2. About the poet W.W.E. Ross

William Wrighton Eustace Ross was born on June \(14\), \(1894\) in Ontario, Canada. He is hailed as the "First Modern Canadian Poet" for his mass contribution towards Canadian literature, especially in  poetry. He was the first Canadian poet to excel in Imagist poetry and Surrealism. Imagism was a movement that started in Anglo-American poetry during the \(20\)th century. It paved the way for Modernism to begin in Anglo-American literature. Imagists focused on bringing back the old traditional forms of poetry and emphasized on free verse. Free verse is a poem meant that it did not follow a particular rhyme, rhythm or meter. It followed the normal day-day speech. Imagism focused on showing concrete images through poems, giving clarity of expression and simplicity. Surrealism, on the other hand, focused on bringing the beauty and magic that is present in the simplest and non-traditional objects. W.W.E. Ross was the first to publish both surrealist verse and Imagist poetry in Canada.

 

Apart from being a poet, he was a renowned geophysicist. Geophysics is a natural science which focusses on studying the physical properties of earth and its surrounding space environment. His poems therefore have a touch of the earth and its inhabitants.

 

His first collection of poetry was "Laconic" which included his most famous poems like "The Fish," "The Diver," "The Snake Trying,". His poems contained the influence of imagist poets like e.e. cummings and Ezra Pound.

 

His famous works include: