Songs of the Great Dominion: Voices from the Forests and Waters, the Settlements and Cities of Canada.

Bound in the publisher’s gilt stamped dark blue cloth. Boards and spine with some slight rubbing but still very good plus with only minimal wear and the stamped decorations still fresh. Corners not split. Binding a bit cocked. Internally fine with the endpapers uncracked. Printed on a high-quality cream rag paper with minimal browning on the edges and no foxing. Important as many publications were using wood pulp in paper at this time.

With the Toronto, Canada agents book-plate on the front endpaper;

Songs of the Great Dominion (ink), Publishers. W. J. Gage & Co. Toronto. Price Thirty-Five Cents., crossed out and $1.25 written over top in black ink.

Per Wikipedia; Songs of the Great Dominion.    

Songs of the Great Dominion was a pioneering anthology of Canadian poetry published in 1889.  The book introduced Canadian and English audiences to a new generation of Canadian writers. It marked the first publication in book form for several poets, including Bliss Carman, Pauline Johnson, and Duncan Campbell Scott.

Lighthall was asked to put together an anthology for Walter Scott by poet William Sharp, who was working as an editor for the firm. Independently, freelance editor Ernest Rhys made the same proposal on behalf of Walter Scott to Canadian poet Charles G.D. Roberts. When the mixup was revealed, Roberts withdrew, but promised Lighthall “whatever assistance you might permit me to be.” Roberts suggested several writers for inclusion, including his cousin Barry Straton and his sister Elizabeth (both of whom were included).

“Supplied with a ringing introduction which echoes with patriotic sentiment and lyrical praise for Canada,” says the Canadian Encyclopedia, “this is a collection of confident poetry truly representative of the national and literary self-respect of the emergent Dominion.”

In his introduction, Lighthall was lavish in his praise of Roberts. “The foremost name in Canadian song at the present day is that of Charles George Douglas Roberts,” he declared. Immediately after Roberts Lighthall talked of Charles Sangster, whom he called Canada’s “first important national poet” and “a kind of Wordsworth.”

Lighthall was also lavish in praising the reputation of Isabella Valancy Crawford, whose one book of poetry had failed to sell in 1884, and who had died neglected in 1887 (a “sad story of unrecognized genius and death,” as he put it). While gently mocking her title, Lighthall pronounced Crawford’s book, Old Spookse’s Pass, Malcolm’s Katie, and Other Poems, to be “the most striking volume” of Canadian poetry after Roberts’s, and “even more boldly new” than his. After her death, he added, “Miss Crawford’s work was, in fact, seen to be phenomenal.”

In a review of Songs of the Great Dominion in the September 28, 1889, Athenæum, Theodore Watts-Dunton singled out Pauline Johnson for special praise, calling her “the most interesting English poetess now living” and quoting her poem “In the Shadows” in full. Johnson (who had not yet published a book) considered this to be a big boost for her career, and felt herself “indebted” for the inclusion and the review.

One person who was unhappy with the selection was William Wilfred Campbell. “I have been cruelly misrepresented by a willful choice of my poorest work,” Campbell wrote to a friend.”

“The anthology is noteworthy for its attempt to include some French-Canadian poetry in the appendix as well as some folksongs in translation, and for its recognition of a distinct Indian element in Canadian writing.”

Walter Scott republished the anthology in 1892 under the title, Canadian Poems and Lays: Selections of native verse reflecting the seasons, legends, and life of the Dominion.

The Contents are arranged in sections. Each section having multiple poems;

Songs of the Great Dominion

Introduction [William Douw Lighthall] /xxi

Entry of the Minstrels (from Masque of the Minstrels), Arthur J. Lockhart /xxxix

Sections

1. The Imperial Spirit
2. The New Nationality
3. The Indian
4. The Voyageur and Habitant
5. Settlement Life
6. Sports and Free Life
7. The Spirit of Canadian History
8. Places
9. Seasons

Appendix

1. The Old Chansons of the French Province /437
2. Leading Modern French-Canadian Poets /440
3. Notes Biographical and Bibliographical /449

Note of Thanks /464