The Poetry of Johnson and Lampman

In “The Lost Island” and in “The City of the End of Things”, the future is depicted as something detrimental to the society which each story represents. In Pauline Johnson's short story, which is called “The Lost Island”, this concept is manifested in the visions given by the Medicine Man, from the story which the tilicum tells. In Archibald Lampman's poem, which is called “The City of the End of Things”, this concept is expressed through the downfall of greater human society in favour of a colder, more “robotic” age.

Both of the texts rely upon the expectation that society, in both local and global communities, may undergo a harmful transformation in the future. Neither of the texts depicts an apocalyptic environment in the “present”, but rather, an expectation of what could be the future. Within Pauline Johnson's story, “The Lost Island”, the main character is telling a story from the history of his people, in which a medicine man foretold the societal oppression of his people. In Archibald Lampman's poem, “The City of the End of Things”, the narration depicts an environment that has advanced so much that it has actually fallen into an unlikable and even hellish state. Each of these texts achieves this level of depiction by calling upon their own respective narrative pasts. In the story of “The Lost Island”, the main character relies upon an old story from his people's history in order to explain their current lifestyle and the current ambitions of these people. In the poem “The City of the End of Things”, the narrator recalls the manner in which mankind existed before the rise of the technological era in order to drive home the impact of the current environment.

The story “The Lost Island”, which is written by Pauline J...

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... blanch him with its venomed air...” (Lampman 243-245). There are no human beings within the city, for they can not survive in it. Although the city is supposed to be the epitome of their civilization, something that they themselves have crafted, humans cannot exist within it. “Once there were multitudes of men, / That build that city in their pride, / Until its might was made, and then / They withered age by age and died...” (Lampman 243-245).

Works Cited

Johnson, Pauline. "The Lost Island." An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English. Ed. Donna Bennet and Ed. Russell Brown. Third Edition. Canada: Oxford University Press, 2010. 233-235. Print.

Lampman, Archibald. "The City of the End of Things." An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English. Ed. Donna Bennet and Ed. Russell Brown. Third Edition. Canada: Oxford University Press, 2010. 243-245. Print.