{"id":659,"date":"2021-09-06T16:54:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T23:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portalmagazine.ca\/gustafson\/?page_id=659"},"modified":"2024-10-01T18:11:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T01:11:29","slug":"ralph-gustafson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/portalmagazine.ca\/gustafson\/about\/ralph-gustafson\/","title":{"rendered":"Ralph Gustafson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This lecture series honours celebrated Canadian poet Ralph Gustafson who, for six decades, practiced his craft and shared his love of language with successive generations of poets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ralph Gustafson was born in Lime Ridge, near Dudswell, Quebec on August 16, 1909. His mother was British, his father Swedish. He was educated at Bishop\u2019s University, earning a BA in 1929 and an MA in 1930, with a thesis on John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. He also completed a BA at Keble College in Oxford in 1933, and an MA in 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, Dr. Gustafson was music master at Bishop\u2019s College School, a teacher of English St. Albans School for Boys, a tutor, and a journalist. He was a professor and Poet-In-Residence at Bishop\u2019s University\u201a and a music critic for CBC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His views on poetry are documented in essays collected in Plummets and Other Partialities <\/em>(1986), and in letters to WWE Ross published as A Literary Friendship <\/em>in 1984. He was also in contact with John Sutherland. Gustafson\u2019s early poetry owes a significant debt to Gerard Manley Hopkins, while Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and W. B. Yeats were important influences on his later work. In 1942, Gustafson edited the Anthology of Canadian Poetry <\/em>which developed into the Penguin Book of Canadian Verse <\/em>in 1958, both volumes a reflection of his extensive studies on the history of Canadian poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gustafson was a member of The Order of Canada, co-founder and life member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a life member of Keble College, Oxford. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire on Stone<\/em> won the Governor-General\u2019s Award for poetry and Configurations at Midnight<\/em> received the QSPELL A.M. Klein Poetry Prize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is also the recipient of The Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Medal; the Commemorative Medal; the Poetry Award from The Quebec Society for the Promotion of English Language Literature; and honorary degrees from Mount Allison, York and Bishop\u2019s universities including the University Award of Merit from the latter. He is the subject of A Poetics of Place<\/em> by Dermot McCarthy, published by McGill-Queen\u2019s Press, and a film entitled Winter Prophecies<\/a><\/em>, produced by The National Film Board of Canada. His poetry readings were recorded by The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in 1977 and 1993. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He died in May 1995. The following titles further attest to his legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable Works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n