Drawing Down a Daughter

by Claire Harris

Harris' work cuts across the boundaries between poetry and prose to tell a tale of sexual politics, pregnancy, and motherhood. Preparing to give birth, Harris's dream mother speaks to her unborn daughter through journals, letters, stories, and eloquent imaginings, all the while calling up a cast of characters from Canada and the Caribbean.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Claire Harris is a Canadian poet of Trinidadian background who has produced over eight collections of poems since her first volume, Fables from the Women’s Quarters (1984), which won the Commonwealth Award for Poetry for the Americas Region. Her 1992 volume, Drawing down a daughter was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. Her Travelling to Find a Remedy won the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Poetry Award in 1987. Her work has been included in more than 70 anthologies and has been translated into German and Hindi.

Claire Harris was born (1937) in Trinidad, West Indies, studied at University College, Dublin where she earned a B. A. Honours in English (1961). At the University of the West Indies (Jamaica) she earned a Diploma in Education (1963). She came to Canada in 1966 and settled in Calgary where she taught English until 1994. In 1975, during a study leave in Nigeria, she first wrote for publication and was encouraged by Nigerian poet, J.P. Clark. She also earned a Diploma in Communications from the University of Lagos, Nigeria (1975). After returning to Canada Claire Harris became active in the literary community in Calgary working as poetry editor at Dandelion from 1981-89 and helping to found the all-Alberta magazine, blue buffalo, in 1983. As an active member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta she was a reader-judge for several literary awards.

Many of Harris’s poems deal with the problems of injustice whether it is in colonial or post-colonial regions or in violence against women. Even in, Drawing down a daughter, a collection of personal poems on friendship, love and motherhood there are many references to the condition of African-Canadians.

Reviews

[Elliot A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here is another one of those “books” one is forced to read for a course just to ask oneself afterwards what the actual point was besides wasting one’s time.

This is supposed to be a combination of prose and poetry, but it all just comes across as some sad attempt to be artistic.

I can’t really convince myself that poetry that looks like randomly placed words on a page that are supposed to resemble some shape is actually poetry. It still needs to make some sense in order for the reader to appreciate it or even have a chance to find out what the author is trying to communicate.

The little blurbs of prose in between do not help at all in shedding some light into the purpose of this “book”.

I did not like it, I thought there was so much potential for this topic, once I figured out what topic is supposed to have been addressed and obviously I did not use it for any of my term papers. If possible, stay away from it, it isn’t worth the reader’s time.

ElliotScribbles

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is beautifully written and complex. I ended up reading it twice because I was fascinated by the narrative and the changing perspectives. I highly recommend this read for someone who is interested in the struggles that Canadian women, particularly coloured women, had to experience at the time.

Excellent use of trauma and feminist theory. The break down of language and the mix of poetry and prose really added to the experience. One of the best books I've read this year.