Charles G. D. Roberts Poems

Poems » charles g. d. roberts

Charles G. D. Roberts
Sir Charles G. D. Roberts (January 10, 1860 – November 26, 1943) was a Canadian poet and prose writer. Roberts, his cousin Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott were known as the "Confederation poets". His brother Theodore Goodridge Roberts also became an author, as did his sister, Jane Elizabeth Gostwycke Roberts. Charles was born in Douglas, New Brunswick in 1860, the eldest child of Emma Wetmore Bliss and George Goodridge Roberts, and was raised near the Tantramar Marshes at Sackville. In 1879, he earned a BA from the University of New Brunswick and, in the following year, published his first book of poems, Orion and Other Poems, and married Mary Fenety on December 29. Much of his best poetry in this period was inspired by nature. In 1893, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1897, he separated from his wife and family and moved to New York City, where he turned to fiction, especially stories about animals. He also wrote descriptive text for guide books, such as Picturesque Canada. In 1907, he moved to Paris, later moving to London. Roberts served with the British Army during World War I, then later joined the Canadian War Records Office in London. Charles G. D Roberts was elected to the United States National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1898. In 1925, Roberts returned to Canada, moving to Toronto and began writing poetry again. For his contributions to literature, he was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's first Lorne Pierce Medal in 1926 and was knighted (KCMG) in 1935. He got remarried, to Joan Montgomery, on October 28, 1943 at the age of 83 but became ill and died shortly after in Toronto. Besides his own body of work, Roberts is known as the "Father of Canadian Poetry" because he served as an inspiration for other writers of his time.

the skater
 
 
My glad feet shod with the glittering steel
I was the god of the wingèd heel.

The hi... [read poem]
the golden road to samarkand
 
 
HASSAN:
Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells,
When shadows pass gigantic on the... [read poem]
mr. flood's party
 
 
Old Eben Flood, climbing alone one night
Over the hill between the town below
And the fors... [read poem]
the old ships
 
 
I have seen old ships like swans asleep
Beyond the village which men call Tyre,
With leade... [read poem]
to a poet a thousand years hence
 
 
I who am dead a thousand years,
And wrote this sweet, archaic song,
Send you my words for ... [read poem]
yasmin
 
 
(A Ghazel)

How splendid in the morning grows the lily: with what grace he throws
H... [read poem]
variations of greek themes. i. a happy man
 
 
(Carphyllides)

When these graven lines you see,
Traveler, do not pity me;... [read poem]
the gates of damascus
 
 
Four great gates has the city of Damascus
And four Great Wardens, on their spears reclining,... [read poem]
miniver cheevy
 
 
Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that ... [read poem]
reuben bright
 
 
Because he was a butcher and thereby
Did earn an honest living (and did right),
I would no... [read poem]
the house on the hill
 
 
They are all gone away,
The House is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.... [read poem]
villanelle of change
 
 
Since Persia fell at Marathon,
The yellow years have gathered fast:
Long centuries hav... [read poem]
the mill
 
 
The miller's wife had waited long,
The tea was cold, the fire was dead;
And there migh... [read poem]
richard cory
 
 
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a ge... [read poem]
supremacy
 
 
There is a drear and lonely tract of hell
From all the common gloom removed afar:
A flat, ... [read poem]
ave! (an ode for the shelley centenary, 1892)
 
 
O tranquil meadows, grassy Tantramar,
Wide marshes ever washed in clearest air,
Whethe... [read poem]
octaves
 
 
We thrill too strangely at the master's touch;
We shrink too sadly from the larger self
Wh... [read poem]
rioupéroux
 
 
High and solemn mountains guard Rioupéroux
--Small untidy village where the river drives a mill... [read poem]
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