CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
1275
Partner Institution:
Concordia University
Source Collection Label:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds
Series:
The Poetry Series
Sub Series:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Title:
F.R. Scott at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 22 February 1969
Title Source:
Cataloguer
Title Note:
"R.F. SCOTT - 1 I006/SR117.1" written on sticker on the spine of the tape's box. R.F. SCOTT refers to F.R. SCOTT. R.F. is mispelled. "I006-11-112.1" written on sticker on the reel
"R.F. SCOTT - 2 I006/SR117.2" written on sticker on the spine of the tape's box. R.F. SCOTT refers to F.R. SCOTT. R.F. is mispelled. "I006-11-112.2" written on sticker on the reel
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Genre:
Reading: Poetry
Identifiers:
[I006-11-112.1, I006-11-112.2]
Rights
CREATORS
Name:
Scott, Francis Reginald
Dates:
1899-1985
Role:
"Author",
"Performer"
Notes:
Francis (Frank) Reginald Scott (F.R. Scott) was born in Quebec City, in 1899. Educated at Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, and then at Oxford University where he received his B.A. in 1922, and his B.Litt in 1923 on a Rhodes scholarship. In 1926 he graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a Law degree. It was at McGill, after meeting A.J.M. Smith, that he became interested in the current poetry scene. With Smith and Leon Edel, Scott founded The McGill fortnightly review (1925-1927), which then became The Canadian Mercury (1928-1929). After practicing law for a year, he returned to teach at McGill in 1928. In 1936 he and Smith co-edited the first anthology of modern Canadian poetry, New Provinces: Poems of Several Authors (Macmillan, 1936), and he was subsequently involved in many influential literary journals and anthologies of Canadian poetry. Preview begun with the help of Scott, A.M. Klein and P.K. Page in 1942, and in 1945 it merged with First Statement to become the Northern Review (1945-1956). Scott also was an advising editor of The Tamarack Review in 1956. Scott’s first collection of poems was Overture (Ryerson Press), published in 1945, delayed by the Depression, but was followed by Events and signals (Ryerson Press, 1954), The eye of the needle (Contact Press, 1957), Signature (Klanak Press and McGill University Press, 1964) and Selected poems (Oxford University Press, 1966). Scott became the dean of law at McGill in 1961 until 1964, retiring in 1968. Not only was Scott an important figure in Canadian poetry, he was heavily involved with politics, law and the translation of French literature. Scott was the President of the League for Social Reconstruction in 1935-7. He was the national chairman of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1942 to 1950. Scott helped to found the New Party in the 60‘s, what is known as the New Democratic Party today. He also worked several high-priority civil rights cases, Switzman v. Elbing (1957) and Roncarelli v. Duplessis (1958) in front of the Supreme Court. F.R. Scott was awarded the Lorne Piece Medal for distinguished service to Canadian literature in 1962. He received the Canada Council Translation Prize for Poems of French Canada (Blackfish press, 1977), a Governor General’s Award for Essays on the constitution: aspects of Canadian law and politics (University of Toronto Press, 1977) as well as a second Governor General’s Award for The collected poems of F.R. Scott (McClelland and Stewart) in 1981. F.R. Scott died in 1985.
CONTRIBUTORS
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Reel to Reel
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/4 inch
Playing Speed:
3 3/4 ips
Track Configuration:
Half-track
Playback Mode:
Mono
Tape Brand:
Scotch
Sound Quality:
Good
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Reel to Reel
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/4 inch
Playing Speed:
3 3/4 ips
Track Configuration:
Half-track
Playback Mode:
Mono
Sound Quality:
Good
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
File Path:
files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3
Duration:
00:35:32
Size:
85.3 MB
Content:
fr_scott_i006-11-112-1.mp3 [File 1 of 2]
F.R. Scott
00:00:00
Ladies and gentleman, the poems I'm going to read stretch over a period, it seems hard to believe, of about 45 years, and the writing of poetry has changed quite as much in that time as the world has changed, and probably for the same reason. Some of the poems I start with, you are actually going to hear a rhyme, and they're going to be structured. And you won't appreciate it, but some are going to vary the rhyme form in a way which, when they were written, seemed really quite daring. And I have witnessed, and as poets go on, it will always happen, this continuous evolution of the method--the method of expression and the forms of expression, that the poet, like any other artist, uses. I'm going to start at the beginning of my writing, I was born in Quebec City
, grew up there. The Laurentian mountains
are ten miles away, my father was a great lover of nature, we went into the country for picnics all the time, he used to put me at the edge of the mountains and say "Frank, look North, there's nothing between you and the North Pole". And after I'd been three and a half years at Oxford
and in Europe
, soaking up nothing up but human history, the background and fundamentals of our civilization, I came back to Montreal
, which seemed an incredibly ugly, empty, valueless city. The one thing that matched the power of the European tradition was this North land. It's emptiness, it's waiting. So I remember poems touching upon that feeling, and I will read first, this poem is really 45 years old, "New Names".
F.R. Scott
00:02:31
Reads "New Names" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:03:26
Reads "Old Song" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems]..
F.R. Scott
00:04:17
"Trees In Ice", we've all seen trees in ice.
F.R. Scott
00:04:26
Reads "Trees In Ice" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:05:21
Reads "Snow Drift" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:05:47
Reads "North Stream" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:06:29
And then, "Stone", and I'm thinking of one of these marvelous artifacts that find on the shores of the northern rivers, and what it tells us.
F.R. Scott
00:06:55
Reads "Stone" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:08:09
And in the same vein, here is a street cry modeled on the street cries of London
when they were selling--women were selling on the streets--"Street Cry".
F.R. Scott
00:08:34
Reads "Street Cry".
F.R. Scott
00:09:03
One sees this north land, subject to man's invasion. This is called "Laurentian Shield"
, which as you know, the name of the geological formation that covers most of the northern part of this country.
F.R. Scott
00:09:41
Reads "Laurentian Shield" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:12:27
And "Flying to Fort Smith". I went down the Mackenzie river
and flew from Edmonton
to Fort Smith
over the Peace River
and these other rivers underneath which wind through the flat plain.
F.R. Scott
00:12:53
Reads "Flying to Fort Smith" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:14:14
Here's a fairly recent poem to be published shortly. It's called "T.V. Weatherman" and it's dedicated to Percy Saltzman
.
F.R. Scott
00:14:41
Reads "T.V. Weatherman".
F.R. Scott
00:16:30
"Trans Canada" this is my first flight, Regina
to Montreal one night.
F.R. Scott
00:16:42
Reads "Trans Canada" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:19:19
Here's another recent poem, called "On the Terrace, Quebec". You imagine yourself on the terrace of Chateau Frontenac
looking at the basin.
F.R. Scott
00:19:41
Reads "On the Terrace, Quebec".
F.R. Scott
00:21:28
"A Grain of Rice", a poem I wrote in Burma
, thinking of the Korean war
, seeing the monsoon rains, reflecting on man and the universe in which he lives. "A Grain of Rice".
F.R. Scott
00:22:04
Reads "A Grain of Rice" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:24:25
Reads "The Bird" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:26:40
Here's another version of an old story. It's called "Eden".
F.R. Scott
00:26:57
Reads "Eden" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:29:25
And now, one or two more found poems. The first is from the Canadian Indian Pavilion at Expo
. And it is found in this way, and those of you that saw that pavilion remember that they had these various rooms and in each room they had one or two lines of statements, up on the wall, about themselves and their relations with the white man. And all I did was to collect these various statements from a number of rooms and put them together to make a single poem, and it goes like this, I call it "The Indians Speak at Expo 67".
F.R. Scott
00:30:24
Reads "The Indians Speak at Expo 67".
F.R. Scott
00:31:44
In one of those rooms, there was a treaty between the British Crown and some Indian Chiefs. These treaties all had one purpose: they were to transfer valuable lands to Indians to the white man. And the treaties I may say always succeeded. This treaty was written out in a very formal manuscript, and the Indians had got hold of the original parchment, or whatever it was on, and they had blown it up to a great big thing they had up on the wall. The treaty was signed by two chiefs, signed--that is to say--the chiefs could not sign their names and presumably could not read the treaty, but they made little drawings, marks, to indicate that they had approved, and this what part of the treaty contains. There was a signature at the top, Chief Ningaram and at the bottom, Chief Wobumingwam.
F.R. Scott
00:32:56
Reads unnamed poem.
F.R. Scott
00:34:07
And about 30,000 acres of the richest land in Southern Ontario
went for a song to the chiefs who couldn't sign their names. And I just came across the other day, in a book that I picked up, another thing I think I could call a 'found poem', also by the Indians, it's in The Life of McGillivray, the great fur trader of Montreal and his North West Company
, you know in the early part of the last century, around 1810-20. This is an account of the North West Company, describing how they relate themselves to the Indians, and you will see the philanthropy.
F.R. Scott
00:34:54
Reads unnamed poem.
END
00:35:32
Notes:
F.R. Scott reads from a large selection of his poetry, most of which was collected much later in The Collected Poems of F.R. Scott (McClelland and Stewart, 1981). Scott most likely did not read from one book, but from his own manuscripts, but many of the poems were already published in F.R. Scott: Selected Poems (Oxford University Press, 1966) at the time of the reading.
00:00- Introduces his reading and “New Names” [INDEX: changes of poetry over 45 years, evolution of method of expression, Quebec City, Laurentian Mountains, Nature, F.R. Scott’s father, Oxford University, human history, Montreal, Northern Landscape]
02:31- Reads “New Names”
03:26- Reads “Old Song”
04:17- Introduces “Trees in Ice”
04:26- Reads “Trees in Ice”
05:21- Reads “Snow Drift”
05:47- Reads “North Stream”
06:29- Introduces “Stone” [INDEX: artifacts of the Northern rivers]
06:55- Reads “Stone”
08:09- Introduces “Street Cry” [INDEX: female street vendors of London, read from unknown source]
08:34- Reads “Street Cry”
09:03- Introduces “Laurentian Shield”
09:41- Reads “Laurentian Shield”
12:27- Introduces “Flying to Fort Smith” [INDEX: MacKenzie River, flight from Edmonton to Fort Smith, Peace River]
12:53- Reads “Flying to Forth Smith”
14:14- Introduces “T.V. Weatherman” [INDEX: Percy Saltzman, read from unknown source]
14:41- Reads “T.V. Weatherman”
16:30- Introduces “Trans Canada” [INDEX: flight from Regina to Montreal]
16:42- Reads “Trans Canada”
19:19- Introduces “On the Terrace, Quebec” [INDEX: Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City, read from unknown source]
19:41- Reads “On the Terrace, Quebec”
21:28- Introduces “A Grain of Rice”
22:04- Reads “A Grain of Rice”
24:25- Reads “The Bird”
26:40- Introduces “Eden”
26:57- Reads “Eden”
29:25- Introduces “The Indians Speak at Expo ’67” [INDEX: Found poems, Canadian Indian Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal]
30:24- Reads “The Indians Speak at Expo ’67”
31:44- Introduces unknown ‘treaty’ found poem [Howard Fink first line: “We the undersigned chiefs...”] [INDEX: British Crown treaty with Indian Chiefs Ningaram and Chief Wabuminguam to transfer valuable lands, Expo 67, reading from unknown source]
32:56- Reads unknown ‘treaty’ found poem
34:07- Introduces unknown poem about the life of MacGillivray [Howard Fink first line “While the trade is confined to a...”] [INDEX: Southern Ontario lands, The Life of MacGillivray, fur trader of Montreal and the NorthWest Company, 1810-1820, reading from unknown source]
35:27- Reads unknown poem
35:27- Introduces “Will to Win” [INDEX: World War II, Marquis of France, resistance movement]
36:21- Reads “Will to Win”
37:46- Reads “Heart”
38:44- Reads “Girl Running Down Hill”
39:56- Reads “Upon Watching Margaret Dying”
41:35- Introduces “Connaissance, Knowing” [Howard Fink first line: “I have in my mouth...”] [INDEX: translation from Jacques Borraux [sp?], Prix de France, read from unknown source]
41:56- Reads “Connaissance, Knowing”
43:27- Introduces “Time Corrected” [INDEX: Translation from Pierre Trottier [sp?]]
43:46- Reads “Time Corrected”
45:23- Reads “Vision”
47:36- Introduces “Last Rites” [INDEX: death of F.R. Scott’s father]
47:46- Reads “Last Rites”
51:19- Introduces “A l’ange avantgardien” [Howard Fink first line: “We must leave the handrails...”] [INDEX: guardian angels, brother Stevens Scott]
52:49- Reads “A l’ange avantgardien”
53:57.79- END OF RECORDING.
Howard Fink list of poems
“R.F. Scott” *note mistake
22/2/69
reel info
Content Type:
Sound Recording
File Path:
files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3
Duration:
00:18:01
Size:
44.2 MB
Content:
fr_scott_i006-11-112-2.mp3 [File 2 of 2]
F.R. Scott
00:00:00
Here's a poem, some poems of sentiment, a poem called "Will to Win". It's full of the imagery, it came out of the resistance movement in France
, during WW2
, the Marquis hiding, having supplies dropped to them etc., etc.
F.R. Scott
00:00:25
Reads "Will to Win" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:01:50
Reads unnamed poem.
F.R. Scott
00:02:48
Reads "Girl Running Down Hill" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:04:00
Reads "Upon Watching Margaret Dying" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:05:39
Here's a translation from Jacques Boraux [sp?], it's in his recent book that won the Prix de France. The poem is called "Connaissance, Knowing".
F.R. Scott
00:06:00
Reads "Connaissance, Knowing”.
F.R. Scott
00:07:31
And here's a translation from Pierre Trottier
It's called "Time Corrected".
F.R. Scott
00:07:50
Reads "Time Corrected".
F.R. Scott
00:09:27
Reads "Vision" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:11:40
"Last Rites". This was written at the death of my father in hospital.
F.R. Scott
00:11:50
Reads "Last Rites" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:15:23
And finally, a poem called "A l'ange avant-gardien". It seems strange, but I was brought up to believe there was a guardian angel, un ange gardien, looking after me, so you felt a little more secure. As you know, there are certain places in this province called l'ange gardien. So I thought of the avant, l'ange avant-gardien. Stevens had a necessary angel, which to him was reality. Many people have angels, but this challenging avant-garde angel always asking you to be in the avant=garde, seems to me what I was thinking about. "A l'ange avant-gardien".
F.R. Scott
00:16:53
Reads "A l'ange avant-gardien".
END
00:18:01
Notes:
F.R. Scott reads from a large selection of his poetry, most of which was collected much later in The Collected Poems of F.R. Scott (McClelland and Stewart, 1981). Scott most likely did not read from one book, but from his own manuscripts, but many of the poems were already published in F.R. Scott: Selected Poems (Oxford University Press, 1966) at the time of the reading.
00:00- Introduces his reading and “New Names” [INDEX: changes of poetry over 45 years, evolution of method of expression, Quebec City, Laurentian Mountains, Nature, F.R. Scott’s father, Oxford University, human history, Montreal, Northern Landscape]
02:31- Reads “New Names”
03:26- Reads “Old Song”
04:17- Introduces “Trees in Ice”
04:26- Reads “Trees in Ice”
05:21- Reads “Snow Drift”
05:47- Reads “North Stream”
06:29- Introduces “Stone” [INDEX: artifacts of the Northern rivers]
06:55- Reads “Stone”
08:09- Introduces “Street Cry” [INDEX: female street vendors of London, read from unknown source]
08:34- Reads “Street Cry”
09:03- Introduces “Laurentian Shield”
09:41- Reads “Laurentian Shield”
12:27- Introduces “Flying to Fort Smith” [INDEX: MacKenzie River, flight from Edmonton to Fort Smith, Peace River]
12:53- Reads “Flying to Forth Smith”
14:14- Introduces “T.V. Weatherman” [INDEX: Percy Saltzman, read from unknown source]
14:41- Reads “T.V. Weatherman”
16:30- Introduces “Trans Canada” [INDEX: flight from Regina to Montreal]
16:42- Reads “Trans Canada”
19:19- Introduces “On the Terrace, Quebec” [INDEX: Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City, read from unknown source]
19:41- Reads “On the Terrace, Quebec”
21:28- Introduces “A Grain of Rice”
22:04- Reads “A Grain of Rice”
24:25- Reads “The Bird”
26:40- Introduces “Eden”
26:57- Reads “Eden”
29:25- Introduces “The Indians Speak at Expo ’67” [INDEX: Found poems, Canadian Indian Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal]
30:24- Reads “The Indians Speak at Expo ’67”
31:44- Introduces unknown ‘treaty’ found poem [Howard Fink first line: “We the undersigned chiefs...”] [INDEX: British Crown treaty with Indian Chiefs Ningaram and Chief Wabuminguam to transfer valuable lands, Expo 67, reading from unknown source]
32:56- Reads unknown ‘treaty’ found poem
34:07- Introduces unknown poem about the life of MacGillivray [Howard Fink first line “While the trade is confined to a...”] [INDEX: Southern Ontario lands, The Life of MacGillivray, fur trader of Montreal and the NorthWest Company, 1810-1820, reading from unknown source]
35:27- Reads unknown poem
35:27- Introduces “Will to Win” [INDEX: World War II, Marquis of France, resistance movement]
36:21- Reads “Will to Win”
37:46- Reads “Heart”
38:44- Reads “Girl Running Down Hill”
39:56- Reads “Upon Watching Margaret Dying”
41:35- Introduces “Connaissance, Knowing” [Howard Fink first line: “I have in my mouth...”] [INDEX: translation from Jacques Borraux [sp?], Prix de France, read from unknown source]
41:56- Reads “Connaissance, Knowing”
43:27- Introduces “Time Corrected” [INDEX: Translation from Pierre Trottier [sp?]]
43:46- Reads “Time Corrected”
45:23- Reads “Vision”
47:36- Introduces “Last Rites” [INDEX: death of F.R. Scott’s father]
47:46- Reads “Last Rites”
51:19- Introduces “A l’ange avantgardien” [Howard Fink first line: “We must leave the handrails...”] [INDEX: guardian angels, brother Stevens Scott]
52:49- Reads “A l’ange avantgardien”
53:57.79- END OF RECORDING.
Howard Fink list of poems
“R.F. Scott” *note mistake
22/2/69
reel info
Content Type:
Sound Recording
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 1 - Back
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 1 - Front
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 1 - Spine
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 1 - Reel
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 2 - Back
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 2 - Front
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 2 - Spine
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
F.R. Scott Tape Box 2 - Reel
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Dates
Date:
1969 2 22
Type:
Performance Date
Source:
Previous researcher
Notes:
In previous recording, announcement is made for F.R. Scott's reading to take place on February 14, 1969. Perhaps date changed subsequently.
LOCATION
Address:
1455, Boul de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Venue:
Hall Building Basement Theatre
Latitude:
45.4972758
Longitude:
-73.57893043
Notes:
Location announced in previous recording
CONTENT
Contents:
fr_scott_i006-11-112-1.mp3 [File 1 of 2]
F.R. Scott
00:00:00
Ladies and gentleman, the poems I'm going to read stretch over a period, it seems hard to believe, of about 45 years, and the writing of poetry has changed quite as much in that time as the world has changed, and probably for the same reason. Some of the poems I start with, you are actually going to hear a rhyme, and they're going to be structured. And you won't appreciate it, but some are going to vary the rhyme form in a way which, when they were written, seemed really quite daring. And I have witnessed, and as poets go on, it will always happen, this continuous evolution of the method--the method of expression and the forms of expression, that the poet, like any other artist, uses. I'm going to start at the beginning of my writing, I was born in Quebec City
, grew up there. The Laurentian mountains
are ten miles away, my father was a great lover of nature, we went into the country for picnics all the time, he used to put me at the edge of the mountains and say "Frank, look North, there's nothing between you and the North Pole". And after I'd been three and a half years at Oxford
and in Europe
, soaking up nothing up but human history, the background and fundamentals of our civilization, I came back to Montreal
, which seemed an incredibly ugly, empty, valueless city. The one thing that matched the power of the European tradition was this North land. It's emptiness, it's waiting. So I remember poems touching upon that feeling, and I will read first, this poem is really 45 years old, "New Names".
F.R. Scott
00:02:31
Reads "New Names" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:03:26
Reads "Old Song" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems]..
F.R. Scott
00:04:17
"Trees In Ice", we've all seen trees in ice.
F.R. Scott
00:04:26
Reads "Trees In Ice" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:05:21
Reads "Snow Drift" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:05:47
Reads "North Stream" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:06:29
And then, "Stone", and I'm thinking of one of these marvelous artifacts that find on the shores of the northern rivers, and what it tells us.
F.R. Scott
00:06:55
Reads "Stone" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:08:09
And in the same vein, here is a street cry modeled on the street cries of London
when they were selling--women were selling on the streets--"Street Cry".
F.R. Scott
00:08:34
Reads "Street Cry".
F.R. Scott
00:09:03
One sees this north land, subject to man's invasion. This is called "Laurentian Shield"
, which as you know, the name of the geological formation that covers most of the northern part of this country.
F.R. Scott
00:09:41
Reads "Laurentian Shield" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:12:27
And "Flying to Fort Smith". I went down the Mackenzie river
and flew from Edmonton
to Fort Smith
over the Peace River
and these other rivers underneath which wind through the flat plain.
F.R. Scott
00:12:53
Reads "Flying to Fort Smith" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:14:14
Here's a fairly recent poem to be published shortly. It's called "T.V. Weatherman" and it's dedicated to Percy Saltzman
.
F.R. Scott
00:14:41
Reads "T.V. Weatherman".
F.R. Scott
00:16:30
"Trans Canada" this is my first flight, Regina
to Montreal one night.
F.R. Scott
00:16:42
Reads "Trans Canada" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:19:19
Here's another recent poem, called "On the Terrace, Quebec". You imagine yourself on the terrace of Chateau Frontenac
looking at the basin.
F.R. Scott
00:19:41
Reads "On the Terrace, Quebec".
F.R. Scott
00:21:28
"A Grain of Rice", a poem I wrote in Burma
, thinking of the Korean war
, seeing the monsoon rains, reflecting on man and the universe in which he lives. "A Grain of Rice".
F.R. Scott
00:22:04
Reads "A Grain of Rice" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:24:25
Reads "The Bird" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:26:40
Here's another version of an old story. It's called "Eden".
F.R. Scott
00:26:57
Reads "Eden" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:29:25
And now, one or two more found poems. The first is from the Canadian Indian Pavilion at Expo
. And it is found in this way, and those of you that saw that pavilion remember that they had these various rooms and in each room they had one or two lines of statements, up on the wall, about themselves and their relations with the white man. And all I did was to collect these various statements from a number of rooms and put them together to make a single poem, and it goes like this, I call it "The Indians Speak at Expo 67".
F.R. Scott
00:30:24
Reads "The Indians Speak at Expo 67".
F.R. Scott
00:31:44
In one of those rooms, there was a treaty between the British Crown and some Indian Chiefs. These treaties all had one purpose: they were to transfer valuable lands to Indians to the white man. And the treaties I may say always succeeded. This treaty was written out in a very formal manuscript, and the Indians had got hold of the original parchment, or whatever it was on, and they had blown it up to a great big thing they had up on the wall. The treaty was signed by two chiefs, signed--that is to say--the chiefs could not sign their names and presumably could not read the treaty, but they made little drawings, marks, to indicate that they had approved, and this what part of the treaty contains. There was a signature at the top, Chief Ningaram and at the bottom, Chief Wobumingwam.
F.R. Scott
00:32:56
Reads unnamed poem.
F.R. Scott
00:34:07
And about 30,000 acres of the richest land in Southern Ontario
went for a song to the chiefs who couldn't sign their names. And I just came across the other day, in a book that I picked up, another thing I think I could call a 'found poem', also by the Indians, it's in The Life of McGillivray, the great fur trader of Montreal and his North West Company
, you know in the early part of the last century, around 1810-20. This is an account of the North West Company, describing how they relate themselves to the Indians, and you will see the philanthropy.
F.R. Scott
00:34:54
Reads unnamed poem.
END
00:35:32
fr_scott_i006-11-112-2.mp3 [File 2 of 2]
F.R. Scott
00:00:00
Here's a poem, some poems of sentiment, a poem called "Will to Win". It's full of the imagery, it came out of the resistance movement in France
, during WW2
, the Marquis hiding, having supplies dropped to them etc., etc.
F.R. Scott
00:00:25
Reads "Will to Win" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:01:50
Reads unnamed poem.
F.R. Scott
00:02:48
Reads "Girl Running Down Hill" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:04:00
Reads "Upon Watching Margaret Dying" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:05:39
Here's a translation from Jacques Boraux [sp?], it's in his recent book that won the Prix de France. The poem is called "Connaissance, Knowing".
F.R. Scott
00:06:00
Reads "Connaissance, Knowing”.
F.R. Scott
00:07:31
And here's a translation from Pierre Trottier
It's called "Time Corrected".
F.R. Scott
00:07:50
Reads "Time Corrected".
F.R. Scott
00:09:27
Reads "Vision" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:11:40
"Last Rites". This was written at the death of my father in hospital.
F.R. Scott
00:11:50
Reads "Last Rites" [from F.R. Scott: Selected Poems].
F.R. Scott
00:15:23
And finally, a poem called "A l'ange avant-gardien". It seems strange, but I was brought up to believe there was a guardian angel, un ange gardien, looking after me, so you felt a little more secure. As you know, there are certain places in this province called l'ange gardien. So I thought of the avant, l'ange avant-gardien. Stevens had a necessary angel, which to him was reality. Many people have angels, but this challenging avant-garde angel always asking you to be in the avant=garde, seems to me what I was thinking about. "A l'ange avant-gardien".
F.R. Scott
00:16:53
Reads "A l'ange avant-gardien".
END
00:18:01
Notes:
F.R. Scott reads from a large selection of his poetry, most of which was collected much later in The Collected Poems of F.R. Scott (McClelland and Stewart, 1981). Scott most likely did not read from one book, but from his own manuscripts, but many of the poems were already published in F.R. Scott: Selected Poems (Oxford University Press, 1966) at the time of the reading.
NOTES
Type:
General
Note:
Year-Specific Information:
In 1969, Scott was working on Dialogue sur la traduction, with Anne Hebert, published in 1970 (Bibliotheque Quebecoise). He had retired from teaching at McGill the previous year.
Type:
General
Note:
Local Connections:
Since the 1920’s, Scott surrounded himself with poets, socializing with Dudek, Layton, Souster, Klein, Sutherland, D.G. Jones, Webb, Bowering, Newlove, Livesay, Mandel. Layton and Scott organized many infamous get-togethers and parties at their houses. He no doubt had many connections to Sir George Williams University through its professors, by association to McGill and from his prominence in the Montreal poetry scene.
Type:
Cataloguer
Note:
Original transcript, research, introduction and edits by Celyn Harding-Jones
Additional research and edits by Ali Barillaro
Type:
Preservation
Note:
2 reel-to-reel tapes>CD>2 digital files
RELATED WORKS
Citation:
Djwa, Sandra. F.R. Scott: Une Vie, bibliographie. Florence Bernard (translation). Montreal: Boreal, 2001.
Citation:
Djwa, Sandra. "Scott, F.R." The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Eugene Benson and William Toye (eds). Oxford University Press, 2001.
Citation:
Trehearne, Brian. “Scott, F.R. (1899-1985)”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Eugene Benson, L.W. Connolly (eds). London: Routledge, 1994. 2 vols.
Citation:
Scott, F.R. F.R. Scott: Selected Poems. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Citation:
Scott, F.R. The Collected Poems of F.R. Scott. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981.