A little sketch: motherhood in poetry and contemporary Canadian poetry

This thesis explores definitions of: Good Mother, Good Poetry, and Creative Writing in the Contemporary Canadian context. The first section explores what it means to be a 'good' mother and what it means to write a 'good' poem. The section outlines the predictable phases ofmotherhood poetry in five parts. These phases are defined and explored by citing examples of both established authors and my own creative writing. The section then details the process ofreawakening sexuality following motherhood, which links directly to a section ofpoetry found in the third chapter. The second section (Contemporary Canadian Poetry: The Vineyard) surveys poetry in Canada while addressing nuances in its literary landscape such as regionalism and settlement. The section explains the current and local poetry scene in terms offashion and theory as it has evolved from early modernism. The chapter touches on how Canadian poetry is seen outside of Canada and explores the tensions ofthe present day poetry scene while considering the roots ofthese tensions. The Third section (Little Thoughts) contains Creative Writing. These poems are a result of synthesizing ideas found in previous sections and are presented in six parts. The first section titled Artefacts, considers objects as mnemonics and delves into family history. The second section titled One Bird, conforms to the theme of motherhood. The third section is titled Far Tonight. This poetry explores the reawakening ofthe sexual self after parenthood. The fourth section is called Velleities and is a catch all poetry section. The next section called The Gully, addresses corning of age in a particular landscape. The Body Dream stands as an appendix to the final selection ofcreative work and this section holds the poems that are weak in their attempt to be 'good' poetry and represent a leap in learning.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo