's really much more like his father and yet
17if you say so he'll pull a great face.
18He wants to be different from everyone else
19and daydreams of winning the global race.
20Parents unmarried and living abroad,
21relatives keen to bag the estate,
22schizophrenia not excluded,
23will he learn to grow up before it's too late?

Notes

3] treble: soprano, shrill. Back to Line
8] prurience: sexual interests. Back to Line
12] Uncle: Uncle Sam, the United States. Back to Line
14] French mother: France. Quebecois, a dialect of French, is one of two official languages in Canada. Back to Line
16] his father: England. Back to Line
20] Parents unmarried: England and France. Back to Line
21] E.g., the Uncle. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2009
Rhyme
abcb
Form
continuous quatrains
Special Copyright

© the Estate of Earle Birney. This poem is protected by Canadian copyright law. RPO is grateful to Madam Justice Wailan Low, the executor of Earle Birney's literary estate, for permission to publish. Anyone wishing to reprint this poem must seek permission in advance from the Birney estate.