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The Selected Poems
Book by Layton, Irving
63 pages, Hardcover
First published December 12, 1977
54 people want to read
About the author
Irving Layton
85 books40 followersPoet, Teacher.
Born as Israel Pincu Lazarovitch, author Irving Layton immigrated to Canada in 1913, as a baby, his family settling on the infamous St. Urbain Street in the city of Montreal. In the heavily French-speaking province of Quebec, some locals were weary of English foreigners and Jewish families, however, the Lazarovitches adapted to the city where a great Canadian literary scene flourished, producing several English (Canadian) authors such as Mordecai Richler, Leonard Cohen and Louis Dudek.
In the early 1930's, Irving Layton received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from MacDonald College. In 1946, he received his M.A. in Political Science. He also began teaching English, History, and Political Science at the Jewish parochial high school, Herzliah, in 1949. He taught modern English and American poetry at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) and worked as a tenured professor at York University in the 1970s. He lectured occasionally at McGill University in Political Science. He taught English and Literature at the Jewish Public Library.
Irving Layton often recited his works at readings and travelled the world doing so, gaining fame and popularity. Over the course of his life, Irving Layton received many awards and honours for his writing. In 1959, Irving Layton received the Governor-General's Award for "A Red Carpet for the Sun." He was titled an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976. In 1981, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature by Italy and South Korea. He also received the Petrarch Award for Poetry.
Well loved, Irving led a full life surrounded by students, friends and family. He was married four times - to Faye Lynch, Harriet Bernstein, Annette Pottier and Betty Sutherland. He also lived with a woman named Aviva Cantor for several years. He fathered four children during his life named Max, Naomi, David and Samantha Clara.
Born as Israel Pincu Lazarovitch, author Irving Layton immigrated to Canada in 1913, as a baby, his family settling on the infamous St. Urbain Street in the city of Montreal. In the heavily French-speaking province of Quebec, some locals were weary of English foreigners and Jewish families, however, the Lazarovitches adapted to the city where a great Canadian literary scene flourished, producing several English (Canadian) authors such as Mordecai Richler, Leonard Cohen and Louis Dudek.
In the early 1930's, Irving Layton received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from MacDonald College. In 1946, he received his M.A. in Political Science. He also began teaching English, History, and Political Science at the Jewish parochial high school, Herzliah, in 1949. He taught modern English and American poetry at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) and worked as a tenured professor at York University in the 1970s. He lectured occasionally at McGill University in Political Science. He taught English and Literature at the Jewish Public Library.
Irving Layton often recited his works at readings and travelled the world doing so, gaining fame and popularity. Over the course of his life, Irving Layton received many awards and honours for his writing. In 1959, Irving Layton received the Governor-General's Award for "A Red Carpet for the Sun." He was titled an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976. In 1981, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature by Italy and South Korea. He also received the Petrarch Award for Poetry.
Well loved, Irving led a full life surrounded by students, friends and family. He was married four times - to Faye Lynch, Harriet Bernstein, Annette Pottier and Betty Sutherland. He also lived with a woman named Aviva Cantor for several years. He fathered four children during his life named Max, Naomi, David and Samantha Clara.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 31, 2021
A ridiculously eclectic mix, but there's lots of good stuff in here. Some poems struck me as really quite exceptional, but I can't get over Layton's misogyny. Maybe it's not even evident in the majority of these poems, but I've read much about Layton the man and there are indeed poems where his itemization of women is patent, and it just detracts from my view of his intelligence. I mean the creepy old guy in his late seventies offered his friend a "titty feel" of his early-twenties wife as a present. Like sure, a joke, (?) but even the fact that he would joke that is disturbing. Maybe I'm taking Layton too seriously, not allowing for the times, etc., etc., but I couldn't help such and other information about his personal life from colouring my reading of his poems. He is also very clearly pompous, which does him no credit. But anyway, still 3 stars because he penned some solid stuff.
December 3, 2022
La diaspora a aussi ses histoires de fou. Celle d'Irving Layton en est une : il est né Izzy Lazarovitch, juif roumain, en 1912. En 1913, sa famille émigra au Canada, dont il devint un des poètes anglophones les plus populaires. Ce livre est une sélection de ses poèmes, qui, sauf erreur de ma part, n'ont pas été traduits en français.
Portrait en quelques mots : médiatique (il a fait des émissions de télévision), ennemi du puritanisme voire de la religion (sa vie en a témoigné autant que ses poèmes, avec cinq femmes sans compter les aventures), désenchanté (il n'avait aucun espoir sur l'homme, auquel il ne reconnaissait que le talent de massacrer son prochain en vain), direct (les anglophones disent "tell it like it is", en franglais moderne on dirait peut-être "cash"), prolifique, clown (de son propre aveu).
Je le rapproche un peu de Larkin avant Larkin, c'est-à-dire pour un francophone de Houellebecq, du coup bien avant Houellebecq, en plus polémiste, doué pour les joutes verbales, davantage porté sur les métaphores et comparaisons absurdes, souvent drôles, gouvernées par un principe hédoniste : il souhaitait sans doute que ses lecteurs prennent avant tout du plaisir (réfléchissent aussi, mais…).
Il a par exemple qualifié les golfeurs avant Tiger Woods : "parmi les sportifs, ce sont les métaphysiciens", "ce qui finit par vous convaincre, c'est leur chasteté" (j'ai bien dit avant Tiger Woods). le plus épatant, c'est que la conclusion du poème reste valable même après : "aucune théorie du pessimisme n'est complète qui les ignore complètement".
Quant au "papillon sur le rocher", il s'agit évidemment d'une allégorie de la littérature roumaine avant Mircea Cărtărescu, auteur de "L'Aile tatouée" dans la trilogie Orbitor : "les grandes ailes jaunes, cernées de noir, étaient immobiles". Et sa conclusion : "j'ai posé ma main sur le papillon et senti le rocher bouger sous ma main", valable également après bien entendu.
Inutile de dire qu'on ne trouve guère l'équivalent dans le reste de la littérature roumaine (un Istrati moins désespéré peut-être ?) ni probablement ailleurs, et que je vous inviterais bien à découvrir un de ses recueils.
Portrait en quelques mots : médiatique (il a fait des émissions de télévision), ennemi du puritanisme voire de la religion (sa vie en a témoigné autant que ses poèmes, avec cinq femmes sans compter les aventures), désenchanté (il n'avait aucun espoir sur l'homme, auquel il ne reconnaissait que le talent de massacrer son prochain en vain), direct (les anglophones disent "tell it like it is", en franglais moderne on dirait peut-être "cash"), prolifique, clown (de son propre aveu).
Je le rapproche un peu de Larkin avant Larkin, c'est-à-dire pour un francophone de Houellebecq, du coup bien avant Houellebecq, en plus polémiste, doué pour les joutes verbales, davantage porté sur les métaphores et comparaisons absurdes, souvent drôles, gouvernées par un principe hédoniste : il souhaitait sans doute que ses lecteurs prennent avant tout du plaisir (réfléchissent aussi, mais…).
Il a par exemple qualifié les golfeurs avant Tiger Woods : "parmi les sportifs, ce sont les métaphysiciens", "ce qui finit par vous convaincre, c'est leur chasteté" (j'ai bien dit avant Tiger Woods). le plus épatant, c'est que la conclusion du poème reste valable même après : "aucune théorie du pessimisme n'est complète qui les ignore complètement".
Quant au "papillon sur le rocher", il s'agit évidemment d'une allégorie de la littérature roumaine avant Mircea Cărtărescu, auteur de "L'Aile tatouée" dans la trilogie Orbitor : "les grandes ailes jaunes, cernées de noir, étaient immobiles". Et sa conclusion : "j'ai posé ma main sur le papillon et senti le rocher bouger sous ma main", valable également après bien entendu.
Inutile de dire qu'on ne trouve guère l'équivalent dans le reste de la littérature roumaine (un Istrati moins désespéré peut-être ?) ni probablement ailleurs, et que je vous inviterais bien à découvrir un de ses recueils.
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May 22, 2017Irving Layton was a long time friend and mentor to Leonard Cohen. This book collects some of his best poems. I read another collection of Layton's poems last year called A Wild Peculiar Joy which is a little more extensive but the poems in The Selected Poems of Irving Layton were all consistently excellent. His poetry relies a lot less on liturgical Jewish sources than his contemporaries like Abraham Klein or Leonard Cohen but he is very skilled at clearly describing the social aspect of being Jewish in Canada.
In one provocative poem, named "The Israelis", he wrote about the emotional challenge of trusting any government to protect the human rights of Jews suggesting to that the State of Israel is necessary refuge.
He also wrote moving remembrances of old world family contrasting that with perspectives of living in Christian dominated Canada.
In one provocative poem, named "The Israelis", he wrote about the emotional challenge of trusting any government to protect the human rights of Jews suggesting to that the State of Israel is necessary refuge.
It is themselves they trust and no one else:
Their fighterplanes screech across the sky...
Where is the Almight if murder thrives?
He's dead as mutton and they buried him
Decades ago, covered him with their own
Limp bodies in Belsen and Babi Yar.
Let the strong compose hymns and canticles,
Live with the Lord's radiance in their hard skulls...
...Now in their own blood they temper the steel,
God being dead and their enemies not.
He also wrote moving remembrances of old world family contrasting that with perspectives of living in Christian dominated Canada.
June 12, 2023
Strong beginning, ends with repetitive persona of disgruntled alte kaker unable to come to terms with his own impotence. At times quite funny though and "In the Midst of My Fever" demonstrates Layton's excellent imagery- later muddled though by his degeneration into a drowsy debaucherer.
March 4, 2012
I'm participating in a poetry reading to celebrate Irving Layton's birthday next week. Apparently communities from all across Canada are doing this. To get ready for the reading, I had to read some Layton. I find his work very interesting. He has a great vocabulary and is obviously quite well read. His work is bawdy and sexual and he really likes woman and sex. There are lots of vaginas in this book.
Layton likes long, winding, lines of poetry. I had to pick some poems to read and I needed to find poems that spoke to me and that had words that I could pronounce.
Many of these poems are very masculine, and it would have been interesting for me to choose one of them.
Layton also has many poems about the writing life and being a poet and writer and the ordinary, everyday nuances of life. I've picked one of the writing poems to read.
Layton likes long, winding, lines of poetry. I had to pick some poems to read and I needed to find poems that spoke to me and that had words that I could pronounce.
Many of these poems are very masculine, and it would have been interesting for me to choose one of them.
Layton also has many poems about the writing life and being a poet and writer and the ordinary, everyday nuances of life. I've picked one of the writing poems to read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews