Isabelle Crawford’s “Canada to England” is, in a word, tense. Crawford continuously attempts to reconcile two divergent concepts: while she writes positively of Canada’s progress, she also develops a fairly Romantic view of an ideal past. At once, then, Crawford looks favourably towards the past as well as the future.
The clearest manifestation of this tension is in the poem’s nature imagery. Although Crawford writes that “Nature’s self/Is led, glad captive...And our... God...smiles on the deed” (21-25), earlier in the poem she likens nature to “Samson yet unshorn” (7). These metaphors conflict: God would not “smile” at Samson’s hair (symbolic of his spiritual devotion) being cut. Furthermore, the author depicts nature as sublime: she speaks of the “wild roar” (4) and the “solitary might” (8) of the Canadian wilderness. By describing nature thus as frightful or awe-inspiring, Crawford further associates nature with God, and therefore complicates our understanding of the poem’s positive view of progress upon which God supposedly “smiles.”
Crawford continues to develop the tension of the past-future dichotomy through her references to spirituality and culture. Allusions to old, “uncivilized” spiritualities are frequently and rather erratically blended with Biblical references; the first stanza, for instance, refers to Samson as well as “Ambrosial-breathing furies” (15). Even England – the pinnacle of progress in the poem – is referred to as the “Warrior of the Seas” (1), a tribal title. The various, seemingly haphazard cultural and religious allusions further create tension within the poem between the past (as represented in older cultures/spiritualities) and the civilized future (as signified by Christianity).
The title of the poem, “Canada to England” can be read in at least three ways. Literally, the poem is a direct message from Canada to England. At another level, the poem outlines Canada’s progress as a nation towards becoming a cultivated and civilized land, the exemplary of which is England – that is, the poem describes the transformation of “Canada to England.” It is interesting to note, also, that, although Canada’s growth into a country like England is progress or movement forward, in emulating England, Canada is also looking backwards at its roots. The tension of the poem, reflective of the tension and awkwardness of a growing nation as it is simultaneously pulled in various directions, works with each of these interpretations.
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