The Ledger

by Robert Kroetsch

The Ledger is a foundational book-length poem in the Field Notes series that Canada's top literary bullshitter has now declared Completed. Be that as it may, The Ledger has been in continuous demand since its first publication in 1972. This documentary long poem about pioneering in Bruce County, Ontario makes the debit-credit form of accounting into a force-field that holds the pros and cons of settling a new country. If you begin these pages wondering what makes them poetry, feel free to shuck the term. Robert Kroetsch's poetry generously offers a reader enough space to become a writer. Go ahead and read yourself in.

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Robert Kroetsch was a Canadian novelist, poet, and non-fiction writer. He taught for many years at the University of Manitoba. Kroetsch spent multiple years in Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to Winnipeg where he continued to write. In 2004 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love (love) this book.

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

c. "one who is permanently or constantly in a place; a resident. obs."

"Old Gottlieb Haag was a man verging on 80 years of age. As a young man he had emigrated from Germany to America to seek his fortune and better his condition in the New World. Leaving Rotterdam in a sailing ship bound for New York, after a tedious and tempestuous voyage in which his ship was frequenly blown half-way back to Europe, he finally landed on the shores of the New World. Here all his fortune lay before him."

(Das ist doch nicht möglich!)

arrivals: the sailing ship
arrivals: the axe
arrivals: the almighty dollar

departures: the trout stream
departures: the passenger pigeon
departures: the pristine forest

arrivals: the stump fence
arrivals: the snake fence
arrivals: the stone face

(Here all his fortune lay before him)

"As a sample of the condition of many of the early settlers on the arrival, the Clement family (who came from the Niagara frontier, crossing rivers on rafts and swimming their cattle) possessed only two axes, a hoe, ox-yoke, log chain, 'drag' made from the crotch of a tree, and an 'ox-jumper' in the way of agricultural implements; and, as things went in those days, this was considered a first-rate stock. Though very few families in this county ever suffered any inconvenience or annoyances from the aborigines, the Clements were rather roughly used by a wandering band on one occasion, who forcibly took possession of the whole roof of their shanty (which was composed chiefy or birch-bark) for the purpose of canoe-making."