BLISS CARMAN]

Bliss Carman was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick, on April 15th,
1861. On both sides of the house he belongs to that United Empire
Loyalist stock which at the time of the American Revolution sacrificed
wealth and ease to a principle, and angrily withdrew from the young
republic to carve out new commonwealths in the wilds of Canada. His
father was William Carman, Clerk of the Pleas, a man of influence and
distinction in his Province. His mother was one of the Blisses of
Fredericton, the Loyalist branch of that Connecticut family to which
Emerson's mother belonged. Mr. Carman was educated at the Collegiate
School and the University of New Brunswick, both at Fredericton. He
distinguished himself in classics and mathematics, took his B. A. in
1881, his M. A. in 1884, and afterwards took partial courses at
Edinburgh and Harvard. He has been connected editorially with several
American periodicals, the Independent and the Chap-Book among them,
but now devotes himself exclusively to literature. He divides his time
between Boston and Washington, returning to the Maritime Provinces for
the hot months of each year. Mr. Carman issued his first volume of
poems in 1893, when he had already won reputation as a contributor to
the magazines. The volume was called 'Low Tide on Grand Pre: a Book of
Lyrics.' It was published in New York and London, and ran quickly into
a second edition. Equally successful was the volume called 'Songs from
Vagabondia,' published in 1894. About half the poems in this volume
are by Mr. Richard Hovey, whose name appears on the title-page with
that of Mr. Carman. In 1895 appeared 'Behind the Arras: a Book of the
Unseen.' Much of Mr. Carman's known work remains still uncollected.

In that outburst of intellectual energy which has of late won for
Canada a measure of recognition in the world of letters, Mr. Carman's
work has played a large part. The characteristics of the Canadian
school may perhaps be defined as a certain semi-Sufristic worship of
nature, combined with freshness of vision and keenness to interpret
the significance of the external world. These characteristics find
intense expression in Mr. Carman's poems. And they find expression in
an utterance so new and so distinctive that its influence is already
active in the verse of his contemporaries.

There are two terms which apply pre-eminently to Mr. Carman. These are
Lyrist and Symbolist. His note is always the lyric note. The "