Ralph Gustafson Biography

Canadian poet, born in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, educated at Bishop's University and Oxford University. He worked as a journalist in England, where his earliest verse was published in the 1930s, and subsequently in New York, during which time his early romanticism gave way to a verse more concerned with exploring social issues and the decline in moral values. After returning to Canada in 1960 he was a music critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and a professor of English at Bishop's University. Gustafson's interest in music informs his poetry of different periods. His later poetry employs a more confessional tone and includes Ixion's Wheel (1969), Fire on Stone (1974), Corners in the Glass (1977), Conflicts of Spring (1981), and The Moment Is All (1983), a selection of his best work from 1944 to 1983. His numerous other volumes of verse include The Golden Chalice (1935), Flight into Darkness (1944), Rivers among Rocks (1960), and Rocky Mountain Poems (1960). Gustafson has also edited several anthologies of Canadian writing, including Anthology of Canadian Poetry (English) (1942) and The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse (1958; revised 1967). His short stories are collected in The Brazen Tower (1974) and The Vivid Air (1980).